The place referred to here is not Louisville, but near the mouth of the Ohio River. In fact it is very plain from many sources that Clark was the prime mover in the settlement of the Lower Ohio up to the year 1783, when he was wantonly and ignominiously turned adrift by the State of Virginia, which then owed him thirty thousand dollars, with only four shillings in its treasury. The latter portion of Clark's life is not one which we are proud to remember, but he never sank so low that the nation has been able to forget his brilliant and persistent courage. There was ground for his bitter cry: "I have given the United States half the territory they possess, and for them to suffer me to remain in poverty, in consequence of it, will not redound much to their honor." It is little comfort that nearly thirteen years after his death the sum justly owed to the man was paid to his heirs. The memory of Clark's leadership of the army that bore the sword is a precious inheritance; the facts respecting his equally important enthusiasm and earnestness in leading the scattered cohorts of the army bearing the broadaxe should likewise have a place in history. CHAPTER VII _Importance of the Cumberland Road.--Expected to be a Bond of Union between East and West.--Roads of Former Days only Indian Trails.--The Cumberland Road made between 1806 and 1840.--Promoted by Gallatin and Clay.--Undertaken by Congress, 1802.--The Road a Necessity for the Stream of Immigration after the Revolution.--Open for Traffic to the Ohio, 1818.--Other Internal Improvements now undertaken.--The first Macadamized Roads earlier than this Cumberland Road.--The Great Cost of Macadamizing this Road.--Disputes as to the Government's Constitutional Right to build it.--Ohio demands that the Road be continued, according to the Act admitting her to Statehood.--The Road's Progress to Vandalia.--Unanimity of Western Members in Favor of the Road.--Toll-gates are erected.--Lively Scenes on the Road in Old Times.--Sums appropriated for it by Congress.--Why Henry Clay championed the Undertaking._ HENRY CLAY: PROMOTER OF THE FIRST AMERICAN HIGHWAY [Illustration] IT may be said without fear of contradiction that the subject of the Panama and Nicaragua canals has not received more popular attention in this day and generation than our first and greatest national highway--legally known as the Cumberland Road, from its starting point--received in the first generation of the nineteenth century.