report to this House what new roads are proper to be laid out at this time, and whether any and what legislative provision is necessary for that purpose."

Such report was committed to a committee of the whole House, whereupon the following proceedings were had on Monday, February 23, 1791:

"Mr. Livingston, pursuant to notice by him given for that purpose yesterday, moved for leave to bring in a bill entitled An Act for opening communications between Wood creek and Mohawk river, and between Lake Champlain and Hudson river, and for removing certain obstructions in the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.

"Ordered, That leave be given accordingly.

"Mr. Livingston, according to leave, brought in the said bill, which was read the first time, and ordered a second reading.

"Mr. Barker, from the committee of the whole House on the report of the committee relative to roads and inland navigation, as entered on the journals of this House of the 26th instant, reported, that the committee agreed to certain resolutions, which he was directed to report to the House; and he read the report in his place, and delivered a copy of the said resolutions in at the table, where the same were again read, and agreed to by the House. Thereupon,

"Resolved, That that part of the same report which contains the opinion of the committee, that the commissioners of the land office be authorized to make and offer proposals to such person or association of persons as will contract to open a water communication between the Mohawk river and Wood creek, and such person or persons as will remove impediments to the navigation of boats between Rensselaerwyck and Fort Edward, and such person or persons as will open a water communication between the river Hudson and lake Champlain, with power to grant such persons an exclusive right to the profits of a reasonable toll on the canals so opened for a limited term of years, be committed to a committee of the whole house on the bill last mentioned.

"Resolved, That that part of the same report which contains the opinion of the committee, that the rivers Delaware and Susquehannah, with their navigable branches, ought to be made public highways, and provision by law be made for removing and preventing any obstructions that now are, or hereafter shall be made in the free navigation therein, be committed to a committee of the whole house, on the bill entitled An Act to prevent the obstructions of the navigation in the rivers Delaware and Susquehannah.

"Resolved, If the honorable Senate concur therein, that the commissioners of the land office be requested to report to the Legislature as soon as conveniently may be, what new roads are necessary to be opened within this State, and what legislative provision may be necessary for that purpose."

In conformity thereto, on March 24, 1791, an act was passed entitled "An Act concerning roads and inland navigation," which contained the following provision:

"And be it further enacted, that the commissioners of the land office be and they are hereby authorized to cause to be explored, and the necessary survey made of the ground situate between the Mohawk river at or near Fort Stanwix, and the Wood creek in the county of Washington, and to cause an estimate to be made of the probable expense that will attend the making canals sufficient for loaded boats."

The sum of $250 was appropriated to defray the expenses of the commission. The necessary surveys were made, and the junction canal between the Mohawk river and the Wood creek was laid out by Major Abraham Hardenburgh, an experienced and skillful surveyor, assisted by Benjamin Wright, in June or September, 1791, along the route afterwards followed by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, substantially in the direction of the new barge canal now being constructed between Mohawk river and Wood creek. The expense of the Hardenburgh survey under the commissioners of the land office was $149.70, and their report was submitted to the Legislature by Governor George Clinton on January 5, 1792, in his speech made on that occasion, in which he said:

"The Legislature at their last meeting, impressed with the importance, not only to the agriculture and commerce of the State, but even to the influence of the laws, of improving the means of communication, directed the commissioners of the land office to cause the ground between the Mohawk river and the Wood creek in the county of Washington, to be explored and surveyed, and estimates to be formed of the expense of joining those waters by canals. I now submit to you their report, which ascertains the practicability of effecting this object at a very moderate expense; and I trust that a measure so interesting to the community will continue to command the attention due to its importance, and especially as the resources

of the State will prove adequate to these and other useful improvements, without the aid of taxes."

In September, 1791, Elkanah Watson in company with General Van Courtland, Stephen Bayard and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer made a journey from the Hudson river to Seneca lake and kept a journal of his travels. In speaking of the salt manufacture at Onondaga he says:

"These works are in a rude, unfinished state,-but are capable of making about eight thousand bushels of salt per annum; which is nearly the quantity required for the present consumption of the country. . . . Providence has happily placed this great source of comfort, and wealth, precisely in a position accessible by water in every direction.

"When the mighty canals shall be formed, and locks erected, it will add vastly to the facility of an extended diffusion, and the increase of its intrinsic worth. It will enter Ontario and the other great lakes, and find its way down the St. Lawrence, by Oswego; into Pennsylvania, and the Chesapeake, up Seneca river, to the head of the Seneca lake, and by a portage (perhaps eventually a canal) of eighteen miles, to Newtown, on the Susquehanna river: and through the canals in contemplation, up Wood creek, and down the Mohawk river, into the Hudson."1

After his return from Seneca Falls, Elkanah Watson made a report, based upon his journal and what he had observed of a route for intersecting canals between the Mohawk river and Seneca lake, setting forth the probable expense thereof and concluding with the following state

ment:

"To investigate or attempt to point out the advantages which would result to the Union, to the State, or to individuals, from this navigation being laid completely open, would require a folio volume. It may at once be safely presumed that it would accommodate boat navigation for at least 1,000 miles of shore (taking Mohawk river with its various branches, and the other rivers and lakes) within the boundaries of this State, exclusive of all the great lakes of Canada. The man or men who are instrumental in bringing those improvements forward, will, in fact, be instrumental in creating many thousand citizens for America, in process of time, by advancing accommodations and subsistence for thousands. It is a matter of great

1. Ib. 42, 43.

doubt, in respect to the acquisition of produce to the State, in opening the navigation to Lake Champlain, or to the western country, which of these objects deserves most of our attention. As it respects commerce and new sources, I cannot determine; but considered in another point of view, the preference is indisputably in favor of opening the western communication first. I mean the rivalship subsisting between this State and Pennsylvania, and the efforts the latter State is now making to divert the western country of Philadelphia, which, in a state of nature, is by far the richest part of this State."

On January 3, 1792, the commissioners of the Land Office reported that in their opinion water communication could be established between Albany and Seneca lake by means of locks and canals, utilizing the natural streams of water, for the sum of $200,000. This report was transmitted to the Legislature by Governor Clinton, in which he said: "I trust that a measure so interesting to the community will continue to command the attention due to its importance and especially as the resources of the State will prove adequate to this and other useful improvements, without the aid of taxation." The report and accompanying message were referred to a joint committee of both Houses, and on February 7th Senator Williams introduced a bill entitled: "An Act for constructing and opening a canal and lock navigation in the northern and western part of the State." Gen. Philip Schuyler and Elkanah Watson were among its warmest advocates.

It was not originally contemplated by some of the advocates of water communication to do more than effect water communication between the Mohawk and Oneida lake, but Elkanah Watson wrote to General Schuyler that "to stop at that point (Fort Stanwix), will be half doing the business." "The charter should stretch to the Seneca lake and to the harbor of Oswego as suggested in my journals," "so as to admit the commerce of the Great Lakes into the Hudson river." In reply thereto, under date of March 4, 1792, General Philip Schuyler says:

1

1. "History of the Canal System of the State of New York," by Noble E. Whitford (Supplement Report N. Y. State Engineer, 1905), 32, 33.

"A joint committee of both Houses of which committee I was not one) had been formed: This repor a bill for incorporating two companies, one for the western, and another for the northern navigation. The former was to have carried no farther than the Oneida lake. The bill contemplated a commencement of the works from the navigable waters of the Hudson, and to be thence continued to the point I have mentioned, and it obliged the corporation, in a given number of years (which was intended to be ten) to the completion of the whole western navigation. When this bill was introduced in the Senate, the plan generally appeared to me so exceptionable, that I thought it incumbent on me to state my ideas on the subject at large. They were approved of unanimously by the committee of the whole house, and I was requested to draught a new bill. This was done, and it has met with the approbation of the committee of the whole."1

Among the letters published at the time in the New York State Journal and Patriotic Register, and presumably written by Elkanah Watson in advocacy of establishing water communication between the Great Lakes and the Hudson river, one states:

"It appears that every natural advantage is in favor of New York: provided only attention is paid to promote the improvements necessary; and it merits a serious consideration, that although nature has favored this quarter, yet, through inattention, the channel of commerce may receive an early bias to a different point: and commerce is of such a nature, that when once established in any direction, it is generally found difficult to divert it."

This report by Elkanah Watson evidently made a deep impression upon the mind of General Schuyler. It was followed by a letter from Elkanah Watson to General Philip Schuyler in February, 1792, in which he says:

"I have been attentive to the progress of the great object of the Western canals since the commencement of the session of the Legislature.

"I observe, with great regret, that no one of that body (not even the Governor) appears to soar beyond Fort Stanwix except yourself. To stop at that point will be half doing the business. Although we may not be able to accomplish the whole plan for years to come, yet the improvements on Wood creek are indispensable to make the con