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.