fifty miles in from ten to twelve hours. The increased prosperity of New York, growing out of this immense traffic by steamboats alone, is very great, but even this is small when compared with the navigation of the Mississippi and the other western rivers. In 1856 there were over one thousand steamboats and propellers on the western waters, costing not less than nineteen millions of dollars, and of a carrying capacity of four hundred and forty-three thousand tons. Of these boats, the smallest was the Major Darien, of ten tons, built at Freedom in 1852; and the largest was the Eclipse, of one thousand one hundred and seventeen tons, built at New Albany the same year. Thus, on the western waters, in the short space of forty-five years, steam created a business that absorbed nineteen millions of dollars in steamboats alone.

Up to the year 1811, the only regular method of transportation had been by means of flat boats, which consumed three or four months in the passage from New Orleans to Pittsburg. The price of passage was then one hundred and sixty dollars; freight, six dollars and seventy-five cents per hundred pounds. The introduction of steam has reduced the price of passage between these two cities to thirty dollars, and merchandise is carried the whole distance for a price which may be regarded as merely nominal. Besides this great saving of time and money effected by steam navigation on these waters, the comparative safety of steam conveyance is an item which especially deserves our notice. Before the steam dispensation began, travellers and merchants were obliged to trust their lives and property to the bargemen, many of whom were suspected, with very good reason, to be in confederacy with the land robbers who infested the shores of the Ohio, and the pirates who resorted to the islands of the Mississippi. These particulars being understood, we are prepared to estimate the value and importance of the services which the steam engine has rendered to the commerce and prosperity of the western states.

In 1811, Messrs. Fulton and Livingston, having established a ship-yard at Pittsburg for the purpose of introducing steam navigation on the western waters, built an experimental boat for this service and this was the first steamboat that ever floated on the western rivers. It was furnished with a stern wheel and two masts for Mr. Fulton believed, at that time, that the occasional use of sails would be indispensable. This first western steamboat was called the Orleans; her capacity was one hundred tons. In the winter of 1812, she made her first trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days.

The first appearance of this vessel on the Ohio river produced, as the reader may suppose, not a little excitement and admiration. A steamboat at that day was, to common observers, as great a wonder as a navigable balloon would be at the present. The banks of the river, in some places, were thronged with spectators, gazing in speechless astonishment at the puffing and smoking phenomenon. The average speed of this boat was only about three miles per hour. Before her ability to move through the water without the assistance of sails or oars had been fully exemplified, comparatively few persons believed that she could possibly be made to answer any purpose of real utility. In fact, she had made several voyages before the general prejudice began to subside, and for some months, many of the river merchants preferred the old mode of transportation, with all its risks, delays, and extra expense, rather than make use of such a contrivance as a steamboat, which, to their apprehensions, appeared too marvellous and miraculous for the business of every-day life. How slow are the masses of mankind to adopt improvements, even when they appear to be most obvious and unquestionable!

The second steamboat of the west, was a diminutive vessel called the Comet. She was rated at twenty-five tons. Daniel D. Smith was the owner, and D. French the builder of this boat. Her machinery was on a plan for which French had obtained a patent in 1809. She went to Louisville in the summer of 1813, and descended to New Orleans in the spring of 1814. She afterward made two voyages to Natchez, and was then sold, taken to pieces, and the engine was put up in a cotton factory. The Vesuvius was the next; she was built by Mr. Fulton, at Pittsburg, for a company, the several members of which resided at New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. She sailed under the command of Captain Frank Ogden, for New Orleans, in the spring of 1814. From New Orleans, she started for Louisville, in July of the same year, but was grounded on a sand-bar, seven hundred miles up the Mississippi, where she remained until the 3d of December following, when, being floated off by the tide, she returned to New Orleans. In 1815-16, she made regular trips for several months, from New Orleans to Natchez, under the command of Captain Clement. This gentleman was soon after succeeded by Captain John D. Hart, and while approaching New Orleans, with a valuable cargo on board, she took fire and burned to the water's edge. After being submerged for several months, her hulk was raised and refitted. She was afterward in the Louisville trade, and was condemned in 1819.

In 1818, the first steamboat was built for Lake Erie and the upper lakes, at Black Rock, on the Niagara river, for the late Dr. I. B. Stuart, of Albany, N. Y., by Noah Brown, of New York city. She was a very handsome vessel, 360 tons burden, brig rigged, and her engine, on the plan of a Boulton and Watt square engine, was made by Robert McQueen, at the corner of Centre and Duane streets, New York city; her cylinder was 40 inches diameter, 4 feet stroke. The materials for making the boiler were sent from New York, and the boiler was made at Black Rock 9 feet diameter, 24 feet long a circular boiler, with one return flue, called a kidney flue, seldom, if ever, carrying more than nine inches of steam. This steamer was called the Walk-in-the-Water, after a celebrated Indian chief in Michigan. Her engines were transported from New York to Albany by sloops, and from Albany to Buffalo by large six and eight horse Pennsylvania teams. Some of the engine was delivered in fifteen days time, and some was on the road about twenty-five days.

The trip from Black Rock, or Buffalo, to Detroit, consumed about forty hours in good weather, using thirty-six to forty cords of wood the trip. The price of passage in the main cabin was eighteen dollars; from Buffalo to Erie (Penn.), six dollars; to Cleveland, twelve dollars; to Sandusky (Ohio), fifteen dollars; to Detroit, eighteen dollars. ! The strength of the rapids at the head of the Niagara river, between Buffalo and Black Rock, was so great, that besides the power of the engine, the steamer had to have the aid of eight yoke of oxen to get her up on to the lake, a distance of about two and one-half miles. In those days, the passenger and freighting business was so small, that one dividend only was made to the owners for the first three years from the earnings of the steamer. In 1821, in the fall, the steamer was totally lost in a terrible gale. On the coming winter, a new steamer was built at Buffalo, by Mr. Noah Brown of New York a very strong, brig-rigged vessel. She was called the Superior, flush decks fore and aft; the first steamer, the Walk-in-theWater, having had a high quarter or poop deck.

Compare the time and expense of travelling in those days with the present time! Mr. Calhoun (now living), the engineer of the Walk-in-the-Water, says, "Every two years I used to return to New York from Buffalo in the fall, and in the spring from New York to Buffalo. I have been three and four days, by stage, to Albany; never less than three days, and sometimes near five days; the stage fare was ten dollars to Albany. From Albany to Buffalo, I have been ten days in getting through; the shortest time was eight days;

the stage fare through, was twenty-one dollars. How is it now? My usual expense in going to Buffalo from Albany was thirty dollars, including meals and sleeping." Such facts show the advantages we have obtained from the use of steam in our river navigation.

The boats that then plied upon the Hudson river, would not be sufficient to carry the passengers' baggage of the present day. The first boat was only 160 tons, while the New World, built in 1847, was of 1400. The latter has made the trip from New York to Albany in seven hours and fifteen minutes, including nine landings of say five minutes each; the actual running time being six hours and twenty minutes; distance, one hundred and fifty miles - performed by the North River in thirty-six hours.

IV. FEDERAL AID FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS

A. Internal Improvements and the National Defense, 18191

In the early part of the century, internal improvements were considered to be closely related to the national defense. Hence there was a feeling that the United States government ought to aid in the building of such improvements. On this subject, John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War in President Monroe's Cabinet, advised as follows:

It remains, in relation to the defence of the Atlantic frontier, to consider the means of communication between it and the western States, which require the aid of the Government. Most of the observations made relative to the increased strength and capacity of the country to bear up under the pressure of war, from the coastwise communication, are applicable in a high degree at present, and are daily becoming more so, to those with the western States; and should a war for conquest ever be waged against us, (an event not probable, but not to be laid entirely out of view,) the roads and canals necessary to complete the communication with that portion of our country would be of the utmost importance.

The interest of commerce and the spirit of rivalry between the great Atlantic cities will do much to perfect the means of intercourse with the west. The most important lines of communication appear to be from Albany to the lakes; from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond, to the Ohio river; and from Charleston and Augusta to the Tennessee - all of which are now commanding the

1 Report of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, on Internal Improvements. American State Papers (Washington, 1834). Series Miscellaneous, II, 535-6.

attention, in a greater or less degree, of the sections of the country immediately interested. But in such great undertakings, so interesting in every point of view to the whole Union, and which may ultimately become necessary to its defence, the expense ought not to fall wholly on the portions of the country more immediately interested. As the Government has a deep stake in them, and as the system of defence will not be perfect without their completion, it ought at least to bear a proportional share of the expense of their construction.

I proceed next to consider the roads and canals connected with the defence of our northern frontier. That portion of it which extends to the east of Lake Champlain has not heretofore been the scene of extensive military operations, and I am not sufficiently acquainted with the nature of the country to venture an opinion whether we may hereafter be called on to make considerable military efforts in that quarter. Without, then, designating any military improvements as connected with this portion of our northern frontier, I would suggest the propriety, should Congress approve of the plan for a military survey of the country, to be hereafter proposed, to make a survey of it the duty of the engineers who may be designated for that purpose.

For the defence of the other part of this line of frontier, the most important objects are, a canal or water communication between Albany and Lake George and Lake Ontario, and between Pittsburg and Lake Erie. The two former haye been commenced by the State of New York, and will, when completed, connected with the great inland navigation along the coast, enable the Government, at a moderate expense and in a short time, to transport munitions of war, and to concentrate its troops from any portion of the Atlantic States, fresh and unexhausted by the fatigue of marching, on the inland frontier of the State of New York. The road, commenced by order of the Executive, from Plattsburg to Sackett's Harbor, is essentially connected with military operations on this portion of the northern frontier. A water communication from Pittsburg to Lake Erie would greatly increase our power on the upper lakes. The Allegany river, by its main branch, is said to be navigable within seven miles of Lake Erie, and by French creek within sixteen miles. Pittsburg is the great military depot of the country to the west of the Alleganies, and, if it were connected by a canal with Lake Erie, would furnish military supplies with facility to the upper lakes, as well as to the country watered by the Mississippi. If to these communications we add a road from Detroit to Ohio, which has already been com