MEMOIR OF DE WITT CLINTON
APPENDIX
NOTE Y.
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The following letter, with which I have been favoured, from the Honourable Edward P. Livingston, who was uniformly the friend and active supporter of the canal policy of the state, contains some interesting particulars relative to the late Chancellor Livingston, which entitle it to a place in these records.
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Letter from the Hon. Edward P. Livingston to David Hosack, M.D.
NEW-YORK, April 14, 1828.
DEAR SIR,
I promised to communicate to you my recollections of the proceedings relative to the Erie Canal, whilst I was a member of the senate between July 1808 and July 1812, and to mention those gentlemen who were then most actively engaged in supporting the plans for its accomplishment. The public documents will inform you of the dates when the various relations and laws were passed; I will now briefly state some facts which they cannot furnish.
The report of Mr. Geddes in 1809 led the public mind more generally to think on this subject, and in 1810, Mr. Platt introduced his resolutions into the senate. Conflicting opinions and interests divide the legislature, and no doubt most of those who opposed any further proceedings were actuated by the purest and most patriotic motives, believing the whole project to be entirely visionary. My reflections, and some little knowledge acquired by a visit to Europe, induced me to think it wise to make the necessary surveys and examinations, and I had the honour of supporting with my best endeavours the resolutions above mentioned. The remarks I made drew from a venerable member the observation, that "the young men in that body would ruin the state, by involving it in a debt which we could never liquidate." The senate was then divided into three parties or sections, one called Clintonian, one Federal, and one consisting of those republican friends of Mr. Madison, with whom I acted. The support given to the resolutions by Mr. Platt, Mr. Clinton, and myself, and other gentlemen avowing different political connexions, shows that the measures proposed to be adopted were not to be decided by any spirit of party; and it was probably owing to this circumstance that those resolutions passed, and which I ever considered as a most important step towards ensuring the success of the undertaking. Whether General Lewis was a member of that session I do not recollect, and have not the journals to refer to;
{General Lewis took his seat in the Senate in 1811. – D.H.} he was, however, friendly to the canal, and particularly engaged in 1811, in forwarding the object.A bill was brought in by Mr. Clinton in 1811, to which I was favourably disposed, but believe I was not present at its passage, having been called home by the death of an infant son, and was there detained by the illness and subsequent decease of my eldest.
To the commissioners who were first appointed, were added Chancellor Livingston and Mr. Fulton. With these gentlemen I frequently conversed on the subject of our internal navigation; and although they were much occupied with their steam-boats, and harassed by a powerful opposition and its consequences, yet they were not inattentive to the great enterprise. Chancellor Livingston was desirous that steps should be taken early to procure funds, and at his suggestion authority was given to make inquiries relative to a loan; and I well recollect his stating, that a large one could be obtained in Europe, at an interest not exceeding five per cent. and that we ought to secure it as all important to our success. He mentioned the name of the late William Bayard as affording the information, or able to effect the negotiations for obtaining the funds; and when the situation of affairs after that period rendered doubtful the progress of the work, I recollect Mr. Livingston saying, that if we did not want it, that the United States would gladly take it from us, particularly in case of a war, then very probable. At this period almost all Mr. Livingston’s landed estates, and much of that belonging to General Lewis, were situated in the middle district, which went no further north than Greene and Columbia counties; still they hesitated not to support an undertaking promising great public good, though certainly detrimental to themselves. The difference to Chancellor Livingston I consider not less than one hundred thousand dollars.
Among the number of those with whom I frequently conversed on this subject, and with whom I was on very friendly terms of acquaintance, I may mention Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Eddy, and J.R. Van Rensselaer, in addition to those I have already mentioned.
After the war and when a successor to Gov. Tompkins was to be chosen, the general voice of the west declared, that the question of being friendly to the canal or not, would be the most important one; and afterwards the union of that enterprising region with the north, and the support of its friends elsewhere, caused the great work to be completed.
When last a member of the senate, I voted for appropriations to complete it, and had the satisfaction of witnessing the entrance of the first boat into the waters of the Hudson, from the deck of one of our steam-boats, and within a short distance of the spot where, in 1807, I had landed in company with Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton.
I have said nothing of Mr. Clinton, as you are well acquainted with his proceedings relative to the canal. Allow me, however, to observe to you, that it afforded me pleasure when I could co-operate with him in public measures, and regret when a sense of duty called on me to oppose him. From his uncle who was well acquainted with my father and grandfather, I had received the appointment of an aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1801; and his being my senior by several years, and acting under more favourable circumstances, excluded the probability of collision. Yet among his political friends and admirers, have been my warmest opponents, who manifested their hostility even before I was in the senate. I do not know that any thing above stated will be new to you. I am happy, however, to have had an opportunity of mentioning the interest taken in the advancement of our internal improvements by one whom I am proud to acknowledge as my best friend and second parent; and as it was among the last acts of a useful life, I am convinced it will add to his other claims of a public benefactor.
With much regard, I am your obedient servant,
EDWARD P. LIVINGSTON.
TO Dr. DAVID HOSACK.
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When noticing the services of the late Chancellor Livingston, we naturally advert to those of his associate and friend, the late Robert Fulton, who, independently of his well known treatise on canal navigation, published in London as early as 1796, has also by his genius and enterprise applied to the canals of this state, largely contributed to direct the public mind to the measures which have been adopted, and which, to use his own language, are "to secure wealth, ease, and happiness to millions." In the preceding pages his correspondence with Mr. Gouverneur Morris, and with Mr. Gallatin, relative to the superior advantages of canals over roads, and the great revenue to be derived from them, has already been mentioned. Referring, therefore, to the admirable biography of Mr. Fulton by his friend Cadwallader D. Colden, the interesting tribute to his talents by Governor Clinton,
{Discourse before the Academy of Arts.} and the splendid eulogy pronounced upon his merits in the application of steam to the purposes of navigation by Mr. Morris, {Inaugural Discourse before the New-York Historical Society.} we may, in the language of a spirited writer in the North American Review, {Vol. IV. P. 236.} observe of Robert Fulton, that "among the enlightened friends of the canal policy of the state, he is a man whose name is identified with that of his country, whose inventions, valuable as they are, were only the earnest of what he contemplated, whose benefactions to his country will be celebrated by every American, as long as the Mississippi shall bear her floating palaces upon her bosom, or roll her rich tribute to the ocean."----------------------------------------
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