In a very few days we were all gratified to learn, among other
things, that sugar had been carried from New Orleans through this canal
to Buffalo in New York. This sugar took this route, doubtless, because it
was cheaper than the old route. Supposing benefit of the reduction in the
cost of carriage to be shared between seller and the buyer, result is
that the New Orleans merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, and the
people of Buffalo sweetened their coffee a little cheaper, than
before,--a benefit resulting from the canal, not to Illinois, where the
canal is, but to Louisiana and New York, where it is not. In other
transactions Illinois will, of course, have her share, and perhaps the
larger share too, of the benefits of the canal; but this instance of the
sugar clearly shows that the benefits of an improvement are by no means
confined to the particular locality of the improvement itself. The just
conclusion from all this is that if the nation refuse to make
improvements of the more general kind because their benefits may be
somewhat local, a State may for the same reason refuse to make an
improvement of a local kind because its benefits may be somewhat general.
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