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INTRODUCTION. 1 li) 



general purposes of the treasury; and the state was, therefore, in the full enjoy- 

 ment of those revenues, as well as such as were derived from the canals. 



It was now found that the locks and other mechanical structures on the Erie 

 canal, were worn by time and use ; inconveniences were experienced in conse- 

 quence of its limited dimensions and inadequate lockage ; and notwithstanding its 

 eminent productiveness, it had failed to accomplish fully the objects of its construc- 

 tion, inasmuch as a considerable amount of western trade continued to seek mar- 

 kets by other routes. It was obvious, moreover, that the capacity of that channel 

 should be increased to reduce the expenses of transportation. The legislature, 

 therefore, directed that an enlargement should be undertaken whenever the 

 canal board should be of opinion that the pubhc interest required such an im- 

 provement ; and it was referred to the discretion of the board to fix the dimen- 

 sions of the new channel. The canal board adopted the dimensions of seventy 

 feet width and seven feet depth, with double locks. The act of 1835 limited, 

 however, the expenditures for the enlargement, to the annual surplus of the canal 

 tolls, which, after 1837, was to be annually diminished by a considerable sum, 

 to be devoted to the uses of the treasury. In 1836, the legislature directed the 

 long contemplated construction of the Genesee Valley canal and of the Black 

 River canal ; and during this year those improvements were commenced, and the 

 enlargement of the Erie canal was prosecuted. A loan of the public credit, to the 

 amount of three millions of dollars, was, at the same session, made to a company 

 which had been incorporated in 1832, for the construction of a railroad between 

 the Hudson river and Lake Erie, through the southern range of counties. 



The canal commissionez's, in 1837, reported the progi-ess which had been 

 made in the construction of the Genesee Valley and Black River canals, and the 

 enlargement of the Erie canal, and recommended the more speedy prosecution 

 of the latter work. 



In 1838, the governor, Wilham L. Marcy, announced that the canal commis- 

 sioners were devoting to the enlargement of the Erie canal, all the means placed 

 within their control ; that no new contracts, however, had been entered into 



