The enemies of Governor Clinton have frequently adduced the charge against him, that his ambition had induced him to claim the whole merit of having originated the canal policy of this state. His answer to the following address from the citizens of Utica, as well as his reply to the address from the citizens of New-York upon his removal as canal commissioner, abundantly vindicate him from that charge.

--------------------

Congratulatory Address to Governor Clinton, delivered by George Bacon, in behalf of the citizens of Utica, on the 31^st October, 1825.

In behalf of the citizens of the village of Utica, we are deputed to tender to your excellency and your honour, to the honourable the board of canal commissioners, and to the various respectable delegations from our citizens elsewhere, who have honoured us with their presence on this auspicious occasion, our heartfelt gratulations on the happy consummation of a great work, which is destined as we trust to form a memorable epoch in the annals of our state, and to diffuse countless blessings to our posterity through remote generations.

The satisfaction which is derived on beholding the triumph of a vast enterprise of public utility, which for a long time struggled for its existence against the heavy tide of prejudice and of error, is at once the richest source of gratification, and the highest reward to a liberal and enlightened mind.

It must afford the most consolatory reflections to your excellency and your honour, to be able to realize that the entire completion of our great chain of inland navigation, will form an era cotemporaneous with your executive administrations of the concerns of this rising state; and that when the conflicting passions of the present day have subsided, and the transient interests of the passing moment shall have lost all their consequence, the great and permanent interests connected with this event, will be identified with those of every citizen of the state; and its authors and projectors enrolled amongst the eminent benefactors of their country.

To the honourable the board of canal commissioners, and to all those distinguished individuals, (many of whom with a Schuyler, a Morris, and a Fulton, now rest from their labours) whose genius has contributed to the projection, or whose counsels or labours have aided in the erection of this splendid trophy of the enterprise and energy of a free people, we tender the deep homage of a people’s gratitude, in view of that fortunate and glorious result, which we are this day brought to witness. For fortunate indeed must that citizen be considered, whose talents and whose services have in any degree contributed to accomplish that which gives him a lasting title to the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, and whose name shall be associated in all future time, with a work surpassing in its usefulness to mankind, the most imposing structures of antiquity; compared with which, in every moral and essential view, the boasted pyramids of Egypt, and the mouldering walls of the Colosseum, can be regarded but as splendid playthings, to minister to the pride and ambition of vain-glorious power.

Inhabitants as most of those around us are, of a district of country which less than half a century since, had hardly felt the permanent impress of a civilized footstep, and to whose occupants the rude barque of the savage then furnished the only idea of navigation; we reciprocate our mutual congratulations that we have lived to witness even at our doors, an extent of navigable communication stretching from our remotest frontier, to the great commercial emporium of our state, equal or superior for all practical purposes, to the first navigable rivers of the globe, or even to those mighty oceans which break upon either shore of our magnificent continent.

As fellow-citizens of this most populous member of our national confederacy, we congratulate you all, that this high enterprise has been commenced, prosecuted and accomplished by the courage, perseverance, and resources of our state alone, unaided by the capital and uncountenanced by the encouragement of any other power, either foreign or domestic.

And by a yet higher and more enlarged title, as Americans, and as citizens of a free representative government, we congratulate you upon the decisive evidence which this imperishable monument will furnish to a doubting world of the sagacity, wisdom, and energy of a free people, in accomplishing, without a burthen, a greater national work, than within the same period, has ever been effected with all the concentrated force of the most unlimited despotism.

Neither the time nor the occasion justify us in adding further to these brief outlines of a picture, which no American patriot can contemplate, without an emotion of honest pride; and no friend of civil freedom without an increased confidence in the entire sufficiency of our free institutions of government, to secure the individual welfare of its citizens, and to exalt and sustain the lasting glory of our country.

--------------------

To which Governor Clinton made the following reply.

CITIZENS OF UTICA: – In this flourishing village, which is indebted for much of its prosperity, to the great work that has been the subject of your eloquent eulogium, and animated congratulation, are now assembled before you, representatives from our great city, and from the rising towns of the west, to mingle their felicitations with yours, and to proceed to our commercial emporium, rejoicing in the great consummation, and tendering the hand of congratulation in their transit of upwards of five hundred miles, from the lakes to the Atlantic ocean, in the first vessels that have attempted this important voyage.

For the good which has been done by individuals or communities, in relation to this work, let each have a due share of credit: over the evil which has been perpetrated, let a veil of oblivion be drawn. Let the unfriendly feelings which have sprung from those collisions, be merged in a spirit of conciliation and kindness. Let the dark shades of the past be extinguished in the brilliant enjoyment of the present, and the splendid visions of the future.

Accept our sincere thanks for the manifestations of kindness, always gratifying from meritorious sources, and particularly so on the present occasion; and we humbly supplicate the Creator and Father of the Universe, to expand your prosperity, with the prosperity of our beloved country, and to render both as lasting as the great waters that are now connected by the most important communication, and most stupendous work in the world.

----------------------------------------

Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 5/30/99.