The third is irrevocably fixed by the act upon the commencement of which we are now engaged.

What time more suitable for this operation could have been selected than the anniversary of our great national festival?
What place more appropriate from whence to proceed, than that which bears the name of the citizen warrior who led our armies in that eventful contest to the field, and who first presided as the Chief Magistrate of our Union?
You know that of this very undertaking he was one of the first projectors; and if in the world of spirits the affections of our mortal existence still retain their sway, may we not, without presumption, imagine that he looks down with complacency and delight upon the scene before and around us?
"But while indulging in a sentiment of joyous exultation at the benefits to be derived from this labor of our friends and neighbors, let us not forget that the spirit of internal improvement is catholic and liberal.

We hope and believe that its practical advantages will be extended to every individual in our Union.

In praying for the blessing of heaven upon our task, we ask it with equal zeal and sincerity upon every other similar work in this confederacy; and particularly upon that which, on this same day, and perhaps at this very hour, is commencing from a neighboring city.
It is one of the happiest characteristics in the principle of internal improvement, that the success of one great enterprise, instead of counteracting, gives assistance to the execution of another.

May they increase and multiply, till, in the sublime language of inspiration, every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low; the crooked straight, the rough places plain.