This included canals parallel with the seacoast, making a continuous line of inland navigation from the Hudson to Cape Fear; a great turnpike from Maine to Georgia; the improvement of the Susquehanna, Potomac, James, and Santee rivers to serve the slope from the Alleghanies to the Atlantic; of the Alleghany, Monongahela, and Kanawha, to serve the country westward to the Mississippi, the head waters of these rivers to be connected by four roads across the Appalachian range; a canal at the falls of the Ohio; a connection of the Hudson with Lake Champlain, and of the same river with Lake Ontario at Oswego; and a canal around Niagara Falls.

The entire expense he estimated at $20,000,000, to be met by an appropriation of $2,000,000 a year for ten years; the stock created for turnpikes and canals to be a permanent fund for repairs and improvements.
A national university for education in the higher sciences was also recommended by Jefferson in his message of 1806, but Mr.Gallatin had little faith in the popularity of this scheme.

After the convulsion of 1794 in Geneva, Gallatin's old college mate, D'Yvernois, conceived the plan of transporting the entire University of Geneva to the United States, and wrote on the subject to Jefferson and Adams; but his idea was based on the supposition that fifteen thousand dollars' income could be had from the United States in support of the institution, which was, of course, at the time impracticable.

Jefferson believed that these plans of national improvement could be carried into effect only by an amendment to the Constitution; but Mr.Gallatin, as in the bank question, was disturbed by no such scruples, and he recommended Mr.
Jefferson to strike from his message the words "general welfare," as questionable in their nature, and because the proposition seemed to acknowledge that the words are susceptible of a very dangerous meaning.
To a permanent embargo act Mr.Gallatin was from the beginning opposed.
He recognized the mischief of government prohibitions, and thought that statesmen might well hesitate before they took the hazard of regulating the concerns of individuals.

The sequel proved the correctness of this judgment.