INTRODUCTION. Ill 



canal ; assuring the legislature, however, that the canal board had not been led 

 astray by local considerations or ephemeral expedients, and that they would be 

 able to combine the accommodation of flourishing cities and villages with the 

 promotion of the general convenience and welfare. He noticed the efforts on 

 the part of Illinois to connect the river of that name with Lake Michigan, and 

 those of Ohio to unite with Lake Erie the river which formed her southern 

 boundary, commending those efforts to the munificent patronage of the national 

 government, and the favorable countenance of New-York. He recommended 

 also the institution of a board of public improvements, to be composed of enlight- 

 ened and public spirited citizens, and invested with power to establish and faci- 

 litate all useful channels of communication, and all eligible modes of improve- 

 ment 



The tolls on the portion of the Champlain canal which had been completed, 

 amounted, in the previous year, to one thousand three hundred and eighty-six 

 dollars. 



The legislature at this session directed the canal commissioners to open a boat 

 navigation between the village of Salina, the Onondaga lake and the Seneca 

 river. These improvements when completed, together with those previously 

 directed, created an artificial canal from the Erie canal to Lake Ontario, and 

 constituted a portion of what afterwards became known as the Oswego canal. 



Acts were also passed to encourage the construction of harbors at Buffalo 

 creek and Black-Rock, and to adapt the Glen's Falls feeder of the Champlain 

 canal to boat navigation. 



On the first of January, 1823, the government went into operation under the 

 new constitution, Joseph C. Yates having been elected to the office of governor. 

 The constitution declared that rates of toll not less than those set forth by the canal 

 commissioners, in their report of 1821, should be collected on the canals, and that 

 the revenues then pledged to the canal fund should not be diminished nor di- 

 verted before the complete payment of the principal and interest of the entire 

 canal debt, a pledge which placed the pubUc credit on an impregnable basis. 



