One interesting argument for the substitution of the railway for the Cumberland Road was given as follows: "When the relation of the general Government to the states which it unites is justly regarded; when it is considered it is especially charged with the common defense; that for the attainment of this end the militia must be combined in time of war with the regular army and the state with the United States troops; that mutual prompt and vigorous concert should mark the efforts of both for the accomplishment of a common end and the safety of all; it seems needless to dwell upon the importance of transmitting intelligence between the state and federal government with the least possible delay and concentrating in a period of common danger their joint efforts with the greatest possible dispatch. It is alike needless to detail the comparative advantages of a railroad and an ordinary turnpike under such circumstances. A few weeks, nay, a very few days, or hours, may determine the issue of a campaign, though happily for the United States their distance from a powerful enemy may limit the contingency of war to destruction short of that by which the events of an hour had involved ruin of an empire." Despite the weight of argument presented by the House Committee their amendment was in turn stricken out, and the bill of 1836 appropriated six hundred thousand dollars for the Cumberland Road, both of the Senate amendments which the House Committee had stricken out being incorporated in the bill. The last appropriation for the Cumberland Road was dated May 25, 1838; it granted one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the road in both Ohio and Indiana, and nine thousand dollars for the road in Illinois. CHAPTER III OPERATION AND CONTROL The Cumberland Road was built by the United States Government under the supervision of the War Department. Of its builders, whose names will ever live in the annals of the Middle West, Brigadier-general Gratiot, Captains Delafield, McKee, Bliss, Bartlett Hartzell, Williams, Colquit, and Cass, and Lieutenants Mansfield, Vance, and Pickell are best remembered on the eastern division. Nearly all became heroes of the Mexican or Civil Wars, McKee falling at Buena Vista, Williams at Monterey, and Mansfield, then major-general, at Antietam. Among the best known supervisors in the west were Commissioners C. W. Weaver, G. Dutton, and Jonathan Knight.