untried transportation device, which they believed would prove superior to canals, just as canals had proved superior to turnpikes, they boldly inaugurated the plan of a railroad from their city across the mountains to the Ohio, and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, placed the stone that commemorated the beginning of its construction on the same day that President Adams officiated at the rival celebration that marked the beginning of the canal. Thus by 1830, the future of the internal commerce of the United States was assured. The adoption of the "American System" could have but one result--a tremendous expansion of domestic trade. That this expansion had already commenced was evident from the fact that notwithstanding the vast growth in wealth and population from 1820 to 1830, the imports of the United States had exhibited but little increase. "The nation was building an empire of its own with sections which took the place of kingdoms."[3] New England, New York and Pennsylvania were manufacturing the clothing and iron utensils for the West and South. The people of the South were absorbed in cotton raising. They relied upon the West for much of their food and live stock; they bought their clothing and machinery from the North Atlantic States; and their exports brought in the specie which facilitated the commerce of all sections. The West was becoming a vast granary. Its new factories were drawing artisans from the East and taking laborers from the country to swell the demand for flour and grain that had recently been seeking in vain for a market. The volume of shipments of food and merchandise down the Mississippi was larger than ever and the manufacturing population of the East, already too large to be fed by the agricultural produce of New England, New York and Pennsylvania, was beginning to draw subsistence from the western farms. [3] F. J. Turner, _Rise of the New West_, p. 297.