SCO Me?noir of William C. Redjield. 



business and conducting with success the affairs of the "Steam 

 Navigation Company," he was also engaged collecting facts for 

 the improvement of the art itself, or for secnring the safety of 

 passengers. He devised simpler, cheaper, and safer forms of ap- 

 paratus than those in general use. He investigated the influence 

 of legal enactments for regulating steam navigation, and pointed 



out to legislatures and governments the inefficacy or inexpedi- 

 ency of such enactments, and suggested the true measures to he 

 taken to promote the convenience and secure the safety of the 

 public. He addressed a series of letters through the public prints 

 to one of our prominent naval commanders, setting forth the 

 adaptedness of steam as an agent of national defense. He re- 

 sponded to the call of the Secretary of the United States Treasury 

 to point out the causes of steamboat explosions, and to suggest 

 the means of safety. Happy would it be, if in all the great 

 operations of the mechanical arts, the true spirit of the philoso- 

 pher were so fully conjoined with the practical knowledge and 

 skill of the engineer. 



We turn now to another subject which engaged the attention 

 of Mr. Redfield, and brought into exercise his remarkable sa- 

 gacity and forecast. He was the first to place before the Ameri- 

 can people the plan of a system of railroads connecting the 

 waters of the Hudson with those of the Mississippi. His pam- 

 phlet containing this project, issued in 1829, is a proud monu- 

 ment of his enlarged views, of his accurate knowledge o^ the 

 topography of the vast country lying between these great rivers 

 of his extraordinary forecast, anticipating as he did the rapid 

 settlement of the western states, the magic development of their 

 agricultural and mineral wealth, and the consequent rapid growth 

 of our great commercial metropolis. The route proposed is sub- 

 stantially that of the Erie railroad as far as this g6es; but his 

 views extended still further, and he marked out, with prophetic 

 accuracy, the course of the railroads which would connect with 

 the Atlantic states, the then infant states of Michigan, Indiana, 

 and Illinois. These, he foresaw, would advance with incredible 

 rapidity the settlement of those regions of unbounded fertility, 

 and would divert no small portion of the trade from the Missis- 

 sippi to the great metropolis of the east. 



It must be borne in mind that railroads for general trans- 

 portation were unknown in this country until 1826, when the 

 project of constructing the Albany and Schenectady railroad 

 was first entertained. As yet the advantages of railroads bad 

 not with us been practically demonstrated, and especially their 

 advantages over canals were not generally understood or appre- 

 ciated. At the moment when the Erie canal, having just been 

 <iompleted, was at the summit of its popularity, Mr. Eedfield set 

 forth in his pamphlet, under nineteen distinct heads, the great 



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