this plant grow on little fruit stalks springing from the main stalk.
It is sown in rows, in the bottom of trenches, made entirely by slave
labor. These ridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from centre to
centre. The rice is put in by the hand, generally by women, and is cast
so as to fall in a line. This is done about the seventeenth of March.
By means of floodgates, the water is then permitted to flow over the
fields, and to remain on the ground five days, at the depth of several
inches. The object of this is to sprout the seeds, as it is technically
called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry,
till the rice is between three and four inches in height. This requires
about a month. The fields are then again overflowed, and are allowed to
remain in that state about a fortnight, to destroy the weeds. It is now
about the middle of May, and for two months afterwards the ground is
permitted to continue dry; during this interval it is repeatedly hoed,
and the soil is kept loose and free. The fields are then once more
submerged, in order that the crops may be ripened, and they actually do
ripen while standing in the water. The harvest commences in August, and
extends into October. The plants are then cut by the male slaves, and
tied into bundles by the females. The grains are threshed out by means
of hand flails. The outer husk is detached by passing the rice between
a pair of mill-stones. The film which still envelopes the grain is
removed by trituration under heavy pestles, consisting of upright bars,
shod with iron, which are raised several feet by machinery, and then
allowed to fall upon the rice, the particles of which are thus rubbed
against each other, till the film is removed. When thus thoroughly
winnowed, it is packed in casks holding about six hundred pounds each,
and is ready for exportation.
The sugar cane is cultivated to a great extent in Louisiana, Georgia,
and West Florida. In the first of these states, five kinds of the cane
have been raised. The first is the Creole cane, which is supposed to
have come originally from Africa. The second is the Bourbon cane, from
Otaheite. Besides these, are the riband cane, green and red; the riband
cane, green and yellow; and the violet cane of Brazil. The latter
species was abandoned soon after its introduction, as it proved less
productive in our climate than any of the others. The other species
are the best suited to the nature of the soil. They are all more or
less affected by the variations of the atmosphere, are very sensible
to cold, and are killed in part by the frost every year. Experience has
demonstrated that the cane may be cultivated in a latitude much colder
than was generally supposed; for fine crops are now made in Louisiana,
in places where a few years ago the cane froze before it was ripe
enough to make sugar.
In the process of cultivation, the ground is ploughed as deep as
possible, and harrowed; after it has been thus broken up, parallel
drills or furrows are ploughed at the distance of two feet and a half
to four feet from one another; in these the cane is laid lengthwise,
and covered about an inch with a hoe. Small canals to drain off the
water are commonly dug, more or less distant from each other, and
these are crossed by smaller drains, so as to form squares like a chess
board. These ditches are necessary to drain off the water from rains,
as well as that which filters from the rivers, which would otherwise
remain upon the plantations. The average quantity of sugar that may be
produced upon an acre of land of the proper quality, well cultivated,
is from eight hundred to one thousand pounds, provided that the cane
has not been damaged, either by storms of wind, inundations, or frost.
The strong soil is easiest of cultivation, and most productive, in
rainy seasons. The light soils require less labor, and yield more
revenue, in dry seasons. To these variations, others are to be added,
resulting from the different exposure of the lands, the greater or less
facility of draining, and also from the greater or less quantity of a
weed known by the name of coco or grass nut. Sixty working hands are
necessary to cultivate two hundred and forty acres of cane, planted in
well-prepared land, and to do all the work necessary until the sugar
is made and delivered. The sugar, up to the moment it is delivered
to the merchant, costs the sugar planter about three and a half cents
per pound, for expense incurred, without reckoning the interest on his
capital.
The cultivation of the mulberry tree, and the raising of silk-worms,
have occupied considerable attention in different parts of the United
States. Before the revolution, the production of silk was attempted
in Georgia, but without ultimate success. In Connecticut, and in some
other places, for the last seventy years, an inferior kind of sewing
silk has been manufactured; but its use has been chiefly confined to
the neighborhood in which it has been produced. Of late years, however,
efforts have been made to introduce the important branch of agriculture
that affords the necessary materials for the manufacture of silk.
Societies have been formed in different states for its promotion,
and the national government have thought the subject worthy their
particular attention.
During the year 1829, a series of essays were written by M. D’Homergue,
the son of an eminent silk manufacturer, at Nismes, who had arrived
in Philadelphia at the instance of an association for the promotion of
the culture of silk; they have since been published in a separate form,
and will repay the perusal of those who may feel peculiarly interested
in the subject. The report of the committee of agriculture, who were
instructed to inquire into the expediency of adopting measures to
extend the cultivation of the mulberry tree, and to promote the
cultivation of silk, by introducing the necessary machinery, made to
the house of representatives, March 12, 1830, represents these essays
and the facts contained in them as entitled to high confidence.
‘It appears from them,’ states the report, ‘that American silk is
superior in quality to that produced in any other country;――in France
and Italy, twelve pounds of cocoons are required to produce one pound
of raw silk, whilst eight pounds of American cocoons will produce
one pound of raw silk:――that cocoons cannot be exported to a foreign
market, from several causes,――their bulk, their liability to spoil by
moulding on ship board, and because they cannot be compressed without
rendering them incapable of being afterwards reeled. It is further
demonstrated in these essays, and in a memorial lately presented by
the manufacturers of silk stuffs of Lyons, in France, to the minister
of commerce and manufactures, that the art of filature can only be
acquired by practical instruction, by some one intimately acquainted
with, and accustomed to, that process: that no human skill or ingenuity,
unaided by practical instruction, is capable of acquiring that art to
any profitable extent. It is made manifest that, although the culture
of silk has been carried on for many years in some parts of the United
States, and more particularly in Connecticut, it has been conducted
very unprofitably, compared with what the results might have been,
if the art of filature had been understood. The sewing silk made in
Connecticut is from the best of the silk, and is, after all, quite
inferior to that of France and Italy: in these latter countries, sewing
silk is manufactured from imperfect cocoons, or from refuse silk.
‘It appears also, that unless the silk is properly reeled from the
cocoons, it is never afterwards susceptible of use in the finer fabrics.
It is a gratifying consideration that the benefits from the culture
of silk and the acquisition of the art of reeling the same, will be
common to every part of the United States. The climate of every state
in the union is adapted to the culture of silk: hatching the eggs of
the silk-worms may be accelerated or retarded, to suit the putting
forth the leaves of the mulberry. That tree is easily propagated from
the seed of the fruit, and is adapted to almost any soil. The committee
regard the general culture of silk as a vast national advantage in many
points of view. If seriously undertaken and prosecuted, it will, in a
few years, furnish an article of export of great value: and thus the
millions paid by the people of the United States for silk stuffs will
be compensated for by the sale of our raw silk. The importation of
silk, during the year which ended on the 30th of September, 1828,
amounted to eight million, four hundred and sixty-three thousand, five
hundred and sixty-three dollars, of which, one million, two hundred and
seventy-four thousand, four hundred and sixty-one were exported: but
in the same year, the exportation of bread stuffs from this country
amounted only to five million, four hundred and eleven thousand, six
hundred and sixty-five dollars, leaving the balance against us of
nearly two millions. The committee anticipate that at a period not
remote, when we shall be in possession of the finest material produced
in any country, the manufacture of silk stuffs will necessarily be
introduced into the United States. The culture of silk promises highly
moral benefits, in the employment of poor women and children in a
profitable business, while it will detract nothing from agricultural
or manufacturing labor. The culture of silk will greatly benefit those
states which have abandoned slave labor, the value of whose principal
productions, particularly in the article of cotton, has been depressed
by overproduction.’
The vine grows in most parts of the United States, and yields a
plentiful return for the labor of cultivation. We have already alluded
to the vineyards in the vicinity of Vevay. A large grant of land,
in the territory of Alabama, was made by the general government to a
French association under M. Villar, for the purpose of encouraging the
cultivation of the vine and the olive. About two hundred and seventy
acres had been occupied with vines in 1827, and nearly four hundred
olive trees had been planted. The latter, however, do not thrive, and
it is apprehended that they will not attain an available degree of
perfection in that climate.
Horticulture has not been entirely overlooked in the United States,
though it has not yet received the attention that is paid to it
in other countries. Some idea of the varieties of fruits and of
flowers which the climate will admit of, may be formed from the
following statement of the contents of a garden in the neighborhood
of Philadelphia, which may be relied on as authentic, being extracted
from the report of the committee, appointed by the Pennsylvania
Horticultural society for visiting the nurseries and gardens in the
vicinity of that city: ‘Here are to be found,’ say the committee,
‘one hundred and thirteen varieties of apples, seventy-two of pears,
twenty-two of cherries, seventeen of apricots, forty-five of plums,
thirty-nine of peaches, five of nectarines, three of almonds, six
of quinces, five of mulberries, six of raspberries, six of currants,
five of filberts, eight of walnuts, six of strawberries, and two of
medlars. The stock, considered according to its growth, has in the
first class of ornamental trees esteemed for their foliage, flowers, or
fruit, seventy-six sorts; of the second class, fifty-six sorts; of the
third class, one hundred and twenty sorts; of ornamental evergreens,
fifty-two sorts; of vines and creepers for covering walls and arbors,
thirty-five sorts; of honey-suckle, thirty-sorts; and of roses, eighty
varieties.’
CHAPTER IV.――MANUFACTURES.[71]
NECESSITY forced upon the first settlers of this country, at a
very early period, some attention to manufactures. The colony of
Massachusetts was founded in 1630. Between that year and 1640, there
was a great and steady influx of settlers; and the first and most
profitable object of pursuit was the raising of provisions. _We_ can
scarcely conceive of the state of industry in a community, to which
there is every year added, by emigration, a number of individuals equal
to the existing population. Such, however, for a few years, was the
case in New England. So great was the demand, that cattle sold as high
as twenty-five pounds sterling a head. In 1640, the republicans got
possession of the government in England; persecution for religious
non-conformity ceased, and with it the influx of emigrants to this
country. Cattle fell immediately to about five pounds a head. The
effect was distressing, but it put the sagacious colonists upon new
resources. The account of this, contained in the early historian
of the colony, is strongly characterized by the simplicity of elder
times. After describing the check put to emigration, he goes on
as follows:――‘Now the country of New England was to seek, of a way
to provide themselves with clothing, which they could not obtain
by selling cattle, as before; which now were fallen from that huge
price forementioned, first to fourteen pounds sterling and ten pounds
sterling a head, and presently after, at best within the year, to
five pounds a-piece; nor was there at that rate, a ready vent for them
neither. Thus the flood which brought in much wealth to many persons,
the contrary ebb carried all away out of their reach. To help them in
this their exigent, besides the industry that the present necessity
put particular persons upon, for the necessary supply of themselves and
their families, _the general court made order for the manufacture of
woolen and linen cloth_, which, with God’s blessing upon man’s endeavor,
in a little time stopped this gap in part, and soon after another door
was opened by special Providence. For when one hand was shut by way
of supply from England, another was opened by way of traffic, first
to the West Indies and Wine islands, whereby among other goods, much
_cotton wool_ was brought into the country from the Indies, which the
inhabitants learning to spin, and breeding of sheep and sowing of hemp
and flax, they soon found out a way to supply themselves of [cotton]
linen, and woolen cloth.’
In 1645, an iron foundery was established at Lynn, in the state of
Massachusetts; but the same historian tells us that ‘instead of drawing
out bars of iron for the country’s use, there was hammered out nothing
but contentions and lawsuits.’ In the same year, the general court of
the colony granted to a company, of which governor Winthrop’s son was
the head, as an encouragement to undertake the iron manufacture, three
thousand acres of land, a monopoly for twenty-one years, the liberty
to use any place containing ore, in the public domain not already
granted, a tract of land three miles square in the neighborhood of
each establishment, and freedom from taxation. These liberal acts of
encouragement show the necessity which was felt in the very infancy of
the country, of giving a legislative protection to manufactures.
But to understand the history of the industry of the country, we must
bear in mind, that America was a colonial possession, and that the
growth and welfare of the mother country was the avowed object of
colonial policy. Great Britain, if she wished America to prosper,
wished it to be on the principles, not of national, but of colonial
prosperity; to furnish her such agricultural products as she did not
raise herself, to employ her shipping, and to consume her manufactures.
As it soon appeared that the Dutch, at that time the most expert
navigators in Europe, were getting possession of no small part of the
carrying trade of the world, and pursuing a profitable commerce with a
part of the colonial possessions of Great Britain, the navigation law
of 1650 was passed, under the auspices of Cromwell. It was among the
few laws of the commonwealth, which were re-enacted at the restoration.
The object of this law,――in the opinion of Sir William Blackstone, ‘the
most beneficial for the trade and commerce of these kingdoms,’――was,
in the words of the same accomplished jurist, ‘to mortify our sugar
islands, which were disaffected to the parliament, and still held out
for Charles II., by stopping the gainful trade, which they then carried
on with the Dutch, and at the same time to clip the wings of these
our opulent and aspiring neighbors.’ Although aimed particularly at
the West Indies, this law, of course, extended its provisions to all
the other British colonies, and among them to those established on
the American coast. By them, however, it was generally resisted as
an encroachment on their rights. Ineffectual attempts were made for
a century, to enforce it; and in this struggle were sowed the seeds
of the revolution.
Nor did the humble attempts of the colonies in manufactures fail
to awaken the jealousy of the mother country. Sir Josiah Child,
although a more liberal politician than many of his countrymen, in his
discourse on trade, published in 1670, pronounces New England ‘the most
prejudicial plantation of Great Britain;’ and gives for this opinion
the singular reason, that they are a people ‘whose frugality, industry,
and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions
promise to them long life, and a wonderful increase of people, riches,
and power.’
After many fruitless attempts, on the part of the executive authority
of Great Britain, to keep down the enterprise and industry of the
country, in those departments of industry which were disallowed
by the laws of trade, recourse was had to parliament. The house of
commons took up the subject in 1731, and called upon the board of
trade and plantations to make a report ‘with respect to any laws made,
manufactures set up, or trade carried on in the colonies, detrimental
to the trade, navigation and manufactures of Great Britain.’ In the
result of this inquiry it appeared, that among other branches of
manufacture for domestic supply, hats were made in the colonies
in considerable quantities, and had even been exported to foreign
countries. In consequence of this alarming discovery, the law of
5 George II. c. 22. was passed, forbidding hats or felts to be exported
from the colonies, or even ‘to be loaded on a horse, cart, or other
carriage for transportation, from one plantation to another.’ Nor was
this all; in 1750, a law was passed by the parliament of Great Britain,
which must be considered a disgrace to the legislation of a civilized
country. It prohibited ‘the erection or continuance of any mill or
other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plaiting forge,
to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel, in the
colonies, under penalty of two hundred pounds.’ Every such mill, engine,
forge, or furnace was declared a _common nuisance_, which the governors
of the provinces, on information, were bound to abate, under penalty of
five hundred pounds, within thirty days!
It has been, within a few years, stated by Mr. Huskisson, and with
truth, that the real causes of the revolution are to be found, not in
the irritating measures that followed Mr. Grenville’s plan of taxation,
but in the long-cherished discontent of the colonies, at this system of
legislative oppression. Accordingly, the first measures of the patriots
aimed to establish their independence, on the basis of the productive
industry and the laborious arts of the country. They began with a
non-importation agreement, nearly two years before the declaration of
independence. This agreement, with the exception of the addresses to
the people of America and Great Britain, was the only positive act of
the first Congress, that met at Philadelphia in 1774, and it is signed
by every member of that body. The details, to which it descends, are
full of instruction. The seventh article provides that ‘we will use
our utmost endeavors to improve the breed of sheep, and increase their
numbers to the greatest extent;’ and the eighth, ‘that we will, in
our several stations, encourage frugality, economy, and industry,
and promote agriculture, arts, and the manufactures of this country,
especially those of wool.’
The policy indicated by these resolutions was, of course, favored by
a state of war. All regular commercial intercourse with Great Britain
was interrupted, and the supply of prize goods, which took its place,
was casual and uncertain. We had as yet formed no connections in trade,
with other countries; nor if we had, could their manufactures have
found their way across the ocean, amidst the cruisers of the enemy, at
any other than high prices. Fresh impulse was accordingly given to what
few manufactures existed before the revolution, and new ones of various
kinds were attempted with success. One of the earliest of these was the
manufacture of nails, upon which lord Chatham had placed his memorable
prohibition. It is within the memory of man, that the first attempt to
manufacture cut nails, in New England, was made in the southern part
of Massachusetts in the revolutionary war, with old iron hoops for
the material, and a pair of shears for the machine. Since that period,
besides supplying the consumption of the United States,――estimated
at from eighty to one hundred million pounds, and at a price not much
exceeding the duty,――machines of American invention for the manufacture
of nails have been introduced into England; and large quantities of
nails are exported from the United States to foreign countries.
On the return of peace in 1783, the influx of foreign goods, in many
respects prejudicial to the country, proved in the highest degree
disastrous to its mechanical and manufacturing industry. The want of
one national government, and the division of the powers of government
among thirteen sovereignties, made it impossible, by a uniform revenue
system, to remedy the evil. The states generally attempted, by their
separate navigation laws, to secure their trade to their own vessels;
but the rivalry and selfish policy of some states counteracted the
efforts of others, and eventually threw almost the whole navigation of
the country into foreign hands. So low had it sunk in Boston, that in
1788, it was thought expedient, on grounds of patriotism, to get up a
subscription to build three ships; and this incident, proving nothing
but the poverty and depression of the town, was hailed as one which
would give renewed activity to the industry of the trades’ people and
mechanics of Boston! The same class of citizens and the manufacturers
in general, in the state of Massachusetts, petitioned the government
of that state, by bounties, imposts, and prohibitions, to protect their
industry. This prayer was granted, and a tariff of duties laid, which
in some points,――that of coarse cottons for instance,――was higher than
any duty laid by Congress, before the war of 1812.
But the state of the country rendered these laws of little avail.
Binding in Boston, they were of no validity in Rhode Island; and what
was subject to duty in New York, might be imported free in Connecticut
and New Jersey. The state of the industry of the country was depressed
to a point of distress, unknown in the midnight of the revolution. The
shipping had dwindled to nothing. The manufacturing establishments were
kept up by bounties and by patriotic associations and subscriptions,
and even the common trades were threatened with ruin. It was plain,
for instance, that, in the comparative condition of the United States
and Great Britain, not a hatter, a boot or shoe maker, a saddler, or a
brass founder could carry on his business, except in the coarsest and
most ordinary productions of their various trades, under the pressure
of foreign competition. Thus was presented the extraordinary and
calamitous spectacle of a successful revolution, wholly failing of its
ultimate object. The people of America had gone to war, not for names,
but for things. It was not merely to change a government administered
by kings, princes, and ministers, for a government administered by
presidents, and secretaries, and members of congress. It was to redress
their own grievances, to improve their own condition, to throw off
the burden which the colonial system laid on their industry. To attain
these objects, they endured incredible hardships, and bore and suffered
almost beyond the measure of humanity. And when their independence
was attained, they found it was a piece of parchment. The arm which
had struck for it in the field, was palsied in the workshop; the
industry which had been _burdened_ in the colonies, was _crushed_ in
the free states; and, at the close of the revolution, the mechanics
and manufacturers of the country found themselves, in the bitterness
of their hearts, independent――and ruined.
They looked round them in despair. They cast about for means of relief,
and found none, but in a plan of a voluntary association throughout the
continent, and an appeal to the patriotism of their fellow-citizens.
Such an association was formed in Boston in 1787 or 1788, and a
circular letter was addressed by them to their brethren throughout the
union. The proposal was favorably received, and in some of the cities
zealously acted upon; but, unsupported by a general legislation, its
effects must at best have been partial and inadequate.
But before our citizens had discovered this, by sad experience, a
new and unhoped-for remedy for their sufferings had been devised.
The day-star of the constitution arose; and of all the classes of
the people of America, to whose hearts it came as the harbinger of
blessings long hoped for and long despaired of, most unquestionably
the tradesmen, mechanics, and manufacturers hailed it with the warmest
welcome. It had in fact grown out of the all-pervading inefficiency and
wretchedness of the revenue system, which had been felt in ruin by them,
more than by any other class. The feelings, with which it was regarded
by the ‘tradesmen and manufacturers of New York,’ will appear from
their letter, in reply to the circular of the association in Boston.
This expression of the sentiments which were entertained in New York,
while the adoption of the constitution by that state was an event of a
few months’ standing, may afford instruction and bear repetition at the
present day.
_A Letter from, the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of New York
to the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of Boston._
NEW YORK, _17th Nov. 1788_.
‘GENTLEMEN:――The mechanics and manufacturers of the city of
New York have long contemplated and lamented the evils, which
a pernicious system of commerce has introduced into our country,
and the obstacles with which it has opposed the extension and
improvement of American manufactures; and having taken into
consideration your circular letter, wherein those evils and their
remedies are pointed out, in a just and striking manner, have
authorized us to communicate to you, in answer to your address
their sentiments on the interesting subject.
‘It is with the highest pleasure that we embrace this opportunity,
to express to you their approbation of the liberal and patriotic
attempt of the tradesmen and manufacturers of your respectable
town.
‘Every zealous and enlightened friend to the prosperity of this
country must view, with peculiar regret, the impediments with
which foreign importations have embarrassed the infant arts in
America. We are sensible that they are not only highly unfavorable
to every mechanical improvement, but that they nourish a spirit of
dependence, which tends in some degree to defeat the purposes of
our late revolution, and tarnish the lustre of our character. We
are sensible that long habit has fixed, in the minds of the people,
an unjust predilection for foreign productions, and has rendered
them too regardless of the arguments and complaints, with which
the patriotic and discerning have addressed them from every
quarter. These prejudices have become confirmed and radical; and
we are convinced that a strong and united effort is necessary to
expel them. We are happy that the tradesmen of Boston have led the
way to a general and efficient exertion in this important cause.
‘The impression we feel of the utility and expediency
of encouraging our domestic manufactures are in perfect
correspondence with your own; and we shall most cheerfully unite
our endeavours with those of our brethren throughout the union,
and shall be ready to adopt every measure, which will have a
tendency to facilitate the great design.
‘The legislature of our state, convinced of the propriety of
cherishing our manufactures in their early growth, have made
some provisions for that purpose. We have no doubt that more
comprehensive and decisive measures will in time be taken by them.
But on the confederated exertions of our brethren, _and especially
on the patronage and protection of the general government_, we
rest our most flattering hopes of success.
‘In order to support and improve the union and harmony of the
American manufacturers, and to render as systematic and uniform
as possible their designs for the common benefit, we perfectly
concur with you on the propriety of establishing a reciprocal
and unreserved communication. When our views, like our interests,
are combined and concentered, _our petitions to the federal
legislature will assume the tone and complexion of the public
wishes, and will have a proportionable weight and influence_.
‘We request you to favor us with the continuation of your
correspondence, and to transmit to us, from time to time, such
resolutions and proposals of your association as may be calculated
for the promotion of our mutual interests.
‘We are, with the highest respect, &c.’
Such were the feelings and hopes, with which the laboring classes of
the country in general, particularly the manufacturers and mechanics
looked forward to the adoption of the federal constitution. In the
state of Massachusetts, it is admitted, that the question of adoption
was decided, under the influence of the association of tradesmen and
manufacturers already mentioned. In the convention of that state,
the encouragement of manufactures, by protecting laws, was declared
in debate to be a leading and avowed object of the constitution. As
it was successively adopted in each state, triumphant processions
of the tradesmen, mechanics, and manufacturers, with the banners of
their industry, and mottos expressive of their reliance on the new
constitution for protection, evinced, in the most imposing form, and in
the presence of uncounted multitudes, the principles, the expectations,
and the hopes of the industrious classes of the community. Processions
of this kind were organized in Portsmouth, in Boston, in New York, in
Philadelphia, in Baltimore, and in Charleston; and the sentiment which
animated and inspired them all, was that which was expressed in the
motto inscribed upon the banners of the manufacturers in Philadelphia,
‘_May the Union Government protect the Manufactures of America_.’
Forty-three years have since passed, and it is now earnestly maintained,
and that by intelligent citizens, that the federal constitution thus
adopted, under the influence of the mechanics and manufacturers, (who
knew that by the new government the power of protecting their pursuits
was taken from the governments of the states, who had before held and
exercised it), confers no power on congress to protect the labor of
the country, and that the exercise of such power is unconstitutional.
When we consider the control over public sentiment possessed by the
associated mechanics and manufacturers of our large towns, and the
slender majorities by which, in some states, the constitution was
adopted it is not too much to say, that if such a conception of its
powers had then prevailed, it never would have been ratified.
A quorum of the house of representatives under the new constitution
was formed, for the first time, on 1st April, 1789. In one week from
that day, Mr. Madison brought forward the subject of the revenue system,
as the most important, which required the attention of the national
legislature. Pending the discussion of this subject, and three days
after it commenced, a memorial was presented ‘from the tradesmen,
manufacturers, and others of the town of Baltimore, in the state
of Maryland, praying an imposition of such duties on all foreign
articles, which can be made in America, as will give a just and decided
preference to the labors of the petitioners, and that there may be
granted to them, in common with the other manufacturers and mechanics
of the United States, such relief as to the wisdom of congress may
seem proper.’ This was followed up, the next day, by a petition from
the shipwrights of Charleston, S. C., stating ‘the distress they were
in, from the decline of that branch of the business, and the present
situation of the trade of the United States, and praying that the
wisdom and policy of the national legislature may be directed to such
measures, in a general regulation of trade, and the establishment of
a proper navigation act, as will relieve the particular distresses
of the petitioners, in common with those of their fellow shipwrights,
throughout the union.’
Thus the two first memorials presented to the congress of the United
States were for protecting duties on American industry; and of these
memorials, one was from Baltimore, and the other from Charleston, South
Carolina.
A few days after, a similar memorial came in from New York,
‘setting forth that, in the present deplorable state of commerce and
manufactures, they look with confidence to the operations of the new
government for a restoration of both, and that relief which they have
so long and so ardently desired; that they have subjoined a list of
such articles as can be manufactured in New York, and humbly pray the
countenance and attention of the national legislature thereto.’
Numerous other petitions of like purport were shortly after
presented, and in pursuance of their prayers, as well as from the
crying demands of the public service, the first impost law was passed,
at an early period of the session. It was, with the exception of the
law prescribing the oaths of office, the first law, which was passed
under the new government. In the long debate, which arose, at different
stages of its progress, the idea was advanced, by members from every
part of the country, that congress were bound to lay duties, that
would encourage its manufacturing industry; and it does not appear
that the suggestion was made in the reported debates, that they did not
constitutionally possess the power. Mr. Madison thus expressed himself
on the subject:――“The states, that are most advanced in population and
ripe for manufactures, ought to have their particular interest attended
to, in some degree. While these states retained the power of making
regulations of trade, they had the power to protect and cherish such
institutions. By adopting the present constitution, they have thrown
the exercise of this power into other hands. They must have done this
with the expectation, that those interests would not be neglected
here.” And again, “duties laid on imported articles may have an effect,
which comes within the idea of national prudence. It may happen that
materials for manufactures may grow up, without any encouragement for
this purpose. It has been the case in some of the states. But in others,
regulations have been provided and have succeeded in producing some
establishments, which ought not to be allowed to perish, from the
alteration which has taken place. It would be cruel to neglect them,
and turn their industry to other channels; for it is not possible for
the hand of man to shift from one employment to another, without being
injured by the change. There maybe some manufactures, which, being
once formed, can advance toward perfection, without any adventitious
aid; while others, for want of the fostering hand of government, will
be unable to go on at all. Legislative attention will be therefore
necessary to collect the proper objects for this purpose.” Such were
the principles on which this law was supported; and when it finally
passed, it was stated, in the preamble, to be ‘for the support of
government, the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the
encouragement and protection of manufactures.’
The present manufacturing system of the United States may be considered,
partly as the result of the revenue laws of 1789, which remained
without essential changes till the embargo of 1807, and partly as the
effect of that and the other restrictive measures, and of the war which
followed them. Those branches of industry, which are commonly called
the mechanic arts, received, for the most part, though not without
exception, an ample protection under the former laws:――manufactures on
a large scale, requiring great capital and skill, owed their existence
to the total interruption of commerce. In the combined result, a very
large amount of American capital was, at the peace of 1815, found
invested in manufactures. It was the prevalent opinion of the statesmen
of that day, and those of the south among the foremost, that this
capital ought to be protected; and the success which had attended some
of the manufactures, on a large scale, had produced some change in the
public opinion, as to the capacity of the country to support them.
In other parts of the volume we have mentioned the chief manufacturing
establishments in the country, and, for the purpose of avoiding
repetition, have reserved statistical details for the tabular views at
the end of the work.
CHAPTER V.――COMMERCE.
In the rapid growth of their commerce, the United States have enjoyed
a most wonderful prosperity. We have, in a previous chapter, alluded
to the restrictive measures adopted by the mother country, while
we remained in colonial subjection, and it will not be necessary to
enter into farther details on that subject. During the revolutionary
difficulties, the traffic which had previously existed was of course
suspended, and after the peace, commerce was still embarrassed with
numerous impediments. These found their origin in the very nature
of the confederation, and were inseparable from the confused and
ineffective powers of such a political system. Congress had no power
to impose any duties without the unanimous consent of the states,
and it is apparent at once how entirely impossible it was, under such
circumstances, to adjust a system that should be universally acceptable.
The foreign articles on which Pennsylvania laid a duty, New Jersey
admitted free; facility of smuggling from one of these states to the
other was unavoidable from their situation.
The several states laid different rates of duty on foreign tonnage;
in some, one shilling sterling per ton was imposed on vessels
which in other states paid three shillings per ton. Such was the
misunderstanding among the several states, that there were no general
commercial regulations; nor could congress enforce any, while the
opposition of any one of the states could prevent the passage of
any act on the subject. The evil of this condition of affairs was
flagrantly manifest, when, to provide a fund to discharge the public
debt, and to pay the arrears of the revolutionary soldiers, it
was proposed to congress, during the operation of the articles of
confederation, to lay a duty of five per cent. ad valorem on all
foreign merchandise imported, and the opposition of Rhode Island alone
was sufficient to defeat the plan.
European nations gladly availed themselves of the embarrassed situation
of our affairs, and labored to throw every obstacle in the way of our
increasing commerce. They refused to negotiate commercial treaties;
for even those nations which were ready to countenance our assertion of
independence, were not ready to receive us as competitors and rivals in
a struggle where their own interests were so deeply involved. The call
for an amendment of the regulations on foreign trade, was one of the
leading inducements to the change of the old confederation, and the new
constitution embraced the necessary provisions for the establishment
of a successful intercourse with foreign nations. Not long after
the adoption of the new constitution, Mr. Jefferson, then secretary
of state, proposed a liberal system of policy in relation to this
intercourse. His report on the subject of our commercial relations at
that period, contains a variety of interesting matter, which enables us
to make a correct comparison between the condition of our trade at that
period and its present very great increase. This report was prepared
in the summer of 1792. The countries with which the United States had
commercial intercourse at that period were Spain, Portugal, France,
Great Britain, the United Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and their
American possessions: and the articles of export, which constitute the
basis of that commerce, with their respective amounts, were,
Bread stuff, that is to say,
bread grains, meals, and bread,
to the annual amount of $ 7,649,887
Tobacco 4,349,567
Rice 1,753,796
Wood 1,263,534
Salted fish 941,696
Pot and pearl ashes 839,093
Salted meats 599,130
Indigo 537,379
Horses and mules 339,753
Whale oil 252,591
Flax seed 236,072
Tar, pitch, and turpentine 217,177
Live provisions 137,743
Ships
Foreign goods 620,274
To descend to articles of smaller value than these, would lead into a
minuteness of detail neither necessary nor useful to the present object.
The proportions of our exports, which went to the nations before
mentioned, and to their dominions respectively, were as follows:
To Spain and its dominions $ 2,005,907
Portugal and its dominions 1,283,462
France and its dominions 4,698,735
Great Britain and its dominions 9,363,416
The United Netherlands and their
dominions 1,963,880
Denmark and its dominions 224,415
Sweden and its dominions 47,240
Our imports from the same countries were,
Spain and its dominions $ 335,110
Portugal and its dominions 595,763
France and its dominions 2,068,348
Great Britain and its dominions 15,285,428
United Netherlands and their
dominions 1,172,692
Denmark and its dominions 351,364
Sweden and its dominions 14,325
These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has been
exhausted.
Our _navigation_, depending on the same commerce, will appear by the
following statement of the tonnage of our own vessels, entering in our
ports, from those several nations and their possessions, in one year;
that is to say, from October, 1789, to September, 1790, inclusive, as
follows
Spain 19,695 tons
Portugal 23,576 “
France 116,410 “
Great Britain 43,580 “
United Netherlands 58,858 “
Denmark 14,655 “
Sweden 750 “
The report then goes on to describe the degree of favor with which
each of the several articles of export is received in each of the
nations mentioned, and the nature and extent of the restrictions which
had been adopted by each government in reference to American commerce.
It then proceeds to the investigation of the question, how may these
restrictions be removed, modified, or counteracted? Two methods are
suggested; first, by friendly arrangements with the several nations
with whom these restrictions exist; or, secondly, by the separate act
of our own legislatures for countervailing their effects. The views
taken in this report have so important a bearing on many political
subjects that have of late years agitated the country, and indicate so
clearly the opinions of Mr. Jefferson in regard to the constitutional
powers of Congress, in regulating commerce, that it seems not improper
to present in this connection the following extracts:
‘Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of regulating laws,
duties, and prohibitions, could it be relieved from all its shackles
in all parts of the world; could every country be employed in producing
that which nature has best fitted it to produce, and each be free to
exchange with others mutual surplusses for mutual wants, the greatest
mass possible would then be produced of those things which contribute
to human life and human happiness; the numbers of mankind would be
increased, and their condition bettered.
‘Would even a single nation begin with the United States this system
of free commerce, it would be advisable to begin it with that nation;
since it is one by one only, that it can be extended to all. Where the
circumstances of either party render it expedient to levy a revenue,
by way of impost, on commerce, its freedom might be modified, in that
particular, by mutual and equivalent measures, preserving it entire in
all others.
‘Some nations, not yet ripe for free commerce in all its extent,
might still be willing to mollify its restrictions and regulations for
us, in proportion to the advantages which an intercourse with us might
offer. Particularly they may concur with us in reciprocating the duties
to be levied on each side, or in compensating any excess of duty by
equivalent advantages of another nature. Our commerce is certainly of
a character to entitle it to favor in most countries. The commodities
we offer are either necessaries of life, or materials for manufacture,
or convenient subjects of revenue; and we take in exchange, either
manufactures, when they have received the last finish of art and
industry, or mere luxuries. Such customers may reasonably expect
welcome and friendly treatment at every market. Customers, too, whose
demands, increasing with their wealth and population, must very shortly
give full employment to the whole industry of any nation whatever, in
any line of supply they may get into the habit of calling for from it.
‘But should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it may better
find its advantage by continuing its system of prohibitions, duties,
and regulations, it behoves us to protect our citizens, their commerce
and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties, and regulations,
also. Free commerce and navigation are not to be given in exchange for
restrictions and vexations, nor are they likely to produce a relaxation
of them.
‘Our navigation involves still higher considerations. As a branch of
industry, it is valuable, but as a resource of defence, essential.
‘Its value, as a branch of industry, is enhanced by the dependence of
so many other branches on it. In times of general peace, it multiplies
competitors for employment in transportation, and so keeps that at its
proper level; and in times of war, that is to say, when those nations
who may be our principal carriers, shall be at war with each other, if
we have not within ourselves the means of transportation, our produce
must be exported in belligerent vessels, at the increased expense of
war-freight and insurance, and the articles which will not bear that,
must perish on our hands.’
The troubled situation of affairs in Europe exerted a very favorable
influence on American commerce. The wars which followed in the train
of the French revolution, created a demand for our exports, and invited
our shipping for the carrying trade of a very considerable portion
of Europe. American bottoms not only carried the colonial productions
to the several parent states, but our merchants became the purchasers
of them in the French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies. A new era was
established in our commercial history. Large numbers of individuals
embarked in commercial enterprises, and the other departments of
industry were comparatively deserted. The most adventurous became the
most wealthy, and that, too, without any knowledge of the principles on
which trade is usually conducted. No one confined himself to a single
branch of business, but the same individual was concerned in voyages to
the four quarters of the globe. Our tonnage increased with a rapidity
proportioned to its demand; in proportion to our population, we ranked
as the most commercial of nations; in point of value, our trade was
second only to that of Great Britain.
This astonishing increase of commercial connections, and consequent
accumulation of wealth, could not but excite the jealousy of European
nations, and eventually occasioned a series of restrictive and
prohibitory codes, on the part of England and France, at that time
belligerent, by which the Americans, as a neutral power, suffered
infinite damage. Indeed, between the years 1804 and 1807, inclusive,
above one thousand American merchant vessels were captured by nations
professedly at peace with the United States, for alleged breaches
of blockade, or of commercial decrees. Under these circumstances,
the government of the United States, at the close of the year 1807,
resorted to an embargo, to prevent the destruction of the mercantile
navy, which was continued till March, 1809. Thus the export trade of
the United States, after having, in the course of sixteen years, from
1790 to 1806, acquired an augmentation of nearly ninety millions of
dollars, was, in 1807, reduced by a single blow to the aggregate of
twenty-two millions, four hundred and thirty thousand, nine hundred and
sixty dollars, being only one million, six hundred and seventy-seven
thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two dollars more than the amount in
1791, the second year after the organization of the present government.
On raising the embargo, commerce at once revived, and during the years
1809 and 1810, the amount of exports, so far as related to domestic
products, was greater than the average of the ten years from 1802 to
1812.
Subsequently to the declaration of war with Great Britain, the export
trade of the United States was materially depressed, till, in the year
1814, it did not amount to seven millions of dollars. At the conclusion
of the war, the exports rose in 1815 to fifty-two millions; in 1816,
to eighty-one; in 1817, to eighty-seven; in 1818, to ninety-three. From
1819 to 1824, the amount ranged between sixty-five and seventy-five
millions, the average being above seventy; but in 1825, the amount
of exports again rose to nearly one hundred millions of dollars. From
1826 to 1830, the exports ranged from seventy to eighty millions;
the exports of foreign goods have materially declined, the amount for
1830 being little more than fourteen millions, a smaller amount than
any year since 1803, except those of the embargo and war, while the
domestic exports are nearly sixty millions, an amount exceeding those
of any preceding year, excepting the years 1816, ’17, ’18, and ’25.
The official accounts presented to congress divide the exports into
four classes: products of the sea, the forest, agriculture, and
manufactures. The following is a summary of the exports of the year
1830; the details of this and other years will be found in the tabular
views at the end of the volume. The products of the sea, consisting
of the results of the whale, cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries,
exported mostly from the northern states, amount to one million, seven
hundred and twenty-five thousand, two hundred and seventy dollars,
being nearly a thirty-fifth part of the whole domestic exports. About
one third of this value consists of codfish, and more than half of the
products of the whale fisheries.
The value of skins, furs, ginseng, amber, staves, bark, tar, pitch,
resin, and turpentine, and pot and pearl ashes, partly from the
northern and partly from the southern states, which were formerly
of much greater comparative importance, now constitutes nearly one
fifteenth part of the whole value of domestic exports, and amounts to
four millions, one hundred and ninety-two thousand, and forty dollars.
A large proportion of the trade in these articles, as well as in those
of codfish and bread stuffs, is carried on with the West Indies, Mexico,
and South America. The skins and the furs go to Europe and Canton, the
ginseng to Canton, and the pot and pearl ashes to France and England.
The chief amount of articles of export consist, as would naturally be
supposed, of the products of agriculture. The article of cotton alone
furnishes nearly half of the amount of the whole exports of the United
States, being for the year 1830 twenty-nine million, six hundred and
seventy-four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three dollars. The
next important article of export is wheat, either as grain, flour,
or biscuit; the amount being six million, three hundred and twenty
thousand, six hundred seventeen dollars. The third in amount is tobacco,
five million, five hundred and eighty-six thousand, three hundred and
sixty-five dollars; the fourth, rice, one million, nine hundred and
eighty-six thousand, eight hundred twenty-four dollars; the fifth, the
produce of swine, including pork, bacon, and live hogs, one million,
three hundred and fifteen thousand, two hundred and forty-five dollars.
Three of the most important of these articles, cotton, tobacco, and
rice, amounting collectively to thirty-seven million, two hundred
and forty-eight thousand, and seventy-two dollars, are the produce
of the southern states, including Virginia and Kentucky. The other
agricultural exports, viz. beef, tallow, hides and cattle, butter,
cheese, horses, mules, sheep, rye meal, oats, potatoes, and apples,
flax seed, and hops, are mostly furnished by the middle and western
states. Cattle and their products, including butter and cheese,
amounted to eight hundred and sixty thousand, and fifty-three dollars.
This species of export is of far less comparative importance than
formerly, being limited to its present amount, not by the capacity
for production, but by the extent of demand in the foreign markets.
An increase of the foreign demand would soon double and treble the
quantity. Some of the articles comprehended in the above list, though
agricultural products, yet involve some process of manufacture; such,
for example, as butter, cheese, bacon, flour, biscuit, meal, and part
of the tobacco. A great many, however, of the exports coming under
the head of manufactures, include in them the value of materials, such
as the cotton fabrics, those of leather, and spirits distilled from
grain: so that, on the whole, the strictly agricultural products of
the country constitute a larger proportion of the whole exports than
the tables represent; and if we add the value of materials supplied
by agriculture for the manufactured exports, we shall have at least
six sevenths of the whole domestic exportation consisting of the raw
products of agriculture.
The total amount of manufactured articles exported from the United
States in the year 1830, is estimated in the official returns at
six million, two hundred and fifty-eight thousand, one hundred and
thirty-one dollars, being rather more than one tenth of the domestic
exports of the country; about nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars
should, however, be struck out of this list, being gold and silver coin,
consisting mostly of metals coined at the mint, and again exported. The
labor put upon these materials in coining is so inconsiderable a part
of their value, that the amount of coin of the country exported ought
not to be included in the estimate of the value of manufactured exports.
Of the articles exported on which the arts of the United States are
employed, the most considerable are cotton twist, thread, and fabrics,
the exported value of which, for the year 1830, was one million, eight
hundred and thirteen thousand, one hundred and eighty-three dollars,
being more than one fiftieth part of the whole domestic exports,
the principal markets of which are South America, Mexico, and the
Mediterranean.
The value of leather and its various manufactures, exported, is three
hundred and seventy-five thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars. Hats
exported the same year amount to three hundred and nine thousand, three
hundred and sixty-two dollars, a very large sum, considering the short
period during which this article has been sent to foreign markets.
Soap and candles have long been supplied for the foreign markets, but
have lately been on the decline, the amount for the year 1830 being six
hundred and nineteen thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight dollars;
and for 1831 only about twenty-five thousand dollars more. The various
articles manufactured for the most part of wood, such as furniture,
or of wood, leather, and iron, such as coaches and carriages, besides
various agricultural implements supplied to the West Indies and South
America, constitute an important branch of trade. The American glass
begins to appear in the foreign markets; the value sent abroad in 1830,
was sixty thousand, two hundred and eighty dollars; in the next year it
was nearly doubled, and it bids fair to be still increased. The other
exports consist of a variety of articles in small quantities, among
which are wearing apparel, combs and buttons, brushes, fire engines
and apparatus, printing presses and types, musical instruments, books,
maps, paper and stationery, and trunks. It is apparent from the above
enumeration and estimates, that the manufactured articles of which the
export is the most considerable and most flourishing are those of which
the raw materials consist mostly of cotton, wood, and leather.
The foreign articles imported and again exported from the country
during the year 1830, amounted to fourteen million, three hundred and
seventy-eight thousand, four hundred and seventy-nine dollars. This
transit trade consequently forms an important part of American commerce.
The principal foreign articles exported are cottons, coffee and cocoa,
sugar, tea, wines, and hardware.[72]
‘The tendency to the sea,’ says Mr. Cooper, in his Notions of the
Americans, ‘which the American has manifested since the earliest of
the colonial establishments, is, no doubt, to be ascribed originally to
the temper of his ancestors. Nothing can be more absurd, however, than
to argue, that although peculiar circumstances drew him on the ocean,
during the continuance of the late and general hostilities, he will
return to his fertile valleys and vast prairies, now that competitors
for the profits of commerce and navigation are arising among the former
belligerents. The argument implies an utter ignorance of history,
no less than of the character and sagacity of a people who are never
tardy to discover their individual interests. It is, notwithstanding,
often urged with so much pertinacity, as to savor much more of the
conclusions of what we hope for, than of what our reason would teach us
to believe. The fact is, there never has been a period, since society
was first firmly organized in their country, when the Anglo-Americans
have not possessed a tonnage greater, in proportion to their population
and means, than that of any other people, some of the small commercial
cities, perhaps, alone excepted. This was true, even previously to
their revolution, when the mother country monopolized all of trade and
industry that the temper of the colonies would bear, and it is true
now, to an extent of which you have probably no suspicion. The present
population of the United States may be computed at twelve million,
while the amount of shipping materially exceeds one million four
hundred thousand tons.[73] Assuming that amount, however, it gives one
ton to every eight and a half of the inhabitants. The tonnage of the
British empire is, in round numbers, two million, five hundred thousand.
This, divided among the twenty-three million of the British islands
alone, would give but one ton to every nine of the inhabitants. In this
calculation, the vast difference in wealth is forgotten. But by the
British empire, we are to understand Canada, the West Indies, and all
the vast possessions which are tributary to the wealth and power of
that great nation. I know not whether the shipping employed in the East
Indies ought to be enumerated in the amount named. If it is, you will
see the disproportion in favor of America is enormous. But assuming
that it is not, it becomes necessary to add several millions for their
other dependencies. There is, however, still another point of view in
which this comparison should, with strict justice, be made. A large
proportion of the people of the United States are so situated, that in
the nature of things they cannot turn much, if any, of their attention
to navigation. If the slaves and the inhabitants of the new states,
where the establishments are still too infant, to admit of such a
development of their resources, be deducted from the whole amount of
the population, it will not leave more than seven million of souls in
possession of those districts in which navigation can be supposed at
all to exist. The latter, too, will include all those states that are
called interior, where time has not been given to effect any thing like
a natural division of the employments of men. The result will show,
that the Americans, relatively considered, are addicted to navigation,
as compared with Great Britain, in the proportion of more than seven to
five; nor has this commercial, or rather maritime spirit, arisen under
auspices so encouraging as is generally imagined.
‘The navigation laws, adopted by the United States, so soon as
their present constitution went into operation, are generally known.
Their effect was to bring the shipping of the country into instant
competition with that of foreign nations, from the state of temporary
depression into which it had been thrown by the struggle of the
revolution. From that hour, the superiority enjoyed by the American,
in cheapness of construction, provisions and naval stores, aided by the
unrivalled activity, and practical knowledge of the population, put all
foreign competition at defiance. Of six hundred and six thousand tons
of shipping employed in 1790, in the foreign trade of the country, not
less than two hundred and fifty-one thousand tons were the property
of strangers. In 1794, while the trade employed six hundred and
eleven thousand tons, but eighty-four thousand tons were owned by
foreigners. In 1820, (a year of great depression,) the trade gave
occupation to eight hundred and eighty thousand tons, of which no more
than seventy-nine thousand tons were foreign property. This estimate,
however, includes the intercourse with the least, no less than that
with the most maritime nation. The trade between the United States and
England, which is the most important of all, in respect of the tonnage,
it employs, was about three to one, in favor of the former; with other
countries it varies according to the maritime character of the people,
but with all and each it is altogether in favor of the United States.’
CHAPTER VI.――RAIL-ROADS.
The first rail-road attempted in the United States, was that
constructed in Quincy, for the purpose of transporting granite from
the quarry at that place. It extends from the quarry to the Neponset
river, a distance of about three miles. It is a single track road, and
the distance between the rails is five feet. The rails are of pine,
covered with oak, and overlaid with thin plates of wrought iron. When
first constructed, the passage from the quarry to the landing of a car
carrying ten tons, with a single horse, was performed in an hour. It
was completed in 1827.
The _Boston and Lowell_ rail-road commences at Boston, near the
entrance to the Warren bridge. Twenty acres of flat have been purchased
at this place to accommodate the various depots of the company. The
rail-road crosses Charles river by a wooden viaduct, and terminates
at the basin of the canal in Lowell; whence branches extend along the
several canals to the factories. It is constructed of stone and iron,
in the most substantial manner. The company to form this road was
incorporated in June, 1830.[74]
The _Boston and Worcester_ rail-road was commenced in August, 1832. In
this road, the greatest degree of inclination from a level will be at
the rate of thirty feet a mile; the average inclination will be but ten
and a half feet, the main street in Worcester being but four hundred
and fifty-six feet higher than Charles street in Boston. The length of
the route is forty-three and a quarter miles.
The _Boston and Providence_ Rail-road company was incorporated in
June, 1831, with a capital of a million of dollars, for the purpose
of constructing a rail-road from Boston to the boundary line of
Massachusetts, in the direction of Providence. A company has been
formed for the continuation of this road to Stonington. Rail-roads
have been projected from Boston or Lowell to Brattleborough; from West
Stockbridge to the boundary line of the state of New York, to meet a
rail-road from Albany; from Boston to Salem, to be continued to the
northern line of the state; from Troy, in New York, at the head of
navigation on the Hudson river, to Bennington, a distance of thirty
miles to the town of Adams; and from Boston to Ogdensburg, in New York.
The _Hudson and Mohawk_ rail-road extends from Albany to Schenectady,
and affords a communication between the tide-water of Hudson river
and the Erie canal. It is a double track road, about sixteen miles in
length. It commences at the termination of the city line on the Hudson
river, and about thirteen acres of land are owned by the company in the
vicinity, for depots of transports. About four miles from Schenectady,
there is a curve in the road of twenty-three thousand feet radius;
there are six principal embankments. The descent from the Schenectady
summit to the level of the Hudson, is three hundred and thirty-five
feet. The soil through which the road passes is sandy. Several ravines
are crossed, and some considerable elevations are cut through. Both
locomotive engines and horses are used upon this route. A locomotive
has travelled upon it, with a load of eight tons, at the rate of
thirty miles per hour. In October, 1831, the number of daily passengers
averaged nearly four hundred. The cost of this road was between six and
seven hundred thousand dollars.
The _Saratoga and Schenectady_ rail-road forms a continuation of the
Mohawk and Hudson rail-road, extending from the city of Schenectady
to the villages of Ballston Spa and Saratoga, and uniting these places
with the line of steam navigation upon the Hudson. It is twenty miles
in length; was commenced in 1831, and completed in the following year.
The _Ithaca and Susquehanna_ rail-road is to extend from the village of
Ithaca, near the south end of Cayuga lake, to Owego, on the Susquehanna.
The distance is about twenty-eight miles. The _Ithaca and Catskill_
rail-road is to extend a distance of one hundred and sixty-seven miles,
from Ithaca to Catskill, on the Hudson. The _Catskill and Canajoharie_
rail-road is to extend for the distance of seventy miles, from Catskill
to Canajoharie, on the Mohawk. The company was incorporated in 1830,
with a capital of six hundred thousand dollars. The _Harlem_ rail-road
is about six miles in length, extending from Twenty-third street, New
York city, to Harlem river.
The _New York and Erie_ rail-road company was incorporated in April
1832, with a capital of ten million dollars. It was the original design
that the road should extend from the city of New York, or some point
in its vicinity, and continue through the southern counties, through
Owego, in the county of Tioga, to the shore of lake Erie, at some
point between Cattaraugus creek and the Pennsylvania line. It is to be
commenced within four years from the date of the act of incorporation,
one fourth to be completed within ten years, one half within fifteen
years, and the whole to be completed within twenty years, under penalty
of forfeiture of the charter.
The _New York and Albany_ rail-road company was incorporated in April,
1832, with a capital of three millions. It is to be completed within
ten years; commencing at New York city, opposite the termination of
the Fourth avenue, and ending on the Hudson, opposite Albany.[75]
‘The proposed route of this road,’ says the Boston Advertiser, ‘passes
through the county of Berkshire, in this state, from West Stockbridge
to the northern boundary of the state of Connecticut, following
the valley of the Housatonic river from Stockbridge to Sharon, in
Connecticut. It will thus afford an additional inducement for the
extension of the Boston and Worcester rail-road from Worcester to
Springfield, and thence to the western boundary of the state. This
latter rail-road will meet the New York and Albany road at Stockbridge
or West Stockbridge, and will thus come in contact with a continued
line of rail-roads, interrupted only by the Hudson river, extending
northwardly to Saratoga, westwardly to Utica, and southwardly to the
city of New York. It will thus afford the means of direct and rapid
intercourse between Boston and the towns in Berkshire county, along the
fertile valley of the Housatonic, and with the rich marble quarries and
beds of iron ore in that region, as well as with the vast country which
will be opened to this mercantile market, beyond the limits of the
state. The distance by the rail-road from West Stockbridge to Albany
will be about forty miles, of which distance over sixteen miles will
be a perfect level. From West Stockbridge to Utica, the distance by the
rail-road will be one hundred and thirty-seven miles, over a country a
great part of which is level. From Albany to Schenectady, and thence to
Saratoga, the rail-road is already finished. From Schenectady to Utica,
the road is yet to be made; but the company for building it is formed,
with an adequate capital. About seven times the requisite amount of
stock was subscribed. The required amount has been apportioned by
commissioners among the subscribers, and the subscription money for
the surplus shares has been returned.’
The _Camden and Amboy_ rail-road commences at Camden, on the Delaware,
opposite to Philadelphia, and passing through Burlington, Bordentown,
Highstown, and Spotswood, over South river, terminates at Amboy. It is
sixty-one miles in length, passing through a very level country. Being
designed for steam locomotives, it is to be constructed in the most
improved and substantial manner, though at present wooden rails are
laid over a great portion of the line, in order that the embankments
may be consolidated before laying the permanent track. A double track
of rails is to be laid ultimately through the whole distance. Between
Bordentown and Amboy, there is a cut varying in depth to sixty feet,
extending nearly two miles. In the vicinity of Bordentown, there are
stone culverts and viaducts. It has been calculated that five hundred
thousand dollars per annum will be received for the conveyance of
light freight and passengers. As the Delaware is frequently closed
with ice during part of the winter, and the Philadelphia trade is
consequently diverted to New York, it is supposed that vessels destined
to Philadelphia, may put into Raritan bay, which is open at all seasons,
and the cargoes be conveyed at once upon the rail-road to the place of
their destination. To secure this object, large lots on the Raritan and
the Delaware have been purchased by the company for the convenience of
ships and steamboats.
The _Patterson and Hudson_ river rail-road extends from Patterson, on
the Passaic, to Jersey city and the Hudson river, opposite New York,
fourteen miles. After the expiration of fifty years, the state of
New Jersey has a right to take this road at an appraised value. The
_Elizabethtown and Somerville_ rail-road company was incorporated in
1830, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, with the liberty
of increasing it to four hundred thousand. The _West-Jersey_ rail-road
is to extend from the Delaware river, in the county of Gloucester, or
from some point on the Camden and Amboy rail-road, to the township of
Penn’s Neck, on the same river, in the county of Salem. This company
was incorporated at the same session with the above, with a capital
of five hundred thousand dollars, and liberty to increase it to two
million. The _New Jersey_ rail-road is to extend from New Brunswick,
through Rahway, Woodbridge, Elizabethtown and Newark, to Hudson river.
It was incorporated in 1832, with a capital of seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. A charter was also granted to a company to construct
a rail-road connecting the Morris canal with the Patterson and Hudson
river rail-road.
The _Mauch Chunk_ rail-road was the first rail-road constructed in
Pennsylvania. It was commenced and finished in the first five months of
1827. It extends from the coal mines near Mauch Chunk, along the side
of the mountain, down an inclined plain of various declivities, to the
Lehigh river. The mines are nine hundred and thirty-six feet above the
point where the boats receive the coal, of which from three hundred to
three hundred and fifty tons are delivered daily. From the river to the
mines, the road is nine miles in length; and its branches at the ends
and sidelings, four and a half miles more. The _Mount Carbon_ rail-road
company was incorporated in the spring of 1829, and the rail-road was
commenced in the succeeding October. At the termination, the road is
elevated upon thirty-one piers of masonry erected upon the landings.
The _Schuylkill Valley_ rail-road commences at Port Carbon, and
terminates at Tuscarora, being ten miles in length. It is intersected
by fifteen lateral rail-roads, whose combined distances amount to
about thirteen miles. The _Schuylkill_ rail-road consists of a double
track, is thirteen miles in length, and cost seven thousand dollars
a mile. _Mill Creek_ rail-road commences at Port Carbon, and extends
up Mill creek four miles; it has but a single track. The _West Branch_
rail-road commences at Schuylkill haven, and terminates at the foot of
the Broad mountain. It is fifteen miles in length, with five miles of
lateral roads that intersect it; only the main stem has a double track.
The _Pinegrove_ rail-road extends from the mines to the Swatara feeder,
a distance of five miles. The _Little Schuylkill_ rail-road commences
at Port Clinton, and extends up the stream to the mines at Tamaqua,
a distance of about twenty-three miles. The _Lackawaxen_ rail-road
commences at the termination of the Lackawaxen and Delaware and Hudson
canal, and connects that canal with the coal bed in Carbondale. It is
sixteen miles in length, and overcomes an elevation of eight hundred
feet. The road consists of a single track of wooden rails, capped with
iron.
The _Alleghany Portage_ rail-road is intended to connect the eastern
and western sections of the Pennsylvania canal, and complete the direct
line of communication between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The route
adopted commences at Frankstown, crosses the Alleghany mountains at
Blair’s gap summit, and descends in the valleys of Laurel run and the
Little Conemaugh, to Johnstown, a distance of thirty-eight and a half
miles. A tunnel of one thousand feet is projected at one of the bends
of the Conemaugh, which will be crossed by two bridges. This road is to
be constructed by the state of Pennsylvania.
The _Philadelphia and Columbia_ rail-road is intended to connect
the Delaware navigation at Philadelphia with that of the Susquehanna
at Columbia, passing through the counties of Delaware, Chester, and
Lancaster. It is about eighty-three miles in length, and it is proposed
to continue it fourteen miles further, across the Susquehanna, by the
Columbia bridge, to the borough of York. About seventy other rail-roads
have been projected in Pennsylvania, and companies for constructing
several of them have been incorporated.
The _Newcastle and Frenchtown_ rail-road extends from Newcastle, on
the Delaware, to the Elk river, near Frenchtown, in Maryland; it is
nearly parallel to the Chesapeak and Delaware canal, and is in direct
competition with it. This road consists of a single track, with the
requisite number of turn-outs, and is about sixteen and a half miles
in length――only eight hundred and fifty-three yards longer than a
perfectly straight line drawn between its two extremities. It consists
of six curve and six straight lines. The curve lines vary in length
from one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-nine to eight thousand, two
hundred and ninety-six feet. The _radii_ of the three smaller curves
are of ten thousand, five hundred and sixty feet each; the radius of
the largest, twenty thousand feet. The aggregate length of the curves
is five miles and one sixth; that of the straight lines eleven miles
and three tenths. The graduation of the road departs from a perfect
level, by ascents and descents varying from ten feet six inches to
sixteen feet four inches a mile; at one place, for about four thousand
feet the slope is at the rate of twenty-nine feet to the mile. The
whole amount of excavation is about five hundred thousand cubic yards
of earth, exclusive of the side drains. The amount of embankment is
four hundred and twenty thousand cubic yards. The road crosses four
viaducts and twenty-nine culverts, all constructed of substantial stone
masonry. The width is twenty-six feet, exclusive of the side drains.
It was completed in 1832. Cost, including land, wharf, depots, and
locomotive engines, four hundred thousand dollars.
The _Wilmington and Downington_ rail-road was incorporated by the
legislature of Delaware, in 1831, with a capital of one hundred
thousand dollars, with liberty to increase it to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, for the purpose of constructing a rail-road from
Wilmington to the boundary line of the state, in the direction of
Downington, in Pennsylvania.
The _Baltimore and Susquehannah_ rail-road was commenced in 1830, and
is to extend from Baltimore to York, in Pennsylvania, a distance of
seventy-six miles. The company has the right of constructing a lateral
rail-road, commencing at the main stem, within ten miles of Baltimore,
through Westminster, to the head waters of Monocacy river.
The _Baltimore and Ohio_ rail-road is intended to connect the city of
Baltimore with some point on the Ohio, thus affording a communication
between the waters of Chesapeak bay and those of the great western
river. Active operations on this great work were commenced in the
autumn of 1828. The road begins at the head of the basin in Baltimore.
In the city it consists of a single track, and is to be confined
to horse power, branch railways are to be constructed in various
directions. On the portion of the rail-road within a few miles
of the city, several magnificent viaducts are constructed, of
substantial stone masonry. The Carrollton viaduct, over Gwyn’s falls,
is constructed of granite; its whole exterior is hewn, it consists
of two arches, and is three hundred and twelve feet in length. Its
height, from the foundation to the top of the parapet, is sixty-three
feet nine inches; from the surface of the water to the top of the
parapet, fifty-one feet and nine inches. The width of the railway
travelling-path is twenty-six feet six inches; the chord of the
arch springing from the abutments, eighty feet three inches. It is a
structure of great beauty and solidity. The bridge across the Patapsco
is a stone structure, consisting of two arches of fifty-five feet span
each, and two of twenty feet span each. There are also several deep
cuts and extensive embankments.
Illustration: Carrollton Viaduct.
Upon the route selected for this rail-road, there are only two summits
for the distance of one hundred and eighty miles. The approach to the
first of these summits, at Parr Spring ridge, is by an acclivity so
gradual as not to exceed eighteen feet to the mile. From the western
side of this ridge, to the coal mines near Cumberland, the route for
the whole distance is adapted to steam locomotive engines. From the
eastern base of the Alleghany mountain, a series of inclined planes
will be required to overcome a summit of twelve hundred feet; from
thence the road may be constructed upon a line so nearly level to the
Ohio river, as to be traversed by steam locomotive engines without
difficulty. The progress of the rail-road beyond the Point of Rocks has
been interrupted by a lawsuit between the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road
company, and the Chesapeak and Ohio Canal company, which has been
decided in favor of the latter. The road is to be extended to the mouth
of the Shenandoah. A further extension of thirty miles will carry it
to Williamsport, and another of seventy-five miles to Cumberland, and a
country abounding in rich bituminous coal. From this point to Pittsburg,
the distance is one hundred and forty miles, making the whole length
three hundred and twenty-five miles.[76]
The _Baltimore and Washington_ rail-road is a branch of the Baltimore
and Ohio rail-road, and its completion has been undertaken by the
same company. Its length from the point of intersection, at Elk ridge
landing to Washington, is about thirty-three miles.
The _Manchester_ rail-road is in Chesterfield county, Virginia. It
extends from Manchester to the coal mines. It consists of a single
track, and is thirteen miles in length. The _Petersburg and Roanoke_
rail-road was undertaken to counteract the injurious effect which the
Dismal Swamp canal has had upon the trade of Petersburg.[77] It affords
a rapid and easy intercourse between the James and Roanoke rivers, and
has become a most important link in the chain of communication between
the North and the South. Rail-roads have also been projected from
Richmond to Lynchburg; from Lynchburg to New River; from Suffolk, in
Nansemond county, to the Roanoke river, opposite to the town of Weldon,
in North Carolina; and in several other directions.
The _Fayetteville_ rail-road company was incorporated by the
legislature of North Carolina, in 1830, with a capital stock of twenty
thousand dollars, for the purpose of constructing a rail-road from
Fayetteville to Campbelltown, on Cape Fear river. Rail-roads from Cape
Fear to the Yadkin; from the Yadkin to the Catawba; and from Wilmington
to the iron mining districts, near Statesville, have been projected,
and are in progress.
The _Charleston and Hamburg_ rail-road, extending one hundred and
thirty-six miles, from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, opposite
Augusta, in Georgia, was opened in October, 1833, for its entire length.
The passenger train leaves each place every morning, and arrives on
the evening of the day of departure. This enterprise was undertaken
by the South Carolina Canal and Rail-road company, which has received
pecuniary assistance from the state. A second rail-road of about the
same length, to extend from Charleston to Columbia, is also embraced
within the objects of this company.
Companies have been incorporated by the legislature of Alabama, to
construct a rail-road from Montgomery to Chattahoochie, opposite
Columbus, in Georgia; and from Selma, on the Alabama, through Elyta
and Montevallo, to Decatur, on the Tennessee. Rail-roads have also been
projected between Augusta and Heshman’s lake, a distance of fifty miles;
and between Augusta and Columbus, on the Chattahoochie.
The _Lexington and Ohio_ rail-road was commenced in 1831; it is to
extend from Lexington to Frankfort, and thence to the Ohio river, just
below the falls, near Shippingport, which is two miles distant from
Louisville. Its length is about eighty miles. The company by which it
was undertaken was incorporated by the legislature of Kentucky in 1830,
with a capital stock of one million dollars. _Mad River and Lake Erie_
rail-road is to commence at Dayton, at the head of the Miami canal,
and extend to Sandusky, on lake Erie, thus, by means of the canal and
rail-road, opening a communication between Cincinnati and the lake. The
distance is about one hundred and seventy-five miles.
The _Illinois and Michigan_ rail-road is to commence at Chicago, on
lake Michigan, and continue in a south-westerly direction eleven and
a half miles to the summit level: in this distance the ascent is only
twenty-five feet. After passing the summit level, it is to cross and
continue along the river Des Plaines, to the foot of the Illinois
rapids, the distance of eighty-five miles, with a descent of exactly
two feet a mile; thus giving, in a distance of ninety-six and a half
miles, only one hundred and ninety-five feet of rise and fall. A
company has been formed for the construction of a rail-road between
Detroit and Pontiac, a distance of twenty-five miles. The _Tuscumbia_
rail-road extends from Tuscumbia to Decatur. The _Lake Pontchartrain_
rail-road extends from lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans four and
a half miles. It consists of a single track, is perfectly straight
and nearly level. A port of entry has been established on the lake,
and an artificial harbor and breakwater have been constructed at the
termination of the rail-road. The _West Feliciana_ rail-road company
was incorporated by the legislature of Louisiana, for the purpose
of constructing a rail-road from the river Mississippi, near St.
Francisville, to the boundary line of Louisiana and Mississippi, in
the direction of Woodville, Mississippi.
The materials for the history of rail-roads in the United States are
now so scattered and uncertain, and the roads themselves are so rapidly
changing their aspect, that it is in vain to hope for any thing like an
authentic account, till all the great systems and chains are completed
throughout the country. We have not attempted to give a description of
all the rail-roads now in existence; besides those described, there are
many completed and in progress in various parts of the Union, so that
most of the principal cities are intimately connected, and internal
communication is greatly facilitated. Nor is the spirit of rail-road
enterprise at all abated; new routes are continually projected, and we
trust that the time is not far distant when all parts of the Union will
be thus connected, and the distance between the remote parts be as it
were annihilated.
CHAPTER VII.――CANALS.
GREAT improvements have been introduced in the inland navigation
of the United States within the last twenty years, both by removing
impediments that have obstructed river navigation, and by the
construction of canals. More than two thousand five hundred miles of
canal have been constructed in the country, and numerous works of this
description are now in progress, though the rail-road has perhaps, in
most instances, been preferred, where the circumstances admitted of a
choice. Our description of the principal canals in the country must be
limited to a mere enumeration of the most important particulars.
CANALS IN NEW ENGLAND. The _Cumberland and Oxford_ canal extends
from Portland to Sebago pond, and was completed in 1829. Its length
is twenty and a half miles; its width at the surface is thirty-four
feet, at the bottom, eighteen; its depth is four feet. The number of
its locks is twenty-six. A lock is also constructed in Songo river, by
which navigation is continued into Brandy and Long ponds, making the
whole natural and artificial water communication fifty miles.
_Middlesex_ canal was completed in 1808, and opens a water
communication between Boston and the central part of New Hampshire,
by its junction with the Merrimack river. It has but one summit level,
one hundred and four feet above Boston harbor, and thirty-two above the
level of the Merrimack, at the place where it unites with that river
in Chelmsford, above Pawtucket falls, on which are situated the great
manufacturing establishments of Lowell. Its length is twenty-seven
miles, breadth at the surface thirty feet, at the bottom twenty;
its depth of water is three feet, and locks are twenty. It has seven
aqueducts over streams and rivers, and fifty bridges, with stone
abutments twenty feet apart. Around the numerous falls of the river,
within the limits of New Hampshire, the following canals have been
constructed:――_Bow_ canal, completed in 1812, is one third of a mile
long, and passes a fall of twenty-five feet with four locks; _Hooksett_
canal, fifty rods in length, passes Hooksett falls by three locks,
with a lockage of sixteen feet; _Amoskeag_ canal, eight miles below the
above, passes a fall of the same name, by a lockage of forty-five feet,
with nine locks; _Union_ canal, immediately below Amoskeag, overcomes
seven falls in the river, and has seven locks in nine miles.
_Pawtucket_ canal, in the town of Lowell, is used not only for
passing a fall of the same name, but also for supplying very extensive
hydraulic works. It is a mile and a half in length, ninety feet wide,
and four feet deep, overcoming a difference of level of thirty-two feet.
In 1811, a charter, that has been subsequently renewed, was granted to
a company for the purpose of constructing a canal from Winnipisiogee
lake to Cocheco river, below the landing at Dover. The distance
is twenty-seven miles. The waters of the lake are four hundred and
fifty-two feet above the level of the river, and the fall would require
fifty-three locks. The expense has been estimated at about three
hundred thousand dollars.
The _Blackstone_ canal extends from Worcester, Massachusetts, to
Providence, Rhode Island. It is forty-five miles long, and follows
in the greater part of its course the valley of the Blackstone or
Pawtucket river, from which it is supplied with water. Its fall from
the summit at Worcester to tide water at Providence, is four hundred
and fifty-one and six tenths feet. It has forty-eight locks, eighty
feet long by ten wide; the breadth at its surface is thirty-four feet,
at the bottom eighteen; depth of water, four feet. It was built by an
incorporated company, under charter from the legislatures of the states
in which it lies, at a cost of about six hundred thousand dollars. It
was finished in the autumn of 1828. This canal facilitates and greatly
increases the trade from the northern part of Rhode Island, and the
central parts of Massachusetts, to the markets of Providence, New York,
and the middle and southern states.
The _Farmington_ canal was commenced in 1825, upon the plan of
connecting, by a line of seventy-eight miles of artificial navigation,
Connecticut river, at Northampton, in Massachusetts, with New Haven
harbor. It is thirty-six feet broad at the surface, twenty at the
bottom, and four feet in depth. The locks are eighty feet in the clear,
and twelve feet wide. It extends fifty-eight miles, from New Haven to
Southwick ponds, on the boundary of Massachusetts, and cost about six
hundred thousand dollars. In continuation of this work, the _Hampshire
and Hampden_ canal has been constructed in Massachusetts, as far as
Westfield; it is to be continued twenty miles, to Northampton, and
perhaps even to Barnet, in Vermont. The difference of level in this
canal is two hundred and ninety-eight feet.
_Enfield_, _South Hadley_, _Montague_, and _Bellows Falls_ canals are
short cuts at the different falls on the Connecticut river. The first
was built by a company incorporated in 1824. It extends around the
falls of the same name, in the state of Connecticut, and is five and
a half miles in length. It has two stone locks of ten feet lift, each
ninety feet by twenty, and is used for extensive hydraulic works,
as well as for navigation. Before the construction of this work,
these rapids were passed in boats, but offered great obstructions
to the navigation of the river. _South Hadley_ canal was constructed
for passing a fall of forty feet in the town of the same name, in
Massachusetts, and is two miles in length. There is a cut in this
canal through the solid rock, three hundred feet long and forty feet
deep. The company that undertook this work was incorporated in 1792.
_Montague_ canal, in the town of the same name, in the same state with
the preceding, and constructed for passing Montague falls, is three
miles long, twenty-five feet wide, and three deep. _Bellows Falls_
canal, in Vermont, opposite the town of Walpole, is half a mile
long, with nine locks, overcoming a fall of about fifty feet. Several
other short canals have been constructed on the western bank of the
Connecticut in this state, for the purpose of improving the navigation
of the river.
NEW YORK CANALS. The state of New York has an extensive system of
inland artificial navigation, connecting the navigation of the Hudson
with that of the lakes and Delaware river. The _Champlain_ canal in
this state passes from Albany to Whitehall, on lake Champlain, and is
seventy-two miles in length. It is four feet deep, twenty-eight feet
wide at the bottom, and forty at the surface. It has twenty-one locks,
and its rise and fall amount to one hundred and eighty-eight feet.
This work was commenced in October, 1817, and was opened for navigation
in November, 1819. The whole cost was nearly one million two hundred
thousand dollars.
The _Erie_ canal extends from Albany, on the Hudson, to Buffalo, on
lake Erie. It was commenced on the fourth of July, 1817, and was first
navigated from Utica to Rome, fifteen miles, on the third of October,
1819; tolls were first received in July, 1820, and the whole work was
completed in 1825. It is three hundred and sixty-three miles in length.
It is four feet deep, twenty-eight wide at the bottom, and forty at
the surface. The number of locks is eighty-four, and the rise and fall
are six hundred and ninety-eight feet. The cost was over nine millions
of dollars. A little below the Cohoes falls, a feeder enters from the
Mohawk, and connects the Erie with the Champlain canal, and the united
work then proceeds to Albany, eight and a half miles, and terminates in
the tide waters of the Hudson. The collections upon the Erie canal, for
the month of September, in the three last years, stand thus:
Increase Increase
1831. 1832. 1833. since ’31. since ’32.
$131,694 $137,184 $190,229 $58,536 $54,771
This great increase in the total amount of tolls has taken place,
notwithstanding a reduction in the rates of tolls in the spring of
1833, which was equal to about twenty per cent. compared with former
rates. The entire amount of tolls received at this canal in 1831, was
one million, ninety-one thousand, seven hundred and fourteen dollars,
twenty-six cents.
_Oswego_ canal is a branch of the Erie, extending from Salina to Oswego,
connecting lake Ontario with the Erie canal. It is thirty-eight miles
in length, having one hundred and twenty-three feet of lockage, all
descending to lake Ontario. One half the distance is a canal connected
with Oswego river by locks and dams; the other half is a slack-water
navigation on the river. It cost five hundred and twenty-five thousand,
one hundred and fifteen dollars. The _Cayuga and Seneca_ canal,
extending from Geneva, on Seneca lake, to Montezuma, on Erie canal, is
one half canal, and one half slack-water navigation. It was constructed
in 1828. Its length is twenty miles and forty-four chains; the descent
from Seneca lake to Montezuma is seventy-three and a half feet. The
four canals last described were constructed at the expense of the state,
and still remain under the administration of the state government as
public property.[78]
_Chemung_ canal, another work of the state, extends from the head
waters of Seneca lake to the Chemung (or Tioga) river. It is eighteen
miles in length, with a navigable feeder of thirteen miles from Painted
Post, on the Chemung river, to the summit level, making in the whole
thirty-one miles of canal navigation. On this canal are fifty-three
locks of wood, three aqueducts, and seventy bridges. It was completed
in 1832.
The _Delaware and Hudson_ canal company was incorporated in April,
1823, with a capital of a million and a half of dollars, for the
purpose of constructing a canal and rail-road from the Hudson river to
the coal mines in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The canal extends from
the tide-water of the Hudson to Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania,
a distance of one hundred and eight miles, when it meets the rail-road.
The canal is from thirty-two to thirty-six feet wide, and four feet
deep. The most important article of transport upon this canal is coal,
of which forty-three thousand two hundred tons were brought down in
1830. In 1831, the amount of tolls, exclusive of that of coal boats,
was nineteen thousand, five hundred dollars.
The _Harlem_ canal company was incorporated in April, 1826, with a
capital of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This canal is to
extend from Hudson to East river, through Manhattan island; its length
is three miles, its width sixty feet, and its depth six or seven.
It is to be walled with stone on both sides, and to have a street on
each side fifty feet wide its whole length, with a lock at each end to
command the tide water.[79]
NEW JERSEY. The _Morris_ canal was commenced in 1825, and extends from
Jersey city, on the Hudson, across the state of New-Jersey, to Delaware
river, opposite Easton, Pennsylvania, where it unites with Lehigh canal.
It is one hundred and one miles in length, with rise and fall of one
thousand, six hundred and fifty-seven feet; of which two hundred and
twenty-three are overcome by twenty-four locks, and the remaining one
thousand, three hundred and thirty-four feet by twenty-three inclined
planes. This canal is supplied with water from Hopatcong lake, situated
nine hundred feet above tide-water. The cost is estimated at somewhat
more than one million, one hundred thousand dollars. The _Delaware and
Raritan_ canal, extending from Lamberton, on Delaware river, to New
Brunswick, on the Raritan, is thirty-eight miles in length. It is
seventy-five feet wide, and seven feet deep.
PENNSYLVANIA. The canal system of this state is very extensive, and
has been in a great measure established by the state government. We
shall first notice the canals constructed by private corporations. The
_Schuylkill_ canal was commenced in 1816, and has been in operation for
a number of years. It extends from Philadelphia to Reading, and thence
to mount Carbon. Its length is one hundred and ten miles, and in this
distance is a lockage of six hundred and twenty feet. It comprises
thirty-one dams, one hundred and twenty-five locks, seventeen arched
aqueducts, a tunnel of four hundred and fifty feet in length, cut
through the solid rock, and sixty-five toll and gate houses. The
whole cost of this work, up to January 1, 1830, was two million, three
hundred and thirty-six thousand, three hundred and eighty dollars.
The _Union_ canal was constructed in 1827. It extends from Middleton,
on the Susquehanna, to the head of the Girard canal, two miles below
Reading, connecting the waters of the Susquehannah with those of the
Schuylkill. Its length is eighty miles, exclusive of Swatara feeder,
which extends twenty-four miles. The works comprehend, a tunnel,
eighteen feet wide, fourteen high, and seven hundred and twenty-nine
in length; two summit reservoirs, containing twelve million cubic
feet of water; two steam engines, each of one hundred horse power; one
hundred and thirty-five bridges; twelve small and two large aqueducts;
ninety-two cut stone locks; and fourteen miles of protection wall of
stone. Connected with this canal is a rail-road, about four miles in
length, extending from the basin at Pine grove to the coal mines. The
cost of the whole work was about two million dollars. The _Lackawaxen_
canal commences at the termination of the Delaware and Hudson canal,
near Carpenter’s point, and unites with a rail-road at Honesdale. It
is thirty-six miles in length. In junction with the Delaware and Hudson
canal, this canal opens a navigation of one hundred and seventeen miles,
including seventeen miles of Lackawaxen river. The _Lehigh_ canal
company was incorporated in 1818, and constructed a canal from Easton,
on Delaware river, to Stoddartsville, connecting Morris canal with the
Mauch Chunk rail-road. Its length is forty-six and three fourths miles,
and it cost one million, five hundred and fifty-eight thousand dollars.
The _Conestoga_ canal extends eighteen miles, from Safe Harbor, on
Susquehanna river, to Lancaster. _Conewago_ canal is two and a half
miles long, and is constructed about a fall of the same name on the
Susquehanna.
The following table exhibits a view of the canals in Pennsylvania,
constructed by the state, prior to the first of January, 1831, with the
amount expended for ordinary and extraordinary repairs during the year
1831.
Length Ordinary Extraord.
miles repairs repairs Total
Delaware division 59¾ $10,000 $87,339 $97,339
Columbia, east division 10 1,658 7,316 8,974
Harrisburg line } 63 3,108 6,216 9,324
Susquehanna division } 5,855 11,709 17,964
North branch division 55½ 18,584 37,168 55,752
West branch division 24½ 6,699 13,397 20,096
Juniata division 89 22,326 44,651 66,977
Western division 105 24,406 48,812 73,218
French creek feeder 19½ 74 4,327 4,401
―――――― ――――――― ―――――――― ――――――――
_Total_ 426¼ $92,708 $260,936 $353,644
The main trunk of this system of canals commences at Columbia, at the
termination of the Philadelphia and Columbia rail-road, and extends
thence westward one hundred and seventy-two and a half miles, till it
meets the Alleghany Portage rail-road at Holidaysburg. It recommences
at the western extremity of the rail-road, and continues westward one
hundred and five miles, to the Monongahela river at Pittsburg.
The following canals, constructed by the state, have been but recently
completed:
_Frankstown_ line of the Juniata division, extending from Huntingdon to
Holidaysburg, is thirty and one third miles in length, including about
fifteen and three fourths miles of slackwater navigation. _Beaver_
division commences upon the Ohio river, at the mouth of Big Beaver, and
extends to Newcastle. Length, twenty-four and three fourths miles, of
which about two thirds are slackwater and towing-path. _Franklin_ line
commences on Alleghany river, at the mouth of French creek, and extends
up the latter stream till it meets the French creek feeder. Length,
twenty-two and one fourth miles, seventeen of which are slackwater
and towing-path. _Lycoming_ line commences at Muncy dam, and extends
up the west branch of the Susquehanna, and terminates at the Big
island, opposite to the mouth of the Bald Eagle. Length, forty-one and
one fourth miles, of which about ten miles are slackwater. _Wyoming_
line of the North branch division commences at the Nanticoke dam,
and extends up the North branch, and terminates near the mouth of
Lackawannock creek. Length, sixteen miles.
DELAWARE AND MARYLAND. The _Chesapeak and Delaware_ canal was
commenced in 1824, and completed in about five years. It is thirteen
and five eighths miles long, ten feet deep, and sixty-six feet wide at
the surface. Leaving the Delaware, forty-five miles below Philadelphia,
it crosses the peninsula, and meets Chesapeak bay. The summit level
is twelve feet above tide water. The whole cost of this work was two
million, two hundred thousand dollars. _Port Deposit_ canal is a public
work of the state of Maryland, extending ten miles along a line of
rapids, on the east bank of the Susquehanna, north of the boundary line
of Maryland and Pennsylvania. There are two short canals, one of twelve
hundred yards, and one of two and a half miles, around the Great and
Lower Falls of the Potomac.
The _Chesapeak and Ohio_ canal company received their charter
from Virginia in 1824, and it was confirmed in the following year
by Maryland and congress. The proposed length is three hundred
and forty-one and one fourth miles, from the tide water of the
Potomac river, above Georgetown, in the district of Columbia, to its
termination near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Its depth is six or seven
feet, its breadth at the bottom fifty, and at the surface from sixty
to eighty feet. Five miles from Georgetown, arrangements have been made
for constructing branches to Alexandria, Baltimore, and the navy yard
at Washington. The amount of lockage required on the whole canal is
three thousand, two hundred and fifteen feet. At the summit level on
the Alleghany mountain, a tunnel is required, four miles and eighty
yards long, with a deep cut of one thousand and sixty yards at the
western end, and another of fourteen yards at the eastern end, each of
which opens into a large basin. The original estimate of the cost was
twenty-two million, three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
OHIO. This state has been active and liberal in the encouragement
of canals as public works. The state canals are the _Ohio_ and the
_Miami_. The _Ohio_ canal connects lake Erie, at Cleaveland, with the
Ohio river, at Portsmouth; its main trunk is three hundred and ten
miles in length; its lateral branches and feeders make twenty-four in
addition. _Miami_ canal connects the town of Dayton, situated on the
Great Miami river, with the Ohio river, at Cincinnati. Its main trunk
is sixty-five miles in length, and it has a side-cut of one mile. The
total length of canals in Ohio, constructed at the public expense,
and owned by the state, is four hundred miles. The _Lancaster Lateral_
canal is nine miles in length, and was constructed by an incorporated
company. The expense of the Ohio canals has been about five million
dollars.
VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA. At the city of Richmond is the _James
River_ canal, around a fall, with twelve locks, overcoming an ascent
of eighty feet, and connecting tide water with a basin on Shockoe hill.
From this basin proceeds a canal two and a half miles long, uniting
with the river. Three miles further up is a short canal, with three
locks, overcoming a fall of thirty-four feet. The _James and Jackson
River_ canal extends from the basin at Richmond, to a fall in Goveland
county, a distance of thirty and a half miles. There is also a canal
seven miles long, around the falls on James river, in Rockland county.
Canals have also been constructed to improve the navigation of the
Shenandoah. The _Dismal Swamp_ canal is twenty-two and a half miles
long, lying partly in Virginia, and partly in North Carolina. It
connects the waters of Chesapeak bay with Albemarle sound, extending
from Deep creek to Joyce’s creek, at the head of Pasquotank river. The
expense of this canal was three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, of
which two hundred thousand were subscribed by the United States. The
_Danville and Dan River_ canals are a series of improvements upon the
upper branches of Roanoak river. The _North West_, _Weldon_, _Clubfoot
and Harlow_, _Cape Fear_, _Yadkin_, _Tar River_, _New River_, and
_Catawba_ canals, have done much to improve the inland navigation of
North Carolina. The _Santee_, _Columbia_, and _Saluda_ canals, from
Columbia, through the Columbia canal into Broad river, and through the
Saluda canal, from Broad into Saluda river, through Drehr and Zorick’s
canals, on to the Abbeville county line, near Cambridge; also from
Santee river, by the Santee canal, into Cooper’s river, and down this
river to the port at Charleston, present a mixed navigation of one
hundred and fifty miles. _Winyaw_ canal is ten miles in length, uniting
the Santee river with Winyaw bay.
KENTUCKY. The _Louisville and Portland_ canal passes from the Ohio
at Louisville, to a point of the same below the rapids, a distance of
three miles. It is constructed for the accommodation of large vessels,
and the general government have contributed towards its completion.
GEORGIA AND LOUISIANA. The _Savannah and Ogatchee_ canal is sixteen
miles in length, passing from Savannah river, at Savannah, to the
Ogatchee river; hence it is to be continued to the Alatahama. The
_Carondelet_ canal is a short cut to admit small vessels into a basin
in the rear of New Orleans, extending from bayou St. John. It is only
a mile and a half long, and is without locks. The _Lafourche_ is a
small canal, supplied with water only when the Mississippi is in flood,
uniting the outlet of Lafourche with the chain of lakes and creeks
which lead into the lower Teche, and opens the commerce of Attacapas
to New Orleans. The _Plaquemine_ canal passes from the Mississippi into
bayou Plaquemine, at its efflux from the Mississippi, and is navigable
only at times of high flood. The _New Orleans and Teche River_ canal
is a projected navigation of one hundred miles, from a point on
the Mississippi, to the waters which unite with the Teche river, at
Berwick’s bay.
‘The spirit of enterprise,’ says Mr. Smith, ‘has been displayed on a
scale commensurate with the extensive territory of the United States.
With the exception of Great Britain and Holland, no country on the
face of the globe contains so many or as extensive canals as this
republic; and the whole of combined Europe has not effected as much
during the last sixteen years, as the three states of Pennsylvania,
New York and Ohio only. There are many other important canals not here
enumerated, in the different sections of the country, and others are
in contemplation. The whole number of miles of canals in the Union,
exceeds three thousand; nearly three fifths of which are in the three
States above mentioned.’
CHAPTER VIII.――GOVERNMENT.
THE political association of the American people commenced at a
very early period. A long time before the revolutionary troubles,
it was generally perceived and acknowledged that the true safety and
prosperity of the colonies were to be found only in their union. In the
year 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and
New Haven, entered into a perpetual league, offensive and defensive,
for mutual protection against the claims of their Dutch neighbors, and
to resist apprehended aggression from the Indians. By their articles of
confederation, the jurisdiction of each colony within its own borders
was to be exclusive; in every war, each of the confederates was to
furnish its quota of men and provisions, according to its population;
and an annual congress of two commissioners from each colony was to
be held, with power to decide on all matters of general interest. With
some alterations, this confederacy existed more than forty years; and
it was dissolved only in 1686, when the charters of the New England
colonies were vacated by a commission from king James II.
In the year 1754, a congress of a very interesting character assembled
at Albany. It was called at the instance of the lords commissioners
for trade and the plantations, and consisted of delegates from the New
England provinces, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The object of
the meeting was to consider the best means of defending the colonies,
in the case of a war with France. The lords commissioners had reference
merely to forming friendly connections with the Indian tribes; but the
colonies indulged more extensive views. This convention proposed a plan
of union, for which, however, public sentiment was not yet ripe, and it
met with the singular fortune of being rejected both by the crown and
the people. Local jealousies and disputes in regard to boundaries, had
at that time so excited the different colonies, that governor Pownal
felt himself authorized to say, in his work on the Administration of
the Colonies, that they had no one principle of association among them,
and that their manner of settlement, diversity of charters, conflicting
interests, and mutual rivalship and jealousies, would render an union
impracticable. Happy for our people that the stone which they rejected
has become the corner stone of our political temple; for the whole
edifice must be crushed and crumbled, when profane hands shall be laid
upon that which is its strength and foundation!
Men could not, however, remain insensible of the great advantages that
must inevitably result from a federate union. A common interest was
destined to be made more apparent and pressing by a common danger and
soon after the first unfriendly measures of the British government,
a congress of delegates from nine colonies was assembled at New
York in October, 1765. This step was adopted at the suggestion of
Massachusetts, and was preparatory to a more extensive and general
association of the colonies, which took place in September, 1774, and
laid the foundation of permanent independence. At this last period, the
impending oppressions of Great Britain induced the colonies to unite
in sending delegates to a congress at Philadelphia, with authority
to consult together for the common welfare. The measures adopted by
this assembly met with a prompt and general obedience, and the union
thus auspiciously formed was continued by a succession of delegates
in congress; it has continued through the struggles of a revolution,
foreign war and domestic dissension.――God grant that it may be
perpetual.
In May, 1775, a congress, with ample discretionary powers, assembled
in Philadelphia. Georgia soon after acceded to the measures that had
been adopted, and completed the confederacy of the thirteen colonies.
In Massachusetts, hostilities had been already commenced, and the
appeal to arms was now considered as the only resource. Congress
prepared to support this measure, and, gradually assuming all the
attributes of sovereignty, on the fourth day of July, 1776, declared
the united colonies to be free and independent states. The consequences
of this step belong more properly to another portion of this volume.
In June, 1776, congress undertook to prepare articles of confederation;
but it was not till November of the following year that they were able
so far to unite discordant interests, as to adopt these articles. In
passing through the states, they met with still stronger impediments,
and it was not till three years after their first promulgation, that
they received the unanimous approbation of the United States. This
confederation proved imbecile and insignificant, and it was only by
the assumption of power not granted by the fundamental charter of the
union, that congress could rescue the country from the most humiliating
consequences. A quorum of congress could with difficulty be assembled;
the finances of the nation were annihilated; in 1784, the whole army
amounted but to eighty men, and the states were urged to provide
some of the militia to garrison the western posts. In short, to
use the impressive and melancholy language of the Federalist, ‘each
state, yielding to the voice of immediate interest or convenience,
successively withdrew its support from the confederation, till the
frail and tottering edifice was ready to fall upon our heads, and to
crush us beneath its ruins.’
The first effort to relieve the country from the miseries and dangers
of the confederation originated in Virginia, in the proposition for
a convention of delegates to regulate our foreign commerce. A partial
representation of the states was in this manner collected at Annapolis,
and the plan of a national convention was by this body strongly
recommended to congress, for the purpose of devising a government that
should be adequate to the exigencies of the nation. Congress adopted
the suggestion, and immediately acted upon it; with the exception
of Rhode Island, all the states acceded to the proposal of a general
convention, and their delegates assembled at Philadelphia in May,
1787. This assembly united men of the most distinguished talents,
high-minded integrity, and disinterested patriotism, and commanded the
public regard and confidence in their fullest extent. After a tranquil
deliberation of several months, the plan of government, which now forms
the constitution of the United States, was adopted with unprecedented
unanimity. Nearly a year elapsed before it received the assent of
a sufficient number of states to give it a political existence; but
on the fourth of March, 1789, the government was duly organized and
set in motion. It was not till the year 1790, that the constitution
had received the unanimous ratification of all the members of the
original confederacy. ‘The peaceable adoption of this government,’
says chancellor Kent, ‘under all the circumstances which attended
it, presented the case of an effort of deliberation, combined with a
spirit of amity and of mutual concession, which was without example. It
must be a source of just pride, and of the most grateful recollection,
to every American, who reflects seriously on the difficulty of the
experiment, the manner in which it was conducted, the felicity of its
issue, and the fate of similar trials in other nations of the earth.’
The following is a copy of the constitution as adopted, with its
subsequent amendments:
WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.
ARTICLE I.
SECTION I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested
in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a
senate and house of representatives.
SEC. II. The house of representatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and
the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.
No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained
to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen
of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an
inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several states which may be included within this union, according
to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding
to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be
made within three years, after the first meeting of the congress
of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten
years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of
representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand,
but each state shall have at least one representative; and until
such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall
be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six,
New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six,
Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and
Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill
such vacancies.
The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and other
officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
SEC. III. The senate of the United States shall be composed of two
senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for
six years; and each senator shall have one vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into
three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall
be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second
class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class
at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be
chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation,
or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state,
the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until
the next meeting of the legislature which shall then fill such
vacancies.
No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the
age of thirty years and been nine years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that
state for which he shall be chosen.
The vice-president of the United States shall be president of the
senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.
The senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president
pro tempore, in the absence of the vice president, or when he
shall exercise the office of president of the United States.
The senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments: when
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation.
When the president of the United States is tried, the chief
justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without
the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any
office of honor, trust, or profit, under the United States; but
the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to
indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.
SEC. IV. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by
the legislature thereof; but the congress may at any time by law
make or alter such regulations, except as to places of choosing
senators.
The congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they
shall by law appoint a different day.