120 INTRODUCTION. 



during the preceding year, and that some failures and delays had occurred with 

 respect to those previously made. He remarked, that the best interests of the 

 state appealed with great earnestness for the early completion of that important 

 improvement, and he was persuaded that a larger sum than the existing appro- 

 priation might be advantageously expended without causing an interruption or 

 delays in navigation. Adverting also to the advantages of the canal as a channel 

 for western trade, he declared that both duty and interest indicated the pro- 

 priety not only of making it adequate to the public wants, but of doing so at the 

 earliest practicable period. 



Stephen Van Rensselaer, William C. Bouck, Jonas Earll junior, John Bowman 

 and William Baker were then canal commissioners. They urged the vigorous 

 prosecution of the enlargement as a measure of enlightened economy and fore- 

 sight. But apprehensions were found in the legislature, that the policy recom- 

 mended could not be pursued without committing too deeply the credit of the 

 state. Although the feasibility of the New- York and Erie railroad had been de- 

 monstrated, yet that important enterprise had not sufficiently gained the confi- 

 dence of the community, to secure subscriptions and payments upon its capital 

 stock, sufficient for its prosecution, without a modification of the conditions upon 

 which the company then enjoyed a loan of public credit. To some extent 

 that enterprise was regarded as one of local character, and it therefore found 

 little favor in remote regions of the state. The enlargement of the Erie canal 

 assumed a similar aspect, in the view of those who desired the former improve- 

 ment. A general suspension of specie payments, by banking institutions through- 

 out the union, had occurred in 1837; and a commercial revulsion unprecedented 

 in the history of the country, and the effects of which have not yet entirely jiassed 

 away, was paralyzing the energies of men in every department of industry and 

 enterprise. Under these circumstances all questions before the legislature, in 

 relation to the public works, were merged in the important consideration of the 

 financial ability of the state. The comptroller, Azariah C. Flagg, in his annual 

 report, examined the resources and condition of the treasury, and earnestly re- 

 commended a svstem of finance, of which taxation should be a part, the adoption 



