The Erie Canal, connecting Buffalo and Albany, was begun on the 4th of July, 1817, its most persistent advocate being Governor De Witt Clinton. It was costly, and the majority believed it would never pay expenses. They dubbed it "De Witt Clinton's Ditch," and ridiculed the possibility that it would prove of public benefit. In October, 1825, it was opened for public traffic. It is 363 miles long, having the greatest extent of any canal in the world. It passes through a wonderfully fertile region, which at that time was little more than a wilderness. Immediately towns and villages sprang into existence along its banks. Merchandise could now be carried cheaply from the teeming West, through the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River, to New York City and the Atlantic. Its original cost was $7,600,000, and its earnings were so enormous that in many single years they amounted to half that sum. It is now operated by the State without charge to those using it. No combination of statesmen are wise enough to prevent the occasional recurrence of "hard times." Nearly everyone has a cure for the blight, and the intervals between them are irregular, but they still descend upon us, when most unexpected and when it seems we are least prepared to bear them. No one needs a long memory to recall one or two afflictions of that nature. THE FIRST "HARD TIMES." The first financial stringency visited the country in 1819. The establishment in 1817 of the Bank of the United States had so improved credit and increased the facilities for trade that a great deal of wild speculation followed. The officers of the branch bank in Baltimore were dishonest and loaned more than $2,000,000 beyond its securities. The President stopped the extravagant loans, exposed the rogues, and greatly aided in bringing back the country to a sound financial basis, although the Bank of the United States narrowly escaped bankruptcy--a calamity that would have caused distress beyond estimate. Amid the stirring political times our commerce suffered from the pirates who infested the West Indies. Their depredations became so annoying that in 1819 Commodore Perry, of Lake Erie fame, was sent out with a small squadron to rid the seas of the pests. Before he could accomplish anything, he was stricken with yellow fever and died. Other squadrons were dispatched to southern waters, and in 1822 more than twenty piratical vessels were destroyed in the neighborhood of Cuba. Commodore Porter followed up the work so effectively that the intolerable nuisance was permanently abated. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824.