5. A measure of this kind will have a benign tendency in raising the value of the national domains, in expediting the sale, and enabling the payment. Our national debt may thus, in a short time, be extinguished. Our taxes of course will be diminished, and a considerable portion of revenue may then be expended in great public improvements; in encouraging the arts and sciences; in patronising the operations of industry; in fostering the inventions of genius, and in diffusing the blessings of knowledge.
6. However serious the fears which have been entertained of a dismemberment of the Union by collisions between the north and the south, it is to be apprehended that the most imminent danger lies in another direction, and that a line of separation may be eventually drawn between the atlantic and the western states, unless they are cemented by a common, an ever acting and a powerful interest. The commerce of the ocean, and the trade of the lakes, passing through one channel, supplying the wants, increasing the wealth, and reciprocating the benefits of each great section of the empire, will form an imperishable cement of connexion, and an indissoluble bond of union. New-York is both atlantic and western, and the only state in which this union of interest can be formed and perpetuated, and in which this great centripetal power can be energetically applied. Standing on this exalted eminence, with power to prevent a train of the most extensive and afflicting calamities that ever visited the world, (for such a train will inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union,) she will justly be considered an enemy to the human race, if she does not exert for this purpose the high faculties which the Almighty has put into her hands.
Lastly. It may be confidently asserted, that this canal, as to the extent of its route, as to the countries which it connects, and as to the consequences which it will produce, is without a parallel in the history of mankind. The union of the Baltic and Euxine; of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; of the Euxine and the Caspian; and of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, has been projected or executed by the chiefs of powerful monarchies, and the splendor of the design has always attracted the admiration of the world. It remains for a free state to create a new era in history, and to erect a work, more stupendous, more magnificent, and more beneficial, than has hitherto been achieved by the human race. Character is as important to nations as to individuals, and the glory of a republic, founded on the promotion of the general good, is the common property of all its citizens.
We have thus discharged with frankness and plainness, and with every sentiment of respect, a great duty to ourselves, to our fellow-citizens, and to posterity, in presenting this subject to the fathers of the commonwealth. And may that Almighty Being, in whose hands are the destinies of states and nations, enlighten your councils and invigorate your exertions, in favour of the best interests of our beloved country.
CHAPTER IV
PLANNING, BUILDING, AND OPENING
By an act of the New York legislature of April 17, 1816,[32] the canal commissioners were ordered to send to the legislature “a plain and comprehensive Report of their proceedings;” their duty was to find a route for the projected canal, estimate the expense, ascertain on what terms the state of New York could secure loans, and to apply for donations of both land and money.[33]
The committee met at New York May 17, 1816, and organized. The proposed line of the canal was divided into three sections and an engineer was appointed for each. The Western Section embraced the portion of the route between Lake Erie and the Seneca River; the Middle Section was that between the Seneca River and Rome on the Mohawk; the Eastern Section extended from Rome to Albany on the Hudson. The only point at which there was serious question as to the best route of the canal was between Lake Erie and the Genesee country; and the question was whether to pass south or north of the “mountain ridge” which lay south of the shore of Lake Ontario. Four engineers were sent to make an examination. Two commissioners and engineers were sent to inspect the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts, “the best artificial navigation in the United States.”