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

Preface

Preface THE ERIE CANAL has long been celebrated in song, folklore, and fiction. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century its history was told in a comprehensive engineering study. More recently it has attracted attention for its contribution to American economic growth. I have attempted to give a balanced account of the history of the Erie Canal during the period 1792-1854 that brings together such varied aspects as its political sponsorship and opposition, construction and operation, travel and commerce, and its social and cultural significance . I have tried here to show the place of the Erie Canal in the lives of the generations that planned, constructed , and first traveled upon it, and have sought to explain why many saw it as the wonder of their age. Any discussion of the Erie Canal requires designation in time. Today the canal passing boats and barges through gigantic locks between the Hudson River and Lake Erie is the Erie Barge Canal, construction of which began in 1905. Though its route is much the same as that of the Erie Canal of the nineteenth century, it represents the last of three major phases of Erie Canal history. Here I am concerned with the first two phases: the construction and use of the original canal, completed in 1825 and viii Preface often called the "old Erie Canal" or "Clinton's Ditch"; and the enlarged or "improved Erie" on which construction began in 1836 and was completed in 1862. This study, however, closes with the year 1854 as that year saw the climax of the major political contest between the Democrats and Whigs over the enlargement of the canal, and as the consolidation of the New Yark Central Railroad only a year earlier marked the transition from the Canal Era to the Railroad Age in New York. Moreover , in the 1850s New Yorkers turned their attention increasingly away from state conflicts over internal improvements toward the national problem of slavery and the threat of civil war. Research for this study has been supported by grants from the Penrose Fund and the Johnson Fund of the American Philosophical Society and by research grants from Miami University. The latter institution also provided a Summer University Research Fellowship in 1958. I am indebted to Glyndon G. Van Deusen for encouragement and criticism in my initial work on this subject. I also wish to acknowledge the unstinting assistance of Richard N. Wright, secretary of the Canal Society of New York State, who loaned research materials, provided illustrations , and sought to save me from published error. To Albert E. Gayer of Schenectady I am grateful for permission to use his extensive personal canal collection and for the energetic tours on which he guided me over parts of the remains of the Erie Canal. I wish to acknowledge the generous assistance of members of the staffs of the Library of Congress, the Columbia University Library, the New York Public Library , the New-York Historical Society, the New York State Library, the Utica Public Library, the Jervis Public Library in Rome, the Onondaga Historical Society, the Preface ix Cornell University Library, the Rochester Public Library, the University of Rochester Library, the Buffalo Public Library, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, and the Miami University Library. Particular thanks are due Margaret B. Andrews, Assistant Librarian in Charge of Special Collections at the University of Rochester, for assistance spanning many years. lowe a special debt to my wife, Judith M. Shaw, for her help in research and typing and for her critical judgment which have made the preparation of this book a shared endeavor. For errors of fact or interpretation, however, I alone am responsible. Miami University November, 1965 Ronald E. Shaw ...