ADDRESS 
 
 
 ECONOMICS 
 
 mm 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF THE STATE 
 
 NEW-YORK, 
 
 BY THE! 
 
 NEW-YORK AND ERIE RAIL ROAD CONVENTION, 
 
 HELD AT OWEGO, JULY 1835. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 G. P. SCOTT & 00. PRINTERS, CORNER JOHN AND GOLD-STREETS. 
 
 1835 . 
 
: < 
 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF THE STATE 
 
 NEW-YORK, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 NEW-YORK AND ERIE RAIL ROAD CONVENTION, 
 
 HELD AT OWEGO, JULY 1835. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 G. P. SCOTT & CO. PRINTERS, CORNER JOHN AND GOLD-STREETS 
 
 1835 . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/addresstopeopleo00newy_0 
 
Q2S I 
 
 385 . 4 * 
 
 Adi 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 *1 
 
 This Convention, composed of delegates from different 
 counties interested in the construction of The New York 
 and Erie Rail Road, feels it due to the citizens it repre¬ 
 sents, to submit to the public the considerations which 
 convened it, and the result of its deliberations. Anxious 
 for the execution of this work, and convinced of the neces¬ 
 sity of such an improvement, they deem nothing more re¬ 
 quisite to secure for it the efficient support of the State, 
 than a just understanding of its merits. To procure a 
 — liberal examination of its claims to public favour, and the 
 aid for its immediate completion, which a just estimate of 
 its importance cannot fail to obtain; to prevent all oppo¬ 
 sition and hostility incompatible with the interests and 
 prosperity of the country, induces this body to call the 
 22 attention of the people to its character and claims. 
 
 The natural facilities for the construction of a continu¬ 
 ous thoroughfare over the extended tract of territory which 
 this road is to traverse, early attracted the attention of our 
 soundest and most practical statesmen. General James 
 Clinton explored the route while the country was a wilder- 
 c- ness, and advocated the making of a “ National Appian 
 Way,” between the Hudson river and the fertile regions of 
 <wthe West. The proposed work presented so many induce¬ 
 ments as a national improvement , that it arrested the atten¬ 
 tion of the General Government. A reconnoisance of a rail 
 road route between the Hudson river and the portage sum¬ 
 mit of the Ohio Canal was made at its expense, before its 
 action in such improvements was arrested by the Presi¬ 
 dent’s celebrated Maysville Veto Message. The report of 
 
4 
 
 De Witt Clinton, United States’ Civil Engineer on that re- 
 connoisance, submitted to the House of Representatives, 
 February 9, 1832, in obedience to a call for it by that 
 body* thus alludes to the various projects and importance 
 of connecting these prominent points by some new channel 
 of intercourse. 
 
 “ The utility and practicability of accomplishing a water 
 pv land communication to unite the Hudson river and Lake 
 Erie, by a route through the southern counties of New- 
 York, at different and remote periods, received the sanc¬ 
 tion of many highly patriotic and distinguished individuals 
 under the term of a National Appian Way, a State Road, 
 and a Central Canal: and perhaps at this time it may be 
 deemed fortunate, since the merits of rail road improve¬ 
 ments are now better understood than formerly, and a 
 more perfect and general knowledge of the resources of 
 the lands, and the localities of the route attained, that the 
 want of adhesion among their advocates, and strong coun¬ 
 ter interests, defeat the adoption of the original plans.” 
 The resources of the State were then comparatively small, 
 and public attention not sufficiently awakened to the im¬ 
 portance of the subject, 
 
 Developments made soon after the projection of this im¬ 
 provement, disclosed the then superior advantages of con¬ 
 necting the tide waters of the Hudson with Lake Erie, by 
 an avenue through the valley of the Mohawk, which re¬ 
 sulted in the construction of the Erie Canal. Practicable 
 as that measure was demonstrated and has proved to be, 
 valuable and magnificent as it has been and continues to 
 be in its results, many men, of much political foresight, 
 were so doubtful of its policy and importance, that they 
 vigorously opposed it up to the time of its completion. 
 Being now in the full enjoyment of all the prosperity it has 
 conferred, increased in moral, physical, and pecuniary 
 power, there would seem to be no obstacle to our pressing 
 
5 
 
 on in the career of improvement, and extending in com¬ 
 mon to all the benefits hitherto enjoyed by only a part. 
 
 So strong are the indications of an increase of internal 
 trade, and of the accumulation of revenue, that the Legis¬ 
 lature has recently “ authorized and directed” the Canal 
 Commissioners “ to enlarge and improve the Erie Canal, 
 and construct a double set of lift-locks therein,” and to 
 make “independent canals ” to pass the cities and villages on 
 its route; and thus perhaps incur a new additional expen¬ 
 diture in the advancement of the more favoured counties, 
 of greater amount than will be solicited in aid of the Rail 
 Road through the southern interior. 
 
 Still, during this whole period, the plan of opening a 
 new and rapid communication through the southern coun¬ 
 ties, has at no time been abandoned. The importance and 
 justice of furnishing to this secluded and extended line of 
 country, the means of transporting its products to market 
 with cheapness and expedition, and of thus putting its citi¬ 
 zens on a comparative equality with their brethren on the 
 line of the Erie Canal, have continued to be felt, and been 
 generally acknowledged. 
 
 In 1832, an act was passed “ incorporating a Company 
 for the construction of a Rail Road from New-York to Lake 
 Erie, through the southern tier of counties.” This inspired 
 new confidence that at no remote period the long promised 
 relief would be realized. But the heavy character of the 
 work, and the expenditure necessary for its construction, 
 have hitherto deterred capitalists from investing their funds 
 to the amount required for its accomplishment. This Con¬ 
 vention aims to obviate this embarrassment, by persuading 
 the people of New-York that the credit of constructing such 
 a work should be added, in part at least, to the capital 
 stock of the State’s character. That it is an enterprise 
 deserving legislative encouragement, and that the benefits 
 it will confer, imperiously demand the aid which the ere- 
 
6 
 
 Jit and favourable consideration of the government can 
 give it. 
 
 The only propositions of which it can be necessary to 
 satisfy the public, to ensure its generous and efficient sup¬ 
 port, are— 
 
 1st. That the measure is practicable ; 
 
 2d. That the Company can secure, or that the character 
 and results of the work, when finished, will secure the 
 State from loss or injury, in loaning its credit, under pro¬ 
 per limitations and restrictions, to such extent as may be 
 required to execute it. 
 
 That this measure is feasible, is satisfactorily shown by 
 the report of the United States’ Civil Engineer, before ad¬ 
 verted to. It is also perfectly settled, by the minute and 
 recent survey, made under the superintendence of Judge 
 Wright. This gentleman has given the subject that tho¬ 
 rough examination for which his talents and experience 
 eminently qualified him, and which its importance de¬ 
 manded. The result is, that the whole length of the route, 
 from the Hudson river to the head of the plane near Lake 
 Erie, can be brought within the power of the locomotive 
 engines, “ drawing passenger cars, light merchandise, and 
 the public mail.” As proof of this, it is observed that “the 
 steepest acclivities in the wffiole route, will be only a hun¬ 
 dred feet per mile, and that the locomotive steam engines 
 on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, can ascend an accli¬ 
 vity of one hundred and seventy-six feet to the mile, drawing 
 from five to ten tons weight.” 
 
 But there are only six grades in the whole route to the 
 head of the plane near Lake Erie, in which the acclivity 
 exceeds sixty feet per mile, and but one grade in which it 
 exceeds seventy-two feet per mile. Indeed, the opponents of 
 this improvement do not deny its practicability, or pretend 
 to entertain a doubt that, when finished, passengers, light 
 merchandise, and the public mail, can be transported on 
 
7 
 
 it, at all seasons of the year, from New-York to Lake Erie, 
 in less than forty-eight hours. 
 
 Will the character and probable results of this measure, 
 when completed, secure the State from loss or injury in 
 loaning its credit to such extent as may be necessary to 
 complete it ? 
 
 In determining this question, the State should not regard 
 herself as a mere accommodation endorser, receiving no 
 benefit whatever from the transaction, or as a mere money 
 lender, suffering an absolute and irretrievable loss of every 
 dollar of her loan that shall not be returned with interest 
 to her treasury. The Governor, in his annual message de¬ 
 livered to the Legislature, on the second of January, 1833, 
 advised that body on his official responsibility, that in test¬ 
 ing the usefulness of a public work, “ the first object of in¬ 
 quiry should be to ascertain as accurately as possible the 
 amount of expenditure the proposed work will involve; and 
 next, the amount of revenue that may be derived from it. 
 If the revenue promises to be sufficient to keep it in repair 
 when finished, to defray the expenses of superintendence 
 and the collection of tolls, and to meet the claims for inte¬ 
 rest on the capital expended, sound policy requires it should 
 he constructed . Even if a less favourable result should be 
 anticipated for a few years, the question of authorizing the 
 construction of a public work may yet be very properly 
 entertained. An improvement, opening a cheap and easy 
 communication into the interior of any part of the State, 
 would soon develop new sources in that section, increase 
 the quantity of its productions, and expand its trade. If it 
 should require the lapse of a few years to produce these 
 effects, and to increase the revenue to an amount sufficient 
 for the purposes before specified, this would constitute no 
 conclusive objection to the undertaking. Should the pro¬ 
 posed work be connected with those now in operation, the 
 effect it might have on the productiveness of them should 
 
8 
 
 also be regarded, and, to a reasonable extent, influence 
 your decision. Improvements that will ensure these re¬ 
 sults at the time of their completion, or shortly thereafter, 
 should inspire no dread that a general burthen will be cast 
 upon the State to discharge the debt created for their con¬ 
 struction ; because, the gradual growth of the adjacent 
 country, and, consequently, the extension of trade, will in¬ 
 crease the revenue until there will ultimately be a surplus 
 to be applied in redemption of the debt contracted on their 
 credit. From all improvements there necessarily result 
 local benefits; and it is natural that those parts of the State 
 which have not participated in them, should indulge an 
 impatient desire to do so. Wise legislation should endeavour 
 to gratify this desire as far as practicable, when it can be 
 done with due regard to the public interest.” 
 
 The same sagacious statesman, in his annual message 
 to the legislature of this State, delivered January 6, 1835, 
 after the candid and minute examination of this subject, 
 required by his high official relations to the people, and 
 prompted by his unyielding purpose, to promote to the ex¬ 
 tent of his influence the highest and best interests of the 
 whole; after a full and thorough investigation of the in¬ 
 fluence of our existing public improvements on the pro¬ 
 ductiveness of each other, on the different sections of 
 country contiguous to their routes, and on the business 
 resources and interests of the State at large; still further 
 advises that body, that in relation to the benefits to be se¬ 
 cured by those works, “ their views should be liberal and 
 extended: that they should not be confined to the state of 
 things that will exist immediately on the completion of the 
 work; but should have regard to the progressive advance¬ 
 ment of the region of the State to be laid open by it; to 
 the extension and increase of internal trade, and even to 
 the local advantages it will confer.” The Executive adds: 
 “Having in my first message stated my views of what 
 
9 
 
 :*%ould be the character, productiveness, and other advan¬ 
 tages of afry proposed Work which it would be proper, in 
 fny opinion, for the State to execute, I take the liberty of 
 referring you to them, as substantially those I now enter¬ 
 tain on the same subject.” 
 
 These judicious and liberal views of the Executive of 
 this State are here adverted to and repeated because they 
 are the views of the entire and extensive portion of the 
 community seeking the execution of this public work. 
 They are also adverted to and repeated here because they 
 have been approved by the people, and present a standard 
 by which to determine the merits of this improvement and 
 the character of the claims of the great section to be most 
 extensively benefitted by it, whose fitness the whole com¬ 
 munity has sanctioned and avowed. 
 
 What benefits, local and general, will be secured by 
 this improvement, when finished ? 
 
 1. It will constitute a new thoroughfare, traversing be¬ 
 tween the point of its termination at Lake Erie, and the 
 point of its intersection with the Hudson river, four hun¬ 
 dred and eighty-three miles of the southern interior of the 
 State. It will augment in a great degree the value of the 
 ireal estate adjacent to its route, bring the wild lands into 
 market, secure their cultivation and settlement, encourage 
 enterprise among the communities on its line, introduce 
 capitalists, and make neighbours of remote villages and dis¬ 
 tricts. It will bring the products of the most distant part 
 of the State within a proximity of New York, which can 
 be overcome in less than two days’ travel. It opens an 
 easy, cheap, and expeditious communication to every point 
 on its whole line. It furnishes a new and lasting impulse 
 to the full development of the resources of this great por¬ 
 tion of the State to increase the quantity of its productions 
 and expand its trade to the extent of its improvable capa¬ 
 cities. It will increase tile fruits of the earth, and the pro- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 ducts of* the manufactory and the workshop in more remote 
 situations, and enlarging the sources of supply, prevent 
 the sudden fluctuations in prices, alike prejudicial to the 
 producer and consumer. It will diminish the expense and 
 hazard of transportation of all kinds of commodities, and 
 accelerate the movements of the traveller. It will en¬ 
 hance the home value of our mines and forests, and secure 
 to the whole country, in times of danger and want, protec¬ 
 tion and relief. It will enable the counties on its route to 
 pursue a vigorous and honorable competition in all busi- 
 ness pursuits with the other counties, which, while it would 
 procure for the former additional wealth and importance* 
 would work no injury to the latter. It will materially aug¬ 
 ment the resources of the State, secure the elements of 
 revenue in the districts traversed by the road, promote 
 free and extensive intercourse among the inhabitants of 
 remote counties, and thus do away illiberal prejudices and 
 unjust animosities, and induce a nationality of feeling and 
 interests. It furnishes a guaranty in the history and re¬ 
 sults of other similar improvements, that large manufac¬ 
 turing towns and populous cities will, soon after it is fin¬ 
 ished, cover the sites favorable for such establishments* 
 which are known and conceded to mark its line. At the 
 commencement of the Erie Canal, in 1817, on the whole 
 length of its route there were not more than fifty small vil¬ 
 lages within a distance of twenty miles on each side of it. 
 There are now more than one hundred and fifty, including 
 several populous cities, “all exhibiting evidence of pros¬ 
 perity and wealth. Well cultivated and highly stocked 
 farms, with ornamental and commodious buildings, are 
 found in every direction,” and the benefits of such an en¬ 
 couragement to the cultivation of the soil, and to improve 
 all the sources of individual gain, may be determined by 
 the immense revenue which it annually yields to the Canal 
 fund. 
 
2. This work will connect with almost every public im¬ 
 provement now contemplated, authorized or in progress. 
 The products of this whole line of country would no longer 
 seek a market in other States ; the increased fruits of ani¬ 
 mated labour and expanded enterprise would not, like our 
 present articles of trade, be contributing to the commerce 
 and improving the resources of the cities on the Delaware 
 and Susquehannah, for want of a cheap and certain com¬ 
 munication with New York; but the valuable and various 
 productions of the interior would be arrested in their pro¬ 
 gress to other markets, by such a thoroughfare, and direct¬ 
 ed to our own metropolis, to enlarge her trade, augment 
 her wealth, and perpetuate her commercial prosperity over 
 the rival cities of other States. Connected as it will be 
 with all similar public works, stretching into the important 
 points of the interior, and thence to the Erie Canal, it will 
 enable all portions of the State, thus connected, to procure 
 from the city at any seasons of the year, without much 
 time and at little cost, the varieties imported for home con¬ 
 sumption, and for traffic and manufacture in the country. 
 The amount of expense saved in transportation will be 
 added to the home value of our property. The cost of 
 every article required by the wants, or enhancing the com¬ 
 forts of life, will be reduced a corresponding amount; con¬ 
 flicting local interests will be consolidated, and the advan¬ 
 tages resulting from its completion will be distributed 
 equally to the districts and communities interested.— 
 “ Mountains interposed would no longer make enemies of 
 nations,” for such improvements level natural impediments 
 and annihilate space. These influences would be as per¬ 
 manent as important, as the road would present an unin¬ 
 terrupted avenue throughout the year. 
 
 3. This work will offer immense public advantages to 
 our commercial metropolis, and its speedy completion is 
 an object of paramount necessity to her traders as the 
 
12 
 
 only means yet devised of preserving her great and lucra¬ 
 tive trade with the west. 
 
 The business operations of this and the neighbouring 
 States must satisfy us beyond a doubt of the important, 
 and to us vitally interesting truth, that other and more 
 regular and expeditious avenues for commerce with, the 
 west are indispensable to preserve her extended and en¬ 
 larging trade; the means to which the city is in a great 
 degree indebted for her present prosperity., The Erie Ca¬ 
 nal is not usually navigable until about the 20th of April, 
 and is commonly closed about the 20th of November. The 
 canals of Pennsylvania, yielding to the influence of a 
 milder climate, can be used nearly thirty-five days earlier, 
 and continue open about the same additional period after 
 ours are closed. In consequence of this, and of the con¬ 
 tinuance of the line of their canals by rail roads from 
 Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, the latter State monopolizes 
 the entire trade of the west during more than two months 
 most favorable to commercial enterprise. Even after the 
 spring business on our canals is commenced, the lakes 
 frequently continue to be blockaded with ice. The Ohio 
 is navigable to Pittsburgh before this obstruction disap¬ 
 pears from the lakes, and thus the produce of the west 
 finds it s way to market through the avenue to Philadel¬ 
 phia, is there invested in merchandise, and its proceeds 
 transported into the interior. In the mean time, the en¬ 
 terprising traders of our metropolis are made inactive and 
 unwilling spectators of this serious encroachment on the 
 sources of her wealth and power. 
 
 There is no other improvement yet projected, and per¬ 
 haps none can be, so well calculated as this to continue 
 this State what she now is; and nature seems to have de¬ 
 signed she should be, emphatically, “ The Empire State” 
 When this work is finished, passengers, the public mail, 
 pnd light merchandise can be transported from New York 
 
13 
 
 to the harbours of Dunkirk, Portland, or Erie, and thcr 
 valuable commodities continually collecting at these points 
 from the whole producing interior, conveyed in turn to the 
 city, with a rapidity unknown to any other channels of in¬ 
 tercourse. This will enable the merchants of New York 
 to furnish spring supplies to Pittsburgh and all the trading 
 towns and cities in the valley of the Ohio, before they can 
 communicate with Philadelphia; and, whether this work 
 be continued to the Mississippi, and thus open a direct, 
 permanent, and unbroken communication between its vast 
 and fertile valley and New York, or whether other and 
 distinct channels of intercourse shall stretch from its ter¬ 
 mination and the waters of Lake Erie, to the different 
 trading towns now chequering the whole interior of the 
 west, and to the new cities yet to arise at various points of 
 that vast domain, we cannot fail to preserve the advantages 
 of their commerce. We shall also invite them, by the fa¬ 
 cilities of communicating with our metropolis, and by the 
 exhaustless market and supplies she can yield in return, to 
 push their internal trade and augment their products to 
 their utmost limits. 
 
 The facilities for travel and transportation would create 
 benefits whose influence would operate beyond our bor¬ 
 ders ; they would promote a free and constant intercourse 
 between the citizens of different and distant States; the 
 whole interior of an immense Republic could be traversed 
 in a few days, and at little expense, and thus this improve¬ 
 ment, by bringing its citizens into proximity, and enlarged 
 business associations with each other, would create a stronger 
 and more intimate connexion of interests and sympathies , and 
 extend over our whole common country a new how of promise and 
 another strong bond of union , 
 
 4. The city of New-York, through her common council, 
 has avowed to her brethren of the whole State, that the 
 preservation of the trade of these great inland districts, by 
 
14 
 
 connecting them intimately with each other, by means of 
 cheap and rapid channels of intercourse, has become an 
 object of the deepest solicitude to her landholders, and to 
 every one interested in her permanent prosperity. She 
 alleges, and truly as is believed, that she is mainly indebted 
 for her present importance and immense trade, to the su¬ 
 perior means she has heretofore enjoyed over her rival 
 Atlantic cities, of communicating with the producing popu¬ 
 lation of the interior. That, within ten years after the 
 .completion of the Erie canal, the assessed value of her 
 real estate increased from fifty-two to one hundred and four¬ 
 teen millions of dollars ; that attentive observers of its results 
 have computed that this work of itself, by diminishing the 
 time, labour, and expenses required for transportation, has 
 saved annually to the citizens of this State, $5,000,000, 
 and added at least $150,000,000 to their aggregate wealth. 
 
 If these views are correct, and such have been the re¬ 
 sults of that one improvement, none can doubt the expe¬ 
 diency and importance of making a thoroughfare through 
 the southern tier of counties, A Rail Road possesses in 
 one point of view, an almost incalculable superiority. The 
 Erie Canal is in operation but seven months of the year: the 
 former can be used without any interruption whatever. 
 At those seasons even when both can be used, the trader 
 who goes and conveys his property to market on the for^ 
 mer, can return to the starting point with the commodities 
 in which he has invested its proceeds, before the adven¬ 
 turer who travels on the latter will arrive at the wharves 
 of the city. 
 
 It is not extravagant to sa}q that none can now justly ap¬ 
 preciate, or properly estimate, the increasing and lasting- 
 sources of wealth which would be secured to New-York, 
 by preserving her invaluable commerce with the West, 
 and by concentrating in that city the vast and illimitable 
 trade, which must, so long as “ the star of empire continues 
 
 
to travel westward,'” be augmenting, and carried on be¬ 
 tween the great interior, and some one or more of the At¬ 
 lantic cities. Nor is it possible to determine with greater 
 accuracy the substantial benefits which would be yielded 
 in return to the State at large , as well as to its different dis¬ 
 tricts, by preserving our metropolis, beyond the hazard of 
 future contingency, the favoured public market, and the 
 mistress of the American cities. 
 
 De Witt Clinton, son of the lamented statesman whose 
 name he bore, in his report on his reconnoisance of this route, 
 observed, that some persons had said such an improvement 
 “.would injure the business of the Erie Canal. That those 
 who advance this opinion can have reflected but little on 
 its solidity, as it could not injure, but must manifestly be¬ 
 nefit that work. This route is happily so far separated 
 from the Erie Canal, as to be beyond the reach of its influ¬ 
 ence on its prosperity, as it will benefit distant districts 
 and populations. That, in the course of a few years, the 
 'Canal will be unable to pass the immense trade which will 
 be concentrated on it, and that a second improvement will 
 be required by the public interest.” 
 
 This flattering prophecy of the increase of our internal 
 trade is already realized, and has led to legislative direc¬ 
 tions “to enlarge and improve” this great water communi¬ 
 cation, and construct “independent canals” to pass the 
 cities and villages on its line, where the public interest may 
 require it. But, however much it may be enlarged and 
 improved, it will create no accommodation for the secluded 
 counties. The termination remaining unaltered, it would 
 continue to be embarrassed with ice in the spring and fall; 
 be troubled with transhipments, and uncertainties in the 
 arrivals and deliveries. It would still be navigable but 
 seven months of the year, and gain no additional control over 
 the trade ol the West. Not one of the advantages peculiar 
 to Rail Roads would be secured, and, though one arm of 
 
16 
 
 the State ttiight be kept vigorous and strong, the othef 
 would be wasted with premature and unnatural decay. 
 
 5. Is a work which promises, with a certainty not ad¬ 
 mitting of a reasonable doubt, such invaluable benefits, 
 worthy the attention and efficient support of the public ? 
 Do its character and undoubted results furnish the State 
 such indemnity against injury or loss, that she need be in¬ 
 spired with no dread of a general burthen being cast upon 
 her, to discharge any appropriate debt which may be con¬ 
 tracted for its construction ? 
 
 But the advocates of this measure, however justly they 
 might appeal to the Legislature, to make it as a State en¬ 
 terprise, and at her individual expense, will not ask the 
 loan of her credit for the entire amount required to execute 
 it. They will go to solicit partial aid only. They will 
 petition for aid to this work, having sufficient amount of 
 the stock taken up to make it over nearly half of its route: 
 With this earnest of their confidence in the value and pro¬ 
 ductiveness of the improvement, with this advance from their 
 own means, of the sum required to extend to them advan¬ 
 tages similar to those heretofore conferred on other counties 
 at our common expense , with the proof of its immense import¬ 
 ance which the history of like communications, though less 
 favourably located, has furnished; in consideration of the 
 vast trade to be preserved, the great extent of country to 
 be augmented in value, and accommodated with the means 
 of advancing its prosperity, the southern tier of counties 
 may confidently appeal to the justice, liberality and patri¬ 
 otism of other portions of the State, and rely with an ani¬ 
 mating certainty upon their generous and efficient support. 
 
 In no direction can they look with more justice, than to 
 the favoured region which had grown rich, and in an emi¬ 
 nent degree, through the facilities and benefits conferred on 
 it by the Erie Canal. Its citizens can appreciate the bles¬ 
 sings whi£h such a thoroughfare creates and secures, and 
 
17 
 
 4 understand the worth of being able to convert the fruits of 
 the soil, the sources of wealth which are embosomed in the 
 earth, and the diversified productions of human enterprise, 
 into their equivalent in money. They can tell how many 
 villages have extended their borders until they were en¬ 
 larged into cities, and how many new ones have sprung up, 
 where otherwise only the isolated farm-house would have 
 stood, solely through the creative impulse given by their 
 Canal to every business pursuit upon its line. 
 
 It will not, it is believed, be urged against the applica¬ 
 tion of the southern counties for relief, as has formerly been 
 done, that the assessed valuations of their real estate, and the 
 progressive increase of their population, show that they are 
 constantly improving; that the ratio of their increa.se, in both 
 respects, equals if not exceeds that of some counties con¬ 
 tiguous to the Canal, and therefore nothing need be done 
 in their behalf. If such has been the ratio of their pros¬ 
 perity, and their condition has been that of continued im¬ 
 provement; if under all their embarrassments, having no 
 cheap and expeditious channels of intercourse with the 
 public market; if, in defiance of these obstacles, they have 
 kept pace with some of the more favoured counties of the 
 State, they may ask for aid with greater confidence of ob¬ 
 taining it; for, by so doing, they have furnished the best 
 pledge citizens can give of their devotion to the public 
 weal, and of possessing that integrity of purpose, and those 
 habits of industry, which make a valuable and deserving 
 people, and a stable and prosperous government. 
 
 Let not New-York forego any honourable means of per¬ 
 petuating her ascendancy. Let her not, in any contingency, 
 fail to improve her natural facilities for constructing such an 
 avenue from her metropolis to her navigable lakes, as will 
 secure to her for ever the valuable commerce of the whole 
 western interior, and indissolubly unite her citizens in 
 strong mutual interests with the enterprising millions who 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
18 
 
 are extending the line of free governments still further to 
 the West. Let it not be said, that the State which took 
 the lead in the career of internal improvements, is satisfied 
 with the glory and results of what she has achieved, and 
 is content that the lucrative and illimitable trade which 
 can easily be concentrated in her emporium, should be di¬ 
 verted to neighbouring cities, to the ruin of her own. The 
 immense moral influence she can ever justly exert in the 
 Confederacy, while she retains her present superiority, and 
 holds the elements of power which the favourable position 
 of her Atlantic city, her navigable lakes and rivers, and 
 her invaluable and exhaustless internal resources, have put 
 under her control, should never be yielded by a high- 
 minded and patriotic people. 
 
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