122 INTRODUCTION. 



the state had increased from $2,973,617 to $22,157,742, or, after deducting the 

 then existing state debt, to $17,624,986 ; that the annual revenue had increased 

 from $419,907 to $1,413,846 : that during the same period, $500,000 had been 

 expended upon pubHc buildings, the school and literature funds had been 

 doubled, the state tax discontinued, and the people relieved from burthen or 

 expense in supporting the government: that after applying $400,000 of the canal 

 tolls annually to the support of the government, there w^ould remain, applicable 

 to purposes of internal improvement, an annual nett revenue of $787,103 ; that 

 that sum alone w^ould pay the annual interest on $15,643,000 : that any augmen- 

 tation in the revenue of the canals vv^ould increase the financial ability of the 

 state : that every $500,000 of revenue would serve as a basis of finance to sustain 

 $10,000,000 of debt : and that, assuming the opinions of the canal commissioners 

 expressed in their report of that year, that the canals soon after the completion 

 of the enlargement w^ould yield tolls to the amount of $3,000,000 per annum, 

 the sum of thirty millions of dollars might be borrovs^ed, expended, and finally 

 reimbursed within twenty years ; or the sum of forty millions might be so bor- 

 rowed, expended, and reimbursed within twenty-eight years. This view of the 

 financial ability of the state was illustrated by estimates of the tolls and nett re- 

 venue of the canals during a series of years, based upon the experience of the 

 increase since their completion. In this table it was assumed that the nett reve- 

 nues from the canals for 1838 would be $800,000 ; that it would increase at the 

 rate of $100,000 per annum, until 1842 ; that after that time, ovdng to the com- 

 pletion of the enlargement, and other works of internal improvement, and the 

 increase of commerce, until 1845, it would increase at the rate of $200,000 per 

 annum ; and from 1845, until 1849, at the rate of $300,000 per annum ; at which 

 time the nett revenue would reach the sum of $3,000,000. 



The sources from which this large accession of revenue was to be anticipated, 

 were pointed out as existing in the extensive and rapidly increasing communities 

 growing up around the western lakes. The surprising progress already made 

 by that interior group of states, in population, wealth and productive power, was 



