almost level isthmus, which separated the great eastern lakes from the valley through which that river poured its deep and ample volume into the ocean; an isthmus, which in its various width nowhere exceeded three hundred and sixty miles. The proximity of the great lakes to the valley of the Hudson, was understood at a very early period. Governor Burnet, in 1720, found the Six Nations receiving from French traders by the way of Montreal, merchandise which had been carried there from Albany. The friendship of the Indians naturally followed this commerce. Burnet, with a view to detach the Iroquois from the French interest, caused a fort to be erected at Oswego, and trading houses to be built at the mouth of the Oswego river, "on account of its water communications, and for the facility of transportation between the lakes and Schenectady, there being but three portages in the whole route, and two of them very short."* Dr. Cadwallader Colden, then surveyor-general of the province, addressed to Governor Burnet a memoir on the fur trade, which contained an account of the western rivers, portages, and lakes, and in which we find this very bold suggestion: "If one, considers the great length of the river (the Mississippi), and its numerous branches, he must say, that by means of the river and the lakes, there is opened to his view such a scene of inland navigation as can not be paralleled in any part of the world."+ Kalm and Carver, early European travellers, were struck with the same peculiar features of our territory. Sir Henry Moore, governor in 1768, in a speech to the provincial assembly, noticed the difficulties of trade with the Iroquois, in consequence of the obstructions in the navigation between Schenectady and Fort Stanwix, "occasioned by the fall of Canajoharie," under which description was undoubtedly meant the rapids at Little Falls; and he suggested that "the obstructions could easily be obviated by the use of sluices upon the plan of the great canal of Languedoc." In 1784, Christopher Colles, of New York, submitted to the legislature proposals for removing obstructions to the navigation. of the Mohawk river, so that boats of burthen might pass the same. That body mingled considerations of economy with those of enterprise in their views of the subject, and offered to secure to the projector and his associates, the perpetual profits to be derived from the navigation of the river, if improved by them. At * Dunlap. + C. D. Colden's Memoir of N. Y. Canals. the next session the legislature granted to Mr. Colles one hundred and twenty-five dollars, to enable him to prosecute his examination of the river. He appeared again before that body, and before the public, with a proposition to form an association to improve the inland navigation between Oswego and Albany; and the publication is said to have exhibited good foresight of the advantages which would result from the proposed connection, as well as a right understanding of the facility with which it could be accomplished. But no public action crowned his labors. The plan he proposed was thought quite too visionary. He died in obscurity, and was interred in "the burying-ground of strangers," about 1820, while the project he had promulgated was, on a vastly more extended scale, proceeding to its consummation.* George Clinton, governor, in 1791, stated to the legislature that the frontier settlements, freed from apprehensions of danger, were rapidly increasing, and must soon yield extensive resources for profitable commerce, and that this consideration forcibly recommended the policy of continuing to facilitate the means of communication with them, as well to strengthen the bands of society, as to prevent the produce of those fertile districts from being diverted to other markets. The senate and assembly thereupon appointed a committee to inquire what obstructions in the Hudson and Mohawk rivers ought to be removed. The committee, consisting of Ezra L'Hommedieu, Johu Cantine, Philip Schuyler, and Alexander Webster, of the senate; James Livingston, Jonathan Brown, Jacob Delamater, John D. Coe, Zina Hitchcock, Samuel L. Mitchill, and John Smith, of the assembly, reported a bill, entitled "An Act concerning Roads and Inland Navigation," which became a law, and which directed the commissioners of the land-office to cause the country to be explored, between Fort Stanwix and Wood creek, in Herkimer county, and a similar survey to be made between the Hudson and Wood creek, in Washington county. The law further directed the commissioners to make an estimate of the expense of constructing canals on those routes. The commissioners. submitted a favorable report, and Governor Clinton, at the next session, commended the subject earnestly to the consideration of the legislature. Thereupon a law was passed, entitled "An Act for Establishing and Opening Lock Navigation * C. D. Colden's Memoirs. within this State." The act commenced with the terse recital, "Whereas a communication by water between the southern, northern, and western parts of this state will encourage agriculture, promote commerce, and facilitate a general intercourse between the citizens;" and provided for the incorporation of two associations, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company. The purpose of the western company was to open a lock navigation from the Hudson river to Lake Ontario and the Seneca lake; and that of the northern company was to connect the same river with Lake Champlain. The act appointed as directors in the two companies, Philip Schuyler, Leonard Gansevoort, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Elkanah Watson, John Tayler, Jellis A. Fonda, William North, Goldsbrow Banyar, Daniel Hale, John Watts, Walter Livingston, Dominick Lynch, James Watson, Matthew Clarkson, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Melancthon Smith, David Gelston, Stephen Lush, Cornelius Glen, Silas Talbot, John Frey, Douw Fonda, John Sanders, Nicholas J. Roosevelt, Daniel M'Cormick, Marinus Willet, Jonathan Lawrence, Philip Van Cortlandt, James Clinton, Abraham Ten Broeck, John Williams, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, John Van Rensselaer, Abraham G. Lansing, Henry Quackenbush, Robert R. Livingston, Philip Livingston, James Duane, Alexander Macomb, Samuel Jones, Nicholas Low, Dirck Lefferts, William Duer, Barent Bleecker, Henry Livingston, Peter Gansevoort, Peter B. Tearce, Alexander Webster, George Ray, Thomas Tillotson, Matthew Scott, Zephaniah Platt, John Thurman, Albert Pawling, and Zina Hitchcock. Out of this array of names combining so large a representation of the talents, learning, patriotism, enterprise, political influence, and wealth of this state, it is not invidious to select that of Philip Schuyler, who, then enjoying well-earned military fame, exhibited the most untiring devotion to the physical improvement of his country. The capital stock of both the companies was $50,000, a sum so small as to show a very inadequate estimate of the difficulties of the comprehensive scheme which was then shadowed forth. The art of constructing canals was little understood, and the topography of the country was not accurately ascertained. The enterprise of the western company fell into discredit. Many of the stockholders forfeited their shares, but a few, more perse vering, prosecuted the undertaking, and established an imperfect canal a little less than three miles long, with five locks, around the Little falls; a canal of one and a quarter miles, at the German flats; a canal one mile and three fourths, from the Mohawk to Wood creek, and several wooden locks on that stream. So defective were these works, that they were twice reconstructed during the short period which intervened before the commencement of the Erie canal; and yet so costly, that the company expended four hundred thousand dollars in opening a passage for loaded boats of small burthen, from Schenectady to the Oneida lake. Although steadily favored by the legislature with loans and subscriptions of stock, the company, becoming discouraged and exhausted, relinquished the design of extending their navigation to Lake Ontario. In 1798, an association was incorporated to construct a canal around the falls of Niagara, on an application by James Watson, Charles Williamson, John Williams, Effingham Embree, and their associates; but the law was not executed. The Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, after a brief effort to procure subscriptions, abandoned the enterprise with which that association had been charged. During several years after the western company had commenced its improvements, charters were granted to associations which proposed to remove obstructions in the St. Lawrence, the Seneca, and other rivers; but none of those companies achieved any effective improvement, except the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, which made an imperfect navigation between the Oswego river and the Cayuga and Seneca lakes. History will assign to Gouverneur Morris the merit of first suggesting a direct and continuous communication from Lake Erie to the Hudson. In 1800, he announced this idea from the shore of the Niagara river to a friend in Europe, in the following enthusiastic language: "Hundreds of large ships will, in no distant period, bound on the billows of these inland seas. Shall I lead your astonishment to the verge of incredulity? I will. Know then that one-tenth part of the expense borne by Britain in the last campaign, would enable ships to sail from London through the Hudson river into Lake Erie. As yet we only crawl along the outer shell of our country. The interior excels the part we inhabit in soil, in climate, in everything. The proudest empire of Europe is but a bauble compared to what America may be, must be."* The praise awarded to Gouverneur Morris must be qualified by the fact, that the scheme he conceived was that of a canal with a uniform declination, and without locks, from Lake Erie to the Hudson.+ Morris communicated his project to Simeon De Witt in 1803, by whom it was made known to James Geddes in 1804. It afterward became the subject of conversation between Mr. Geddes and Jesse Hawley, and this communication is supposed to have given rise to the series of essays written by Mr. Hawley, under the signature of Hercules, in the Genesee Messenger, continued from October, 1807, until March, 1808, which first brought the public mind into familiarity with the subject. These essays, written in a jail, were the grateful return, by a patriot, to a country which punished him with imprisonment for being unable to pay debts owed to another citizen, and displayed deep research, with singular vigor and comprehensiveness of thought, and traced with prophetic accuracy a large portion of the outline of the Erie canal. In 1807, Albert Gallatin, then secretary of the treasury, in pursuance of a recommendation made by Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States, reported a plan for appropriating all the surplus revenues of the general government to the construction of canals and turnpike roads; and it embraced in one grand and comprehensive view, nearly without exception, all the works which have since been executed or attempted by the several states in the Union. This bold and statesmanlike, though premature, conception of that eminent citizen, will remain the greatest among the many monuments of his forecast and wisdom. In 1808, Joshua Forman, a representative in the assembly from Onondaga county, submitted his memorable resolution, "Whereas the president of the United States did, by his message to Congress, delivered at their meeting in October last, recommend that the surplus moneys in the treasury, over and above such sums as could be applied to the extinguishment of the national debt, be appropriated to the great national project of opening canals and making turnpike roads: And whereas the * Elkanah Watson's History of the Canals. + Colden's Memoirs. Letter of Simeon De Witt. Jesse Hawley lived to see the Erie canal completed, and two-thirds of it reconstructed and enlarged. He died in 1841. |