Facts and observations ...

[John Rutherford], 1760-1840, Facts and observations in relation to the origin and completion of the Erie canal. New York, N.B. Holmes, 1825.

OBSERVATIONS, &c.

It must be within the memory of those who are natives of the State, and of sufficient age to recollect ancient facts, that the improvement of the inland navigation of the province, while yet a colony of Great Britain, was a favorite subject of conversation with our ancestors, and there are many now living, who can recollect that their fathers spoke with fond anticipations of the intercourse which would take place at a future day, with the western country by means of inland navigation, after the manner of the Netherlands: among others, Peter Van Brugh Livingston and Philip Livingston made frequent observations on the subject after the return of one of the brothers from the Netherlands, about the year l738. Their father, Philip Livingston, Esq. of the Manor of Livingston, resided for many years at Albany, and was the most eminent in the Indian trade there.

The French government of Canada, very early attempted [4] to prevent our participation in the Indian trade, by their establishments on Lake Ontario, at Fort Frontinac in the year 1672, and at Fort Niagara in the year 1725, and on Lake Champlain by their Fort St. Frederick, built near Crown Point, in the year 1731.--Our favourite route therefore. was by the portages of the Mohawk and Wood Creek, partly to Oswego, but chiefly by the Onondago and Seneca rivers, to the country of several of the six nations, then a populous and powerful confederacy, and uniformly our faithful allies against our hostile neighbours the French--this country of the six nations approached by the Onondago and Seneca rivers and Mud creek, embraced the shores of the Gennessee river, the Canandaigua, Seneca, Cayuga and other small Lakes, was the seat of a very valuable trade, and was frequently visited by the traders of Albany and Schenectady.

After the treaty of Paris in 1763, the improvement of our inland navigation attracted the attention of the colonial government of New-York; and Sir Henry Moore the then Governor of the province, in a message to the house of assembly on the 16th of December 1768, stated that

"the great inconvenience and delay, together with the expense attending the transport of goods at the carrying places, have considerably diminished the profits of the traders, and called for the aid of the legislature, which if not timely exerted in their behalf, the commerce with the interior parts of the country may be diverted into such channels, as to deprive this colony of every advantage which could arise from it:"

These resolves were the subject of long and frequent discussions, and finally passed the house on the 31st December [1768]. The Governor on 3d of the ensuing month, required the immediate attendance of the assembly in the council chamber, when by virtue of his prerogative he dissolved the house, and the proposition for the improvement of our inland navigation, with other business, was not acted on.

It will thus be seen, "that the improvement of our inland navigation at the carrying places, and the commerce with the interior parts of the country," were subjects with engaged the public attention some time before the revolutionary war.

In the year 1784, Mr. Christopher Colles presented a memorial to the Legislature, containing proposals for removing obstructions in the Mohawk river, and in the year 1785 the Legislature appropriated $135, to enable Mr. Colles to make an essay towards effecting the object. In the year 1791 an act was passed, authorizing the commissioners of the land office to cause a survey to be made between the Mohawk River at Fort Stanwix, and Wood Creek, with an estimate of the probably expense of making canals sufficient for loaded boats to pass, and $250 were appropriated to defray that expense. In pursuance of this law, Major Abraham Hardenberg and Benjamin Wright, Esq., made the necessary surveys and estimates of the probable expense, and laid the same before the commissioners of the land office, who reported to the Legislature, that the objects were not only practicable but attainable at a very moderate expense; and the commissioners paid Major Hardenberg and Mr. Wright $149.73 for the services of themselves and their attendants, out of the $250 allowed by the act.

In the year 1792, an act was passed incorporating a company for opening a lock navigation, from the navigable part of Hudson's River to be extended to Lake Ontario, and to the Seneca Lake. This law was enacted chiefly through the instrumentality of Elkanah Watson Esq., and General Philip Schuyler. Mr. Watson had in the preceding year made a voyage in a batteaux, on the old route of the tra-[6]ders of the Mohawk River, through Wood Creek, the Oneida Lake, and Onondaga and Seneca Rivers to the Seneca Lake:--he saw the necessity of improving the navigation, by removing obstructions, constructing canals and locks, and rendering Wood Creek boatable for lighters of five tons burthen, by erecting sluices at given distances, so as to continue a head of water from sluice to sluice. Mr. Watson supposed the whole expense necessary to carry into complete effect all the improvements suggested, would not exceed $75,000.--His essays in the newspapers on the subject, and his communications with the members of the Legislature, had an excellent effect in promoting the passage of the law. General Schuyler, then an active member of the Senate, of distinguished talents and of great weight and influence, drew the bill, and paid unremitted attention to it until it finally became a law. It will be observed that by this law nothing further was contemplated than lock navigation from the navigable part of Hudson River, to be extended to Lake Ontario and to the Seneca Lake. In the year 1798, an act passed incorporating the "Niagara Canal Company," for the purpose of opening a canal and lock navigation between the waters of Lake Erie, and those of Ontario, the act reciting "that such an establishment would tend greatly to facilitate and advance the internal commerce of this State, and promote the convenience and prosperity of the people thereof." At this period it is evident that there was no other mode in contemplation for a commercial intercourse with Lake Erie, than by the route of Lake Ontario.

In the year 1799, Mr. Gouverneur Morris returned from Europe, where he had been employed as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to France, and in other important and confidential situations. In the year 1800 he made a visit to the falls of Niagara and Lake Erie, and first conceived the gigantic plan of bringing the waters of Lake Erie into the Hudson, which when completed in the manner he contemplated, will be justly considered one of the greatest undertakings ever performed by th eexertions of a free [7] people, uninfluenced by the commands of despotic authority. In December 1800, Mr. Gouverneur Morris in a letter describing his journey to a friend in Europe, mentions, that on proceeding to Fort Erie,

"in turning a point of wood, the Lake broke on my view: I saw riding at anchor nine vessels, the least of them one hundred tons! Can you bring your imagination to realize this scene! Does it not seem like magic? Yet this magic is but the early effect of victorious industry. Hundreds of large ships will in no distant period, bound on the billows of these inland seas. At this point commences a navigation of more than a thousand miles. Shall I lead your imagination to the verge of incredulity. I will:--Know then, that one tenth of the expense borne by Britain in the last campaign, would enable ships to sail from London, through Hudson's River, into Lake Erie; as yet my friend 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 in Europe, is but a bauble compared to what America will be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps of one."

Simeon De Witt, Esq. Surveyor General of the State, a gentleman of universally acknowledged merit, who has held that office uninterruptedly, through all the various changes of parties, for above forty years, states

"that the merit of first starting the idea of a direct communication by water between Lake Erie and Hudson river, unquestionably belongs to Mr. Gouverneur Morris. The first suggestion I had of it was from him. In 1803, I accidentally met with him at Schenectady; we put up for the night at the same inn, and passed the evening together: among the numerous topics of conversation to which his prolific mind and excursive imagination gave birth, was that of improving the means of intercourse with the interior of our state. He then mentioned the project of tapping Lake Erie, as he expressed himself, and leading its waters in an artificial river directly across the country to Hudson river. To this I very naturally opposed the intermediate hills and vallies as insuperable obstacles. His answer was in substance, labor probus omnia vincit, and that the object would justify the labor and expense, whatever it might be: considering this as a romantic thing, and characteristic of the man, I related it on several occasions."

"canals between the Hudson and northern Wood Creek, and between the Mohawk and western Wood Creek, must have been contemplated by the first navigators of these waters, things so obvious must have early struck every one, but the idea of the Erie canal is of very modern origin. In the winter of 1804 I learnt for the first time, from the Surveyor General, that Mr. Gouverneur Morris in a conversation between them in the preceeding autumn, mentioned the scheme of a canal from Lake Erie across the country to the Hudson River. The idea of saving so much lockage by not descending into Lake Ontario, made a lively impression on my mind, by which I [9] was prompted on every occasion to inquire into the practicability of the project, and entered with enthusiasm on the task assigned by the Surveyor General in 1808, of expending the small sum of six hundred dollars, then granted by our Legislature for making levels, &c."

Matters being thus prepared, a resolution was adopted in the house of assembly in February 1808, for the appointment of a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly,

"to take into consideration the propriety of exploring, and causing an accurate survey to be made of the most eligible and direct route for a canal, to open a communication between the tide waters of the Hudson and Lake Erie' to the end that Congress may be enabled to appropriate such sums as may be necessary to the accomplishment of that great national object."

"That they were of opinion that speedy measured ought to be adopted on the part of this State for ascertaining the best route of communicating by canals between the tide waters of Hudson's River and the great western lakes, and for making accurate surveys [10] and charts to be transmitted to the President of the United States:"

In pursuance of the foregoing resolution and law, the Surveyor-General appointed Mr. James Geddes to explore the country, and make the necessary surveys. Mr. G. shortly after entered on the duties of his appointment, and on the 20th of January, 1809, made a report on the subject, in which, after examining the usual route by Lakes Oneida and Ontario, and the Niagara River, he noticed an interior route, to be laid out without descending to, or passing through Lake Ontario. This route Mr. Geddes proposed to plan from the Oneida Lake, along the course then pursued by the navigation to the Cayuga marshes, thence up the valley of the Mud Creek, and across the country to the Genessee River, thence up Black Creek to the Tonnewanta swamp, and down the Tonnewanta Creek to Niagara River, and up the same to Lake Erie. Mr. Geddes had not then entered into the beautiful plan of bringing the water of Lake Erie into the Hudson by descending lockage. He appears to have been satisfied by proposing a route which avoided a lockage of 523 feet between Lake Erie and Rome, by the way of Lake Ontario; and if he could attain that advantage, he acquiesced in an extra lockage of 144 feet, as he thought, to and from the Cayuga marshes, without further exploring the country to avoid it; more especially as he had already expended the sum appropriated for the service. To be able to follow the old navigation of Seneca River and Mud Creek, on a water route to Lake Erie, appeared to be a great point gained, and no alteration of that part of the route was inquired into. The part from Genessee River, up Black Creek to the Tonnewanta swamp, and thence down the Tonnewanta swamp to Niagara River, Mr. Geddes appears to have [11] adopted from a mistake in the information he received from Mr. Ellicott, who supposed that the highest ground on that route was not more than ten feet above Lake Erie, but which was afterward found to be above 74 feet.

On the 15th March, 1810, a resolution passed both branches of the Legislature, appointing Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Renssellaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon DeWitt, William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, commissioners. And on the 6th of April following a law was passed authorizing the Treasurer to pay to the order of the said commissioners, a sum not exceeding in the whole $3000; for the purpose of exploring the route between Hudson's River and Lakes Erie and Ontario, and reporting thereon to the Legislature.

On the 2d of March, 1811, Mr. Gouverneur Morris and the other commissioners made a long and very luminous report on the subject, showing very clearly the advantages of an interior route, in preference to that by Lake Ontario; and proposing the construction of a canal with an uniform descent of the water of Lake Erie at the rate of six inches to a mile, to a reservoir near Hudson's River. This bold and magnificent project, described with the pen of Mr. Morris as the first design on the subject, being thus located on the spots and points of passage, for the distance of three hundred and fifty miles, struck every one with astonishment and admiration, and excited the most animating sensations.

The report was followed by a law which was passed on the 8th of April, reciting that

"Whereas a communication by means of a canal navigation between the great Lakes and Hudson's River, will encourage commerce and manufactures, facilitate a free and general intercourse between parts of the United States, and tend to the aggrandizement and posterity of the country, and consolidate and strengthen the union, that Governeur Morris, Stephen Van Renssellaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter, Robert R. Livington, and Robert Fulton, be appointed commissioners for the consideration of all matters relating [12] the said inland navigation."

"of uniting Lake Erie with the Hudson be carried into effect, you have to fear no rivalry. The commerce of the immense extent of country bordering on the upper lakes is yours for ever, and to such an incalculable amount, as would baffle all conjecture to conceive. Its execution would confer immortal honour on the projectors and supporters; and would, in its eventual consequences, render New-York the greatest commercial emporium in the world; with perhaps the exception at some distant day of New-Orleans, or some other depot at the mouth of the majestic Mississippi. From your perspicuous topographical description, and neat plan and profile of the route of the contemplated canal, I entertain little doubt of the practicability of the measure; perhaps this is the only question which the Legislature should be particularly anxious to have resolved.

"The expense, be it what it may, is no object when compared with the incalculable benefit arising therefrom, though doubtless it will deserve attention, that the money granted liberally, be wisely and economically expended. As the survey already made is only what is technically called a running level, much allowance ought to be made, with respect to the eligibility of the route and amount of descent. Indeed to determine the proper line of canal, will require the utmost skill of the professional engineer. Its due performance is of vital importance. A small mistake therein, from whatever cause arising, may occasion [13] the needless waste of thousands. Too much care cannot be taken in the first instance, in exploring the country in every practicable direction, that the final decision may be founded on the result of a comparison of the different routes: as combining shortness of distance with cheapness of execution. The extraordinary regularity in the third or western division, induces me to concur without hesitation, in the plan recommended by the commissioners, of cutting the canal with an uniform descent, in preference to the usual mode of carrying it on a level. It is true, that the latter custom has almost invariably been adopted in Europe, but the inducements thereto have generally been the scanty supply of water on the respective summits, the shortness of the different levels, and the tolerably equal amount of tonnage conveyed in opposite directions. None of these circumstances occur in the instance before us; for the supply of water, as is justly observed, is pure and inexhaustible.

"The length of the line from the mouth of the Tonnewanta to Cayuga River, is upwards of one hundred and twenty miles, an extent of canal without lockage, unequalled by any now in existence, and the chief amount of tonnage will be always downwards. For these reasons I strongly recommend the adoption of the plan."

In March 1814, Mr. G. Morris and the other commissioners made a further report, in which they say

"they suspended all surveys during the last summer on account of mi-[14]litary operations, which are not favorable to internal improvement. They have however the satisfaction to state that every examination tends to show, not only the practicability but the facility of this enterprise, so far as the term facility can reasonably be applied to a work of such magnitude. The commissions beg leave to remark that they are much misunderstood, when it is supposed they recommend exclusively a canal descending according to the level of the country, like an inclined plane. On the contrary, their project embraces the system of locks as well as the other, and their opinion is that the operation must be regulated by the nature of the country: taking into view the diminution of expense and the shortening of distance."

On the conclusion of the war in 1815, the project of the Lake Erie and Hudson canal was very naturally revived, the want of such a communication having been severely felt during the war, and immense sums having been expended for land transportation; some of the stockholders of the western Inland Navigation Company finding that their stock was not as productive as they expected, were also anxious for the revival of the scheme, and took measures to promote it, with a view of being remunerated by the State for the sums they had expended.

In February and March 1816, above thirty petitions, memorials, and resolutions were presented to the legislature from the inhabitants of cities, counties, towns, and villages of the State, praying that the improvement of the internal navigation of the State, should engage the early attention of the legislature, and that vigorous measures should be adopted for its completion. Among the petitions and me-[15]morials which were presented to the legislature on the subject, there was one from the city of New-York, said to be drawn up by Mr. De Witt Clinton, which was a very able and useful document; it comprised the late information on canals, from Rees' Cyclopedia and Philips' Inland Navigation; it took up and enlarged on the very interesting essays of Mr. Watson, which were published in the newspapers in the year 1792; noticed the information contained in Mr. Secretary Gallatin's report on canals and roads, made in pursuance of a resolution of the Senate of the United States, founded on a motion of Mr. John Quincy Adams; and extended the subject to embrace Mr. Morris's plan of bringing the water of Lake Erie into the Hudson; making ample use of the preceding reports of the commissioners, and including a number of additional remarks. These petitions and memorials were referred to a committee of both houses, who prepared and reported a bill, which, after many alterations, was finally passed into a law on the 17th of April 1816, whereby Stephen Van Renssellaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph Ellicott and Myron Holley, were appointed commissioners, to adopt such measures as shall be requisite to effect the communication by means of canals and locks, between the navigable waters of Hudson's River and Lake Erie, and the said navigable waters and Lake Champlain. It will be observed that the names of Gouverneur Morris, Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, were omitted in this bill, as commissioners, and Samuel Young, Joseph Ellicott, and Myron Holley substituted: contrary to the former practice of having the first named commissioner president of the Board, it was declared "that the commissioners shall choose one of their number president of their Board, who shall have power to call a meeting of the same, Whenever in his opinion the public interest shall require it;" and the Treasurer of the State was authorized to pay $20,000 to the order of the said commissioners, for which they were to account to the Comptroller of the State.[16]

The scheme being thus prepared, and the law enacted in conformity by the Senate and House of Assembly, the new commissioners held a meeting shortly after their appointment and chose Mr. De Witt Clinton their president; at a subsequent meeting they determined that the dimensions of the Erie Canal should be 40 feet on the water surface, 28 feet at the bottom, and four feet depth of water, the length of a lock 90 feet, and its width 12 feet in the clear.

Mr. Joseph Ellicott, the commissioner, was the sub-agent of the Holland Company, under Mr. Busti; he was the advocate of the route through the Company's land, for the distance of forty miles; being the route which was formerly suggested by Mr. Geddes. William Peacock was appointed engineer to explore this route under the superintendence of Mr. Ellicott, from Buffalo on the south side of the mountain ridge to the east line of the Holland purchase. Mr. Peacock having explored the route, Mr. Ellicott made a report on the business committed to his charge, by which it appeared that if the canal took the direction proposed by him, it would he raised 74 feet above the level of Lake Erie; of course that the water of the lake could not follow, nor be used, but that other sources of supply must be resorted to for the lockage into the lake, and into the Genessee river, together with the other water requisite for leakage, soakage, and evaporation. In addition to these defects there would be an increase of lockage amounting to 148 feet; nevertheless, Mr. Ellicott approved of the plan.

The exploring of the route from Lake Erie, originally proposed by Mr. Gouverneur Morris, became the task of Mr. Geddes; as this route never rises above the level of the lake, but is always below it, it would therefore derive its water from that never failing reservoir; and a limpid stream from that copious supply, managed according to the plan of Mr. G. Morris, would arrive at a basin near Hudson's River. Mr. Geddes was now sensible of the advantages of Mr. G. Morris's plan of departure from Lake [17]Erie, and abandoning his predilection for the route he formerly propose, he explored the passage on the bed of one of the branches of Eighteen-mile Creek: availed himself of the descent where Lockport is now situated, and in his plan conducted the water of Lake Erie in safety across the Genessee River; but arriving there, he continued in his former route of the year 1808, through the valleys of Mud Creek and Seneca River. On the 15th of April 1817, an act passed the Legislature of the State, declaring in full confidence, that the Congress of the United States and the States equally interested with this State, in the commencement, prosecution, and completion of these important works, will contribute their full proportion of the expense; the commissioners appointed by the act of April 1816, were authorized and empowered to commence making the said canals, by opening communications by canals and locks, between the Mohawk and Seneca rivers, and between Lake Champlain and the Hudson River.

In pursuance of this law Mr. De Witt Clinton and the other commissioners, proceeded to take measures for the accomplishment, of those parts of the routes of the canal which were thus authorized; and on the 4th of July 1817, the Erie canal was commenced by beginning the excavation on the Utica summit.

By an act passed on the 17th of April 1819, Mr. De Witt Clinton and the other commissioners were authorized to open communications, by locks and canals, between the Seneca River and Lake Erie, and between the termination of the canal on the Mohawk River and the Hudson River; thus giving full authority to the commissioners, to construct and complete the whole line of canal from Lake Erie to Hudson River.

On the 12th of April 1824, Mr. De Witt Clinton was removed from the office of canal commissioner, by the Senate and House of Assembly: by a concurrent vote of twenty-one to three in the Senate and of sixty-four to thirty-four in the House of Assembly. It would be foreign to the purpose of [18] these sheets to discuss the propriety or impropriety of the measure; it will be sufficient to remark, that while they omitted to publish the cause of the proceeding, the removal was an impolitic step. Party dissensions have been generally disapproved by the temperate and reflecting part of the community, since the commencement of them, at the memorable sitting of the council of appointment in the year 1801. In the present instance both parties in the Senate appeared to unite in the removal, and they may therefore say that it was not a party measure but it is rather supposed that some of the senators were fearful of their popularity with their party, if they supported Mr. De Witt Clinton: and therefore declined voting, or joined in the vote against him, though contrary to their sentiments. It is not thought that retaliation for displacing Mr. Gouverneur Morris, was the cause of the proceeding.

Several other changes of canal commissioners have taken place, at different times, by resignations and new appointments. The Board now consists of Stephen Van Renssellaer, president, Samuel Young, Henry Seymour, and William C. Bouck.

On the 26th of October 1825, the enterprising General Peter B. Porter, one of the heroes of the New-York militia in the campaigns in Upper Canada, entered the canal from Lake Erie harbour, in the canal boat Niagara,.and on the lst of November arrived on the tide water of the Hudson. The Niagara being the first vessel that made the entire passage of the canal.