made their first report to the Legislature on March 2, 1811. In it they canvass the project in all its phases and suggest that it is for the Legislature to determine whether or not the State alone undertake the work, or negotiations be opened with the National Government for Federal aid.

In this Report the views of Gouverneur Morris were elaborated by him and subsequently embodied in the Report of the Commissioners of whom he was President, appointed March 13-15, 1810, to explore the route of an inland navigation from Hudson river to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, which was transmitted to the Legislature on March 2, 1811, together with the reports and maps of James Geddes, the experienced engineer employed by the Surveyor-General to make the survey and map of the route from Lake Erie to the Hudson. This report was criticised by Dewitt Clinton, although he was one of the commissioners making it, on the ground that "they" (the commissioners),

"committed the preparation of their draft to the president, Mr. Morris, a man of elevated genius, but, being too much under the influence of a sublimated imagination, conceiving the sublime idea of creating an artificial river from the elevation of Lake Erie to the Hudson, he digressed into a long exposition of the facilities and advantages of an inclined plane canal, wherein he passed over rivers and lakes by aqueducts, and valleys by mounds, in order to maintain his descent. When the board assembled to consider the draft, they, from motives of delicacy, did not insist upon striking out this part of the report, especially as it was hypothetical from its very nature, and a mere gratuitous suggestion, in page 30 it says: 'Preliminary points are to be adjusted, and on these the first is whether it is to be made for sloops or barges. The expense of the former will, it is believed, be at least double that of the latter. Another question, whether it is to be carried along an inclined plane, or by a line ascending and descending, must be decided by a comparison of the expense and of the utility of each way.'

"With the exception of the plan of the canal, the report was every way worthy of the pen of its author. It established the practicability of an inland canal, and illustrated its advantages in a masterly manner. The cost was estimated at five millions of dollars."1

The inclined plane was the earliest method adopted for elevating a vessel from a lower to a higher level and was in "The Canal Policy of the State of New York . . by Tacitus" [Albany, 1821], 24, 25.

I.

use in Egypt, Italy and other countries long before the invention of locks, the novelty of which is claimed by the Dutch of Holland and also by the Italians for Leonardo da Vinci and two brothers, who were engineers residing in Viterbo.

The first canal built in this country, in 1793, around the falls of the Connecticut river at South Hadley, Massachusetts, under the supervision of the engineer, Benjamin Prescott of Northampton, was operated by the use of inclined planes by running the boats into a movable caisson filled with water, which was "hauled up by cables operated by waterpower." Gouverneur Morris must have known of the existence and practical operation of short canals in several states provided with locks and that the inclined plane was no longer in general use.

In the Canal Papers of Merwin S. Hawley and George Geddes, read before the Buffalo Historical Society many years since,1 may be found a review of the arguments presented in behalf of some of the claimants to the originality of suggesting a great artificial waterway between Lake Erie and the Hudson. Cadwallader Colden, Sir Henry Moore, Christopher Colles, General Philip Schuyler, George Washington, Elkanah Watson, George Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, Jesse Hawley, James Geddes, and others, respectively have been so credited. It is not my purpose to enter into the discussion of the controverted question as to the person or persons entitled to the credit of first suggesting a continuous waterway from the Great Lakes on the West to the tidewater on the East. It is more in conformity to modern historical research to present the undisputed facts so far as they are available in relation to this controverted question together with the views and suggestions of engineers, military officers, provincial and State officials, civilians, travellers and others, who in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries traversed the fair domain between the Hudson on the East and the Great Lakes on the West, as I have endeavored to do in this paper with such comment thereon, as appears to me warranted after an investigation and study of the subject extending over a period of

I.

Both of these are printed in 2 Pubs. Buf. Hist. Soc.

several years, in order that the reader may draw his own conclusions. From all this it will not be an easy matter to determine the person or persons entitled to the merit of first suggesting artificial water communication between the Hudson river and the Great Lakes. It may have been an evolution resulting from many suggestions made for extending water communication between the Hudson and the Mohawk, the Mohawk and Wood creek, Oneida lake and Lake Ontario and Oneida lake and Seneca lake, and Seneca lake and Lake Erie, which several bodies of water were to be connected by several intervening waterways, the outgrowth of an agitation that began as early as the latter part of the 17th century and was not consummated until the early part of the 19th century.

The argument presented by Colonel Robert Troup in his "Vindication of the claim of Elkanah Watson to the Merit of projecting the State's Canal Policy" is reviewed in a pamphlet published under the title of "The Canal Policy of the State of New York," by "Tacitus," presumably De Witt Clinton. To this pamphlet Colonel Troup replied, reviewing at some length the arguments originally advanced by him and answering those contained in the pamphlet by "Tacitus."

Cadwallader D. Colden in his "Memoir" prepared at the request of a committee of the Common Council of New York on the occasion of the celebration of the completion of New York canal, in speaking of the merits of the various claimants to the credit of first proposing such a waterway, and after reviewing the claims of various persons who were supposed to have made any such suggestions, says:

"I have made these few references to show that at a very early date, not only the Champlain route to Montreal, but what we now call the Ontario route to the Lakes, was perfectly well understood; and that it was well known that the water courses running westwardly and northwardly, and those running southwardly and eastwardly, were separated by low lands of very little extent. Any one that had traversed those portages, or heard them described, and knew that artificial water ways had been constructed in other parts of the world, must have thought of completing these water communications by canals.

"How much in vain, then, must it be to enquire who first thought of connecting the western and northern, and southern waters? We might as well attempt to ascertain who had the first idea of making a highway between New York and Albany, or between any other important establishments in our country. Many had opportunities of acquiring all the knowledge connected with the subject, and it is probable that the thought of water communications, where they are now made by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, was common to hundreds at the same time.

"Could we pursue this enquiry with any prospect of success, it would be a futile labor. The discovery would be of no benefit to the community, and but little more credit would be due to one to whom the original thought might be traced, if he did nothing towards executing the idea he had conceived, than if it had been a dream."

De Witt Clinton, writing under the nom de plume of "Tacitus," in the pamphlet entitled "Canal Policy of the State of New York," says:

"Several persons may at different times have suggested the utility or practicability of connecting the waters of the Hudson and the Great Lakes-and the idea would naturally occur to every intelligent person who visited our western country, and has probably been entertained not only in the minds of most of the inhabitants, but has been frequently expressed by them at various times, and on different occasions. Any peculiar merit on this occasion must arise from initiating a procedure to obtain a proper plan of connection, from projecting this measure, from urging its adoption, or from aiding in its execution.

"It is well known that a water communication between the Great Lakes and the Hudson river may be effected in two ways: 1. By connecting the Mohawk river and Wood creek at Rome. In this route, which is called the Ontario Route, there were originally five portages-from Albany to Schenectady-at the Little Falls-at Rome -at the Falls of Oswego-and at the cataract of Niagara. This has always been, and now is, the course of navigable communication, and every traveller pursuing it would naturally remark not only upon the convenience, but upon the general facility of accomplishing an uninterrupted navigation by the establishment of canals and locks. In connection with this route, it was contemplated to facilitate communication with the Seneca and Cayuga lakes, by the improvement of the navigation of the Seneca river.

"2. The other route is denominated the Erie Route, and it is to consist in an artificial navigation, from the tide waters of the Hudson to Lake Erie by way of Rome.

"The utility of canals to supersede the portages on the Mohawk and Oswego rivers, and to unite the Mohawk river and Wood creek, must have been obvious to every traveller. During what was called the French war, this route was of course the thoroughfare to the military posts on Lake Ontario-and Oswego and Niagara were the great seats of the fur trade, in times of peace as well as of war. Carver, who travelled through the western country in the summer of 1766, says: 'The Oneida Lake, situated near the head of the river Oswego, receives the waters of Wood creek, which takes its rise not far from the Mohawk river: These two lie so adjacent to each other, that a junction is effected by sluices at Fort Stanwix.' Thus we see at that early period, that an artificial water communication was made between those streams at Rome, and in times of high flood, there is no doubt, but that boats frequently passed from the one to the other. The junction canal between the Mohawk river and Wood creek was laid out by Major Abraham Hardenburgh in June, 1791, and designated on a map nearly in the direction of the canal afterwards made by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company."

Mr. Clinton says further in his pamphlet on "The Canal Policy of the State of New York," at pages 21-22, that after the Report of the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly had been presented through its chairman, Mr. Thomas R. Gold of Oneida, on March 21, 1808, that the house unanimously agreed to the following resolution:

"Resolved, (if the honourable the Senate concur herein), That the Surveyor-General of this State be, and he is hereby directed to cause an accurate survey to be made of the rivers, streams, and waters (not already accurately surveyed) in the usual route of communication between the Hudson river and Lake Erie, and such other contemplated route as he may deem proper; and cause the same to be delineated on charts or maps, for that purpose, accompanying the same with the elevations of the route, and such explanatory notes as may be necessary for all useful information in the premises-of which one copy shall be filed in the office of the secretary of this state, and another transmitted to the President of the United States, which the person administering the government of this State is hereby requested to do."