HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUME 14 [Illustration: VIEW OF OLD ERIE CANAL BASIN AT BUFFALO] HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUME 14 The Great American Canals BY ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT _With Maps and Illustrations_ Volume II The Erie Canal [Illustration] THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY CLEVELAND, OHIO 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 11 I. THE MOHAWK AND ITS IMPROVEMENT 15 II. EARLY PROMOTERS AND THEIR DREAMS 43 III. CLINTON'S MEMORIAL 62 IV. PLANNING, BUILDING, AND OPENING 104 V. LOCAL INFLUENCES OF THE CANAL 152 VI. THE CANAL FUND AND ENLARGEMENTS 178 APPENDIXES 211 ILLUSTRATIONS I. VIEW OF OLD ERIE CANAL BASIN AT BUFFALO _Frontispiece_ II. MAP AND PROFILE OF THE ERIE CANAL (from Poussin's "Travaux d'améliorations intérieures ... des États-Unis d'Amérique de 1824 à 1831"--Paris, 1834) 107 III. A CANAL LOCK AT ROME, NEW YORK, TOUCHING THE SITE OF FORT STANWIX 117 IV. VIEW OF CANAL AT LITTLE FALLS, NEW YORK, SHOWING LOCK 37 IN THE DISTANCE 133 V. MAP OF ERIE CANAL, SHOWING IMPROVEMENTS PROPOSED (from report of February 12, 1901) 205 PREFACE This second monograph on the great American canals which played the part of important highways westward, is devoted to an outline of the Erie Canal. In the comparatively short space at our disposal for so great a theme, it has been possible only to sketch some of the leading features of our subject, namely, the early history of the Mohawk Valley route, the origin of the canal idea, its building, the celebration of its completion, a catalogue of its finances and enlargements, and its effect. Our sources have been the state _Reports_, Sweet's _Documentary History_, Hawley's _Origin of the Erie Canal_, and the various state and local histories which treat of the subject. A monograph, in the form of a thesis, by Julius Winden, has been of great advantage, as will be indicated, in presenting the influence of the Erie Canal upon the population along its course. The author is under a debt of gratitude to Hon. A. R. Spofford of the Congressional Library, Hon. John S. Billings of the New York Public Library, and T. M. Ripley of Marietta, Ohio, for advice and assistance. A. B. H. MARIETTA, OHIO, March 4, 1904. The Great American Canals Volume II The Erie Canal CHAPTER I THE MOHAWK AND ITS IMPROVEMENT