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—The road immediately proved its worth. The mail coaches were placed upon it; great freight lines were established having their own stage houses and depots in towns along its way; inns and hotels thrived; apparently the “pulse of the nation beat to the steady throb of trade along its highway.”[42] Like the Appian Way it became noted the world over. The National, Good Intent, June Bug, and Pioneer stage coach lines were common names as are the Pennsylvania, New York Central, Burlington, and Union Pacific railroad lines of to-day. The coming to town of these coaches, which had developed from the plain square box, through the oval type to the finished Concord painted in brilliant colors, perhaps bearing the name of some prominent personage, drawn by four and six horses, with the proud and arrogant driver often better known than the eminent patrons whose names now grace the pages of history, was an important event in the work of the day. Hardly had the stage stopped before the hostlers were busy changing the horses, taking the tired animals to rub-down, rest, and feed, bringing on fresh high-stepping spirited ones, champing their bits, apparently very anxious for a galloping start toward the next post; the passengers were alighting to stretch their legs, rest and refresh themselves at nearby food “emporiums” or select an inn from among the claims of numerous barkers; agents were transferring and recording baggage, mail, and express; and the curiosity loungers constituted most of the remaining populace. The stage driver, Westover, made a record of forty-five minutes for the 20 miles between Uniontown and Brownsville, while “Red” Bunting’s drive of 131 miles, with the declaration of war against Mexico, in twelve hours remains, like Paul Revere’s ride, a part of the nation’s history.

The amount of traffic over the National road was tremendous. The annual traffic was probably not less than 3000 wagons.[43] One firm in Wheeling is said to have, during the first five years of its existence, done a business of over 5000 wagons carrying 2 tons each.[44] A view of the road must have been interesting, for the Conestoga wagons with their sway-backed canvas covers were said to have been “visible all day long,[45] at every point, making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts.... I have staid over night with William Cheets on Nigger (Negro) Mountain when there were about thirty six-horse teams in a wagon yard, a hundred Kentucky mules in an adjoining lot, a thousand hogs in their enclosures, and as many fat cattle in adjoining fields. The music made by this large number of hogs eating corn on a frosty night I shall never forget. After supper and attention to the teams, the waggoners would gather in the bar-room and listen to the music on the violin furnished by one of their fellows, have a Virginia hoe-down, sing songs, tell anecdotes, and hear the experience of drivers and drovers from all points of the road, and, when it was over, unroll their beds, lay them down on the floor before the bar room fire side by side, and sleep with their feet near the blaze as soundly as under a parental roof.”

Ah! where is the poet whose facile pen will engrave upon the tablets of literature the tales of these men as has Longfellow the “Tales of a Wayside Inn” in Sudbury Town so alike, where:

... from the parlor of the inn

A pleasant murmur smote the ear,

Like water rushing through a weir;

Oft interrupted by the din

Of laughter and of loud applause;

And, in each intervening pause,

The music of a violin.

The success of the Cumberland Road to the Ohio created demands for its extension. In conformity to this demand $10,000 was appropriated in 1820 to lay out a road from Wheeling to the Mississippi River near St. Louis. This continuation was for a road 80 feet wide and in spite of much congressional objection and occasional presidential vetoes, the road was pushed on; the last appropriation being made for a portion west of the Ohio, May 25, 1838. The exact total of all appropriations amounted to $6,824,919.33. The road proper reached southern Illinois.

Courtesy of Prof. P. K. Slaymaker

WAY BILL USED ON SLAYMAKER STAGE LINE FROM LANCASTER TO PHILADELPHIA, 1815

States wanted appropriations for other roads, but these were pretty generally vetoed. One important case was the veto, 1830, by Jackson of the bill authorizing a subscription by the United States for stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Road Company. The company was incorporated in Kentucky to build a road from the Cumberland Road at Tanesville, Ohio, to Florence, Alabama, on the Tennessee River, which had been surveyed by U. S. engineers in 1827. Maysville, through which the road was to pass, was on the south side of the Ohio River, and did considerable trade in Kentucky and Tennessee. A census was taken of the existing road, admitted to be in bad condition, showing an average daily traffic of 351 persons, 33 carriages and 51 wagons. The $150,000 to be subscribed by the government was not to be paid until an equal amount had been subscribed in equal parts by the State of Kentucky and private individuals. Other bills of a similar character were before Congress, one for a road from Buffalo to New Orleans having been laid on the table, and opponents of the bill insisted any road anywhere could be as well regarded to be a national road as could be the Maysville road. The Washington Turnpike Company bill of a similar tenor was vetoed.[46] Jackson evidently doubted the constitutional right of the government to enter into internal projects of this character. In his message to Congress he had conceded that “every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation and the construction of highways in the several states,” he noted the opposition to methods heretofore adopted as unconstitutional and inexpedient. He therefore proposed an amendment to the constitution, to be submitted if it could not otherwise be done, whereby the surplus revenue might be appropriated to the several states in proportion to their representation in Congress for the purpose of internal improvements. State sovereignty was always to be maintained.

In 1838 when the road had reached Southern Illinois a new element entered the industrial world. The railroads were proving their ability to compete most successfully with other forms of transportation. The building of national highways ceased; canal and river transportation were practically put out of business with the entrance of this new leviathan.