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THE JOURNAL uF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
As closely connected with the defense of the most part of my division, I must take this occasion to recommend the propriety of facilitating the intercourse with that district of country which on any great emergency must supply the means for this defense. A road leading from Nashville (which is the proper point it should commence at) to New Orleans may be constructed over much better ground than^ that which is at present traveled, with a saving of more than 300 miles.
A passage thus shorting the distance for transportation of supplies as well as men from that country which on such occasion must furnish both may be of incalculable consequence in our future operations. Let me add also as a consideration deserving great weight, that this road will scarcely touch upon land to which the Indian title has not been extinguished. The designation, however of this road should be entrusted only to some one in whose honor and honesty the Government has the highest confidence. The opening of it may be of very little expense.3 As a result, Congress enacted the following legislation:
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, that the sum of ten thousand dollars be and hereby appropriated, and payable out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated for the purpose of repairing and keeping in repair the road between Columbia, on the Duck River in the State of Tennessee, and Madisonville, Louisiana, by the Choctaw Agency, and also the road between Fort Hawkins, in the State of Georgia and Fort Stoddard, under the direction of the Secretary of War. Approved April 27, 1816.4
This act of legislation was transmitted to General Jackson by Secretary of War Crawford in the following letter:
War Department September 24, 1816
Sir:
An appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made during the last session of Congress for repairing and keeping in repair a road from Columbia, in Tennessee to Madisonville, in Louisiana and another road
3Andrew Jackson, The Letters of Andrew Jackson, John Spencer Bassett, ed., (Washington, D. C., 1926), 222.
^United States Statutes at Large III, Fourteenth Congress, First Session, Act of Congress April 27, 1816, p. 315.