INTRODUCTION. 99 



composed of Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, 

 Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter and Charles D. 

 Cooper. They submitted a report, from which Mr. Morris withheld his signature, 

 for the reason, as was said, that his idea of an uniform declivity from Lake Erie 

 to the Hudson, was abandoned* They expressed a confident belief that the public 

 mind was now prepared for a commencement of the Erie canal ; announced 

 that they had assurances that a loan of one million of dollars, at an interest of 

 six per cent, could be obtained, and subsequent sums as fast as should be required ; 

 suggested the expediency of constructing first the middle section, extending from 

 Rome to the Seneca river, because it would yield a large revenue, and trade 

 might be thereby diverted from the valley of the St. Lawrence, and again urged 

 the simultaneous prosecution of the Champlain canal. 



The joint committee on canals, at this session, consisted of William Ross, 

 George Tibbits, Philetus Swift and Peter R. Livingston, of the senate, and Jacob 

 R. Van Rensselaer, Thomas J. Oakley, William Thompson, James Lynch, Ben- 

 jamin Mooers, Myron Holley, William D. Ford and George Warner, of the 

 assembly. Mr. Van Rensselaer, from that committee, introduced a bill provid- 

 ing for the immediate commencement of both canals, and pledging ample funds 

 for that purpose. The bill, after being discussed four weeks, passed the assembly 

 by the decisive vote of ninety-one to eighteen. Those who voted in the affirma- 

 tive, were Aaron Adams, Truman Adams, Joshua Ballard, Asa C. Barney, Joseph 

 Bayley, John H. Beach, William C. Bouck, Isaac Bray ton, Philip Brasher, John 

 Brown junior, Thomas Brown, Oliver Brown, William Campbell, Israel Cha- 

 pin, Jonathan Childs, Nathan Christie, Abel Cole, George Cramer, Silas Crippen, 

 David Dill, William A. Duer, Henry Fellows, William D. Ford, Michael Fre- 

 ligh, James Ganson, Isaac Gere, Job Greene, David E. Gregory, George Hall, 

 Nathan Hall junior, Nicoll Halsey, William Hamilton, Michael Harris, Isaac 

 Hayes, Nathaniel P. Hill, Peter A. Hilton, Henry Hopkins, Eliphalet S. Jackson, 



♦ CoLBEN'a Memoir. 



