98 INTRODUCTION. 



then indeed it might be received with cold indifference, or treated with stern 

 neglect ; but the overflowing blessing from this great fountain of public good and 

 national abundance, would be as extensive as our country, and as durable as 

 time. The petitioners enforced their eloquent appeal for an immediate com- 

 mencement of the enterprise, by the considerations that it could not be prose- 

 cuted at any future time with less expense ; that the longer it was delayed, the 

 greater would be the difficulty in surmounting the interests which would rise up 

 in opposition ; that there was an urgent necessity for immediately diminishing 

 the expense of transportation ; that it would raise the value of the national do- 

 main, and thus cause the speedy extinguishment of the national debt and a 

 diminution of taxes, leaving a considerable source of revenue to be expended in 

 other works of improvement, in encouraging the arts and sciences, in patronizing 

 the operations of industry, in fostering the inventions of genius, and in diffusing the 

 blessings of knowledge ; that New- York was both Atlantic and western, and the 

 only state in which an indissoluble union of interest between the great sections of 

 the confederacy could be formed and perpetuated ; that she would justly be con- 

 sidered an enemy to the human race, if she did not exert for this purpose the 

 high faculties which the Almighty had put into her hands ; and lastly, that the 

 enterprise, as to the countries which it would connect, and as to the consequen- 

 ces which it would produce, was without a parallel in the history of mankind. 

 While, they remarked, the chiefs of powerful monarchies had projected or 

 executed designs which had attracted the admiration of the world, it remained for 

 a free state to create a new era in history, and to erect a work more stupendous, 

 more magnificent and more beneficial than any hitherto achieved by the human 

 race. 



Two vacancies had occurred in the canal commission ; Robert R. Livingston 

 having died in 1815, which event was followed by the lamented death of Robert 

 Fulton, whereby the friends of internal improvement were deprived of the further 

 cooperation of one, whose services in perfecting steam navigation had conferred 

 such signal benefits on the human race. The board of commissioners was now 



