, 444; cf.
chap, xiii., above.] To "exalt the valleys and lay low the mountains
and the hills" appealed to his imagination. He hoped that the
increased price of the public lands, arising from the improved means
of communication, would in turn furnish a large and steadily
increasing fund for national turnpikes and canals. But the American
people were not anxious for a system of scientific administration,
either of the public domain or of internal improvements. Although
Benton could not secure sufficient support to carry his measure for
graduating the price of the public lands and donating those which
found no purchasers at fifty cents an acre, [Footnote: Meigs,
Benton, 165-172.] he voiced, nevertheless, a very general antagonism
to the management of the domain by the methods of the counting-
house. Nor was the president able to control legislation on internal
improvements. The report of the engineers appointed under the
general survey act of 1824 provided for the development of the
routes of national importance.
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