At the close of the Revolution, a majority of the people cheerfully
trusted to the wisdom and integrity of those who led the way to a
country and conditions on which to found a republic. The patriots
who unfurled the Declaration of Independence were glorified in the
name of “United States of America.” And with thirteen stars, the red,
white, and blue came forth a government strong and vigorous, honored
and respected, amidst an epidemic of European wars. In the formation
of the republican government, so few precedents were at hand that
could be used as guides to the organization, the work was rendered
herculean in character. But with General Washington, John Adams,
Jonathan Dayton, Alexander Hamilton, and other patriotic Federalists,
at the head, the people had no fears for the accepted Constitution.
Still, the first President and his advisers were not blind to the
dangers that surrounded the new republic. The First Congress (1789-90)
assembled with but a small and uncertain majority favorable to the
Constitution as adopted; and the combination of disaffected and
opposing elements wore loud in their denunciations of the President
and “_that instrument_;” and it required great wisdom, moderation, and
concession to obtain the necessary contemplated amendments[23] and acts
of Congress necessary to carry on and regulate the working operations
of the several departments of the new government.
The citizens of the South, and those of the North were equally jealous
of their interests. New England demanded a protective tariff, and the
South “free-trade.” That which suited one locality was the policy not
desired in another. Consequently, some states felt they were treated
unfairly in _this_, and others in _that_, and a Congress failing
to legislate special benefits to all found denunciations common
with a disregard for law and order, occasionally amounting to open
rebellion.[24]
At the very commencement of President Washington’s second term,
things became stormy and taxed the wisdom of the man who had crowned
a successful revolution, to manipulate the new machinery of a complex
government into satisfactory running order. The cabinet and both
branches of the legislative department were pretty evenly divided on
the distracting questions of the times. France and England were at
war--the French Republic expected reciprocal help from the United
States. The Secretary of State (Mr. Jefferson) and Mr. Randolph,
Attorney-General, contrary to the views of the President, espoused
the cause of France, and were suspected of aiding Genet, the French
minister, in issuing commissions to vessels of war to sail from
American ports and cruise against the enemies of France.
Notwithstanding this, and the violent opposition of both houses of
Congress, the President remained firm, that the people of the United
States, under the circumstances, should not become involved in a war
with Great Britain, and issued his neutrality proclamation, had the
French minister recalled and accepted the resignation of the Secretary
of State. Congress, however, persisted in doing all it could to
strengthen the opposition to the President and bring on a war with
England. When foiled in this, attempted by resolution to adopt the
substance of Mr. Jefferson’s final report--“to cut off all intercourse
with Great Britain, and as good _republicans_ or _democrats_, either
wear the ‘national cockade’ as evidence of opposition to _neutrality_
and _friendship_ for _France_.”
The resolution passed the House but was defeated in the Senate, by
the casting vote of Vice-President John Adams, and saved the nation
from disgrace. The common people had been partially persuaded by the
doctrines of Jefferson that federalism meant the establishment of a
limited monarchy, and want of confidence in the people. This was giving
the position of Washington and his followers a coloring much below
their patriotic conceptions. They held a government of laws must have
principle of energy and coercion; and it was the concentration of this
energy in a federal government which the convention gave, and which, to
carryout into perfection, induced the Washington policy.
Had it been otherwise, had Mr. Jefferson’s ideas of government been
placed in his own hands for organization, with his unlimited confidence
in the virtue of the people, and their capacity for self government
in the final experiment, the Constitution would have crumbled to
pieces in his own hands. At the end of eight years of Washington’s
administration, 1797, the nation was at peace at home and abroad--all
disputes had been settled amicably excepting that of France--the credit
of the government was never better--ample provision had been made for
the payment of the public debt--“commerce had experienced unexampled
prosperity--American tonnage had nearly doubled--the products of
agriculture had found a ready market--the exports had increased
from nineteen millions to more than fifty-six million dollars--and
the amount of revenues from imports exceeded the most sanguine
expectations, and the prosperity of the country was unparalleled,
notwithstanding great losses from belligerent depredations.” How
different the story when Mr. Jefferson turned the high office over to
Mr. Madison, March 4, 1809, as given in the report of a committee of
the legislature of Massachusetts, January previous to the close of Mr.
Jefferson’s administration.
“Our agriculture is discouraged, the fisheries abandoned, navigation
forbidden; our commerce at home and abroad restrained, if not
annihilated; our navy sold, dismantled, or degraded to the service of
cutters or gunboats; the revenue extinguished; the course of justice
interrupted, and the nation weakened by internal animosities and
divisions, at the moment when it is unnecessarily and improvidently
exposed to war with Great Britain, France and Spain.”
The most peculiar and damaging political view held by Mr. Jefferson
was that appropriations by the government for national internal
improvements were unconstitutional. This was enforced as a
cardinal principle of his “_Republican-Democratic_” party, and so
influenced his party successors, Madison and Monroe, that during
their administrations, appropriations and surveys were refused on
constitutional grounds. However good, influential and honest the actors
may have been, it is quite evident the political influences of those in
power, from the commencement of the administration of Thomas Jefferson
in 1801 to the end of Monroe’s in 1825, blocked the wheels of progress
in civilization under the pretext of reverence for the Constitution.
It was generally rumored in Ohio politics that the Jeffersonian party
were opposed to expenditures for national internal improvements, and
before entering the Union the state presented her influence with the
Eighth Congress for a national highway, from Cumberland, Maryland,
to the Ohio river at Wheeling, Virginia, and from Wheeling westward
across the proposed State of Ohio. The measure passed Congress and was
approved by President Jefferson as “a _war measure_ and bond of union,”
instead of an “_unconstitutional improvement_.”
This, however, was not considered, by Mr. Jefferson nor his party,
binding in policy as a precedent; but Ohio politicians thought
differently, and from necessity and importance of the subject kept
it agitated in and out of Congress. And in 1816, after an able and
full discussion of the constitutionality and expediency of a system
of internal improvements by the general government, both houses of
the Fourteenth Congress passed a bill appropriating the bonus which
the United States Bank was to pay the Government for the charter, to
purposes of internal improvement; but the bill was returned to Congress
by the President (Mr. Madison) with his veto involving constitutional
scruples, and the measure failed to become a law.
Notwithstanding both houses of Congress were at times favorable to
improvements, the majority was not often found conservative, and in
1822 killed a small appropriation to repair the Cumberland road, built
and controlled by the Government.
A small majority of the Eighteenth Congress, in 1823 and 1824, came
around partially to the grounds occupied by the Ohio people on the
subject of improvements, and made an appropriation of thirty thousand
dollars, authorizing the expenditure on surveys, plans and estimates
of such roads and canals as the President might deem of national
importance.
President Monroe, after mature deliberation, gave the bill his
approval. At that date, a portion of the New York and Erie Canal was in
operation, and as an orator was very convincing and converting. This
could not justly be called a “war measure,” nor a “bond of union;” and
was universally accepted as a second precedent in favor of “internal
improvements,” and ended the Jeffersonial dynasty as far south as the
City of Washington; and in 1829 Andrew Jackson, in direct opposition
to his supporters in the South, New England, and in New York, followed
the precedent of Ex-President J. Q. Adams, indorsing the action of
the Twentieth Congress, which declared the _constitutionality and
expediency_ of such improvements.
This fixed the policy of the Government for all future time, Ohio,
feeling proud in the active part she had taken, having the honor of
bringing about the first national internal improvement in the United
States.
[Illustration: Spinning-Wheel.]
Although the Government had changed its policy, the political education
of the people had been such that many good citizens had little or no
desire for changes or improvements that might destroy or disregard the
sanctity of the constitution; nor could it be claimed they were much
in favor of improvements of any kind--things were good enough. They
did not expect to have every thing in the world, and were satisfied if
things would remain as they were; they did not want any thing better
than the easy routine in which they had spent much of their lives. The
New York Canal was talked of as a private enterprise; but for what
purpose above the cost of labor could not be stated, as there were no
_surplus productions_ in the country calling for a market, and so far
Ohio people were “high _protectionists_ of _home industries_,” and
did not favor the introduction of “_cheap foreign goods, nor imported
labor_.” They raised flax and wool, and, with the spinning-wheel and
loom, manufactured the wearing apparel and household goods, and so sure
as
“Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long,”
the average citizen felt amply supplied with the necessaries of
life, and could not well ask for more. He plowed his little piece of
cleared ground with a “bull-plow,” having a wooden mold-board and
cast-iron share; harrowed in his wheat, rye, oats, and turnips with a
wooden-toothed harrow; dropped his corn by hand, and covered it with
the hoe. Every spring he made enough maple-sugar for home consumption,
and to exchange for tea, coffee, and salt; and if he had a few spare
bushels of grain, they were taken to some one of the many copper-stills
scattered over the country. And to him there was no encouragement
for the improvement in wealth of state by establishing a commerce or
trade that would sap the foundations of its home industries. And he
feared for the future prospects of the North-west should the existing
prohibitory tariff be removed between the East and West by cheap
transportation, believing it would destroy home manufactures, diminish
the price of labor, and produce “_panics_ and _paupers_” beyond state
ability and charity to maintain. The “flax-breaker’s” occupation would
be gone; carding-machines, spinning-wheels, and looms, would no longer
be manufactured or used, and the vast multitude of laborers carrying
on these “infant industries” would be thrown out of employment and be
“obliged to _steal_ or _starve_.” Even the young woman, who makes an
honest living by spinning sixteen “cuts” daily, at fifty cents a week
and boarded, would be thrown upon the cold embraces of the world, and
thousands of other honest poor would be ruined for want of _protection_
against such an influx of “pauper labor and foreign manufacture.” And
the man of _one idea_ considered the condition of “home industries,”
under contemplated internal improvements, as discouraging, as a
“prospective repeal of a protective tariff.”
As early as 1807, Jesse Hawley conceived the idea of a canal from
the Hudson river to Lake Erie--a distance of three hundred and fifty
miles--believing it would be a profitable investment for the state
and nation, that it would populate the North-west and establish
important commercial relations with western states. But the newspapers
pronounced Jesse “_a crank_,” and refused to make public his thoughts
upon the subject. But this did not change the opinions of practical
business men, whose talk of canals and intersecting canals did not meet
with much favor among legislators, which, perhaps, represented the
sentiments of their constituents. And it took nearly half as long as it
did the people of New York to build the Erie canal, for those of Ohio
to understand that a canal, commerce and free trade, would increase
labor and enrich a state. And for the timely commencement of the great
work the people of Ohio are much indebted to W. Steele, of Cincinnati,
for his trial surveys and intelligent letters upon the subject at an
early day, when few persons entertained the practicability of such an
undertaking.
The following extracts from a letter published in the Olive Branch,
February 27, 1821, on the “Project of a Canal,” is but a fair specimen
of the philanthropy of the times, and says:
“Nothing can be of more importance to the State of Ohio than the
making of a navigable canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. That
it is practicable to make such canal admits not of a doubt. Were
it made, and the Hudson and Erie canal finished, we should have an
easy and cheap highway on which to transport our surplus produce to
the New York market. I have had the level between the Scioto and
the Sandusky bay at Lower Sandusky. From the summit level on the
most favorable route for a canal that I am acquainted with, to Lower
Sandusky, the descent, agreeable to the report of Mr. Farrer, whom
I employed for the purpose of taking the levels, is 318 feet.... And
by the report of the engineers employed by the State of Virginia,
they make the Ohio river at the mouth of the Great Kanawha river
83 feet lower than Lake Erie. If those levels are to be relied on,
and we ascertain what is the amount of descent in the Ohio river
from the mouth of the Great Kanawha to the point where the canal
is intended to communicate with the Ohio, we will then know what
will be the whole amount of lockage required. If we allow 50 feet
for the descent, the lockage will be as follows: From Lake Erie to
the summit level, 318 feet; and from summit level to Ohio river,
433 feet; making the whole amount, 751 feet. I do not know how near
this estimate is to the truth, but I am satisfied in my own mind the
lockage would be between seven and eight hundred feet.
“The estimate of the commissioners for making the New York canal is
$13,800 per mile. Owing to the reduction in the price of labor it is
found it can be made for much less money. The ground for making a
canal across the State of Ohio is much more favorable than that over
which the New York canal is now making. Although there would be more
lockage on the Ohio canal than on the New York, yet it is believed
it can be made at less expense than an equal distance of the New
York canal. When we take into consideration the low price at which
labor can be had, and the advantage to be gained by the employment
of experienced engineers now employed on the New York canal, I think
I hazard but little in saying that a canal can be made across this
state for $12,000 a mile.”... “I am aware that some will say that
‘the State of Ohio is too young and too poor to undertake this mighty
project.’ But I deny that the State of Ohio is either young or poor.
She contains at this time more than 500,000 souls, and ranks fourth
or fifth state in the Union. Can a state with such a population (of
industrious people, too) be poor? It has been justly remarked, ‘_That
population is power_; and _industry is wealth_,’ so I contend that we
are both _powerful_ and _rich_.
“The inquiry of some will be, how is the money to be raised to dig
this ‘mighty ditch?’ Raise it in the same way New York does--borrow
it on the credit of the state. Many there are, I have no doubt, who
will _doubt_ whether money can be borrowed on the credit of the
state. To such I would say, go and try. If we stand at the base of a
hill and look up, without making an effort to ascend, we will never
reach its summit....
“Although it cost $2,400,000 (to make 200 miles), it might not be
necessary to borrow any thing like that sum. The distribution of
the sum required would go to the people of the state, and give more
relief from their present pecuniary embarrassments than can be had
from any laws enacted for that purpose. As the lands in the vicinity
of the canal belonging to the general government would be greatly
enhanced in value, I think it not improbable that Congress will make
a donation to the state of a body of land in the vicinity, so far as
it passes through their territory; if so, it would aid very much in
making it.
“A member of the House of Commons once asked an eminent engineer
for what purpose he apprehended ‘rivers were made.’ His answer was
‘to feed navigable canals.’ Such was the opinion of a great man,
and such indeed must have been the opinion of many others, for we
find canals in Great Britain in many places running parallel with
navigable rivers. Persons unacquainted with the cheapness at which
goods are transported on canals, are surprised when they learn that
a ton weight can be transported at the rate of one cent a mile. The
illustrious Fulton, but a short time previous to his death, gave it
as his opinion that goods could be transported on the New York canal,
when completed, at the rate of one cent a ton per mile. We find him
supported in this by Col. C. G. Haines, corresponding secretary to
the New York association for the promotion of internal improvement.
“Mr. Phillips, in the preface of his history of ‘Inland Navigation,’
says: ‘All canals may be considered as so many roads of a certain
kind on which one horse will draw as much as thirty horses do on
ordinary turnpike roads, and the public would be great gainers were
they to lay out upon making every mile of canal twenty times as much
as they expend upon making a mile of turnpike road.’ And Sutcliff, in
his treatise on canals, says: ‘That within the last twenty-five years
there has been expended on canals in England more than one hundred
and thirty million dollars.’ A country is never made poor by making
internal improvements, even if the people are taxed to make them. If
money be taken from the people, it is again paid out among them, and
kept in circulation.
“When the canals through Ohio and New York are finished, I have no
doubt but that two-thirds of the surplus produce of all the country
watered by the Ohio and its tributary streams above the falls, would
pass through them to the New York market. That it would be to the
interest of every shipper to give the preference to New York is
obvious.... The amount of produce that perishes on the way and at New
Orleans every fifteen years, would itself more than pay for building
a canal across the State of Ohio. During the spring tides, when the
principal part of the produce of the western country is carried to
New Orleans, that market is glutted, and the shipper is very often
pleased at being able to return home with half the money his cargo
cost him.
“If Mr. Fulton’s estimates as to the expenses at which goods can be
transported on canals be correct, the expenses of transporting a
barrel of flour to the City of New York (allowing ten barrels for a
ton), will be as follows:
From Ohio river to Lake Erie, 200 m. 20c
Down the lake, 260 m. 20c
New York canal, 353 m. 35c
Down the Hudson, 160 m. 15c
“Total nine hundred and seventy-three miles for ninety cents. To this
must be added the tollage of both canals. The lowest rate at which
flour at present is freighted to New Orleans from the falls is $1.25
per barrel. Nor is it probable that the price will be reduced, as the
boat which cost $100 to $150 is generally thrown away at New Orleans,
or sold for a sum not exceeding the tenth part of their cost.
“It will be recollected, that while our produce is carried to New
York at the cheap rate quoted above, that our foreign goods can be
brought through the same channel at the same rates, from sixty-seven
cents to one dollar and twelve cents per ton. More or less of these
goods the people will have, and the cheaper the rates at which they
can be furnished, the better for the country. And besides, it must
be recollected if they are brought across the mountains, by way of
Pittsburg, or from New Orleans by way of the Mississippi and Ohio,
that the expense of transportation is paid to citizens of other
states; if brought over the Ohio canal, the money saved in the state
thereby, would, in twenty five years, amount to more than the whole
cost of the canal.
“It must be admitted that the risk on the canal and lake is much less
than on the Ohio and Mississippi, and the time required to carry the
produce that way much less. By turning the trade from New Orleans
to New York, we would save thereby the lives of many of our most
enterprising and useful citizens, who would otherwise fall victims
to the diseases of the lower Mississippi. The State of Kentucky has
lost more of her citizens by the New Orleans trade within the last
fifteen years than she lost by the late war, and it is known she bled
at every pore.
“Lateral canals may be made from the main canals in many places, which
will serve to collect to the main canal the rich products of the
soil through which they pass, and at the same time afford means of
furnishing the country with many of the necessities of life at prices
greatly below what they now cost without the canal. I will only name
the article of salt, which by means of the canal may be furnished to
people in the interior of the state from the salines of New York at
a price but little, if any thing, exceeding fifty cents per bushel.
It is impossible to calculate the benefits that may be derived to the
people of this state by the making of the canal. In its progress
it will, no doubt, lay open rich beds of minerals. It will lay us,
as it were, alongside the Atlantic. It will, in short, _elevate the
character of the state, and put it half a century in advance of her
present situation_....
“It only remains for the legislature of Ohio to apply the means
within their reach to accomplish this desirable object. When
accomplished, there can be no doubt but that it will produce a
sufficient revenue to defray the expense’s of the state government.
“W. STEELE.
_Cincinnati, Ohio, 1820._”
The arguments made for internal improvements were good; but to the
child of nature such talk became a source of alarm. To destroy the
forests would diminish the game supply, and he soon began to feel the
country was becoming too highly civilized for good and easy living;
that buckskin breeches and tow trowsers were already being discarded
for imported goods. And when the spirit of advancing civilization came
within sight, he who had no fence around his cabin, or little else
besides sunflowers or a peach tree to indicate manual labor near the
unbounded premises, sold his land at a small advance, and, with family
and dogs, moved out to “Ingianny.”
Previous to 1820 the inhabitants of the North-west had very little
prospect that agriculture would ever be the “road to affluence.” The
natural barriers to transportation were viewed as permanent obstacles.
A water-way was ridiculed by high authority, which pronounced it
little short of madness, and the newspapers in the East had shown the
impracticability; and the Western land-owner manifested but little
dissatisfaction. He found his way to this country in order to live,
and was happy in finding enough to make it easy. He anticipated but
little from agriculture as a source of profit. In the Eastern states
it had not given satisfaction. But with the population increasing and
foreign demand improving, and facilities for transportation better,
things showed they were undergoing a change in the older states; and
the markets were becoming better, with better management of farms and
farming, than at any period since colonial times.
In 1823 Charles A. Goodrich, of Hartford, Conn., wrote: “Until within
a few years agriculture, both as a science and art, is receiving
much of that attention which its acknowledged importance demands. It
is beginning to be regarded, as it should be, not only as the basis
of subsistence and population, but as the parent of individual and
national opulence.”
At this date corn was selling to feeders at six cents per bushel in
Ohio, and wheat at twenty-five cents. But a few years later agriculture
in the North-west was beginning to be regarded as the “basis of
subsistence and parent of individual and national opulence,” also.
The idea of a prospective market for the products of the soil, that
would well remunerate the labor of production, was already being felt,
and creating an enthusiasm and preparation for farming on a larger
scale. Labor was plenty and wages fair, and the work of destruction
of timber and increasing the acreage for cultivation went on rapidly.
Large areas were deadened to facilitate the removal, and the sunshine
in many places found its way to earth, where it had been excluded
for ages. And the common squirrel hunter soon underwent an expansion
of character that led on to eminence in agriculture, art, science,
commerce, courts, congress, and cabinet. The things said and done
caused the legislature, in 1822, to pass an act authorizing the
employment of engineers to examine and report the “practicability
of making a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river;” and in 1825,
after four years of the most arduous labor and discussion, the work
was determined upon, and Governor De Witt Clinton and others, among
whom were Solomon Van Rensselaer, of Albany, and United States Judge
Conkling and Mr. Lord, of New York, were invited to be present at the
commencement of the great work, which was to have its beginning three
miles west of Newark, July 4, 1825.
The people of the entire state were under high excitement at the new
era which seemed approaching so rapidly, and acted quite differently
from what they likely would at the present day on the commencement of
a public enterprise. Then many thousands assembled to see “The Father
of Internal Improvements,” and to hear what “the best-looking man the
nation had ever produced” had to say on the subject of which he was the
reputed father.
The time was near at hand, and on the arrival of the great Governor
of New York at Cleveland, the ovation was grand; he was welcomed by
Governor Morrow, state legislature, officials, military organizations,
and by the people. And flags, and guns, and noisy display were beyond
the power of description. And before the sun had risen, July 4, 1825,
every thoroughfare to Newark was crowded with all kinds of loaded
vehicles; men and women on horseback, and men, women, and children
on foot--many of whom had traveled all night in order to reach the
appointment on time. And the wonder was, where all the immense,
uncounted, and unaccountable mass of human-beings came from.
The day was fair and the air cool and balmy, as Ohio atmosphere is
after recent July showers. Newark at this time had less than one
thousand inhabitants, but the country surrounding was amply large to
accommodate the crowd which desired to pay their respects to the man
whose influence, energy, ability, and perseverance were able to advance
civilization, at once, half a century, by the magic wand of public
improvements. And when Governor Clinton’s carriage appeared on the
public square at Newark, thousands of voices rent the air with loud
and long huzzas of welcome; and to which was added, the firing of one
hundred guns. And the immense procession at once began moving for the
spot prepared for the ceremony of the “_spade_ and _barrow_,” three
miles in the country. Governor Clinton took the first spadeful amid the
enthusiastic shouts of thousands. The Ohio Governor, squirrel hunter,
statesman, and farmer, next sunk the implement its full depth. And so
from one to another the spade passed, until the wheel-barrow could hold
no more, and was taken to the designated dump by Captain Ned King, of
Chillicothe, amid one wild, indescribable, and continuous cheering.
Hon. Thomas Ewing was orator of the day, and when the Governor of New
York attempted his reply, the bursts of applause were so great he was
obliged to pause, “and being unaccustomed to such demonstrations and
tokens of respect, shed tears in the presence of his worshipers.”
After the addresses the entire audience, estimated at not less than
ten thousand, dined in the shade of the wide-spreading beech trees,
the underbrush having been cleared off from several acres for the
purpose, and seats arranged and tables spread with a sumptuous dinner
for all, furnished by the liberality of one man, Goetleib Steinman, of
Lancaster, Ohio.
The regular toasts were limited to thirteen, but the volunteers were
still going on when the editor of the Olive Branch retired late in the
evening.
1. General George Washington.
2. The President of the United States.
3. The Governor of Ohio.
4. The man who guided by the unerring light of science with vigorous
and firm mind, has led and now leads his countrymen in the splendid
career of “internal improvements”--our honored guest.
5. The great State of Ohio.
6. Legislature.
7. The Canal Commissioners.
8. Ohio Canal--The great artery of America, which will carry vitality
to all the extremities of the Union.
9. State of New York--She has given to the world a practical lesson
what freemen can do when determined to secure their own happiness.
10. Henry Clay--the able supporter of “internal improvements.”
11. General Bolivar--The Washington of South America.
12. The power of free government.
13. The fair sex of our country--In prosperity the partners of our
joys, and in adversity our greatest solace.
VOLUNTEER--
By De Witt Clinton--The Ohio Canal--A fountain of wealth, a chain of
union, a dispenser of glory.
By General Van Rensselaer--The memory of General Wayne--By his sword,
the way was cleared for the settlement of the country.
By I. Johnston--National Improvements--A fit subject for national pride.
By Wm. Lord--Thomas Jefferson--A man with one mistake.
[Illustration: Canal Era. 1825.]
The 4th of July, 1825, only a few months prior to the completion of
the New York Canal, machinery was put in motion to revolve until the
end of time. On this day the policy of the state government in favor
of internal improvements was permanently inaugurated. Even the few
opposing minds of those who had never seen the walls of China, but
wished to maintain the state secluded from the commercial world by
means of the high tariff (the barriers nature had vouchsafed to the
inhabitants), weakened in their ideas of “home protection,” or at
once became favorable to the doctrine of _reciprocity_, which at that
early date was the “soft” or synonym for _free trade_. And when it
became satisfactorily demonstrated that improvements would increase
the amount and price of labor, as well as the values of its products,
such individuals changed to vociferous advocates of a canal, saying:
“If the canal can secure such prices for the products of the soil, and
in return furnish foreign cheap supplies, we can afford to abandon
looms and spinning-wheels, and let supply and demand take care of
themselves.” And the energetic boards of construction were unanimously
supported by the people, and soon completed eight hundred miles of
canals and one thousand miles of toll-roads, with a disbursement of
over fifteen million dollars, borrowed money. The state, however,
suffered no inconvenience on this account; its credit was good, and all
that was necessary to obtain funds as fast as needed was to call upon
the Lord who came to Ohio with Governor Clinton at the opening.
[Illustration: Log-Cabin Luminary.]
Among the multitude of great men assembled on this occasion, no one did
more or was nearer and dearer in the hearts of the people than the man
who mastered mathematics, Greek, Latin, and law, while a “hireling”
at the Kanawha Salt Works; the man who did his reading at night by
the light of the furnace or a “log-cabin luminary,” a lard lamp; the
man who received the first collegiate degree of A.M. ever issued in
the North-west; the orator of the day, Hon. Thomas Ewing. No such
universal and intense enthusiasm was ever before, or again will be, so
overwhelmingly manifested in Ohio as that of the opening of the canals;
no other object for public demonstration is likely will ever approach
it in importance.
Governor Clinton and party were escorted from Newark to Columbus by
the state militia, legislature, county and state officers and eminent
citizens. And in reply to Governor Morrow’s reception, Governor Clinton
said:
“I find myself at a loss for language to express my profound sense
of the distinguished notice taken of me by the excellent chief
magistrate of this powerful and flourishing state, and by our
numerous and respected fellow citizens assembled in this place, I
feel that my services have been greatly overrated, but I can assure
you that your kindness has not fallen on an ungrateful heart--that I
most cordially and sincerely reciprocate your friendly sentiments,
and that any agency I may have had in promoting the cardinal
interests to which you have been pleased to refer, has been as
sincere as it has been disinterested.
“When Ohio was an applicant for admission into the Union, it was my
good fortune to have it in my power, in co-operation with several
distinguished friends, most of whom are now no more, to promote her
views and to assist in elevating her from a territorial position
to the rank of an independent state. This was an act of justice to
her and duty of high obligation on our part. At that early period
I predicted, and indeed it required no extraordinary sagacity to
foresee, that Ohio would in due time be a star of the first magnitude
in the federal constellation; that she contains within her bosom the
elements of greatness and prosperity, and that her population would
be the second, if not the first, in the confederacy.
“The number of your inhabitants at the next census will probably
exceed a million. Cultivation of the soil has advanced with gigantic
strides--your fruitful country is teeming with plenty, and has a
vast surplus beyond your consumption of all the productions of
agriculture. Villages, towns and settlements are springing up
and extending in all directions, and the very ground on which we
stand, but a few years ago a dreary wilderness, is now a political
metropolis of the state, and the residence of knowledge, elegance and
hospitality.
“I have considered it my solemn duty in concurrence with your
worthy chief magistrate, your very able canal board of finance and
superintendence, and other patriotic and enlightened citizens of
this state, to furnish all the resources in my power in aid of the
great system of internal navigation so auspiciously commenced on the
fifteenth anniversary of our national independence.
“This is a cause in which every citizen and every state in our
country is deeply interested; for the work will be a great
centripetal power that will keep the states within their federal
orbits--and an adamantine chain that will bind the Union together
in the most intimate connection of interests and communication. It
therefore secures, not only the prosperity of Ohio, but the union of
the states and the consequent blessings of free government; and now
I think it my duty to declare that I have the utmost confidence in
the practicability of the undertaking, and the economy and ability
with which it will be executed. In five years it may, and will be
completed, in all probability, and I am clearly of the opinion, that
in two years after the construction of this work, it will produce
an annual revenue of at least a million dollars, and hope this
remark may now be noted, if any thing I say shall be deemed worthy
of particular notice, in order that its accuracy may be tested by
experience.
“I beg you, sir, to accept the assurance of my high respect for your
private and public services, and to feel persuaded that I consider
your approbation and the approbation of patriotic men an ample reward
for my service, that a benevolent Providence may have enabled me to
render to our common country.”[25]
From Columbus the party was escorted to Springfield, Dayton, Hamilton,
and Cincinnati, receiving public dinners and the most extravagant and
enthusiastic demonstrations of appreciation and respect by thousands
of citizens. At Cincinnati the party were invited guests to an
entertainment given in honor of Henry Clay.
While Governor Clinton was in Cincinnati, he yielded to the pressing
invitation to go to Louisville and render an opinion on the question
then in dispute between Kentucky and Indiana, as to which side of the
river was the better adapted for a canal around the falls. His decided
opinion was in favor of Kentucky, to which all parties assented, and
the canal was constructed accordingly.
On returning home, the Governor passed through Portsmouth, Piketon,
Chillicothe, Circleville, Lancaster, Summit, and Zanesville, via
Pittsburgh, receiving every-where the most distinguished attention.
All business for the time was suspended. He and his party were
every-where treated as Ohio’s invited guests; and the Governor was
attended by all the county officers, eminent citizens, and multitudes
to the next county line, where a like escort was in waiting with the
best livery the country could produce; halting at each county town,
for a grand reception, ornamented with speeches, toasts, flags, and
firearms.
Thus the benefactor of the nation passed from one county to another,
across a great state, and as soon as the advance-guard came in sight of
any town, the bells of all the churches, public buildings, and hotels,
gave their long and merry peels of welcome--the cannon roared and a
vast crowd of waiting citizens of town and country marched forward with
huzzas and banners of “Welcome--welcome--to the Father of Internal
Improvements.”
The following extract, written at the time by a cool-headed
representative of the state, is expressive without coloring or
exaggeration:
“The grave and the gay, the man of gray hairs and the ruddy-faced
youth; matrons and maidens, and even lisping children, joined to
tell his worth, and on his virtues dwell; to hail his approach and
welcome his arrival. Every street, where he passed, was thronged with
multitudes, and the windows were filled with the beautiful ladies of
Ohio, waving their snowy white handkerchiefs, and casting flowers on
the pavement where he was to pass on it.”
No king, emperor, president, or statesman; no manufacturer of personal
or political enthusiasm, even of palace-car order, ever obtained that
intensity and spontaneous manifestation as was shown “The Father of
Internal Improvements,” on his passage through the state.
And it is yet a sorrowful reflection to memory, that such magnetism,
ability, and influence for good did not live to see the Lake Erie and
Ohio Canal completed; that his life’s sacrifices, in physical and
mental efforts for the advancement of civilization in the North-west,
have been so soon almost forgotten. But more; that his good works
should have been so cheaply recognized at his death by a state he had
enriched by making himself so poor. But it is never too late to be
just, nor too long to right a wrong.
About this time, an era of “_prosperity_” had already dawned in the
East, and was heralded from mouth to mouth--from the Ohio river to Lake
Michigan--that the “Erie Canal” was completed, and the first fleet of
boats left the Hudson, October 26, 1825, laden with emigrants for the
North-west.
On the banners this fleet carried were the significant words, “The
Star of Empire Westward Takes its Way,” and the cannons were heard and
answered from Buffalo to New York City.
This canal proved a success even beyond the expectations of the
most sanguine; and a line of commerce was at once established from
tide-water to the western chain of lakes, and soon filled the new
states with population and their ports with merchandise. And the Ohio
protectionist, who had been so fearful of an influx of “pauper labor”
and the products of “_foreign industries_,” found his own state, while
discussing it, ready to disburse fifteen million dollars for day labor
in the construction of internal improvements. And the Squirrel Hunter,
whose life was one of education, development, power, and progress,
hailed with delight the opportunity to work on the Lake Erie canal,
twenty-six dry days of twelve hours each, for the sum of eight dollars.
It was the first privilege ever offered in Ohio to obtain so much money
in so short time, without encroachment upon his store of squirrel and
coon skins.
In 1824, the year before the completion of the Erie canal, prices of
produce still ranged low: twenty-five cents for wheat and six cents for
corn, with no market or demand excepting for making whisky with copper
stills. But when the Erie canal was finished and the Ohio and Lake
Erie under way, prices on all kinds of produce advanced more than two
hundred per cent, with such an unlimited demand that the improvements
converted every body into favor with public works. And times became
better in Ohio than ever before--corn advanced to forty and fifty cents
and wheat to seventy-five and one dollar per bushel; and with the state
distribution of millions of money, and her rich and productive soil,
she was lifted out of the groove of idle content into the bright
sunshine of prosperity and improvement.
It soon became manifest that internal improvements increased the demand
and prices of the products of the soil, with a diminution in value of
most all kinds of manufactured articles used in exchange. The salines
of New York killed the salt manufacture in Ohio as effectually as
free trade did the business of the wheelwright, the reelwright, the
manufacturer of looms, reeds, flyers, hackles, plows, nails, and other
“infant industries.” All were ended by the canal; and a man or boy who
desired a new hat had, no longer than 1825, to go to a “_hat shop_” and
have his head measured with a tape-line, and diagram registered, with
full directions of minor matters--material, color, and price--and then
wait the making.
By means of the New York canal, peddlers were offering for sale almost
every thing enjoyed in the East, “at unprecedented low prices;” and
even the meridian mark in the south doorway was of no use any longer,
except to regulate a Yankee clock. These Connecticut time-pieces were
distributed to nearly every resident landholder in the state at sixty
dollars or less, on a year’s credit, in the form of a note with six
per cent interest--a clock that cost the peddler two dollars and fifty
cents at a New England factory.
Traveling merchants of all kinds flocked into the North-west like
squirrels at moving time, and the epidemic struck Pennsylvania so
disastrously that the Hon. John Andrew Schultz, at the time governor
of that state, is reported as having memorialized the legislature for
a law preventing this class of non-residents from perambulating the
country, selling articles of no value, and often base counterfeits of
things of domestic use, saying that in his neighborhood, “They were
palming off counterfeit basswood nutmegs, when every body knows the
genuine are made of sassafrac.”
The opening of the canal trade gave interest and amusement to thousands
of persons. On the day appointed citizens came long distances to
witness the filling of the ditch with water, and the floating of
boats as they came along in the pride of the names they bore in
honor of favorite citizens living along the line, as “The James
Rowe,” “The Dr. Coats,” “The James Emmitt,” “The Sam Campbell,” “The
General Worthington,” etc., lettered in gold, all of which was purely
complimentary to the individual, and not thought of as an advertising
dodge, although it may have suggested afterwards its advantages in this
line to members of the Board of Public Works.
The remarkable advancement in the prosperity of the state resulting
from the canals exceeded the expectations of their best friends so
far that it will probably ever remain as the most notable era in the
history of the state. Increased prosperity and rising civilization
advanced step by step. From the pack-saddle to the freight-wagon,
stage-coach, canal-boat, steamboat and railroad, each served or is
serving a good purpose in the elevation of the social, intellectual and
moral faculties of American citizens.
[Illustration: Ohio Stage Coach.]
From the organization of the state until the introduction of canals
and railroads, inland transportation of merchandise and travel was
done by means of stage-coaches and freight-wagons. The coaches were
stoutly constructed, with leather suspensions for springs, with
inside dimensions for nine persons, and somewhat like a Chicago
street-car--enough room outside for all who were able to find a place
to “hang on.” At the rear each coach was provided with a capacious
boot for the accommodation of Saratoga trunks and U. S. mail-bags. The
driver had an elevated outside seat in front, and proudly pulled the
strings on four spirited horses, which were driven in relays of ten
miles, and under favorable circumstances would, in this way, make
eight miles an hour, including stops for changes, and times of arrival
and departure at the stations were very punctually made on good roads.
Often it became amusing to see how easy a good-hearted driver who loved
his team, as many drivers did, could favor it by letting the horses
walk up each little ascent, but when in sight of the change would blow
the horn and crack the whip, and go in flying, with a mark “behind
time” for the next driver and relay to make up. But the “make up”
seldom came, and it was nothing unusual in a distance of two hundred
miles to find the coaches fifteen to twenty hours behind the schedule
time.
There were no improved roads north of Columbus for nearly fifty years,
and during the wet season, or thawing of the frozen road-bed, staging
became slow and laborious. If not mixed with pleasure, it was the only
means of inland intercourse of a public character the inhabitants could
look to.
Charles Dickens, on his way from Columbus, Ohio, to Buffalo, N. Y.,
_via_ Sandusky City, in 1842, accurately describes the roughness of
traveling by stage-coach and the jolting of the corduroy roads over
bogs and swamps, and says: “At length, between ten and eleven o’clock
at night, a few feeble lights appeared in the distance, and Upper
Sandusky, an Indian village, where we were to stay till morning, lay
before us. They were gone to bed at the log inn, which was the only
house of entertainment in the place, but soon answered our knocking,
and got some tea for us in a sort of kitchen or common room, tapestried
with old newspapers pasted against the wall.
“The bed-chamber to which my wife and I were shown was a large, low,
ghostly room, with a quantity of withered branches on the hearth, and
two doors without any fastening, opposite to each other, both opening
upon the black night and wild country, and so contrived that one of
them always blew the other open, a novelty in domestic architecture
which I do not remember to have seen before, and which I was somewhat
disconcerted to have forced on my attention after getting into bed,
as I had a considerable sum in gold for our traveling expenses in my
dressing case. Some of the luggage, however, piled against the panels,
soon settled this difficulty, and my sleep would not have been very
much affected that night, I believe, though it had failed to do so.
“My Boston friend climbed up to bed somewhere in the roof, where
another guest was already snoring hugely. But being bitten beyond his
power of endurance, he turned out again, and fled for shelter to the
coach, which was airing itself in front of the house. This was not a
very politic step as it turned out, for the pigs scenting him, and
looking upon the coach as a kind of pie with some manner of meat
inside, grunted around it so hideously that he was afraid to come out
again, and lay there shivering till morning. Nor was it possible to
warm him, when he did come out, by means of a glass of brandy, for in
Indian villages the legislature, with a very good and wise intention,
forbids the sale of spirits by tavern-keepers.”
For want of roads, traveling by coach was slow and laborious, in all
the north-western states. In 1840, the writer was treated to a five
cents per mile ride across the State of Michigan, from Detroit to New
Buffalo, now Benton Harbor, on Lake Michigan, a distance of two hundred
miles. It was mid-winter, but not frozen hard, and required nearly
three days and two nights of joltings and fatiguing monotony. The joys
felt on arriving in sight of steamboat navigation are still fresh in
the recollections of the past.
Stage coaches had their centers for distribution in Columbus, Cleveland
and Cincinnati, and were used in the principal mail lines over the
state. Here too, the African skin became a perplexing question. The
dictum of slavery had to be respected. If a colored person desired to
be carried to a given point, he could prepay to such--his money was
never refused on any account but for his color there was no time-table
of departure or arrival. If no objections were raised by a passenger,
he would at once be started on his way as an outside incumbrance.
But if at any time while on the route, at a station or “change,” a
passenger should be added who objected to riding in the same coach with
a “_free nigger_,” as was no unusual thing, the colored passenger would
be obliged to stop off and wait for a coach containing more liberal
sentiments, or take the road on foot. This treatment on all the coach
lines was witnessed so frequently that it ceased to call forth marks
of disapproval. The principle in a milder form appears to have been
transferred from the old stage-coach to the great railroad Cincinnati
built South, by ignoring the constitution of the state, and as some
thought at the time, subsidizing the Supreme Court. On this road the
American born citizen with African blood, however remote the descent,
or great the admixture, is refused admittance to coaches accorded to
all other nationalities. Why? it is not necessary to state.
The wagons for freight were large and strong, and, having a cover of
white canvas, gave them the name of “Prairie Schooners.” They were
usually drawn by six horses, and on long routes traveled in companies;
and trains could be seen moving slowly along in line, all laden with
merchandise of the East, or on their way East, carrying the products of
Ohio industry to an eastern market. The style of the “schooner” and the
wagons themselves have “been out of print” so long, not one appeared
on exhibition at the Centennial World’s Fair. They were all of the same
pattern, and as “near alike as peas;” differing in every respect from
the emigrant wagon of later date.
[Illustration: Prairie Schooner.]
The bed or body of the “schooner” was formed by a stout frame-work of
the best seasoned bent-wood, and put together as immovable and durable
as any railroad coach body of the present day. The shape, covering,
etc., is shown by annexed illustration. The teams were composed of
large draft-horses. The “near” wheel-horse carried a saddle, in
addition to his harness, for the accommodation of the driver. This
saddle-horse, with the near front animal, or “leader,” constituted the
managing horses of the whole team. All orders were given, as required,
to these; they were always wakeful, watchful, and obedient. A good
leader and a reliable near wheel-horse were boastful prizes of their
owners; and most teamsters in those days owned their entire outfits,
and were exceedingly kind to their animals.
What may seem peculiar, whether having four or six animals in the
team, the driver used only a single line--one string attached to the
“leader,” and to him, with the aid of the “saddle-horse,” safety and
correct actions of all the members of the team were assured.
Many were the thousands of tons these lines carried over the mountains.
But the tread of the caravan and the crack of the “black-snake”[26]
were no longer heard on the Alleghanies after the completion of the
Erie Canal (in 1825); and ceased entirely as a system of transportation
on the operation of the Ohio Canal (in 1832). The “schooners” and
“Branches of the United States Bank” wound up and quit business in Ohio
about the same time. It was an off year for political speculators.
President Jackson vetoed the bill to renew the charter of that monster
monopoly entitled “The United States Bank,” an institution owned and
controlled by a few wealthy foreign and American citizens, who were
receiving exclusive privileges, favors, and support from the government.
Ohio did not feel the suspension of this great monopoly with its
thirty-five millions so severely. Millions of money had just been
distributed over the state for labor in the construction of internal
improvements, and with canals, coaches, and steamboats, and agriculture
in a nourishing condition, the prosperity that seemed lost in the ruins
of speculation and bankruptcy, proved a small impediment in line of
progress or march of empire.
The people did not become idle or discouraged; farming interests were
increasing all the time, and more attention was directed to schools
and education than ever before; and civilization was manifestly and
permanently on the advance. Still the conditions of trade suffered
serious embarrassments connected with the unstable condition of the
currency or money of the country. Bank-notes of one state were at a
heavy discount in every other. This, with bank and individual failures,
caused much inconvenience for a time, but things soon grew better.
Population and aggregate wealth of the state increased, and in 1847
gave the greatest yield of produce ever previously harvested, and
which, owing to the “Irish famine,” was disposed of at speculation
prices, and the state went on to prosperity and comparative excellence
and influence.
The mass of descendants of pioneers in Ohio looked forward to
agriculture as the source of subsistence and independent competency.
“Millionaire,” in early days, was a word seldom used, and entirely
unknown in biography. The pioneer saw the necessity for the promotion
and advancement of true civilization, that every citizen should own
a home--a place he might call his own--a place to live and labor for
the good of himself and others. And not until the introduction of
the railroad president, private palace cars, trusts, combines, and
transformation of the public service into party machines for becoming
suddenly rich, did the more observing recognize the true estimate and
sound brotherhood existing with the gold bags of the nation. Nor did
the poor suspect that combined wealth would ever dream as did the
thirsting Turk at midnight hour--“that Liberty, her knee in suppliance
bent, should tremble at its power.”
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Sixteen articles of amendment to the adopted Constitution were
approved by Congress, September, 1789, ten of which were approved by
the states.
[24] Excise act in Pennsylvania in 1794. This revolt required fifteen
thousand armed men to quell, and cost the United States $1,000,000.
[25] Editor “Olive Branch” (No. 2).
[26] Whip.