Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854

Essay on Bibliography

Essay on Bibliography 1. MANUSClUPT COLLECTIONS The first efforts to improve the Mohawk route to the interior of New York State in the 1790s by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company can be followed in greatest detail in the voluminous Philip Schuyler Papers in the New York Public Library and in the Elkanah Watson Papers in the New York State Library at Albany. For the political history of the Erie Canal after 1810, the basic manuscript source is the De Witt Clinton Papers in the Columbia University Library. This collection is essential for the background of the canal laws of 1816 and 1817, the politics of canal construction, and the operation of the canal until Clinton's death in 1828. Political opposition to Clintonian sponsorship of the Erie Canal is best traced in the Martin Van Buren Papers in the Library of Congress. Even after Van Buren left New York for Washington, letters to and from Democrats in New York show the Erie Canal as a major issue in Jacksonian politics. The William L. Marcy Papers in the Library of Congress supplement the Van Buren Papers and are more directly related to canal policies as Marcy was comptroller from 1823 to 1829 and governor from 1833 to 1839, and was caught in the Barnburner-Hunker feud which divided the New York Democracy. The Peter A. Porter Papers at the Buffalo and Erie 420 Essay on Bibliography County Historical Society are useful as they include the papers of General Peter B. Porter, canal commissioner, anti-Clintonian political leader from Black Rock, and contestant in the Buffalo-Black Rock struggle for the canal terminus harbor. Also at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society are the Joseph Ellicott Letterbooks , containing fair copies of Joseph Ellicott's correspondence relating to the support of the canal project by the Holland Land Company. The William C. Bouck Papers in the Collection of Regional History of the Cornell University Library and the Samuel B. Ruggles Papers in the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress have particular usefulness as both men were political leaders in their respective parties and served also as acting canal commissioners . The Bouck Papers reveal the Hunker support for the enlargement program and contain detailed reports of canal engineers to Bouck as canal commissioner or party leader. The Ruggles Papers show the Whig attitude toward internal improvements and Ruggles' experiences on the western section of the canal. Also basic for Whig canal politics are the Thurlow Weed Papers at the University of Rochester Library. Papers of engineers active on the construction of the Erie Canal or the enlargement are the Canvass White Papers in the Collection of Regional History at Cornell, the David Thomas Papers in the New York State Library, and the John B. Jervis Papers in the Jervis Public Library at Rome. The manuscript of the Jervis autobiography affords an excellent account of the training of an engineer on the Erie Canal. The Myron Holley Papers in the New York State Library show Holley's contribution as an acting commissioner and loyal Clintonian to the construction of the canal and also his defense against the charges of his Essay on Bibliography 421 misuse of state funds. The Simon Newton Dexter Papers at Cornell University include the records of the first packet boat navigation company on the Erie Canal, and the New York State Comptroller Papers in the New York Public Library are a rich source for the reports of officials charged with the day-by-day operation of the New York canals. One of the most extensive canal collections in New York State is found in the Henry O'Reilly Papers at the New-York Historical Society. As a resident of Rochester and Lockport and a Democratic editor, O'Reilly worked zealously for the speedy completion of the enlargement of the Erie Canal. With his papers are materials he gathered for a history of the New York canals. A smaller collection of his papers is held by the Rochester Public Library. 2. PUBLISHED LETTERS AND MEMOIRS A basic source for any study of the New York canals is the commemorative volume by Cadwallader Colden, Memoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New Y01·k Canals (New York, 1825). Colden...