Page images
PDF
EPUB

March, and brought in a bill. Appended to this report are statements of John B. Jervis, and N. S. Roberts, showing the advantages of an enlarged canal over one of the present size. The committee stated that in eight years the business on the canal had nearly doubled, although it was estimated that one-seventeenth part only, of the trade on the Erie Canal in 1834, was from without the limits of the State. The report alluded to the competition of Canada, Pennsylvania, &c., and stated that of all these rivals, "Virginia might be the most powerful; for through that State, nature has traced the most direct and easy course from the far west to the Atlantic." The remedy recommended is to widen and deepen the Erie Canal, and "should the improvements now making by the British government in the St. Lawrence, tend to divert the commerce of the west, then increase the capacity of the Oswego Canal, to an extent equal to the increase of the Erie Canal."

When the subject of doubling the locks to Syracuse was under consideration in 1834, the inhabitants of Oswego sent a memorial to the Legislature in favor of a ship canal from Oswego to the Hudson, by way of the Oneida and Oswego Rivers. This was referred to a committee of which O. Robinson was chairman, who made a favorable report and introduced a bill. In February 1835, a meeting was held at Utica, at which the Mayor presided, in relation to a ship canal from Oswego to Albany, and a memorial was prepared on the subject and sent to the Legislature, accompanied by a survey of the route from Utica to Oswego, by E. F. Johnson. This survey extended only from Oswego to Utica. Mr. Johnson proposed a canal of a depth of eight feet, and a breadth at surface of 90 feet; the banks faced with stone, and the locks 130 feet long and 30 feet wide, being double the width of the old Erie Canal locks, and designed to enable canal boats to pass them by pairs. The route proposed was to enlarge the Erie Canal from Utica to Fort Bull, sixteen and a half miles; then passing on the north side of Wood Creek ten miles to Fish Creek, and following the channel of the latter stream to Oneida Lake; thence twenty-two miles by the Lake to its outlet, and by the Oneida River nineteen miles to Three Rivers Point, and from this point along the route of the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario-whole distance from Utica to Oswego, ninetytwo miles, fifty-six being lake and river navigation. The canal to be navigated by steamboats, and also to have a tow-path for using canal boats; and to avoid any transhipment, vessels which navigated the lakes and could pass the Welland Canal, were intended to pass the ship canal to the Hudson and New York. The cost of the ship canal from Utica to Oswego, was estimated at $1,131,989.

The Utica memorial, with the report of Mr. Johnson, and a resolution of the common council of the city of New York, were referred to the canal board by the Assembly on the 4th of March. These papers were submitted to three of the State engineers, John B. Jervis, Holmes Hutchinson, and Frederick C. Mills, who communicated their views to the canal board in a report dated the 23d of the same month. The canal board referred all these papers to Wm. C. Bouck and A. C. Flagg, to prepare a report for the Legislature. That portion of the report which related to the enlargement of the canal was prepared by Col. Bouck, and concurred fully in the opinions expressed by the engineers, in favor of enlarging the Erie Canal, in preference to constructing a steamboat or ship canal to Lake Ontario. In regard to the financial arrangements for the relief of the Treasury, for the payment of the old debt, and for defraying the expenses of the enlargement without incurring a new debt, Mr. Flagg proposed to add the following paragraph:

"In urging upon the consideration of the Legislature the importance of authorizing, at the present session, such an enlargement of the Erie Canal as is conceived to be necessary to adapt it to the increasing trade of the country, the Canal Board desire to have it distinctly understood, that they do not recommend such an expenditure of money, on this work, as will interfere with the arrangements now in progress for accumulating a sum sufficient to pay the Erie and Champlain Canal debt, and for restoring the auction and salt duties to the general fund. At the close of 1837, the auction and salt duties will be restored to the general fund, if the proposed amendment to the constitution should receive the sanction of the people. After the period alluded to, the net proceeds of the canal tolls will be sufficient to meet the disbursements necessary for improving and enlarging the canal, WITHOUT HAVING recourse to new LOANS FOR THAT PURPOSE."

This was concurred in, and the report was signed by Wm. C. Bouck, S. Van Renssellaer, A. C. Flagg, John A. Dix, Greene C. Bronson, Wm. Campbell, and Michael Hoffman.

If the recommendation in regard to the appropriation of the surplus revenues to the enlargement of the Erie Canal had been strictly followed, it would have given about $16,500,000 to that work, from 1837 to 1847, as shown by the report of the Controller for the latter year.

The act of the Legislature, however, did not appropriate the whole of the surplus canal revenues to the enlargement, but the 9th section provided that after the year 1837, the expenditures for this object should be so limited as to leave from the canal revenues $300,000 for the use of the Treasury. In 1836, this sum was increased to $400,000.

The act of 1835 also provided, that expenditures on the enlargement should be limited to a sum sufficient to construct the additional locks, and the works connected therewith, &c., until a sufficient sum should have been collected and invested, fully to discharge the Erie and Champlain Canal debt. When the bill was under consideration in the Assembly, Mr. Thorn of Duchess, moved a substitute for the whole bill, providing that the canal commissioners should have detailed estimates made of the whole work and report the cost to the next Legislature. This motion was rejected, and the bill passed by a vote of 86 to 16. In the Senate, Mr. Tracy of Erie, moved to strike out the 9th section, which reserved $300,000 to the general fund. This motion failed 20 to 5. He also moved to strike out the 10th section, in relation to limiting expenditures to the coustruction of locks, &c., until a sum was set apart to pay the original debt. This was rejected, 14 to 11; and the bill passed the Senate by 24 affirmative votes, being all the persons present.

The act of 1835 conferred on the Canal Board the power of determining the dimensions of the canal and locks, and of altering the route of the canal, whenever in their opinion the public interest would be promoted by doing so.

Mr. Hoffman resigned the office of canal commissioner on the 6th of May, and Heman J. Redfield, of Genesee county, was appointed at the close of the session. He declined the office, and Gov. Marcy, in the recess, appointed John Bowman to the vacant place.

A bill passed the Assembly at this session for the construction of the Black River Canal. In the Senate an adverse report was made by Levi Beardsley, on the ground that it was inexpedient to engage in new works, "until the public debt is in a measure provided for, unless funds shall be raised for such new appropriation;" adding, that "the canal committee believe the public are not prepared to submit to direct taxation in special reference to an extension of our canal system." And they suggested the propriety of com

pleting the Chenango Canal, and testing its productiveness before the State should embark in another work of a similar character, "involving a large expenditure, with an equal amount of lockage."

John F. Hubbard, of the Senate, made a report against commencing the Genesee Valley Canal at that time, estimating that the annual expense would exceed the income by more than $100,000, and adding that "in pursuing our system of internal improvement, we should be careful not so to embarrass our system of finance as to depress the credit of the State, or burden the agricultural interests."

Myndert Van Schaick, chairman of the committee on finance of the Senate, made a report (Doc. 38) in which he reviewed the whole system of finance in relation to the canal and other funds, and recommended a direct tax.

Col. Young introduced a resolution instructing the committee on finance to report a bill for a tax, which was rejected, 14 to 9.

When the act for a new loan for the Chenango Canal was under consideration, in the Senate, John W. Edmonds proposed an amendment, that whenever money was required to pay interest on the sum borrowed, or for repairing the lateral canals, the same should be paid from the Treasury, “and the Controller shall, on the happening of such contingency, give notice to the several boards of supervisors of the sum required to be levied upon each county to pay the interest accruing annually upon the said stock, and said deficiencies; and the sum required to be raised by each county shall be levied and paid into the Treasury." This was rejected, 15 to 8. Previous to the Legislative session of 1835, in addition to the Erie and Champlain Canals, there had been completed and authorized to be constructed, the following canals:

to pay

The Oswego Canal, extending from the Erie Canal at Syracuse, to
Lake Ontario, 38 miles, finished in 1828, at a cost of.....
The Cayuga and Seneca Canal, connecting Cayuga and Seneca Lakes
with the Erie Canal at Montezuma, 23 miles in length, finished in
1829, at a cost of.

The Chemung Canal, connecting the Chemung River at Elmira with
the head of Seneca Lake at Havana, 23 miles, with a navigable
feeder of 16 miles more to Knoxsville, in all 39 miles, finished in
1833, at a cost of....

The Canal uniting the Crooked Lake at Penn Yan, with the Seneca
Lake at Dresden, 8 miles, finished in 1836, at a cost of.....
The Chenango Canal, connecting the Susquehannah River at Bing-
hampton, with the Erie Canal at Utica, 96 miles, authorized in
1833, and finished in 1837, at a cost of......

$565,437 35

237,000 00

316,000 00

120,000 00

2,417,000 00

The lateral works added 204 miles to the canal navigation of the State, and more than $3,500,000 to its debt. All these works have a navigable connection with the Erie Canal, and are tributaries to its tonnage.

Having reached the period when it was deemed necessary to double the locks and enlarge the prism of the Erie Canal to accommodate its increasing trade; and a period also, when the revenues set apart and pledged by the act of 1817 and the constitution of 1821, had accumulated the means necessary to cancel the original debt; it may be interesting to trace from year to year, the rapid increase of revenue derived from tolls, beginning with the navigation on the middle section of the Erie Canal in the year 1820, when the sum of $5,244 34 was received on products transported from the first of July to the close of navigation in December. Besides the above sum there was collected at "the Little Falls of the Mohawk," $450 56 for the navigation of the works of the Western Island Lock Navigation Company, after the

transfer of their rights to the State. The rates from Rome to Little Falls were charged the same per mile as on the middle section. (2d Vol. Canal Laws, p. 14.)

Previous to the establishment of the canal board in 1826, the canal commissioners appointed the collectors, and fixed the rates of toll to be charged on the canals. The following table shows the whole sum received for tolls during the season of navigation on the Erie Canal, and the same for the Champlain Canal, from 1820 to 1836, both years inclusive, and also the number of miles of these two canals which were in a navigable condition in each year. In 1820, considerable quantities of lumber, wood, staves, &c., passed from Lake Champlain to the Hudson, but owing to the imperfect navigation, no toll was charged. The amount of toll in the table from the beginning of canal navigation on the middle section of the Erie Canal, in 1820, to the close of the season of navigation in 1824, is taken from the annual reports of the canal commissioners, who for a portion of this time received the toll from the collectors.

From 1825 to 1836, the sums are taken from the statement of the whole amount of tolls received in each season of navigation appended to the annual reports of the commissioners of the canal fund, commencing with the report made to the Legislature of 1826, which embraces the tolls for the season of 1825.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

In the first five years after the completion of the Erie Canal, from 1826 to 1830, the tolls amounted to $3,832,469 01, averaging $766,493 80, for each year. The tolls of 1826 being only $89,027 05 less than the average for the whole term. From 1831 to 1835, the tolls of that canal alone amounted to $6,023,028 97, averaging $1,204,605 71, for each of the five years. The average of each year exceeding the amount collected in 1826, by the sum of $527,139 04. In convention, Doc. No. 73, p. 10, the average annual increase of tolls on the Erie Canal for the first ten years after its completion, is given at 9.65 per cent. The difference between the tolls of

The report of the canal commissioners, February, 1823, says: "Boats have actually passed on the Erie Canal, more than 220 miles in 1822:" a portion of this length of canal was not ready until late in the fall, and produced no revenue. The canal was opened from Rochester east to Pittsford in July, and through the Irondequoit embankment on the 14th of October, 1822. From this time there was navigation from Rochester to the Little Falls of the Mohawk, a distance of more than 180 miles.

1826, and 1835, in the preceding table, is equal to 103 per cent, showing an average annual increase of a fraction more than 10 per cent.*

The commissioners in 1820 paid to six collectors for their services, a total sum of $1,062 50. Joshua Forman, author of the resolution in 1808, for a canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie, and who in 1829 furnished the plan of a safety fund for banking, was the collector at Syracuse in 1820, and received for his services $250.

The cost of repairs and superintendence, in that year, was $16,718 641. The Erie tolls for 1821, embrace the tolls received at Rome and Little Falls on the old canal, as well as on 94 miles of the middle section of the Erie Canal. There passed Rome, in 1821, 2,731 boats, carrying 44,723 barrels of flour, 43,078 bushels of wheat, 1,061,000 feet of boards, 4,472 barrels of pot and pearl ashes, 48,981 cubic feet of timber, and 2,500 tons of merchandise.

The same year more than 9,500,000 feet of sawed stuff, 260,399 cubic feet of timber, and 142,234 staves passed the Champlain Canal. The following year, 1822, the sawed lumber transported on this canal exceeded 15,000,000 feet, with 440,000 cubic feet of timber.

The Erie Canal was filled with water from Rochester, 20 miles west of Brockport on the 10th of October, 1823, and the sum of $141 13 was received for tolls before the close of the navigation. On the 8th of October, 1823, the first boats passed from the western and northern canals through the junction canal, into the tide-waters of the Hudson at Albany.

This event was celebrated in a suitable manner at Albany. A deputation headed by Wm. Bayard, attended from the city of New York. This gentleman, who had presided at the meeting for getting up a memorial to the Legislature in 1816, made an address, which was replied to by William James on behalf of the Albany Committee. The Mayor of Albany, Charles E. Dudley, congratulated the canal commissioners on the arrival of the first boat, and Mr. Clinton replied to his address in behalf of the board of commissioners.

At the close of the navigation season in 1823, the Champlain Canal, 64 miles in length, from the junction to Whitehall, was finished, and the Erie Canal was navigable for 280 miles, making a total of 344 miles of canal navigation.

The Erie Canal was navigable from Brockport to Lockport, 45 miles, in September, 1824, but in consequence of the condition of the roads from Lockport to the Tonawanta Creek, as stated by the commissioners in the report of 1825, all the property destined for the west left the canal at Brockport. The Legislature at the fall session of 1824, appropriated $1,000 to improve the road from Lockport west to Pendleton, so as to accommodate the canal business in the spring of 1825;* with a portage of about five miles, property passed on the canal and Tonawanta Creek, into the Niagara River, at Tonawanta.

At the close of the year 1836, when the Erie and Champlain Canals had been ten years in operation, and had produced about $13,500,000 in tolls, the fund commissioners had not only paid the cost of constructing these

* The tolls for 1826, in this table, are taken from Doc. 6, appended to the report of the commissioners of the canal fund in 1827, and the sum is $10,509 93 less than the sum used in other statements, which is taken from the report of the canal commissioners of the same year.

Chapter 290, Laws of 1824.

« PreviousContinue »