[78] March 18, 1786, John Fitch was granted by New Jersey “the sole and exclusive right of constructing making using and employing or navigating, all and every species or kind of boats, impelled by the force of fire or steam” within the limits of that state. Delaware gave him similar rights in 1787 and New York, likewise, the same year. In 1798 Fitch’s grant in New York, which was to have run fourteen years, was canceled and Livingston given a monopoly for twenty years providing within a year he run a steamboat at four miles an hour. This he failed to do, but got his grant renewed in 1803, and again extended until the successful operation of the _Clermont_ in 1807. [79] “Messages and Papers,” Richardson, I, 584. [80] Calhoun: “Works II,” 190. “American Nation” XIII, 253. [81] “American Nation,” XIV, 231. [82] “Laws of the United States,” VI., 120. [83] MacDonald, “American Nation” Vol. XV, 134. [84] “American Nation,” Vol. XV, pp. 136-137. [85] Richardson, “Messages and Papers,” VIII, 120-122. [86] “The American Year Book,” 208. CHAPTER IV RAILROADS During the period of the development of the canals there was growing up along side of them an agency for transportation that was destined practically to put them out of business. Engineers in both Europe and America were straining every energy to apply the steam engine to the propulsion of wagons along a highway. No one at first looked upon the railroad as a separate and distinct industry. For years upon roads over which there was much hauling of heavy loads planks had been placed in the tracks to prevent rutting. These planks had developed into rigidly set timbers or rails either attached to cross timbers or to stones set in the roadway. A little later iron straps were fastened to the tops of the rails to lessen wear and friction. It was found that a horse could haul on these tramways several times as much as he could on the dirt roadway. The steam engine had revolutionized industry and was turning all sorts of machinery with an efficiency unknown before, why then could it not be applied to propel vehicles? In England George Stephenson and associates were proving that it could. But prior to their time many thinkers of America believed in it. John Fitch, the half crazy inventor of an early steamboat, had built a model locomotive. Oliver Evans, who had placed wheels under a steamboat of his invention (1804) and run it over the streets of Philadelphia, predicted “The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines, from one city to another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen to twenty miles an hour.” His vision went still further; he saw what most people think to be absolutely modern innovations: “A carriage will set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York, the same day ... and travel by night as well as by