[1164] Act of Nov. 10, 1815, Laws of Vermont, 1815, 20.
[1165] Ohio, for example, passed two laws for the "protection" of its citizens owning steamboats. This act provided that no craft propelled by steam, operated under a license from the New York monopoly, should land or receive passengers at any point on the Ohio shores of Lake Erie unless Ohio boats were permitted to navigate the waters of that lake within the jurisdiction of New York. For every passenger landed in violation of these acts the offender was made subject to a fine of $100. (Chap, xxv, Act of Feb. 18, 1822, and chap. ii, Act of May 23, 1822, Laws of Ohio, 1822.)
[1166] Niles's Register for these years is full of accounts of the building, launching, and departures and arrivals of steam craft throughout the whole interior of the country.
[1167] See Blane: An Excursion Through the United States and Canada, by "An English Gentleman," 119-21. For an accurate account of the commercial development of the West see also Johnson: History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce, i, 213-15.
On March 1, 1819, Flint saw a boat on the stocks at Jeffersonville, Indiana, 180 feet long, 40 feet broad, and of 700 tons burden. (Flint's Letters, in E. W. T.: Thwaites, ix, 164.)
[1168] Blane, 118.
[1169] Annals, 14th Cong. 2d Sess. 296.
[1170] Ib. 361.
[1171] See debate in the House, ib. 851-923; and in the Senate, ib. 166-70.
[1172] Ib. 924-33.