214 [Assembly 



ceive, that voluntary tribute of gratitude and respect which Americans 

 universally ascribe to the great spirit of steam engines. 



The brief space to which these remarks must necessarily be'limit> 

 ed, will admit of but a cursory glance at a few of the leading facts 

 connected with the biography of Fulton, and steam navigation. 



Robert Fulton was not a man of ordinary mould, for if we deprive 

 him of the imperishable honors with which the application of steam 

 to floating vessels alone has invested him, there is still enough left of 

 his merits to fulfil the career of a more than ordinary character. 



It was to his exertions that our countrymen were indebted for the 

 possession of several of the select paintings of his friend and tutor, the 

 admirable West. 



The quarto edition of Barlow's Columbiad contains a number of 

 spiritCfd engravings, which at this age of improvement rank among the 

 highest in the fine arts. Several of these are the designs of Fulton, 

 and were introduced to notice b}' his patronage and address. 



Fulton also procured patents for a double inclined plane, for mills 

 for sawing rfiarble, for machines for spinning flax and making rope, 

 and was the inventor of a method for excavating canals and tunnels. 

 He projected the first panorama in Paris ; and as the inventor of a 

 practical scheme of sub-marine warfare, he became during the late 

 war the object of terror to British navigation. 



If we look back to those days of primeval simplicity, when steam> 

 boating was in its infancy, when the Chancellor Livingston left the 

 old red fort on her voyage to Albany — when the fare was ten dollars — 

 when the roar of the steam was like the roar of the cataract — when 

 the captain gave his orders through the speaking trumpet — when the 

 ringing of bells was not in vogue — when the departure of sloops and 

 steamboats on ihe Hudson was announced by the sound of the bugle ; 

 when the pine wood of the smoke pipe kindled a blaze reaching to the 

 skies, and man hid away in terror at the sight of the flying nondesripl ; 

 we regret to find connected with many agreeable reminiscences, the 

 results of erroneous prejudice, and the sneers of the ignorant and the 

 vulgar. 



It was against these latter qualities that Fulton was obliged to con- 

 tend ; contending, however, in that manliness of spirit which suggest- 



