The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company received, up to 1839, the sum
of $2,500,000 in funds appropriated by the United States Government,
and $7,197,000 from the State of Maryland.

In 1824 the United States Government began giving land grants for
canal projects. The customary method was the granting by Congress of
certain areas of land to various States, to be expressly given to
designated canal companies. The States in donating them, sometimes
sold them to the canal companies at the nominal rate of $1.25 an
acre. The commuting of these payments was often obtained later by
corrupt legislation.

From 1924 to 1834, the Wabash and Erie Canal Company obtained land
grants from the Government amounting to 826,300 acres. The Miami and
Dayton Canal Company secured from the Government, in 1828 and 1833, a
total grant of 333,826 acres. The St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company
received 750,000 acres in 1852; the Portage Lake and Lake Superior
Ship Canal Company, 400,000 acres in 1865-66; and the Lac La Belle
Ship Canal Company, 100,000 acres in 1866. Including a grant by
Congress in 1828 of 500,000 acres of public land for general canal
purposes, the land grants given by the National Government to aid
canal companies, totalled 4,224,073.06 acres, mostly in Indiana,
Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Whatever political corruption accompanied the building of such State-
owned canals as the Erie Canal, the primary and fundamental object
was to construct. In the case of the private canal companies, the
primary and fundamental object was to plunder. The capitalists
controlling these companies were bent upon getting rich quickly; it