1

Harpeth Dec^r 5^th 1825

Dear Sir

Having returnd [sic] home from the duty
assign^d me for the present, in aiding the engineers of
the united states in the examination of the route for
the national road from Washington City to Neworleans
passing through our state. I deem it proper to commu=
=nicate to you the result of the examination that has
been made

The enginiers [sic] commencing at Washington City pass^d
along East of the blue ridge to Rock Fish Gap where
they cross^d over into the valley west of the ridge leaveing [sic]
Staunton on their right passing through Lexington
Salem Christiansburg Wythe and Abbingdon in the
State of Virginia thence pursueing [sic] the stage road through
Blountsville Rogersville and Rutledge in Tennessee
to Knoxville where I joind [sic] them on the evening of
the 22^d ult, Capt Pousin immediately made me acqua=
=inted with the orders and instructions from the Dep^t.
under which he acted, from which it was obvious
that the several routes so interesting to the people in
the different sections of our state could not now
be examin^d and from the further information obtaind [sic]
from the enginiers in relation to the other two
routes that have been examind [sic] south and East
of the mountains I was fully impressd with the
Opinion that the Gen^l interest ^of our state (for the present)