Page images
PDF
EPUB

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the growing power and influence of the western and northern portions of the state were chiefly effective in securing the commencement of the canals. The representatives from other regions in yielding the acknowledgment of that influence, still entertained so much distrust of the productiveness of the works, that they insisted upon incorporating in the law a provision for levying a tax of $250,000 upon the lands lying along the routes of the canals, and within a distance of twenty-five miles on each side thereof. This provision undoubtedly affected the votes upon the passage of the law. In the assembly sixty-four members voted for, and thirtysix against it. Those in the affirmative were, Henry Albert, David I. Ambler, Isaac Barber, Wheeler Barnes, John H. Beach, Abijah Beckwith, John Brown, junior, John H. Burhans, Abram Camp, William Campbell, Daniel Carpenter, Jonathan Childs, Gerret Cuck, Rowland Day, John D. Dickinson, William A. Duer, Tunis B. Eldridge, James Faulkner, James Finch, Henry Fonda, William D. Ford, James Ganson, Archer Green, Henry Gross, Burton Hammond, Elihu Hedges, Peter A. Hilton, James Houghtaling, Hezekiah Hulburt, Samuel Jackson, Jacob L. Larzelere, Joshua Lee, Newton Marsh, Moses Maynard, Greene Miller, John Miller, Benjamin Mooers, Zebulon Mott, Cyrenus Noble, Jonathan Olmsted, John I. Ostrander, Humphrey Palmer, Nathaniel Pendleton, Nathaniel Pitcher, John Pixley, Henry Platt, Timothy H. Porter, Jedediah Prendergast, William B. Rochester, James Roseburgh, George Rosenkrantz, Isaac Sears, Richard Smith, Gideon Tabor, Elijah Turner, Ebenezer Wakely, Ebenezer W. Walbridge, Rufus Watson, James Webb, Asa Wells, Gideon Wilcoxson, Elisha Williams, Isaac Wilson, and David Woods. Those who voted in the negative were, Cornelius A. Blauvelt, Levi Callender, Stephen Carman, William Cook, Richard C. Corson, Clarkson Crolius, Chillus Doty, James Emott, John Gale, Cornelius Heeny, William Jones, Martin Keeler, Daniel Kissam, John M'Fadden, Asa Mann, Elijah Miles, Abraham Parsons, John Pettit, Samuel B. Romaine, Samuel Russell, Reuben Sanford, Isaac Sargent, Edward Smith, junior, Joseph Smith, Samuel A. Smith, Justus Squire, Amos Stebbins, Christopher Tappen, junior, John Townsend, John Victory, George Warner, Elizur Webster, Ebenezer White, junior, and Ebenezer Wood.

In the senate the vote on the law was eighteen to nine. In the affirmative were, David Allen, Stephen Bates, Bennet Bicknell, Moses I. Cantine, James Cochran, Ralph Hascall, Ephraim Hart, Perley Keyes, John Knox, William Mallory, John I. Prendergast, William Ross, Farrand Stranahan, Samuel Stewart, Peter Swart, George Tibbits, Martin Van Buren, and Abraham Van Vechten; and in the negative, Henry Bloom, Walter Bowne, Darius Crosby, Jonathan Dayton, John D. Ditmis, Lucas Elmendorf, Peter R. Livingston, John Noyes, and Isaac Ogden.

The geographical classification of members voting for and against the law was as follows:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The ground was broken, for the construction of the Erie canal, on the fourth day of July, 1817, at Rome, with ceremonies marking the public estimation of that great event. De Witt Clinton, having just before been elected to the chief magistracy of the state, and being president of the board of canal commissioners, enjoyed the high satisfaction of attending, with his associates, on the auspicious occasion.

In his annual speech to the legislature in 1818, he congratulated the people on the commencement of the canals, rapidly reviewed the progress already made in their construction, remarked briefly on their advantages, and earnestly urged that the state was required to persevere, by every dictate of interest, by every sentiment of honor, by every injunction of patriotism, and by every consideration which ought to influence the councils and govern the conduct of a free, high-minded, enlightened, and magnanimous people. The senate responded favorably to these sentiments, and the answer of the assembly was in terms of spirited congratulation.

The commissioners made a report, showing that they had engaged Isaac Briggs, an eminent mathematician, as an engineer on the middle section, and had let the work to be done in small portions, by contract.

At this session, laws were passed, authorizing the construction of the Chittenango canal for navigation, and as a feeder to the Erie canal; and an examination of the outlet of Buffalo creek, with a view to form a harbor at the entrance of the Erie canal into Lake Erie, and make improvements of the financial system adopted at the previous session. The act relating to the lastmentioned subject, authorized the comptroller to borrow one million of dollars for the general uses of the treasury, and to issue therefor stock redeemable on the first of January, 1828. When this law was under consideration in the assembly, Erastus Root moved that the power of the commissioners of the canal fund to borrow money for canal purposes, should be suspended until the redemption of the stock debt to be created under the law. This was the last effort made in the legislature to arrest the prosecution of the canals. The motion was lost, only twentyone members voting therefor.

In 1819, Governor Clinton announced to the legislature that the progress of the public works equalled the most sanguine expectations, and that the canal fund was flourishing. He recommended the prosecution of the entire Erie canal. Enlarging upon the benefits of internal navigation, he remarked, that he looked to a time not far distant, when the state would be able to improve the navigation of the Susquehannah, the Allegany, the Genesee, and the St. Lawrence; to assist in connecting the waters of the great lakes and the Mississippi; to form a junction between

the Erie canal and Lake Ontario through the Oswego river; and to promote the laudable intention of Pennsylvania to unite the Seneca lake with the Susquehannah; deducing arguments in favor of such enterprises, from the immediate commercial advantages of extended navigation, as well as from its tendency to improve the condition of society, and strengthen the bonds of the Union. Henry Yates, junior, in the senate, and John Van Ness Yates, in the assembly, on behalf of the proper committees, submitted answers concurring in the opinions expressed by the chief magistrate, and the same were adopted.

Joseph Ellicott having resigned the office of canal commissioner, Ephraim Hart was appointed in his place, ad interim, and subsequently Henry Seymour was called to fill the vacancy.

The canal commissioners, in their report, gave an interesting account of their proceedings, represented that the work on the middle section, under the care of Benjamin Wright as principal engineer, had been conducted with great success; and that Canvass White and Nathan S. Roberts, who had previously been assistant engineers, were assigned, on account of their eminent skill, to higher duties. Mr. White was distinguished at this time for his discovery of the manner of preparing an hydraulic cement, from a peculiar species of limestone found in the vicinity of the canal. He was the inventor, also, of the improvement in the construction of upper-gates of canal-locks, which has been said to be the only improvement in the mechanical construction of canals, made since the building of the Languedoc canal.

The commissioners recommended that a navigable communication should immediately be opened from the Erie canal to the salt-works at Salina, and that the militia law should be so modified as to excuse laborers on the canals from military duty, and sustained the recommendation by the governor of the simultaneous prosecution of all portions of the Erie canal.

The joint committee on internal improvements consisted of Jabez D. Hammond, Henry Seymour, and Walter Bowne, senators, and Ezekiel Bacon, Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, John Doty, Jedediah Miller, and Asahel Warner, of the assembly. Mr. Bacon submitted a report, and introduced a bill, embodying the recommendations of the canal commissioners. This bill became a law, twenty-five members of the assembly voting against the section which empowered the canal commissioners to com

mence the eastern and western portions of the Erie canal and the branch canal from the Erie canal to Salina. A survey was also authorized from the mouth of the Oswego river, up the same, the Seneca river and the outlet of the Onondaga river, with a view to improve the navigation of those streams. This was the first legislative step toward the construction of the Oswego canal.

At this session, a law was passed suspending the collection of the local canal tax, until further directions should be given by the legislature.

An act was also passed, granting a loan to citizens of Buffalo, to be applied to the construction, under the direction of the canal commissioners, of a harbor at that place, and providing for the assumption of the harbor, if it should ultimately be deemed expedient.

On the 23d of October, 1819, the portion of the Erie canal between Utica and Rome was opened to navigation, and on the 24th of November the Champlain canal admitted the passage of boats. Thus, in less than two years and five months, one hundred and twenty miles of artificial navigation had been finished, and the physical as well as the financial practicability of uniting the waters of the western and northern lakes with the Atlantic ocean, was established to the conviction of the most incredulous. Governor Clinton announced these gratifying results to the legislature in 1820, and admonished them that while efforts directly hostile to internal improvements would in future be feeble, it became a duty to guard against insidious enmity; and that in proportion as the Erie canal advanced toward completion, would be the ease of combining a greater mass of population against the further extension of the system. Attempts, he remarked, had already been made to arrest the progress of the Erie canal west of the Seneca river, and he anticipated their renewal when it should reach the Genesee. But the honor and prosperity of the state demanded the completion of the whole of the work, and it would be completed in five years, if the representatives of the people were just to themselves and to posterity. Referring to the local tax, he submitted whether it comported with the magnanimity of government to resort to partial or local impositions to defray the expenses of a magnificent work, identified with the general prosperity. The commissioners informed the legislature that they had employed David Thomas to survey the proposed

« PreviousContinue »