118 INTRODUCTION. 
less intimately connected with the prosperity of this state and the success of her 
system of improvements were in process of construction by the state of Ohio. 
The whole cost of the Erie and Champlain canals was stated at $9,130,000; 
the canal debt at $7,738,000, and its annual interest at $413,000. The canal 
commissioners reported that the tolls, during the preceding year, were $566,221; 
and they estimated them for the current year at $750,000, which, with the other 
revenues of the canal fund, would make the sum of $1,100,000, and after pay- 
ing all expenses and interest, leave applicable to the reduction of the principal, 
$575,000. 
The year 1826 was distinguished by the commencement of the railroad policy 
in the state of New-York. Stephen Van Rensselaer and others were incorpo- 
rated with power to construct a railroad from Albany to Schenectady, and the 
right to enjoy, for fifty years, the profits of the enterprise; but the state reserv- 
ing the right to assume the road on paying to the company the excess of the cost, 
with interest thereon, over the profits of the work. This important feature has 
been incorporated in all the charters since granted for the construction of rail- 
roads, and circumstances are now occurring which indicate its importance. 
The legislature in 1827, was occupied, so far as internal improvements were 
concerned, with the policy of aiding the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company ; 
with discussing the most eligible route for a connection between the Erie 
canal and the Susquehannah river, and with considering the merits of the pro- 
jected state road through the southern counties. Then, and during several suc- 
cessive years, the general policy of internal improvement being scarcely ques- 
tioned, the public mind was engaged rather with the comparative merits of 
various projects, than in digesting and perfecting a system. 
In 1835, the debt of the state, incurred in the construction of the Erie and 
Champlain canals, had virtually been paid. Moneys derived from the revenues 
of the canal fund, equal to the canal debt, had accumulated and been invested 
for the security of the public creditors; and the revenues arising from salt and 
auction duties were now, by an amendment of the constitution, diverted to the 
