Historic Highways of America Volume XIV Part 7

III _And be it further enacted_, That it shall and may be lawful for the said ca.n.a.l commissioners, and each of them, by themselves, and by every superintendent, agent, and engineer, employed by them, to enter upon, take possession of, and use all and singular any lands, waters, and streams necessary for the prosecution of the improvements intended by this act, and to make all such ca.n.a.ls, feeders, d.y.k.es, locks, dams, and other works and devices as they may think proper for making said improvements, doing nevertheless no unnecessary damage; and that in case any lands, waters or streams taken and appropriated for any of the purposes aforesaid, shall not be given or granted to the people of this state, it shall be the duty of the ca.n.a.l commissioners from time to time, and as often as they think reasonable and proper, to cause application to be made to the justices of the supreme court, or any two of them, for the appointment of appraisers; and the said justices shall thereupon, by writing, appoint not less than three, nor more than five discreet disinterested persons as appraisers, who shall, before they enter upon the duties of their appointment, severally take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, before some person authorised to administer oaths, faithfully and impartially to perform the trust and duties required of them by this act, which oath or affirmation shall be filed with the secretary of the ca.n.a.l commissioners; and it shall be the duty of the said appraisers, or a majority of them, to make a just and equitable estimate and appraisal of the loss and damage, if any, over and above the benefit and advantage to the respective owners and proprietors or parties interested in the premises so required for the purposes aforesaid, by and in consequence of making and constructing any of the works aforesaid; and the said appraisers, or a majority of them, shall make regular entries of their determination and appraisal, with an apt and sufficient description of the several premises appropriated for the purposes aforesaid, in a book or books to be provided and kept by the ca.n.a.l commissioners, and certify and sign their names to such entries and appraisal, and in like manner certify their determination as to these several premises which will suffer no damages, or will be benefited more than injured by or in consequence of the works aforesaid; and the ca.n.a.l commissioners shall pay the damages so to be a.s.sessed and appraised, and the fee simple of the premises so appropriated shall be vested in the people of this state.

IV _And be it further enacted_, That whenever, in the opinion of the ca.n.a.l commissioners, it shall be for the interest of this state, for the prosecution of the works contemplated by this act, that all the interest and t.i.tle (if any) in law and equity of the western inland lock navigation company should be vested in the people of this state, it shall be lawful for the said ca.n.a.l commissioners to pa.s.s a resolution to that effect, and that it shall then be lawful for the president of the ca.n.a.l commissioners to cause a copy of such resolution, with a notice signed by himself and the secretary of the said commissioners, to be delivered to the president or other known officer of the said company, notifying the president and directors of the said company that an application will be made to the justices of the supreme court, at a term thereof to be held not less than thirty days from the time of giving such notice, for the appointment of appraisers to estimate the damages to be sustained by the same company, by investing in the people of this state all the lands, waters, ca.n.a.ls, locks, feeders, and appurtenances thereto acquired, used and claimed by the said company, under its act of incorporation, and the several acts amending the same; and it shall be the duty of the justices aforesaid, at the term mentioned in the said notice, and on proof of the service thereof, to appoint, by writing under the seal of the said court, and the hands of at least three of the said justices, not less than three, nor more than five disinterested persons, being citizens of the United States, to estimate and appraise the damages aforesaid; and it shall be the duty of the said appraisers, or a majority of them, to estimate and appraise the damages aforesaid, and severally to certify the same under oath, before an officer authorised to take the acknowledgement of deeds, to be a just, equitable, and impartial appraisal to the best of their judgment and belief, and shall thereupon deliver the same to one of the ca.n.a.l commissioners, who shall report the same to the same court; and if the said court shall be of opinion that the said damages have been fairly and equitably a.s.sessed, the said justices, or any three of them, may certify the same on the same report, and the amount of the said damages and the expenses of the said appraisal shall be audited by the comptroller, and paid on his warrant by the treasurer out of the ca.n.a.l fund; and the people of this state shall thereupon be invested with, and the said ca.n.a.l commissioners may cause to be used, all the lands, waters, streams, ca.n.a.ls, locks, feeders, and appurtenances aforesaid, for the purposes intended by this act.

V _And be it further enacted_, That for the purposes contemplated by this act, and for the payment of the interest and final redemption of the princ.i.p.al of the sums to be borrowed by virtue hereof, there shall be, and hereby are appropriated and pledged, a duty or tax of twelve and a half cents per bushel upon all salt to be manufactured in the western district of this state; a tax of one dollar upon each steamboat pa.s.senger, for each and every trip or voyage such pa.s.senger may be conveyed upon the Hudson river on board of any steamboat over one hundred miles, and half that sum for any distance less than one hundred miles and over thirty miles; the proceeds of all lotteries which shall be drawn in this state, after the sums now granted upon them shall be paid; all the net proceeds of this state from the western inland lock navigation company; all the net proceeds of the said ca.n.a.ls and each part thereof when made; all grants and donations made or to be made for the purpose of making the said ca.n.a.ls; all the duties upon sales at auction, after deducting thereout twenty-three thousand five hundred dollars, annually appropriated to the hospital, the economical school, and the orphan asylum society, and ten thousand dollars hereby appropriated annually for the support of foreign poor in the city of New York.

VI _And be it further enacted_, That from and after the first Tuesday of August next, there shall be paid and collected in the manner now directed by law, upon all salt to be manufactured in the county of Onondaga, a duty of twelve and a half cents per bushel, instead of the present duties, and the like tax or duty of twelve and a half cents per bushel upon all other salt to be manufactured in the western district of this state, which shall be collected by the superintendent of the salt springs, until otherwise directed by the legislature; and for that purpose, he shall have a responsible deputy residing at each place where salt is or may be manufactured, with the like powers and subject to the like duties as his present deputies; and that all the provisions, forfeitures, penalties, and restrictions contained in the laws relative to the duties upon Onondaga salt, so far as the same may be applicable, shall be in force for the purposes of enforcing the payment and collection of the tax or duties upon salt hereby levied and imposed. And further, that the said superintendent, instead of a yearly report to the legislature, shall make a quarter yearly report to the commissioners of the ca.n.a.l fund, and pay into the treasury of this state, on the first Tuesday of February, May, August and November, in each year, all the monies collected by him during the quarter preceding each of those days, deducting in addition to what by law is now allowed to be deducted, five per cent of the duties collected at all other salt works, not situated in the county of Onondaga, and two per cent of the duties upon Onondaga salt, as a compensation for collecting and paying over the same.

VII _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be the duty of the said ca.n.a.l commissioners, to raise the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be appropriated towards the making and completing of the said ca.n.a.ls from the Mohawk river to the Seneca river, and from Lake Champlain to Hudson's river, by causing to be a.s.sessed and levied in such manner as the said commissioners may determine and direct, the said sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, upon the lands and real estate, lying along the route of the said ca.n.a.ls, and within twenty-five miles of the same, on each side thereof: which sum so to be a.s.sessed and levied, shall be a.s.sessed on the said lands and real estate adjacent to the said several ca.n.a.ls, in such proportion for each, as the said commissioners shall determine. And the said commissioners shall have power to make such rules and regulations, and adopt such measures for the a.s.sessing, levying, and collecting the sum or sums of money, either by sale of the said lands or otherwise, as they shall deem meet, and the said a.s.sessment shall be made on said lands, according to the benefit which they shall be considered by the said commissioners, as deriving from the making of the said ca.n.a.ls respectively: _Provided_, That such rules, regulations and measures, shall before they are carried into effect, be sanctioned and approved by the chancellor and judges of the supreme court, or a majority of them: _And provided further_, That if any company or individual subject for such tax, shall subscribe any money or other property towards the completion of the said ca.n.a.ls, the amount of such donation or voluntary subscription, shall, if the same is less than the amount of the tax, be deducted therefrom, and if more, he or they shall be entirely discharged from the said tax.

_And be it further enacted_, That from and after the first day of May next, the aforesaid tax upon steamboat pa.s.sengers, shall be demanded, taken and received, by each captain or master of every steamboat navigating the Hudson river;[75] and that during each month thereafter, in which such boat shall be employed for the conveyance of pa.s.sengers, it shall be the duty of such captain or master, to cause to be delivered to the comptroller of this state, a return or account, sworn to, before some officer authorized to administer oaths, stating the name of the boat, the number of trips made by such boat during such month, and the whole number of pa.s.sengers conveyed on board such boat, at each of the said trips, over one hundred miles, and the number conveyed less than one hundred miles, and over thirty miles, and pay into the treasury of this state the amount of such tax collected during the time mentioned in the said return, deducting three per cent thereof, as a compensation for making such return, and collecting and paying over the said tax: _And further_, That in case of any neglect or refusal in making such return, or collecting and paying over the tax as directed in and by this section, the captain or master so neglecting, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars, besides the amount of the tax so directed to be collected and paid over, to be recovered in an action of debt in the name of the people of this state, and for the use of the aforesaid fund.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is said that the strange name of the city on the Ohio River, Wheeling, is derived from a word _Wheelen_, also meaning "a head on a pole" in another dialect.

[2] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. viii, p. 184.

[3] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. xii, p. 97.

[4] Mr. Watson's _Journal_ is included in his _History of the ...

Western Ca.n.a.ls in the State of New York_ (Albany, 1820).

[5] _Id._, pp. 20-21.

[6] _Laws of the State of New-York_ (New York, 1792), vol. ii, ch. xl.

[7] _Laws of the State of New-York_ (New York, 1793), pp. 13-17.

[8] _History of the ... Western Ca.n.a.ls in the State of New York_, p. 85.

It must be remembered that Watson was writing from memory in 1820; in general his authority may be considered excellent. We have indicated inconsistencies by interrogation points.

[9] _The Report of a Committee appointed to explore the western waters ... for the purpose of prosecuting the Inland Lock Navigation_ (Albany, 1792).

[10] Our source of information on these early Mohawk improvements is _Report of the Directors of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies in the State of New York to the Legislature_, 1796.

[11] _Id._, p. 9, _note_.

[12] _Id._, p. 16.

[13] MS. _Letters on Ca.n.a.ls_ by Philip Schuyler and Simeon De Witt, 1793-94, Lenox Library.

[14] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. xiii, ch. 2.

[15] _History of the ... Western Ca.n.a.ls in the State of New York_, pp.

92-93.

[16] _Id._, pp. 93-94.

[17] Sparks, _Life of Gouverneur Morris_ (Boston, 1832), vol. i, pp.

497-498.

[18] _Id._, p. 498.

[19] _Id._, pp. 498-499.

[20] _Laws of the State of New-York relative to the Ca.n.a.ls_ (Albany, 1825), pp. 38-39.

[21] _Id._, p. 42.

[22] _History of the ... Western Ca.n.a.ls in the State of New York_, p.

67.

[23] M. S. Hawley, _Origin of the Erie Ca.n.a.l_, p. 20. Clinton gave Hawley great credit for his part in promoting the Erie Ca.n.a.l idea--p.

21.

"He [Hawley] was at Colonel Mynderse's office in 1805, attending to the shipment of some flour to market, by the circuitous and uncertain route then in use. Himself and Colonel Mynderse conversing upon the necessities for better facilities, Mr. Hawley said: 'Why not have a ca.n.a.l extend direct into our country, and benefit all--merchants, millers, and farmers.'" Hawley then pointed out on a map that Lake Erie could be made a head of water. "A change having occurred in Mr. Hawley's business, he spent the winter of 1806 and 1807 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and not knowing when he would return to Ontario county, he sketched the first essay, and to preserve it from oblivion, as he said, he procured it to be published there, on the fourteenth day of January, 1807, in the newspaper called the _Commonwealth_."--_Origin of the Erie Ca.n.a.l_, pp. 23-24.

[24] _Id._, pp. 69-70.

[25] _Public Doc.u.ments relating to the New-York Ca.n.a.ls_ (New York, 1821), pp. xlix-l.

[26] _Laws of the State of New-York relative to the Ca.n.a.ls_, p. 47.

[27] _Id._, p. 67.

[28] _Laws of New York_, 1814.

[29] _Public Doc.u.ments relating to Ca.n.a.ls_, pp. li-lii.

[30] "Memorial of the citizens of New-York, in favor of a Ca.n.a.l-Navigation between the great western Lakes and the tide-waters of the Hudson, presented to the a.s.sembly February 21, 1816, and ordered to be printed."--From _Laws of the State of New-York relative to the Ca.n.a.ls_, p. 122.

[31] The Middles.e.x Ca.n.a.l was twenty-seven miles in length and joined Boston Harbor at Charlestown with the Merrimac River. It was incorporated in 1789, begun in 1790 and opened in 1804. Its cost to 1815 was over half a million. It was thirty feet wide at the top, twenty feet wide at the base and three feet deep. The rise from Boston to summit level was one hundred and four feet and the descent to the Merrimac, thirty-two feet. It included twenty locks, seventy-five feet long, ten feet wide at the base and eleven feet wide at the top, capable of locking a boat of fourteen tons. The income from tolls beginning with $7,000 in 1808 had increased to $25,000 in 1815; land beside the ca.n.a.l had increased in value one-third, and New Hampshire timber at once became worth from one to three dollars per ton standing, which before was worth nothing. The success of this ca.n.a.l must be considered as having something to do in the promotion of the Erie Ca.n.a.l.

[32] See appendix A.

[33] The material for the earlier portions of this chapter is largely from the annual reports of the ca.n.a.l commissioners from 1816 to 1825 contained in _Public Doc.u.ments relating to the New-York Ca.n.a.ls_ (New York, 1821), pp. 103-185, 311-333, 344-365, 429-450, and _Laws of the State of New-York relative to the Ca.n.a.ls_, vol. ii, pp. 60-78, 95-118, 150-180.

[34] Appendix B.

[35] M. S. Hawley, _Origin of the Erie Ca.n.a.l_, pp. 41-42; Hawley's source of information was Judge Platt, one of the Council.

[36] _Id._, pp. 42-43. Cf. p. 143, referring to the change of route at Rome and consequent dissatisfaction.

[37] Sparks's _Writings of Washington_, vol. ii, pp. 341, 342.