Railroads, recently adopted in Europe for general purposes of transportation, were at that time unknown on this side of the Atlantic; but the scheme of internal improvement marked out by Clinton has been found eminently practicable with the application of that invention, as a substitute in many places for canals.

The public debt for the canals in 1825 amounted to seven and a half millions of dollars (all of which, it must be recorded to the honor of the state and the country, had been borrowed of American capitalists), and the annual interest thereon to three hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars. The governor estimated that the tolls for the year would exceed three hundred and ten thousand dollars; that the duties on salt would amount to one hundred thousand dollars, and that these, with the other income of the canal fund, would produce a revenue exceeding, by three hundred thousand dollars, the interest on the canal debt. He stated, also, that ten thousand boats had passed the junction of the canals near tidewater during the previous season. Remarking that the creative power of internal improvement was manifested in the flourishing villages which had sprung up or been extended; in the increase of towns; and, above all, in the prosperity of the city of New York; and noticing the fact that three thousand buildings had been erected in that city during the preceding year, Clinton predicted that in fifteen years its population would be doubled, and that in thirty years that metropolis would be the third city in the civilized world, and the second, if not the first, in commerce.

Adverting to the efforts which Ohio was making to connect Lake Erie (which, he remarked, might now be regarded as a prolongation of the Erie canal) with the Ohio river, he declared that he should welcome the commencement, and hail the consummation, of that work as among the most auspicious events in our history; and he closed his review of the condition and prospects of the state with this exclamation: "How emphatically does it behoove us, in the contemplation and enjoyment of these abundant blessings, to remember that we derive them all from the great Fountain of benevolence !"

The canal commissioners, alluding to the pressure of business on the eastern section of the canal and the probability of its rapid increase, announced to the legislature that it would be necessary before long to exclude passenger-boats from this part of the line,

unless double locks were made through the whole distance, and remarked that even then the crowd of boats in the spring and fall would produce great inconvenience and delay. Reasoning that in many places it would be almost impossible to construct double locks, and that in others it would be attended with great expense, they inferred that in a very few years it would be proper, and perhaps indispensable, to make a parallel canal along the valley of the Mohawk. They showed that, in 1820, the tolls on ninety-four miles of the Erie canal were $5,000; in 1821, on the same distance, $23,000; in 1822, on one hundred and sixteen miles, $57,000; in 1823, on one hundred and sixty miles, $105,000; and in 1824, on two hundred and eighty miles, had reached the sum of $294,000. They submitted tables, in which they estimated the tolls on a basis of the increase of the population, and the progress of agricultural improvement, and predicted that, in 1836, two millions of people would be within the influence of the Erie canal; that its tolls would in that year reach the sum of one million of dollars; and that, if the rates should not be reduced, they would amount in 1846 to two millions of dollars, and in 1856 to four millions.

At this session, Samuel Dexter, junior, introduced a bill into the assembly for exploring a route to connect the waters of the Black river with the Erie canal; Jacob Adrian Van Der Heuvel brought in a bill to construct a canal from Potsdam, in St. Lawrence, to the Oswegatchie, and to improve the navigation of that river; and Thurlow Weed proposed a survey with a view to connect the Allegany river at Olean with the Erie canal at Rochester, by a navigable communication through the valley of the Genesee river. Laws were passed at the same session, authorizing the construction of the Cayuga and Seneca canal, adopting the Oswego canal as a state work, and providing for surveys for most of the other improvements recommended by the governor; and the legislature, in view of the approaching completion of the main arteries of the system of inland navigation, directed that all the laws, reports, and documents, relative to the canals, requisite for a complete official history of these works, with necessary maps and profiles, should be carefully collected and published. This duty was performed with much accuracy by a legislative committee, with the assistance of John Van Ness Yates, then secretary of state, who had been one of the most constant and

efficient friends of the policy, of whose history he thus became the guardian.

On the 26th of October, 1825, the Erie canal was in a navigable condition throughout its entire length, affording an uninterrupted passage from Lake Erie to tidewater in the Hudson. Thus, in eight years, artificial communications, four hundred and twentyeight miles in length, had been opened between the more important inland waters, and the commercial emporium of the state. This auspicious consummation was celebrated by a telegraphic discharge of cannon, commencing at Lake Erie, and continued along the banks of the canal and of the Hudson, announcing to the city of New York the entrance on the bosom of the canal of the first barge that was to arrive at the commercial emporium from the American Mediterraneans. Borne in this barge, De Witt Clinton and his coadjutors enjoyed the spectacle of a free people rejoicing in the assurances of prosperity increased, and national harmony confirmed; and were hailed, in their passage through towns and cities they might almost be said to have called into existence, with the language of irrepressible gratitude and affection.

The governor, suppressing all feelings of self-gratulation, announced these events to the legislature of 1826, as evidences of the ability, as well as the disposition of republican governments to promote the welfare of mankind. He congratulated the representatives of the people that the spirit of internal improvement continued in full power here, and had diffused itself into other states. He announced that the Oswego canal, and the Cayuga and Seneca canal, had been diligently prosecuted; that the proposed canal between the Hudson and Delaware rivers, a work encountering formidable physical difficulties, was in successful progress, under the care of an incorporation which sought a trade with the coal districts of Pennsylvania, and that commissioners, appointed at a previous session, were surveying a road from Lake Erie to the Hudson, and that works scarcely less intimately connected with the prosperity of this state and the success of her system of improvements, were in process of construction by the state of Ohio.

The whole cost of the Erie and Champlain canals was stated at $9,130,000; the canal debt at $7,738,000, and its annual interest at $413,000. The canal commissioners reported that the tolls,

during the preceding year, were $566,221; and they estimated them for the current year at $750,000, which, with the other revenues of the canal fund, would make the sum of $1,100,000, and, after paying all expenses and interest, leave applicable to the reduction of the principal $575,000.

The year 1826 was distinguished by the commencement of the railroad policy in the state of New York. Stephen Van Rensselaer and others were incorporated with power to construct a railroad from Albany to Schenectady, and the right to enjoy for fifty years the profits of the enterprise; but the state reserving the right to assume the road on paying to the company the excess of the cost, with interest thereon, over the profits of the work. This important feature has been incorporated in all the charters since granted for the construction of railroads, and circumstances are now occurring which indicate its importance.

The legislature in 1827 was occupied, so far as internal improvements were concerned, with the policy of aiding the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company; with discussing the most eligible route for a connection between the Erie canal and the Susquehannah river; and with considering the merits of the projected state-road through the southern counties. Then, and during several successive years, the general policy of internal improvement being scarcely questioned, the public mind was engaged rather with the comparative merits of various projects, than in digesting and perfecting a system.

In 1835, the debt of the state, incurred in the construction of the Erie and Champlain canals, had virtually been paid. Moneys derived from the revenues of the canal fund, equal to the canal debt, had accumulated and been invested for the security of the public creditors; and the revenues arising from salt and auction duties were now, by an amendment of the constitution, diverted to the general purposes of the treasury; and the state was, therefore, in the full enjoyment of those revenues, as well as such as were derived from the canals.

It was now found that the locks and other mechanical structures on the Erie canal, were worn by time and use; inconveniences were experienced in consequence of its limited dimensions. and inadequate lockage; and notwithstanding its eminent productiveness, it had failed to accomplish fully the objects of its construction, inasmuch as a considerable amount of western

trade continued to seek markets by other routes. It was obvious, moreover, that the capacity of that channel should be increased to reduce the expenses of transportation. The legislature, therefore, directed that an enlargement should be undertaken whenever the canal board should be of opinion that the public interest required such an improvement; and it was referred to the discretion of the board to fix the dimensions of the new channel. The canal board adopted the dimensions of seventy feet width and seven feet depth, with double locks. The act of 1835 limited, however, the expenditures for the enlargement, to the annual surplus of the canal tolls, which, after 1837, was to be annually diminished by a considerable sum, to be devoted to the uses of the treasury. In 1836, the legislature directed the long contemplated construction of the Genesee Valley canal, and of the Black River canal; and during this year those improvements were commenced, and the enlargement of the Erie canal was prosecuted. A loan of the public credit, to the amount of three millions of dollars, was, at the same session, made to a company which had been incorporated in 1832, for the construction of a railroad between the Hudson river and Lake Erie, through the southern range of counties.

The canal commissioners, in 1837, reported the progress which had been made in the construction of the Genesee Valley and Black River canals, and the enlargement of the Erie canal, and recommended the more speedy prosecution of the latter work.

In 1838, the governor, William L. Marcy, announced that the canal commissioners were devoting to the enlargement of the Erie canal, all the means placed within their control; that no new contracts, however, have been entered into during the preceding year, and that some failures and delays had occurred with respect to those previously made. He remarked, that the best interests of the state appealed with great earnestness for the early completion of that important improvement, and he was persuaded that a larger sum than the existing appropriation might be advantageously expended without causing an interruption or delays in navigation. Adverting also to the advantages of the canal as a channel for western trade, he declared that both duty and interest indicated the propriety not only of making it adequate to the public wants, but of doing so at the earliest practicable period.