From 1807 to 1815 two changes had a marked effect upon the national attitude toward internal improvements. Before the outbreak of the European wars manufactures had made some progress in New England and in Pennsylvania. During the first struggle, and before the peace of Amiens, the only serious obstacle to American industry was the tendency to divert capital to wheat raising, shipbuilding and foreign trade. Prices were high, and the makers of goods found encouragement in large profits. With the cessation of hostilities American manufacturers looked to Congress for protection, for foreign goods poured into the country in such quantities and at such prices as to threaten the destruction of domestic production.
At the most, however, the manufacturing population was relatively small, but the disturbances to industry from 1815 to 1818 were such as to throw many out of employment, and to bring to the verge of bankruptcy and starvation those who had been engaged in shipbuilding and foreign trade. A great exodus to the interior was the result. In wagons, on horseback, or on foot—sometimes using handcarts, sleds and wheelbarrows to carry their provisions and light luggage—emigrants crowded the wooded paths that led to the West, where they might find conditions more favorable to independent livelihood.
All these conditions conspired to increase the depression in the East, and drive her people into agriculture and the development of the interior; while the opening of the Mississippi by the steamboat added to the attractions of the rich valleys in the Middle West. But upon his arrival in the West the newcomer found himself beyond the range of any market except New Orleans. To reach this market he "would produce or get together a quantity of corn, flour, bacon and such articles. He would build a flat-bottomed boat on the shore of some river or large creek, load his wares into it, and, awaiting the rise, with a few of his negroes to assist him, would float down to New Orleans. The voyage was long, tedious and expensive. When he arrived there he found himself in a strange city, filled with sharpers ready to take advantage of his necessities. Everybody combined against him to profit by his ignorance of business, want of friends or commercial connections, and nine times out of ten he returned a broken merchant. His journey home was performed on foot, through three or four nations of Indians inhabiting the western parts of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. He returned to a desolate farm, which had been neglected whilst he had been gone. One crop was lost by absence and another by taking it to market. This kind of business was persevered in astonishingly for several years, to the great injury and utter ruin of a great many people." It was the demand for safe transportation arising out of this situation which made Roosevelt's steamboat enterprise a success.
DEVELOPMENT OF COASTWISE COMMERCE.
The British blockade of our coast during the war of 1812 had a marked effect upon the development of inland routes of transportation, as may be seen from the following: "The interruption of the coasting trade was indeed a very serious affair. For years past that trade had given occupation to thousands of coasters and tens of thousands of sailors. The shoes made at Lynn, the Yankee notions of Connecticut, the cotton cards, the domestic cottons, the playing cards produced in New England, the flour of the Middle States, the East India goods brought in from abroad had found a ready market at Charleston, Savannah and Augusta, whence great quantities of rice and cotton were brought North. On the arrival of the British fleet this trade, no longer to be carried on in safety by water, began of necessity to be carried on by land. At first some merchants at Boston, having chartered a few wagons, despatched them with loads to Philadelphia, and even to Baltimore. This was enough. The hint was taken. A new industry sprang up, and by early summer the roads leading southward exhibited one continuous stream of huge canvas-covered wagons tugged along by double or triple teams of horses or of oxen. No distance was then too great, and hundreds of them would make their way from Salem and Boston to Augusta and Savannah. An estimate made towards the close of the year (1814) places the number of wagons thus employed at four thousand, and the number of cattle, horses and oxen at twenty thousand; nor does this seem excessive, for a traveler who drove from New York to Richmond declares that he passed two hundred and sixty wagons on the way."
THE CAPITALIZATION OF TURNPIKES.
Both overland trade and westward migration drew attention to the importance of good roads, both swelled the receipts of turnpike companies, and gave encouragement to investment of local capital in transportation improvement. By 1804 the Lancaster road had been extended to Pittsburg, and a regular stage line established which made a trip each way once a week. State governments lent every encouragement to the building of turnpike roads, even to the extent of subscribing to their stock. From contemporary writings and charter grants, it is estimated that nearly eight hundred turnpike companies were organized before the end of the war of 1812. Pennsylvania was pre-eminent in granting liberal charters, and toll rights, thereby encouraging the people of the more thickly settled districts to make such improvements for themselves. The corporations thus formed had little difficulty in obtaining capital subscriptions, whether for the construction of turnpikes or bridges, or for the operation of ferries. To the stock of these corporations several of the states subscribed in varying amounts. Although a few toll roads were constructed before that time, the turnpike movement may be said to date from the opening of the nineteenth century. Turnpikes (so called from the revolving, or turning bar, or pike which, when set across a toll road, prevented passage until charges were paid) were macadamized or otherwise improved at a cost varying from $500 to $10,000 per mile. Almost without exception they followed in a general way the old lines which had been worked out when travel on foot or on horseback was the chief method of communication, but wherever possible they were made straight, going over and not around hills and other obstacles. When the Boston and Salem turnpike was built a small but deep pond was encountered, but instead of going around the road crossed on a floating bridge. The construction of bridges and the operation of ferries were parts of this larger turnpike movement, and like the turnpikes themselves, they were usually disappointing to those who had invested with the hope of large dividends. At best, this movement did but little to supply the great need for improved transportation. To passenger service it was a great boon, in that it added much to personal comfort, though the time and cost of travel were little reduced. It required five dollars and fifty cents to pay tolls from Philadelphia to New York, besides the hotel bills and other expenses of the road. It took a week to go from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. What the country most needed—a cheap method of handling the bulky products of the interior—was not supplied. Freight was carried upon the turnpike with great difficulty and expense, and heavy goods were compelled to remain untouched on account of the high tolls.
REVIVAL OF CANAL CONSTRUCTION.
To meet this situation, canals had been proposed long before the period of turnpike building, and some surveys had been made, but because of lack of capital, construction was deferred. The earliest projects were for short cuts around rapids or falls, or between neighboring waters, but bolder plans followed. The first canal of any importance actually begun in the United States was the two-mile cut through the rocks about the South Hadley falls of the Connecticut. The Massachusetts legislature passed an act in 1792 incorporating the "Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Connecticut River." Work was begun at once with Dutch capital, and in two years the canal was completed.
The Santee canal in South Carolina was the first large work of this kind constructed in the United States. It connected the Santee river with the Cooper river at Charleston, and it was opened in 1800. Its length was twenty-two miles, and its cost $600,000.