CHAPTER XVI. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Canals and Rail-roads. Tariff. THE want of sufficient skill and perseverance, not less than of adequate pecuniary means, had long rendered abortive every attempt to facilitate the intercourse between the distant parts of the United States, by artificial navigation. To New York, is due, the enviable honour of having accomplished the first American canal of any considerable extent. The project of uniting the waters of the lakes on its north-western border, with the Atlantic, had early employed the attention of public-spirited and scientific men, in that enterprising state. In 1810, the legislature appointed a board of commissioners, to investigate the subject. They reported, that the object was of immense utility, but that, in their opinion, the expense was too great for individuals or private corporations, and that it ought to be undertaken by the national government, or individual states. The legislature accordingly directed application to be made for assistance to congress, and to several of the state legislatures supposed to be the most deeply interested in the project: these applications, however, were unsuccessful, and all further proceedings were suspended by the war of 1812. Soon after the peace, in 1815, the state of New York, with great energy resumed her favourite design, relying altogether on her own resources; and connecting, at the same time, with this greater object, the plan of a canal from the Hudson to lake Champlain. The same commissioners were appointed for both purposes; and, after a serious opposition, overcome chiefly by the resolution and perseverance of De Witt Clinton, the legislature determined to commence the work. Operations began on the fourth of July, 1817; and the first boat from lake Erie arrived at New York on the twenty-sixth of October, 1825. The whole length of the Erie Canal is three hundred-and-fifty-three miles. 'I he formation of the Champlain canal, extending near the margin of the Hudson river, and lake George, in length sixty-one miles, proceeded at the same time; and the expenses of both, constituting the canal debt, amounted to nine-millions six-hundred and-twenty-nine-thousand dollars. 'The utility of these canals, and the transportation effected by them, surpassed the most sanguine expectations. The annual receipt of tolls, now exceeds one-million of dollars. The canal fund will speedily extinguish the debt, and the tolls will be applicable to any purposes that the legislature may direct. T'hree communications between the Atlantic and the valley of the Mississippi, have since been undertaken: one, a canal and rail-road, by the state of Pennsylvania, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg; the second, a rail-road from Baltimore to the Ohio river;t the third, a canal from the Potomac, at Georgetown, to the Ohio. Besides these, there have also been completed what is called a slack-water navigation, on the river Schuylkill, from Philadelphia to Pottsville; the Union Canal, connecting the Susquehanna at Middleton, with the Schuylkill at Reading; and a canal without locks, by which vessels can pass from the Delaware 10 the Chesapeake Bay. Another great enterprise, to which the Erie and Hudson Canal gave birth, and which is intimately connected with it, is a canal leading from Cleaveland, on lake Erie, to the mouth of the Sciota, on the Ohio river. The ceremony of removing the first shovel-full of earth, was performed by governor Clinton, invited from New York, for that purpose, on the fourth of July, 1825; and the first boats reached Cincinnati, by this navigation, on the seventeenth of March, 1828. The work was undertaken solely by the state of Ohio, and, when completed, will open an inland navigation from the city of New York to New Orleans, a distance of nearly three-thousand miles. 'T'wo-hundred large boats, driven by steam, are now plying on the western waters, and their number is rapidly increasing. Within the last ten years, Pennsylvania has enriched her. self, to a degree unparalleled, by her coal mines of boundless extent, particularly in the counties of Schuylkill and Luzerne; the very existence of which, before that period, was * Commenced in the summer of 1826: the estimated expense, about thirteen millions. The corner-stone laid the fourth of July, 1828, by the venerable Charles Carroll. The first spade put into the ground on the same day, by John Quincy Adams. § Commenced, the fifth of April, 1824; completed, the fourth of July 1829 but little known North Carolina and Georgia, also, boast of the discovery of rich mines of gold; an event, from which they may receive some pecuniary benefit; but the iron and coal mines of Pennsylvania, instead of demoralizing her popu lation, will increase their industry and habits of good order, and confer upon her citizens more substantial wealth, than the diamonds of Golconda, or the gold and silver of Peru. On the second of April, 1827, was laid the corner stone of the Naval Asylum of the United States. This institution, situated on the left bank of the river Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, and designed as a place of refuge for disabled officers, seamen, and marines, as regards extent, solidity, and beauty of architectural design, would do honour to any country in the world. The expense of the building was defrayed out of a fund raised by the monthly contributions of those employed in the naval service, which commenced in the year 1793. CHAPTER XXIV. GREAT PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. Election of General Jackson. View of his administration THE approaching presidential election, in 1829, 1828. was the universal theme of political discussion in the preceding year. At no period since the organization of the federal constitution, had the people been so strongly excited in their respective hostility to one candidate, and their predilection for another. The bond, which for more than half a century, had been strong enough to keep together the several parts of the great American Union, seemed now too weak to prevent its being torn asunder by the fury of electioneering warfare. A minute detail of the events of this election, we willingly exclude from this epitome. The contest ended in the choice of electors in November, 1828; and the result was, a triumphant majority in the electoral colleges for general Jackson; one-hundred-and-seventy-eight votes for him, and eighty-three for Mr. Adanıs. The latter had the votes of New Jersey and Delaware; all the New England votes, ex cept one from Maine; sixteen from New York, and five from Maryland. All the other votes were for general Jackson. The close of a presidential term, especially when attended with a change of administration, is a proper period to review the past, and record the present condition of the country, in order to afford the means of comparing it with what it may be at the end of the succeeding term. The treasury report gave a detailed view of the finances under Mr. Adams's administration, compared with that of the preceding four years; the material results of which, were, that the absolute increase of revenue exceeded eighteen-millions that the tariff of 1824, by which the duties on foreign manufactured articles, for the encouragement of domestic industry, were greatly enlarged, had considerably increased the receipts at the treasury: that the annual consumption of foreign merchandize, had, on an average, been eighteen per cent. more, than in the preceding four years: that all the accruing interest, and more than thirty millions of the principal of the national debt, had been paid; leaving its amount, on the first of January, 1830, about fifty-one-millions, exclusive of seven-millions due to the bank of the United States, against which the government owned an equal amount of stock; and that fourteen-millions had been applied to permanent internal improvements, and to objects of defence. The third of March, 1829, terminated the labours of the twentieth congress, and the administration of 1825. The subject of the Cherokee Indians, was one of 1830. the most interesting questions that engaged the attention of the succeeding congress. As their last hope, the Indians sent a second delegation to the congress of 1829—30, to solicit their protection. Their application was enforced by numerons memorials from citizens of the United States, who thought they saw in the proceedings of the general government, in relation to that unhappy people, the most flagrant injustice and violation of the public faith. Their claims were referred, as a matter of course, in both houses, to their respective committees on public affairs. Here, again, the unfortunate Indian found himself in the hands of his enemies. A majority of both committees were from states interested in obtaining the Indian lands, by whom the views of the administration, in relation to them, were sanctioned. Their reports adopted the new system; abrogated the rights of the Indians to their possessions, and to self-government, |