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intent on its own darling project, the Erie Canal
Meanwhile New York, the other great rival for Western trade, was
intent on its own darling project, the Erie Canal. In 1808, three
years before the building of the Cumberland Road, Joshua Forman
offered a bill in favor of the canal in the Legislature of New
York. In plain but dignified language this document stated that
New York possessed ‘the best route of communication between the
Atlantic and western waters,’ and that it held ‘the first
commercial rank in the United States.’ The bill also noted that,
while ’several of our sister States’ were seeking to secure ‘the
trade of that wide extended country,’ their natural advantages
were ‘vastly inferior.’ Six hundred dollars was the amount
appropriated for a brief survey, and Congress was asked to vote
aid for the construction of the ‘Buffalo-Utica Canal.’ The matter
was widely talked about but action was delayed. Doubt as to the
best route to be pursued caused some discussion. If the western
terminus were to be located on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the
Oswego, as some advocated, would produce not make its way to
Montreal instead of to New York? In 1810 a new committee was
appointed and, though their report favored the paralleling of the
course of the Mohawk and Oswego rivers, their engineer, James
Geddes, gave strength to the party which believed a direct canal
would best serve the interests of the State. It is worth noting
that Livingston and Fulton were added to the committee in 1811.

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was again brought up by Judge Platt in the autumn of 1816
The War of 1812 suspended all talk of the canal, but the subject
was again brought up by Judge Platt in the autumn of 1816. With
alacrity strong men came to the aid of the measure. De Witt
Clinton”s Memorial of 1816 addressed to the State Legislature may
well rank with Washington”s letter to Harrison in the documentary
history of American commercial development. It sums up the
geographical position of New York with reference to the Great
Lakes and the Atlantic, her relationship to the West and to
Canada, the feasibility of the proposed route from an engineering
standpoint, the timeliness of the moment for such a work of
improvement, the value that the canal would give to the state
lands of the interior, and the trade that it would bring to the
towns along its pathway.

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rivers, but it was on the Mississippi and its branches,
especially the Ohio, that they played their most important part
in the history of American inland commerce
Such men and the craft they handled were known on the Atlantic
rivers, but it was on the Mississippi and its branches,
especially the Ohio, that they played their most important part
in the history of American inland commerce. Before the beginning
of the nineteenth century wagons and Conestogas were bringing
great loads of merchandise to such points on the headwaters as
Brownsville, Pittsburgh, and Wheeling. As early as 1782, we are
told, Jacob Yoder, a Pennsylvania German, set sail from the
Monongahela country with the first flatboat to descend the Ohio
and Mississippi. As the years passed, the number of such craft
grew constantly larger. The custom of fixing the widespreading
horns of cattle on the prow gave these boats the alternative name
of ‘broadhorns,’ but no accurate classification can be made of
the various kinds of craft engaged in this vast traffic.
Everything that would float, from rough rafts to finished barges,
was commandeered into service, and what was found unsuitable for
the strenuous purposes of commercial transportation was palmed
off whenever possible on unsuspecting emigrants en route to the
lands of promise beyond.

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laid with stone, the new era of American inland travel
progressed
Along this thirty-seven-foot road, of which twenty-four feet were
laid with stone, the new era of American inland travel
progressed. The array of two-wheeled private equipages and other
family carriages, the stagecoaches of bright color, and the
carts, Dutch wagons, and Conestogas, gave token of what was soon
to be witnessed on the great roads of a dozen States in the next
generation. Here, probably, the first distinction began to be
drawn between the taverns for passengers and those patronized by
the drivers of freight. The colonial taverns, comparatively few
and far between, had up to this time served the traveling public,
high and low, rich and poor, alike. But in this new era members
of Congress and the elite of Philadelphia and neighboring towns
were not to be jostled at the table by burly hostlers, drivers,
wagoners, and hucksters. Two types of inns thus came quickly into
existence: the tavern entertained the stagecoach traffic, while
the democratic roadhouse served the established lines of
Conestogas, freighters, and all other vehicles which poured from
every town, village, and hamlet upon the great thoroughfare
leading to the metropolis on the Delaware.

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ambitious, was seriously handicapped
It soon developed, however, that Baltimore, both powerful and
ambitious, was seriously handicapped. In order to retain her
commanding position as the metropolis of Western trade she was
compelled to resort to a new and untried method of transportation
which marks an era in American history.

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preeminently important as a means of transporting commodities, by
the beginning of the eighteenth century the land routes from New
York to New England, from New York across New Jersey to
Philadelphia, and those radiating from Philadelphia in every
direction, were coming into general use
While the coastwise trade between the colonies was still
preeminently important as a means of transporting commodities, by
the beginning of the eighteenth century the land routes from New
York to New England, from New York across New Jersey to
Philadelphia, and those radiating from Philadelphia in every
direction, were coming into general use. The date of the opening
of regular freight traffic between New York and Philadelphia is
set by the reply of the Governor of New Jersey in 1707 to a
protest against monopolies granted on one of the old widened
Indian trails between Burlington and Amboy. ‘At present,’ he
says, ‘everybody is sure, ONCE A FORTNIGHT, to have an
opportunity of sending any quantity of goods, great or small, at
reasonable rates, without being in danger of imposition; and the
sending of this wagon is so far from being a grievance or
monopoly, THAT BY THIS MEANS AND NO OTHER, a trade has been
carried on between Philadelphia, Burlington, Amboy, and New York,
which was never known before.’

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been sold, although only one-half of the proposed city had been
‘cleared
At Washington Baily found that lots to the value of $278,000 had
been sold, although only one-half of the proposed city had been
‘cleared.’ It was to be forty years ere travelers could speak
respectfully of what is now the beautiful city of Washington. In
these earlier days, the streets were mudholes divided by vacant
fields and ‘beautified by trees, swamps, and cows.’

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Martin Madej - Ferrari

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was again brought up by Judge Platt in the autumn of 1816
The War of 1812 suspended all talk of the canal, but the subject
was again brought up by Judge Platt in the autumn of 1816. With
alacrity strong men came to the aid of the measure. De Witt
Clinton”s Memorial of 1816 addressed to the State Legislature may
well rank with Washington”s letter to Harrison in the documentary
history of American commercial development. It sums up the
geographical position of New York with reference to the Great
Lakes and the Atlantic, her relationship to the West and to
Canada, the feasibility of the proposed route from an engineering
standpoint, the timeliness of the moment for such a work of
improvement, the value that the canal would give to the state
lands of the interior, and the trade that it would bring to the
towns along its pathway.

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passion which the first generation of pioneers had for the
wilderness
In direct contradiction to this longing for society was the
passion which the first generation of pioneers had for the
wilderness. When the population of one settlement became too
thick, they were seized by an irresistible impulse to ‘follow the
migration,’ as the expression went. The easy independence of the
first hunter-agriculturalist was upset by the advance of
immigration. His range was curtailed, his freedom limited. His
very breath seems to have become difficult. So he sold out at a
phenomenal profit, put out his fire, shouldered his gun, called
his dog, and set off again in search of the solitude he craved.

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