INTRODUCTION. 85 



Alexander Macomb, Samuel Jones, Nicholas Low, Dirck Lefferts, William Duer, 

 Barent Bleecker, Henry Livingston, Peter Gansevoort, Peter B. Tearce, Alex- 

 ander Webster, George Ray, Thomas Tillotson, Matthew Scott, Zephaniah Piatt, 

 John Thurman, Albert Pawling and Zina Hitchcock. Out of this array of names 

 combining so large a representation of the talents, learning, patriotism, enterprise, 

 political influence and wealth of this state, it is not invidious to select that of 

 Philip Schuyler, who, now enjoying well earned military fame, exhibited the most 

 untiring devotion to the physical improvement of his country. The capital stock 

 of both the companies was $50,000, a sum so small as to show a very inadequate 

 estimate of the difficulties of the comprehensive scheme which was then sha- 

 dowed forth. 



The art of constructing canals was little understood, and the topography of the 

 country was not accurately ascertained. The enterprise of the western com- 

 pany fell into discredit. Many of the stockholders forfeited their shares, but a 

 few, more persevering, prosecuted the undertaking, and established an imperfect 

 canal a little less than three miles long, with five locks, around the Little Falls; 

 a canal of one and a quarter miles, at the German flats ; a canal one mile and 

 three-fourths, from the Mohawk to Wood creek, and several wooden locks on that 

 stream. So defective were these works, that they were twice reconstructed 

 during the short period which intervened before the commencement of the Erie 

 canal ; and yet so costly, that the company expended four hundred thousand dol- 

 lars in opening a passage for loaded boats of small burthen, from Schenectady to 

 the Oneida lake. Although steadily favored by the legislature with loans and 

 subscriptions of stock, the company, becoming discouraged and exhausted, relin- 

 quished the design of extending their navigation to Lake Ontario. In 1798, an 

 association was incorporated to construct a canal around the Falls of Niagara, on 

 an application by James Watson, Charles Williamson, John Williams, Effingham 

 Embree and their associates ; but the law was not executed. The Northern 

 Inland Lock Navigation Company, after a brief effort to procure subscriptions, 

 abandoned the enterprise with which that association had been charged. 



