INTRODUCTION. 99 
composed of Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, 
Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter and Charles D. 
Cooper. They submitted a report, from which Mr. Morris withheld his signature, 
for the reason, as was said, that his idea of an uniform declivity from Lake Erie 
to the Hudson, was abandoned.* ‘They expressed a confident belief that the public 
mind was now prepared for a commencement of the Erie canal; announced 
that they had assurances that a loan of one million of dollars, at an interest of 
six per cent, could be obtained, and subsequent sums as fast as should be required ; 
suggested the expediency of constructing first the middle section, extending from 
Rome to the Seneca river, because it would yield a large revenue, and trade 
might be thereby diverted from the valley of the St. Lawrence, and again urged 
the simultaneous prosecution of the Champlain canal. 
The joint committee on canals, at this session, consisted of William Ross, 
George Tibbits, Philetus Swift and Peter R. Livingston, of the senate, and Jacob 
R. Van Rensselaer, Thomas J. Oakley, William Thompson, James Lynch, Ben- 
jamin Mooers, Myron Holley, William D. Ford and George Warner, of the 
assembly. Mr. Van Rensselaer, from that committee, introduced a bill provid- 
ing for the immediate commencement of both canals, and pledging ample funds 
for that purpose. The bill, after being discussed four weeks, passed the assembly 
by the decisive vote of ninety-one to eighteen. ‘Those who voted in the affirma- 
tive, were Aaron Adams, Truman Adams, Joshua Ballard, Asa C. Barney, Joseph 
Bayley, John H. Beach, William C. Bouck, Isaac Brayton, Philip Brasher, John 
Brown junior, Thomas Brown, Oliver Brown, William Campbell, Israel Cha- 
pin, Jonathan Childs, Nathan Christie, Abel Cole, George Cramer, Silas Crippen, 
David Dill, William A. Duer, Henry Fellows, William D. Ford, Michael Fre- 
high, James Ganson, Isaac Gere, Job Greene, David E. Gregory, George Hall, 
Nathan Hall junior, Nicoll Halsey, William Hamilton, Michael Harris, Isaac 
Hayes, Nathaniel P. Hill, Peter A. Hilton, Henry Hopkins, Eliphalet 8. Jackson, 
* CoLpEN’s Memoir. 
