Ohio History Journal

OHIO

Archaeological and Historical

QUARTERLY.

 

 

THE OHIO VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Fifth Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pa.,

October 30-November 1, 1911.

 

THE "NEW ORLEANS" CENTENNIAL.

 

Robert Fulton, who had profited by the experiments and ex-

periences of John Fitch and James Rumsey a score or more years

before, made a successful trial with the steamboat Clermont on

the Hudson River in 1807. The success of the Clermont on the

New York river inspired her owners, Fulton, Livingston, and

Roosevelt, with the belief that the western rivers, the Ohio and

Mississippi, would furnish another field for a similar profitable

venture. So they sent the junior partner of the firm, Nicholas

J. Roosevelt, to Pittsburgh to investigate the matter. He had

just been married and took his bride with him. The young

couple had a novel honeymoon, journeying on a house boat to

New Orleans. During this voyage Mr. Roosevelt made many

observations of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, their currents

and difficulties in the way of navigation. He found no encour-

agement from any person during his entire voyage. Everyone

predicted that while a steamboat might navigate the placid waters

of the Hudson and might perhaps go down the Ohio and Missis-

sippi Rivers at a great risk, yet she would never be able to run

back against their swift currents. However, so confident was he

of success that on his way to New Orleans he secured several

coal mines along the Ohio from which he expected to supply

the steamboat he intended to bring along later. Reaching New

Vol. XXII-1.          (1)

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2        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. Orleans, the couple took ship for New York where, upon hear- ing his report, his partners, Robert Fulton and Robert R. Living- ston, commissioned Mr. Roosevelt to return to Pittsburgh and build a steamboat. This boat was launched on March 17, 1811, near the present site of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot in Pittsburgh. VOYAGE OF ORIGINAL NEW ORLEANS. On October 20, 1811, the boat, which was called the New Orleans, left Pittsburgh carrying Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt, as passengers. Mrs. Roosevelt's friends besought her not to make

the voyage because of its alleged great dangers and the disasters which it was generally predicted would overtake the venture, but she gave no heed to these petitions and made the entire voyage to New Orleans. When Louisville was reached it was found that there was not sufficient water for the boat to pass the falls, so she steamed back up the river to Cincinnati. This feat created a great sensation as it proved that the boat could run up the Ohio almost as easily as she could run down. The voyage was replete with sensations. There was a comet visible at the time and when the New Orleans steamed into Louisville near midnight the unwonted noise it made caused the report that the

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.   3

heavenly visitor had fallen into the Ohio. A little later, while

the boat was still on the Ohio occurred the great New Madrid

earthquake. When the New Orleans reached the stricken town

of New Madrid some of the surviving inhabitants thought

she was an evil spirit while others sought to take refuge on her.

One day hostile Indians in canoes pursued the New Orleans

but were easily distanced. That night Mr. Roosevelt was aroused

by cries which he thought portented an attack by the savages

but were caused by the discovery that the boat was on fire. The

flames were extinguished and the New Orleans finally reached

New Orleans in safety, bringing with her a new passenger in

the shape of a child born to Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt during the

voyage.

The New Orleans never returned to Pittsburgh, being used

for a packet boat between Natchez and New Orleans. Once she

was sunk and finally damaged but was rasied and rebuilt.

 

 

HISTORY OF THE CELEBRATION.

The idea of celebrating the centennial of the beginning of

steamboat navigation on the western rivers was introduced by

Professor A. B. Hulbert of Marietta College at a meeting of

the Ohio Valley Historical Association at Cincinnati in 1909.

Dr. William J. Holland, Director of the Carnegie Museum,

Pittsburgh, a member of that Association, and also of the His-

torical Society of Western Pennsylvania, mentioned the matter

to the Secretary of the latter organization, Burd S. Patterson,

who at once warmly espoused the idea. As a result a commit-

tee of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, with Dr.

Holland as Chairman, W. H. Stevenson Vice Chairman, and

Mr. Patterson Secretary, was appointed by the late T. L. Rod-

gers, then President of the Society, to co-operate with the Ohio

Valley Historical Association in planning the celebration. At

a banquet given by the Historical Society of Western Pennsyl-

vania on February 17, 191O, at the Monongahela House, Pitts-

burgh, within a stone's throw of where the original New Orleans

was launched, Dr. I. J. Cox of Cincinnati, the then President

of the Ohio Valley Historical Association, spoke earnestly for

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.    5

 

the proposed celebration as did also Dr. Holland and others,

with the result that the Society unanimously endorsed the idea.

The matter was presented to the congress of historical so-

cieties held at Indianapolis in December, 1910, by Mr. Patterson

and Professor Hulbert and was approved. It was agreed that

a committee on the celebration should be formed with Mayor

William A. Magee of Pittsburgh, a member of the Historical

Society of Western Pennsylvania as general chairman; that there

should be a literary program committee whose chairman should

be Professor Archer Butler Hulbert of Marietta College, Presi-

dent of the Ohio Valley Historical Association, and also a Pitts-

burgh local executive committee whose chairman should be Wm.

H. Stevenson, now the President of the Historical Society of

Western Pennsylvania but at that time chairman of its executive

committee. At a banquet of the Historical Society of Western

Pennsylvania held March (1911), to celebrate the centennial

of the launching of the New Orleans, President Hulbert and

others advocated the celebration. One of the speakers at this

banquet was Hon. Theodore E. Burton, United States Senator

from Ohio and Chairman of the National Internal Waterways

Commission.

 

PITTSBURGH CITY COUNCIL ACTS.

In July, 1911, upon the recommendation of Mayor Magee,

and with the strong approval of City Controller Eustace S. Mor-

row and Mr. A. J. Kelly, Jr., then chairman of the Finance

Committee, the Pittsburgh Council appropriated fifteen thousand

dollars for the celebration. At the same time council appropriated

a similar sum for the entertainment of the National Rivers and

Harbors Committee. These two acts showed that Pittsburgh's

new council of nine business men was fully alive to the advan-

tages and needs of waterway improvement.

Mayor Magee appointed an Executive Committee to take

charge of the celebration. This committee, at the suggestion of

Secretary Patterson, approved of the idea of building a replica

of the New Orleans and having her repeat the voyage of her

prototype. It was originally proposed to have the celebration

begin on October 27th, the one hundredth anniversary of the sail-

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6        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

ing of the original New Orleans from Pittsburgh, but in order

to secure the presence of President William H. Taft, the dates for

the celebration were changed to October ₃₀th, 31st, and No-

vember 1st, 1911.

The New Orleans was assigned the post of honor in the

great steamboat parade scheduled as the chief feature of the

celebration on the afternoon of October 31st. Following the

close of the celebration at Pittsburgh, the New Orleans, on the

morning of November 2nd, commenced her voyage.

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW BOAT.

The New Orleans is, as nearly as possible, an exact replica

of her prototype of one hundred years ago. She is 138 feet long,

by 261/2 feet wide and 7 feet deep. She draws 2 feet of water;

she is a sidewheeler propelled by two 12 x 24 separate reversible

engines of 160 combined horse power; she has two flue boilers

each 22 feet long by 36 inches in diameter; she has also two

masts for sails which the projectors of the original New Orleans

felt might be required in an emergency. Her construction was

rapid. Her plans were approved on August 1, 1911, and keel

laid August 5th, the launching taking place on August 31st. She

was christened by Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth on October

31st, in the presence of President William H. Taft and other

distinguished men. Mrs. Longworth is a great grand niece of

Nicholas J. Roosevelt, one of the owners of the original New

Orleans; ex-President Theodore Roosevelt being a grand nephew

of the builder of the original boat. Among the guests of the

occasion were Mrs. Alice Crary Sutcliffe, a descendant of Robert

Fulton, and Rev. C. S. Bullock, a relative of Robert Livingston.

The first session of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Ohio

Valley Historical Association was held in the Lecture Room,

Carnegie Library, Monday afternoon, October ₃₀th, 1911. The

Chairman, Prof. Henry B. Temple, of Washington and Jefferson

College, being introduced by the President of the Association,

Prof. Archer Butler Hulbert of Marietta College.

The first paper "The Influence of the Ohio River in West-

ward Expansion," by President Edwin Erle Sparks, of Penn-

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           7

sylvania State College, excellently fulfilled its purpose of form-

ing a general introduction to the sessions of the three-days meet-

ing.

 

 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE OHIO RIVER IN WESTERN

EXPANSION.

 

BY EDWIN ERLE SPARKS,

President Pennsylvania State College.

 

Of the five great continents on the globe, three have been con-

quered, have been opened and have been civilized within the span of

recorded history. It is possible, therefore, to make a comprehensive

study of the point of attack and the progress of the march across the

continents of North and South America and of Africa. Points of re-

sistance and points of difference are found in making such comparison.

Naturally the point of attack is from the coast, and the line of march

is inland. But here the similarity ceases; natural and local charac-

teristics begin to show their force in variations. The general line of

progress in Africa has been from the North to the South, and a counter

movement from the South to the North, with a side line from the

west. The main direction in South America has been from the South-

east to the Northwest, and from the East to the West, with a slight

progress from the North toward the South; but in either of these

continents has there been a general, marked and definite line of ad-

vance.

North America, on the contrary, has ever maintained one line

of advance, one direction of progress-from  the East to the West.

"Hold Westward, Pilot" cried the persistent Columbus, and in that con-

fident command he gave the watchword for four hundred years of

North American advance. "Westward the course of empire takes its

way" said the equally persistent Bishop Berkeley in his missionary

vision of christianizing the heathen in the new world. "Westward lies

the domain of England" said the ambitious Governor Spottswood, of

Virginia, in attempting to establish the claim of his king to the Trans-

Alleghenian lands. "Go West, young man," said Horace Greeley, the

sage of the New York Tribune, in attempting to find a remedy for

crowded conditions and social unrest in the settled Eastern States.

"Our manifest destiny is from the Atlantic to the Pacific" said William

Henry Seward, in calling up the vision of the Western expansion, which

gave to our domain, eventually, both Oregon and Alaska.

Omitting as insignificant the detached settlements of the Spanish

and Russians on the Pacific Coast, the conquest of the North American

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continent in Canada, the United States and Mexico has been accom-

plished by a due East to West movement. That of Mexico preceded

the others because of the easy conditions of life; that of Canada and

the United States progressed with slower, but almost equal pace where

climatic conditions were more severe. The progress of the Dominion,

hindered for a brief space by the Great Lakes lying directly in the

path, kept pace in the latter days with the States, and the two arrived

upon the Pacific coast almost simultaneously so far as transportation,

cultivation and the spread of civilization are concerned.

In his enthusiasm over the continual advance of the American

people, De Toqueville, the French philosopher, declared more than seventy

years ago that they seemed to be driven onward by the relentless hand

of God. No conquest of a continent was ever made in so brief a

period. The American frontier of Daniel Boone, pushed across the

Allegheny Mountains to Kentucky, in the decade contemporary with

the Revolutionary War; adventurous Americans were pushing the

French traders out of the Illinois country during the decade follow-

ing; the next ten years saw the annexation of the vast trans-Mississippi

tract, known as "Louisiana;" the next saw the opening of the Ohio

and Mississippi Rivers to steam navigation; the next witnessed the

founding of the City of Chicago; the next the opening of the Santa Fe

Trail. During the following decade the territory of Utah was estab-

lished, and the next brought in the State of California; within the

second decade following the Pacific Railway was completed, and ten

years later the available public lands had been exhausted, and Indian

reservations were being opened to satisfy the demand for homes in

the West. The conquest of the continent was now complete.

What caused this rapid advance, this onward march as if toward

a definitely determined goal?  Many reasons have been advanced,

probably all true; but this gathering calls for the consideration of only

one. We are met here on this notable occasion, and are devoting

almost a week of festivities to a proper celebration of one factor in

this national progress-the influence of waterways. To this topic are

confined the many worthy addresses, of which this is simply the fore-

cast.

It is most fitting, my friends, that this celebration should take

place at Pittsburgh, at the headwaters of the stream which conduced

most largely to the westward expansion, which lay directly along the

path of progress for many hundreds of miles. Pittsburgh shares with the

Cumberland Gap the title of "Gateway to the West." To it turned

thousands of hearts, dissatisfied with conditions in the older states,

sublime in the courage with which they faced unknown dangers, ideal

in the fortitude with which they gave themselves to the task of plant-

ing a continent. Welcome to their nostrils was the smell of the freshly

upturned virgin soil; soothing to them was the coolness of the primeval

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            9

 

forests' depths; inviting to their turgid muscles was the feel of the axe's

handle, or the horns of the plow. The rivers were the ready made

highways for these pioneers.

Geographically, the Ohio River holds a place in American History

which none can dispute. Its only possible rival as an East and West

thoroughfare is the St. Lawrence; but the mouth of the St. Lawrence

lies far toward the North; it is blocked by ice during a large part of

the year; its course is marked by rapids and cataracts; and in the

formative days of American travel it was held by a hostile people.

Its head was a series of inland seas, which are now become of ines-

timable value to commerce in the use of steamships, but which were

dangerous and forbidding to the flat-boatmen and the rafter.

The Ohio River, on the contrary, traversed a valley of surpass-

ing beauty. It lay guarded on either hand by an expanse of American

territory; its climatic surroundings were ideal during a large part of

the year; its drainage basin was covered with timbered tracts which

insured a good stage of water. Toward the East its head waters were

almost touched by the noble Potomac on the South, or by the broad

expanse of Lake Erie on the North; toward the West it found open-

ing in the great artery of the Mississippi, which traversed the body

of the continent. Scarcely a mile of its banks was not fertile, and

upon either hand, stretching away into the interior, lay thousands upon

thousands of square miles of territory inviting to the settler. Numer-

ous tributaries afforded ready access to these lands, whilst waterfalls

were sufficiently numerous to supply power for converting grain into flour

and forest trees into timber.

Just above the mouth of the Ohio was the mouth of the Missouri,

and here transportation found another ready made road penetrating

the far Northwest with a tributary which was navigable for flatboats

to the heart of the Kansas prairies. Thus, in the providence of God,

American expansion found a chain of waterways, extending almost

in a straight line, with a few variations, from the Atlantic Ocean to

a point midway of the continent. This great chain varies only a few

degrees of latitude from beginning to end; it is not paralleled in any

continent; and it is approached only in the Nile and Niger of Africa.

If the length of the Amazon is considered, climatic conditions must

also be taken into account. Here, indeed, was the stage set for the

most thrilling drama in the mind of the historian, and scholar-the

making of a nation.

The marked growth of the City of Pittsburgh, we are likely to

attribute to the coal and iron industry, and to forget the importance

of her situation at the vantage point of internal transportation.  She

was the great factor in working out the question of internal improve-

ments, and plays a consequent part in the larger question of the loose

construction of the American Constitution and the adoption of a

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paternalistic policy by the national government. These potent matters,

extending to the very foundation of our national fabric, are closely

connected with the history of the navigation of the Ohio River, and

are to form topics for discussion during these sessions.

One hundred years have brought vast changes to this City. It

is doubtful to-day whether French workmen would have to be imported

for shipyard laborers in this vicinity, or whether it would be necessary

to send to Philadelphia for a steam engine and transport it in pieces

over the mountains, to be assembled here, in order to propel a vessel,

as was done one hundred years ago; nor would the appellation of "the

steamboat" be sufficient to designate a particular craft at present. A

century ago, "the steamboat" started for New Orleans; today scores

of steamboats depart for various parts.  But in the midst of this

prosperity let us take time to cast the mind back to primitive days,

and to do honor to those brave hearts who had the prophetic vision

and the lofty courage to bring things to pass.

I will not dwell upon the specific part played by the Ohio River

and by Pittsburg; these will be brought out in succeeding papers. Mine

only is the part to give a comprehensive glance at the situation; to

indicate, if possible, the significance of this celebration and its relation

to the whole of the nation's history. In this sense I must congratulate

the local historical societies upon their initiative, energy and foresight

in calling attention to the true significance of this occasion, to remind

the public that immaterial as well as material factors are important

in life, and to call our attention to the fact that a people which does

not reverence its past fails in its higher aspects of life no matter how

prosperous it may be in its financial interests. I must also congratu-

late the energy and foresight of the public spirited men of Pittsburgh-

the former and the present "Gateway to the West"-for supporting the

historical aspects of this celebration and recalling to our minds the

glorious past and the stimulating deeds of those unspectacular, unsung,

and sometimes unhonored heroes of the past-the frontier pioneers

of America.

President Sparks was followed by Prof. Dyess of the

University of Pittsburgh.

 

 

WASHINGTON, PITTSBURGH AND INLAND NAVIGATION.

 

By PROF. DYESS.

 

Washington, Pittsburgh and Inland Navigation! Such is my sub-

ject, made up, you may think of diverse parts, with scarcely any re-

lation, the one with the other. It is not so. Washington in a very

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           11

 

true sense is the Father of Pittsburgh and in an equally true sense, is

the Father of Inland Navigation and the fortunes of Pittsburgh and

Inland Navigation, as illustrated by this anniversary, are inextricably

joined together.

Washington is the Father of Pittsburgh. It is the good fortune of

Pittsburgh to have many illustrious names associated with the first

chapters of her history. For this spot, upon which we stand, Pitt

planned, Washington fought, Wolfe fell.   No more illustrious three

can be found in the long story of our race. But the connection be-

tween Washington and Pittsburgh is a more intimate one-a nearer

and dearer relation than between Pittsburgh and Wolfe or even that

between the city and him, from whom it gets its great name. Pitts-

burgh was a child, which gave great occasion for expenditure of time

and energy; of brain sweat and body sweat, and was dear accordingly.

For this place, as the key of the empire, which Washington foresaw,

in the West, he endured toil and trouble, suffered hardships, risked life

and limb. Around this city his most sanguine hopes for himself and

his country clustered. No other city-not New York nor Philadelphia,

nor Boston nor the fair capital on the Potomac held such a place in

his thoughts and feelings. May we not then, I ask, regard him, who

was the father of his country as in some special sense the father of

Pittsburgh?

Washington is the father of inland navigation. I might expand that

statement and say that he is the father of inland communication. Directly

or indirectly, he is associated with every form of transportation to

or from  Pittsburgh until we reach the automobile. After the most

primitive fashion, he followed the trail of the buffalo and the deer,

the red savage and the white hunter. Again in 1755, he comes over

the rough road, which the skill of Gordon Braddock's engineer has pro-

vided. In 1758, because of his knowledge and experience, he is a some-

what protesting but great part of the Forbes expedition. In 1784, he

makes that noteworthy expedition to find a possible route for canal

or portage between the head waters of the Ohio and Potomac. By

his anticipation of the success of "mechanical contrivances" in over-

coming the current of great streams, and by the help and encourage-

ment he gave to Rumsey may we not associate his name with the

event we commemorate today? The Potomac and James companies

largely failed, but their very failure were the first chapters in the

history of the National Road from Cumberland to Brownsville; of the

Chesapeake and Ohio canal; of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R., and,

with the late Prof. Herbert Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, we

say that Washington is the father of each of them. All inland com-

munication owes much to Washington. "For fifty years," says Professor

Hulbert, with reference to Washington's letter to Governor Harrison

in 1784, "until President Jackson vetoed the Maysville Road bill, the

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impetus of this appeal, made in 1784, was of vital force in forming

our National economic policies." May we not then speak of Wash-

ington of the father of inland navigation in this country? But of this

I will speak later.

The attitude of the American people toward George Washington

during the last 100 years has been two-fold, and may be summed up

in the two words-deification and disparagement. The deification arose,

partly from the natural tendency of every age and time to magnify its

founders and heroes; partly because of the strange sensitiveness of the

earlier American historians, which led them to correct whatsoever in

Washington they thought unworthy the father of his country. Wash-

ington's spelling, grammar, idiomatic language, idiosyncrasies-all suffer

charge or are improved off the earth. The result is a wooden image,

a lay figure, an Olympian colossus without human weaknesses because

without humanity. The worst of this is that it leads by a natural pro-

cess to the reaction of disparagement. We are told that Washington,

because of social position, because of a rich wife, because of the

political necessity that commander-in-chief should come from Virginia,

was made a general; that he won the contest rather through the strange

inaction of British generals than through his own ability; that in the

presidency, he ruled through Jefferson's and Hamilton's aid; that he

was, in short, a worthy, uninteresting, commonplace sort of person,

who had fortune thrust upon him rather than attained it by his own

labors of genius. The first view is summed up by Mark Twain. He

says that he (Twain) is a greater man than Washington. Washington

could not tell a lie; Mark could-but wouldn't. The second is illustrated

by the reply of old John Burns, whom Washington is persuading to

sell to the U. S.-"Who would you have been if you hadn't married

the rich Widow Custis?" The first robs us of the man; of that which

makes Washington bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh; of that which

makes his character and career both an inspiration and example. The

second robs us of the hero, and woe to that nation which is without

heroes, without ideals, without achievement and therefore hastening to

decay.

I am not here to present a brief for Washington's greatness as

a whole. Of the famous or hackneyed saying: "First in war, first in

peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," the last part has been

untrue for more than fifty years. The service rendered has been a

mere lip service, a respectable cant without knowledge and therefore

without heart. As to phrase "first in war," the matter is to be decided

by the expert. He has pronounced Washington a military genius. Or

the matter is to be determined for the mass of men-those who are

not experts by the war Washington impresses himself upon our imagina-

tion, the mental picture we are compelled to draw of him.. Let me

in a few words taken from Professor Trent, of Columbia University,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            13

 

tell you what that would be if only we had adequate knowledge of

this, the first and greatest American. Professor Trent says: "I think

rather of the Bereker rashness and daring displayed at Ft. Duquesne

and Monmouth and I recall William the Conqueror at Hastings; I

see Washington cross the Delaware, I see him at Valley Forge and I

recall Hannibal upon the Alps; I see him turn a ragged band of suspici-

ous New Englanders into trained soldiers ready to die for him and I

recall no less a man than Caesar; I see him put down the Conway

cabal and reduce Congress, to do his bidding, and I recall Marlborough;

I see him quell Lee with his fiery eye and biting words and I somehow

recall Cromwell; I hear him, later in life, burst forth into grief and

imprecation at the failure of St. Clair's expedition and I recall Augustus

Caesar; I see him in his tent, brooding over the treason of Arnold

and weighing the claims of mercy and justice in the case of Andre

and I recall only his own imperial self."

As to the phrase "first in peace," the man who picked the brains

of Jefferson and Hamilton-they were worth picking and Washington

did it as a master, rejecting what he would-who recognized the

unifying force in National life of the American University; who fore-

saw this great empire in the West as no other man of his day and

generation did-not to mention a hundred other things-has a pre-

eminent claim to statesmanship. But it is of another aspect of that

phrase "first in peace" that I wish to speak.

It is a truism to say that the larger part of American brains and

brawn, energy and enthusiasm has gone into the material expansion

and upbuilding of the country. Of necessity it has been so. It is but

an application of the great law of supply and demand. There were

mountains to level, forests to fell, rivers to clear, canals to dig, steam-

boats to invent, perfect and build. It is a mark of virility not de-

cadence that the men to do the work were forthcoming. Personally,

I would rather the Hamiltons and Websters of this generation had

studied law  and gone into politics-the greatest of all professions

rather than become captains of industry. But let us not disparage the

greatness of the man of affairs. If it be great to carry out the primal

command "go forth" "subdue" and have "dominion" over the earth's

forces--the keynote to a large part of history--then are these men

great. If greatness be measured by beneficence; if he be a benefactor

who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before, how

great are those men, who have opened up continents, joined together

oceans and meliorated the lot of countless thousands. It is a greatness

which the intelligent twentieth century man associates with the names

South Africa, Suez, Panama-the greatness of Cecil Rhodes, Ferdi-

nand de Lesseps and Theodore Roosevelt.

Washington was not only a soldier, and a statesman. He was

this and added to this, a man of affairs; for his day a captain of

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industry; what Prof. Hulbert calls him "the first Commercial Ameri-

can" and in this at least, he was far more typical than that typical

American Abraham Lincoln. Washington's insight into the possibilities

of this Western country in its racial, commercial and political aspects

is repeated in the insight of Cecil Rhodes with the possibilities of South

Central Africa. His dream of a waterway, connecting the Ohio and

Potomac prefigures on a smaller scale the two great interoceanic canals

of the 19th and 20th centuries-on a smaller scale but one commen-

surate with his country. If we could only bring home to our conscious-

ness this aspect of Washington's character, it would not only give us

a renewed and stimulated sense of his greatness but it would restore

to us in a large measure the man instead of the priggish myth which

serves as a portrait to so large a portion of his countrymen. There

can be no better illustration of this side of Washington's life than his

relation to inland navigation.

As early as 1753 and 54 this wonderful boy had paid attention

to the obstacles impeding the navigation of Potomac.    Was some

thought of communication by water between East and West floating

in his mind? At any rate by 1759, he is ready to impart privately, to

the members of the Virginian Assembly, his thoughts and plans regarding

a union of the Potomac with the Ohio. Such ideas were rendered

impracticable for the moment by the closing of the Western country to

settlement by the proclamation of 1763. In 1768 the treaty of Ft. Stan-

wix reversed these conditions. In 1770 Washington wrote to Thos.

Johnson about the improvement of the Potomac in order that Virginia

and Maryland may capture the "valuable trade of a rising empire."

In 1774 the matter was brought before the legislatures of both Maryland

and Virginia, but the increasing turmoil of the approaching Revolution

prevents adequate consideration and action. Scarcely are the storms

of war over when the old dominant interest revives. Before peace is

declared, he makes his expedition up the Mohawk to "while away the

time" he modestly declares, but as his correspondence afterwards shows

with a keen eye to the possibilities of a future Erie canal. Very soon

after his return to Mt. Vernon to live under his own "vine and fig

tree," on September 1, 1784, he sets out on a new western trip, again

modestly announcing that its whole purpose is to visit his lands and

tenants. The entry in his diary of the 3d of September records and

the whole diary proves that the real purpose is "to obtain information

of the nearest and best communication between the Eastern and Western

waters; and to facilitate as much as in me lay the Inland Navigation

of the Potomack." Not only is Washington interested in a route but

he is keenly alive to the necessity of improvement in the vessels which

shall ply on that route. The diary of the 6th of September records

the examination of a model boat, constructed by the "ingenious Mr.

Rumsey" for ascending rapid currents by mechanism.      Washington

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          15

 

under injunctions of secrecy, witnesses an experimental trial and then

and there becomes the patron of Rumsey, giving him soon after high

position under the Potomac Co. The importance of this fact in con-

nection with this anniversary is evident from the fact that Rumsey's

"mechanism" soon gave way in his own mind to the use of steam. Two

years after he propells a boat on the Potomac by steam and in 1792

launches a steamboat on the Thames and is thus one of the fathers

of steam navigation. I cannot for want of time follow the expedition

further but fortunately its results so far as Washington's mind is con-

cerned, are summed up in the letter to B. Harrison, dated October 10,

1784--a letter sent at once to the legislature, becoming thus a state-

paper-a state paper only inferior in its importance to such funda-

mental acts as the Declaration, the Constitution, the Ordinance of 1787,

and the Emancipation Proclamation. The last chapters in the story

of its influence have not yet been written.

In this letter Washington enumerates the advantages of a canal

connecting the head waters of the Potomac and Ohio to be sup-

plemented by a canal from the Ohio to Lake Erie. He says the tide

waters of Virginia are 168 miles nearer Detroit than that of St. Law-

rence; 176 miles nearer than that of the Hudson at Albany; states

that Pennsylvania is contemplating the opening of a canal from Toby's

creek, 95 miles above Ft. Pitt and the west branch of the Susquehanna,

with a canal between the Susquehanna and the Schuylkill. The difficulty

and expense of this he recognizes, but says in words which are a

challenge to the Pittsburgh of to-day "a people, however, who are

possessed with the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue

their advantages, may achieve almost anything."  He says-that New

York will do the same, "no person, who knows the temper, genius and

policy of those people as well as I do, can harbor the smallest doubt."

Next Washington speaks of the obstacles, viz: the jealousy of different

states and of one part of a state for another; the present heavy taxa-

tion; absence of financial resources; that trade advantages are remote;

that a sufficient spirit of commerce is not found in Virginia, all of

which he seeks to overcome by wise arguments. The political argu-

ment I quote in full or nearly so. "I need not remark to you sir that

the flanks and rear of the U. S. are possessed by other powers and

formidable ones too; nor how necessary it is to apply the cement

of interest to bind all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds,

especially that part of it which lies immediately west of us with the

Middle States. For what ties, let me ask, should we have upon those

people? How entirely unconnected with them shall we be? And what

troubles may we not apprehend if the Spaniards on their right and

Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing stumbling blocks in

their way as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and

alliance?  What when they get strength, which will be sooner than

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16         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

most people conceive (from the emigration of foreigners, who will

have no particular predilection toward us, as well as from the re-

moval of our own citizens), will be the consequence of their having

found close connections with both or either of those, in a commercial

way? It needs not in my opinion the gift of Prophecy to foretell. The

Western settlers, (I speak now from my own observation), stand as

it were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any

way." Again speaking of the proposed canal, he says, "The Western

inhabitants would do their part towards its execution." "Weak as they

are they would meet us at least half way."

The effect of this letter is almost immediate. The Potomac and

James Companies are formed, Washington being chosen President of

the former. The State of Virginia in recognition of Washington's ser-

vice, voted him shares in both companies, which he refused to accept

unless for educational purposes. He thus disposed of them in his will.

Work was begun in the Potomac and pressed vigorously but Wash-

ington is called once more by the larger necessities of the Nation from

the work so near his heart. The work was not a failure - it is living

to-day and ought to bring Washington close to the hearts of the

people of this eastern Mississippi valley. May we not then say that

the man to whom this section was a matter of anxious concern from

his earliest manhood to his latest years, who dreamed this scheme

of inland navigation, who planned the canal yet to be between Lake

Erie and Pittsburgh, who built the first grist mill west of the Alle-

ghenies, who first experimented with western Pennsylvania coal, may

well be called the Father of Pittsburgh and of inland navigation.

The third paper on the Monday afternoon program was by

Miss H. Dora Stecker of the University of Cincinnati.

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTING A NAVIGATION SYSTEM IN THE WEST.

 

BY H. DORA STECKER.

 

On account of the large scope of the subject, it has seemed pref-

erable to treat only a single incident in the early history of the steam-

boat in the west, that is, the endeavor of the Fulton and Livingston

interests to build up a system of navigation based on exclusive privi-

leges granted by states, similar to those given them by the state of

New York, and even this treatment must necessarily be brief and

desultory. Indeed, for a proper handling of this one phase, an introduc-

tion dealing with the origin of this system of state grants, with our

early patent law, and with the legal contests which arose therefrom,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            17

 

would have been advisable. The controversies over the right to un-

restricted navigation were carried to the state legislatures, and to Con-

gress, and were ultimately pronounced upon by the Supreme Court, in

the well known case of Gibbons vs. Ogden. The situation in the

west was adjusted much earlier than in the east, and in a way was

only its reflex.

Aside from constitutional and legal considerations, at the bottom

of any discussion of the steamboat should be its economic effects.

These probably constitute its prime importance.

Any of these phases of the subject would have more than filled

the time allotted to the speaker; hence the writer's limited treatment

of so large a topic.

Although the invention of the steamboat had been perfected pri-

marily with a view to the navigation of the Mississippi, the latter

river was only one link in a general system which was intended, by

the projectors, Messrs. Fulton and Livingston, to embrace the whole

country. In April of 1813 Fulton wrote Jefferson: "When peace re-

turns, or in four or five years from this date I shall have a line of

steamboats from Quebec to Mexico and to St. Mary's. The route is

up the St. Lawrence, over Lake Champlain, down the Hudson to

Brunswick, down the Delaware to Philadelphia, by land carriage to

Pittsburgh, down the Ohio and Mississippi, to Red River, up it to

above Natchitochez, the total land carriage about 500 miles, the other

route to St. Mary's, land carriage not more than 200 miles. The most

of these boats are now constructing."

In order to insure the permanency of such a system, it was con-

sidered advantageous, where possible, to obtain exclusive rights from

the different states, of entering their waters by steamboat. This practice

took its rise in the system which had prevailed among the individual

states, before the adoption of the Constitution, of rewarding inventors

or authors by letters patent, but after the formation of the new govern-

ment this function was considered as having passed into the hands of

Congress. However, in 1798, Chancellor Livingston, who later becomes

the colleague of the inventor Fulton, had revoked in his favor, by the

state of New York, an act of encouragement for the navigation of its

waters by steamboat, which had been granted eleven years before to

John Fitch, and which was considered inoperative on account of Fitch's

failure to produce a steamboat on the waters of New York, Subse-

quent acts, extending the time for completing a steam vessel and con-

taining penalties against the invasion of the privileges conferred, were

passed from time to time in favor of the Chancellor and his associates.

This procedure on the part of a state rendered a United States patent

of relative minor importance, as the state grant excluded from the

Vol. XXII - 2.

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18         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

waters of the state concerned all boats driven by fire or steam except

those of the men for whose benefit the act had been passed.

Close upon the heels of the success of the Clermont, Fulton found

himself opposed on all sides, on the one hand by a group of older

inventors who had been working on the problem of the steamboat for

twenty years, notably John Stevens and William Thornton, and on the

other by a group of men who were anxious to compete with him in

a business rivalry on the Hudson and the other waters of New York.

To protect himself against the first, Fulton had taken out a United

States patent for his invention in February of 1809, although he was

here preceded by the Superintendent of the Patent Office himself, Dr.

William Thornton, an ardent and disappointed member of the old Fitch

company, which had built a steamboat for the Mississippi and had

made all preparations for establishing such navigation west of the

Alleghenies at the time of the opening of the Northwest territory.

Yet the New York grant afforded better security than the patent, as

the validity of Fulton's claim to his invention was challenged from

the first, and a bitter controversy engendered, due largely to the loose

methods then prevailing of issuing patents indiscriminately by the gov-

ernment and of then throwing the onus of the decision upon the courts.

The same privileges conferred by the state of New York were

undoubtedly desired from the other states, particularly from those in-

volving the western rivers. Indeed, even before the survey trip of

Mr. Roosevelt down the Mississippi in 1809, preliminary to building

the New Orleans, it was known that an effort would be made to have

the legislature of the Territory of Orleans grant exclusive rights for

the waters within its jurisdiction, thereby obtaining control of the ob-

jective point of all downward commerce-New Orleans; and in October

of 1808 Dr. Thornton, the bete noir of the Fulton Company, sent in a

letter of protest to the Collector of the Port at New Orleans on this

subject:

"I have lately heard," says he, "that Mr. Fulton and Mr.

Livingston of New York intend to apply for a Patent [i. e. a state

grant] to the Assembly of N. O. I have already a Patent in

conjunction with some others, from the United States & also

the King of Spain for the navigation of the Miss. with steam-

boats [Thornton was referring to the affairs of the Fitch Co.,

whose moving spirit he had been], but in consequence of alterations

made by the Co., in the apparatus, during my absence, the Scheme

was ruined, & I determined to wait until the Patent expired [this

in reference to Fitch's United States patent for his invention, con-

ferred in 1791]. I am desirous of establishing Boats to ascend the

Miss. I consider it against the laws of the Union for a State to

grant a Patent now to any Individual; but in consequence of the

Influence of these Gentlemen in the State of New York they have

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            19

 

obtained a Patent there for 25 years, which though in my opinion

nugatory & inefficient, will certainly create disputes and tend to

lessen the competition so essential to the public good-Lest an at-

tempt be made to monopolize the Miss. also & thereby make ad-

venturers of small fortune afraid to risk an opposition, I am in-

duced to trouble you with a few lines to desire you to make the

Subject known immediately and defeat a measure so highly in-

jurious to the public. I beg you to urge a regular Protest against

and patent for Steamboats from the legislature of New Orleans.

If those gentlemen have invented anything new they can have a

Patent from the United States for the same for fourteen, not

twenty-five years, but knowing that it is not new they wish to

obtain exclusive rights from particular states, which, however, are

certainly contrary to the spirit of the Constitution."

Whether Thornton's letter at this particular time had its desired

effect is not evident, although the act referred to was not passed until

April of 1811; but no doubt the series of protests against granting this

type of monopoly which he poured into the various legislatures must

have borne fruit.

In regard to steamboat activities in the west, during Mr. Roose-

velt's survey of the river it was publicly advertised that two companies

would be formed by Messrs. Fulton and Livingston, one for the Ohio,

the other for the Mississippi, provided certain "indulgencies" were

granted; and during the session of 1809-10 petitions were presented to

both the legislatures of Ohio and Kentucky, which, after setting forth

the advantages resulting from steam navigation, requested that ex-

clusive rights, after the manner of those conferred by the state of

New   York, should be bestowed upon the petitioners.   In the Ohio

house a bill was favorably acted upon, and on the 26th of December,

1809, sent to the Senate for concurrence; but here it was voted down.

Thus one state expressed itself as opposed to this principle, however

advantageous the steamboat might prove to be. The following month

Mr. Breckenridge, in the Kentucky House, gave the report of the com-

mittee to whom the question had been referred, going over the situation

as follows:

"The petitioners state that they have discovered a certain method

of propelling boats by fire or steam; that their plan has been in actual

operation upon the waters of the state of New York for more than two

years, and their boat performs a voyage of 160 miles in 34 hours.

The petitioners represent that the difficulty and expense of this mode

of navigation is very great; and although they have obtained from the

congress of the United States a patent for their invention [this having

been only the February preceding], the time for its enjoyment is too

short. They propose they shall, within a given time, erect a boat or

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20         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

boats, on the Ohio, or Mississippi rivers; that for the first boat so

erected, the legislature of this state shall extend to them its protection

for twenty years; and for every other boat five years, but in all not

to exceed thirty years. That their boat shall perform any given voyage,

on the Ohio, or Mississippi rivers, in one-third of the time that such

voyage is now usually performed by vessels navigating those waters,

and that their charge for freight shall be one third less than the present

general price for freight. The petitioners pray, for that for the viola-

tion of any of the immunities granted them by this state, the legislature

will impose certain penalties and forfeitures."

In regard to the foregoing statements the committee raised the

following questions:

1st. Would not the interference on the part of Kentucky in the

manner proposed infringe upon the power delegated to congress by

the constitution?

2. Would it be politic to grant such exclusive privilege for such

a length of time?

"Upon the first question," the report continues, "your committee

are clearly of the opinion that the constitution of the United States

prohibits the state legislatures upon such subjects and in a manner

contemplated by the petitioners.  By the constitution of the United

States Congress are invested with 'power to promote the progress of

science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors and

inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'

* * * * The petitioners have, under the law, applied, and obtained

a patent for their invention, and the object of the petition is an exten-

tion, for more than double the time, for the enjoyment of the exclusive

rights, acquired by their patent. Your committee deems this unjust, and

contrary to the laws of the United States.

"Upon the second question your committee have but little hesita-

tion in declaring, that to grant the prayer of the petition would be

impolitic.

"At this time the chief part of our surplus produce and manu-

factures descends the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for a market. The

natural course of things would seem to require, that by the same channel

we should receive all the importations that are necessary for the con-

sumption of this [western] country. It is believed that this period

is not very distant. The importance of this species of commerce, to

the western people, is too great and too obvious to require comment.

It would therefore be dangerous and impolitic to invest a man or set

of men with the sole power of cramping, controlling, or directing the

most considerable part of the commerce of the country for so great

a period."  And so the petition was rejected.

Yet notwithstanding this failure to obtain exclusive control of

the Ohio, the Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company was organized, and

• 20
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            21

 

preparations made for the construction of the New Orleans. At least

the Mississippi, with its vast tributaries, was still an object of prime

importance for control, and in August of this year, 1810, we are told

by Fulton, himself, petitions for such rights were sent to Governor

Claiborne, of Orleans Territory, to the Governor of Mississippi Terri-

tory, to the Governor of Upper Louisiana Territory, and to the Governor

of Tennessee. This would practically cover the remaining waters. In

a letter to Governor Howard, of Upper Louisiana Territory, it was

represented that a capital of $200,000 was required to extend navigation

on the Mississippi, for which subscriptions could not be raised unless

the subscribers were assured of adequate protection in their rights,

the patent law being inadequate. Appended to the petition was the

act which they desired passed in their favor. This request was laid

before the Territorial Legislature, but postponed, the only information

extant on the subject being a small marginal notation to this effect

on the original petition. Yet notwithstanding these widespread applica-

tions, they all ultimately failed of their purpose except that made to

the Territory of Orleans, or, as it was lager to become, the state of

Louisiana. In March, 1810, the inhabitants of this territory had ap-

plied for admission to the Union, and in the summer of this year

Governor Claiborne   found it necessary to proceed to  Washington.

Here he and the territorial delegate, Julien Poydras, one of the in-

fluential men of his district, were approached by friends of the steam-

boat measure, resulting in a visit by the Governor to the patentees in

New York. In consequence the petition was submitted to the legis-

lature of the Territory of Orleans, in the spring of the following year,

with the accompanying message:

"Gentlemen of the Legislative Council and of the House of Repre-

sentatives:

"I now lay before you the petition of Robert R. Livingston and

Robert Fulton, two distinguished citizens of the United States, praying

you to 'grant them the exclusive right to navigate the waters of this

Territory with boats moved by steam or fire,' on certain conditions.

Of the power of the Legislature to conform to the prayers of the

petitioners I have no doubt; but as to the expediency of doing so, you,

Gentlemen, can best determine. During my journey through the Middle

and Northern States, the past summer, I noticed with great pleasure

this new and useful mode of improving the navigation of our Rivers;

and I feel confident that the introduction of steamboats on the Missis-

sippi and its waters would greatly conduce to the convenience and

welfare of the Inhabitants of this Terr." In notifying the patentees

of the passage of the act desired, Claiborne assured them of his prompt

co-operation in promoting any measure essential to their security and

necessary to prevent intrusion upon their rights.

Not looking at the matter from a constitutional standpoint, it

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22         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

was difficult for this district to let pass so splendid an opportunity for

facilitating the carrying trade of the whole west, holding, as it did, its

outlet. The attitude taken by Orleans was that this system promised

an immediate and adequate means of developing her resources, and

her waters were the gateway through which the other western states

must come. But the point was not well taken, for the Fulton Company,

with all its promise, was not able to put out enough steamboats on

the Ohio and Mississippi in order to exclude those men who were

willing to enter the field against them; and the effect of the Louisiana

act was merely to dwarf the revived commerce arising after the close

of the war of 1812. The Hudson at this time did not as yet have the

benefit of steam navigation for its freight-the sloop owners had com-

pelled the monopolists to confine themselves to passengers-but on the

Mississippi the situation was entirely different; and the attempt to

limit commercial intercourse to the five or six boats which were all

that had been built by the Fulton Company, at Pittsburgh, could only

have been futile.

It was evident that men were willing to try steam navigation in

these parts.  Independent builders were arising, and groups of men

along the river were willing to embark in the venture. In September,

1811, we find the petition of Oliver Evans, a pioneer steam engine

manufacturer of Philadelphia, before the legislature of Tennessee, point-

ing out that with a new mode of construction it was not necessary

to build boats of the costliness of the Fulton type. Indeed, Evans be-

gan a boat at Pittsburgh, which he was later to run on the Ohio.

When Mr. B. H. Latrobe, the successor to Mr. Roosevelt, arrived at

Pittsburgh, in the fall of 1813, to take charge of the affairs of the

Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company, he had to compete with a rival

company which had already begun work. This consisted mainly of

Quakers, we are told, centering about Brownsville, and they also had

adopted a cheaper type of building. Instead of the large sea vessel,

these men were putting out fragile, barge-shaped boats, of very small

tonnage, merely an adaptation of the crafts used on the western rivers,

which could run the year 'round, and a line, all the way from Browns-

ville to New Orleans was being established. Beginnings of independent

boat building were also arising at other quarters. Subscription papers

were passing along the towns on the Ohio; a company, under Dr. Ruble,

was being organized at Louisville; Oliver Evans had returned to the

field; and by 1816 the Gallatin Steamboat Company was incorporated

by the Legislature of Kentucky. In spite of the difficulties of getting

a boat together at any point outside of Pittsburgh, since in the west

steam machinery was as yet a negligible quantity, the hopes of the

various mercantile centers were running ahead of this drawback, and

the press was expatiating on the advantages to be derived by direct

importation by way of New Orleans, instead of over the mountains.

• 22
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           23

 

When, in 1815, the "Enterprize" arrived from below, thereby demon-

strating that the river could be steamed as far as the falls of Ohio,

schemes burst into full blaze for severing the economic dependence of

the West on the merchants of the East, when the first of a series of

seizures of independent steamboats took place at New Orleans. After

the Battle of New Orleans the "Enterprize," on the eve of her de-

parture up the river, was seized by the representatives of the monopoly

on account of entering the waters of Louisiana without operating under

their license, and although Captain Shreve had given bail and was

allowed to depart with his vessel without waiting for the trial, this

procedure aroused great indignation. Efforts had been made to keep

these boats out of the Ohio by claims of infringement on the Fulton

type of boat, their points of resemblance, being merely the wheel. The

men who desired to build steamboats, particularly those constituting

the importing and exporting companies which were forming, were in-

timidated, in addition, by various patent claimants, who, in an attempt

to break the power of the New York monopoly, used this means to

attack it, and threatened, in common, with the monopolists, to prose-

cute all who did not operate under their various licenses. Thus the

westerners were placed between the fire of adopting any feasible type

of vessel, and of daring to enter the waters of Louisiana; and the

seizure of the "Enterprize" only added to the embarrassment. The

latter vessel, though but a fragile barge, by way of answer to her

seizure, made the first ascent of the Mississippi that had up to that

time been accomplished. Mass meetings were held at Louisville and

other points, and the legislatures of Ohio and Kentucky appealed to for

aid. Suggestions were made that the legislatures advance funds for

defending some one who would venture a test suit on patent rights,

or publicly aid in purchasing these rights from the real proprietors, so

that steam navigation should not be retarded. An importing company

had been formed at Cincinnati for direct importation from England,

and Congress had been asked to establish ports of entry at this point

and Louisville. In addition, Kentucky, declaring that its prosperity de-

pended upon exportation and importation by way of the Mississippi,

exempted all merchandise so imported from state taxation for five

years.

In February, 1816, the legislature of Ohio, in response to an appeal,

passed a resolution asking that their senators and representatives in

Congress exert their influence in obtaining a settlement of the con-

flicting claims set up by the various inventors, who had carried their

cause to Congress in an effort to prevent the Fulton patent from be-

ing renewed. In addition they were requested to institute an inquiry

as to whether the legislature of the Territory of Orleans had not ex-

ceeded their constitutional powers by enacting the state monopoly.

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24         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

The situation over the patent rights was ludicrously described in

a local paper:

"You purchase of Fulton, Livingston prosecutes you. You pur-

chase of Livingston, Fulton prosecutes you. There you are, after being

chained and baited by their lawyers, to be again muzzled and worried

by Mr. Evans' standing, legitimate counsellors; and if you escape death,

or are not quite torn to pieces-at last my lord Fairfax, by his attorney,

Mr. Robinson, unkennels another pack, and should the poor adventurer

afterwards have a limb left, or a drop of blood to be sucked, ten to

one but Fitch himself would arise from the grave to annihilate him."

Timber for the building of a steamboat, this Cincinnati writer

complains, has been lying in the shipyard for months, and but for the

patent rights conflict, there would have been a boat plying between

Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh, but the owner was not fond

of lawsuits, and since the seizure of the "Enterprize" was waiting on

some action from the members in Congress.

In January, 1817, the legislature of Kentucky adopted a resolution

against the action of Louisiana which contained something of the old

tenor, when the Kentuckians were ready to march down upon the

Spaniards and demand by right of force the free navigation of the

river:

"Whereas," this resolution held forth, "the citizens of the United

States possess the inalienable right of navigating the great waters which

communicate with the ocean; and the high destiny to which the author

of nature seems to invite the peoples of these states depends upon the

security of that right from all violation, and the honor as well as

dignity of every state commands her to assert with vigilance the rights

of those subject to her sovereignty:

"1st. Be it therefore resolved by the general assembly of the

Commonwealth of Kentucky, That they have viewed with the deepest

concern, the violation of the right guaranteed by the federal constitu-

tion and the laws of Congress, to navigate the river Mississippi, in

the seizure of the steamboat "Enterprize," under the pretended authority

of a law enacted by the legislature of the late territory of Louisiana;

"2d. Resolved, That they will maintain inviolate by all legitimate

means the right of her citizens to navigate said river, and its tributary

streams;

"3rd. Resolved, That the government of Pennsylvania, Virginia,

Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana, be respectfully requested to co-

operate with this, to prevent by appropriate means the recurrence of

an evil so much to be deprecated;

"4th. Resolved, That our senators and representatives in Congress

be requested to exert themselves to procure the adoption of such measure

as they may deem best calculated to secure the navigation of the said

river."

• 24
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           25

 

Yet in Congress it was decided that the matter did not lie within

its province, but should be settled by a judicial inquiry.

On account of the outcry raised against the action of the monopoly,

a resolution was introduced into the Louisiana legislature to inquire

into the expediency of repealing the obnoxious measure. The report

of the committee of commerce and manufactures, embodying this in-

quiry, avoided the larger and more vital issue of the effect of this

act on the commerce of the country depending on the Mississippi, and

contented itself with recounting the benefits which steam navigation

had conferred on the state of Louisiana, particularly in the way of

reducing the price of freight between New Orleans and Natchez. "In-

deed," it said, "your committee, far from thinking it useful or necessary

to repeal the charter of the company, do, on the contrary, think they

ought to be encouraged by all possible means." They pointed out that

the west would draw its manufacturing products from the Atlantic

states exclusively through New Orleans, and that the surest means

to attain this end would be to encourage the company which would

best secure its success. Governor Claiborne, himself, published an open

letter narrating his connection with the whole affair; and as a corollary

to their report, the legislature, during the next month incorporated the

Atlantic Steam Coasting Company, for the purpose of establishing a

steam packet between New York and New Orleans. This company was

given the exclusive privilege of entering the Mississippi from sea by

steamboat, for a term of twenty years, it holding the right of entering

the waters of Louisiana by permission of the Fulton interests, which

were, no doubt, concerned in this establishment of a steam connection

with New York. Thus Louisiana meant to hold the key to the com-

merce of the west by both river and sea. Yet could this growing com-

merce be immediately accommodated by the new mode? "They talk of

an outlet for the western produce and the importation of foreign mer-

chandise to annihilate the connection with the Eastern cities," com-

plains a critic of the action of the Louisiana legislature in failing to

repeal the monopoly. When? Why, forsooth, when Livingston and

Fulton build boats enough in their own good time and pleasure to

accommodate the millions of subjects who would (if their grant hold

good) be dependent on them for the privilege of riding to New Orleans

in a steamboat."

Indeed this threat of severing the commercial dependence on the

Eastern states seemed valid, since the steamboat made it possible to

import by way of sea cheaper than across the mountains, thus obviating

the heavy cost of exchange. It was pointed out that the balance of

trade would be diverted into one's own section, for with the draining

of specie eastward, which had been the practice heretofore, the west

considered that as yet it had no merchants in the real sense-"only

mere packers of goods and of cash;" yet it was predicted that the

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26         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

day would come when the scepter of empire would be swayed by

western hands. Indeed the utterances of the time indicate that a bitter

sectional feeling existed on account of the inability of the westerners

to supply themselves with the manufactured products that they needed.

They suspected that every internal improvement contemplated for their

parts was meant to divert their trade eastward. "It was not until the

moment that the steamboat of the Mississippi interfered with the East-

ern brethren and the Eastern brethren were alarmed for fear of losing

our trade," they said, that the Cumberland road was being finished.

Yet in unrestricted steam navigation they thought they saw a solution

of this undesirable state of dependence.  Indeed, it was predicted,

whenever the obstructions at the falls of the Ohio and the imposition

of the conflicting claims over patent rights were put an end to, freight

by steamboats to Pittsburgh would not exceed 2½ cents from New Or-

leans.

In the trial of the "Enterprize," which was held in 1816, the pre-

liminary advantage was lost by the members of the monopoly, it being

held by the lower court that the territorial legislature had exceeded its

authority in granting this privilege, but the case had been appealed.

Indeed, one of the fundamental provisions of the enabling act for ad-

mitting the territory as a state had been the insertion of an ordinance

into the constitution providing for free navigation. In the fall of the

year, Captain Shreve, who had been seized with the "Enterprize," de-

termined to fight out his cause, and brought down his new boat, the

Washington; but this, too, was seized. However, the court granted

Shreve the right to sue for damages in case his opponents lost their

cause, and with this decree the suit was withdrawn against him, also

the appeal which had been made from the decision regarding the "Enter-

prize." Yet the difficulty was not over. The whole controversy culmi-

nated in April of 1817, when a series of trials took place at New

Orleans which aroused the highest interest. Suits were brought against

the owners of the Washington, the Oliver Evans, and the Franklin, and

a forfeiture of the boats and $5,000 damages for each infringement

of the state right demanded. The cases were heard in open court, before

Judge Hall of the United States District Court, but unfortunately the

arguments have failed to come down to us. However, after hearing

both sides, Judge Hall handed down the decision that the court had

no jurisdiction in the matter and dismissed the petitions of the plaintiffs

with costs, practically throwing the victory with the independents, and

showing that the courts were out of sympathy with the measure. The

same decision was given in all three cases, and this practically solved

the question for the time being, although suit was again instituted against

the boat Constitution (formerly the Oliver Evans) in the fall of that

year. Although the action against the Constitution dragged on for some

time, we have no record of the freedom of navigation being interfered

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           27

 

with after the first half of the year 1818, the state grant remaining on

the statute book a dead letter, and the whole matter receiving adjudica-

tion by the decision of Chief Justice Marshall in 1824, in the well

known case of Gibbons vs. Ogden. Even before the trials of April,

1817, boats had been springing up everywhere. By 1819, there were over

sixty in western waters, and from this period the west, with the changes

wrought by the introduction of the steamboat, may be said to have

entered upon her second stage of existence. The day of the licensed

company was over-and the period of free competition among steam-

boats inaugurated. What this meant in hastening internal improvement,

in stimulating domestic manufacture, in welding the west into an

economic unit, is another chapter in the history of the steamboat.

 

Monday evening was given over to a Waterways Meeting

under the auspices of the Historical Society of Western Penn-

sylvania, impromptu addresses being delivered by Mayor Magee

and Governor Tener. The main address of the evening was by

Col. John L. Vance.

 

 

OHIO RIVER IMPROVEMENT, AND LAKE ERIE AND

OHIO RIVER SHIP CANAL.

 

By JOHN L. VANCE.

 

Every step in the progress of the improvement of the Ohio River

has received the approval of the Congress and the recommendation

of the Engineers of the United States Army after careful surveys and

examinations of the river from its source to its mouth.

A special Board appointed under direct authority of Congress,

followed by the Board of Review--both boards composed of experi-

enced officers of recognized ability-made reports recommending the

improvement of the river by locks and movable dams to provide nine

feet of water.

In closing its official report, the Special Board said: "In view

of the enormous interests to be benefited by continuous navigation on

the Ohio River, and the great development which may be expected

from such increased facilities, the Board is of the opinion that the

Ohio River should be improved by means of locks and movable dams

to provide a depth of nine feet from Pittsburgh to Cairo."

And the Board of Review reported:

* * * "For these reasons the Board is of the opinion that the

improvement of the Ohio River by locks and movable dams so as to

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28         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

secure a depth of nine feet as recommended in the report of the Special

Board is worthy of being undertaken by the United States.

"In making this recommendation the Board realizes that it is

suggesting a plan for river improvement on a scale not hitherto at-

tempted in this country; but *     *   on account of the large com-

mercial development of its shores and its connection with the lower

Mississippi, now maintained in a navigable condition, the Ohio River

is, in the opinion of the Board, the one river of all others most likely

to justify the work."

These reports received the strong endorsement of the Chief of

Engineers of the Army and the Secretary of War in transmitting

them to Congress.

Fifty-four locks and movable dams are required to provide nine

feet of water at all seasons of the year from Pittsburgh to Cairo-

nearly 1,000 miles.

Twenty-three of these locks and dams are completed or in process

of construction, leaving thirty-one to be provided for by appropriations

by Congress.

Sixty per cent of the sites for the 54 locks and dams have been

secured; all the sites have been practically fixed; the money has been

appropriated to complete the purchase of all, and the Government

is moving as rapidly as possible to obtain titles thereto.

In the report accompanying the river and harbor bill presented

to the House of Representatives on the 11th of February, 1910, the

Committee on Rivers and Harbors stated: "The improvement of the

Ohio River is of great importance, and has been specially recommended

by the President of the United States. The Committee has thought

it proper to provide that this important work should be prosecuted at

a rate which will insure its completion within a period of twelve years."

The tremendous importance of the improvement of the Ohio-

to which direct expression was given by the Committee - was emphasized

by President Taft, in a carefully prepared address delivered at Cincin-

nati on the 21st of September of last year, in which he uttered these

emphatic words: "I earnestly hope that the time may come in the not

distant future when the plan for completing this Ohio River improve-

ment shall be changed so as to make the time six years for completion

instead of twelve."

Those who know something of the importance of the Ohio Valley

and that which will follow the completion of the work now in progress

for the improvement of the river, will join with our honored Chief

Magistrate in the hope he expressed.

How many know the resources of the six states bordering the

Ohio and directly tributary to it?

This valley is, to-day, the greatest manufacturing center of the

country. From Pittsburgh to Cairo, on either bank and on both banks,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          29

 

the traveler on one of the many steamers traversing the Ohio finds

himself never beyond the sound of the hammer or the forge, nor be-

yond the sight of the smoke issuing from the monster stacks of im-

mense manufacturing establishments.

At the head of the Ohio is situated this marvelous city of Pitts-

burgh-to-day the greatest manufacturing center of the world-with

a tonnage of 150,000,000 tons last year, greater by far than the com-

bined tonnage produced or originated by Philadelphia and Baltimore

and Boston and Greater New York.

For miles above Pittsburgh, along the improved Monongahela,

it is one succession of manufacturing plants-the marvel of the whole

world in extent, in number of employes, in value of product and

capital. And as it is there, so it is along the Ohio, below, and the

passenger on an Ohio river steamer is lost in amazement over the stu-

pendous products of the Valley.

In this Valley we have the coal that supplies our own demands

and the southern markets and the steamships that leave the ports 2,000

miles below; and the products of her factories reach the entire world.

And more: Our Valley, in advantages and possibilities, is the

richest on earth. In climate, in location, in soil, in iron, in salt, in

steel, glass, and pottery products; in gas, in timber, in stone, in water-

power, and in manufacturing industries in general; in enterprise, edu-

cation and intelligence, it has no superior.

As an agricultural valley we challenge the United States, as we

challenge the world.

It is not alone beyond the Mississippi that agriculture has her

seat and her empire. It is not alone in the great Northwest nor the

productive Southwest nor the fertile South. The six Ohio River States,

where the forge and the mill are never idle, where smoke obscures

the sky, and on whose rivers the steamers ply their busy trade-these

States challenge all sections of the country in their agricultural products.

In one year alone the value of the farm products of these States reached

a total of approximately five billion dollars--more than the combined

value of any other six or twelve States in the Union.

What, indeed, would the development of these six States be, with

the Ohio River open the year 'round and navigable the year 'round,

to pour their treasures into the lap of the markets of the world!

But still more: The six Ohio River States pay into the Treasury

of the United States more than one full half of the entire internal

revenue collected in the whole nation. But we have the wealth, and

we have the money, and are not complaining.

The entire wealth of the country is estimated in round numbers

at one hundred billion dollars, and it is with genuine pride that the

six Ohio River States find themselves credited with 30 billion dollars,

or nearly one-third of the total wealth of the whole country, with all

• 29
 

30         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the other states and territories required in the making up of the

remaining two-thirds.

But enough of figures, however interesting they may be, as well

as conclusive evidence of the supreme importance of the Ohio Valley

and the Ohio River.

This river is not the only water way in which the six states of our

inland empire are interested. They want to connect the Ohio and

Mississippi and the Hudson by a continuous navigable water way.

And this may be done by the construction of the Lake Erie and Ohio

River Ship canal--a proposed canal of 103 miles in length. Thus

would be secured 2,700 miles of unbroken navigable channel, from

New Orleans to New York, of which 2,000 miles from New Orleans

to Pittsburgh, will be nine feet in depth, and 700 miles, from Pittsburgh

to New York, will be 12 feet in depth. This is the shortest route by

300 miles than the only other possible route between the Gulf and the

Hudson, and can be realized at an outlay that is imperatively de-

manded when the existing tonnage to be served and the economy intro-

duced are considered.

The building of the connecting water-link between the Ohio and

Lake Erie will give unbroken navigation between 24 states in the Union,

and serve directly the territory where now exists the densest tonnage

movement in the world, and have the ability to introduce economy in

transportation by it in the ratio of not less than 5 to 1 over railway

movement.

This project is in control of Pittsburgh, and her progressive busi-

ness interests will carry it to speedy and successful completion.

* * * * *

The rivers of our continent are the natural arteries through which

the trade of the country is intended to pass; and it is the duty of the

Government to improve these free public highways in every way pos-

sible, because all classes of citizens will thereby be benefited.

The Ohio is preeminently a national water way. As it flows be-

tween its banks on its course to the Gulf, it does not tell of Pennsyl-

vania, or Ohio, or West Virginia, or Kentucky, or Indiana, or Illinois.

While it adds to the wealth and grandeur of these great common-

wealths, above and surpassing all else it tells the story of a nation

united; of a country that all of us love, a country with one Constitution

and one flag, a country of peace and at peace with all the world, a

country with one aim and one destiny, a country united, one and indi-

visible now and forever.

 

Those who have labored many years for the permanent improve-

ment of the Ohio were not building alone for the present generation,

but for those who come after they are gone. In this work have been

• 30
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           31

 

engaged strong and able men at all points along the river. Pittsburgh,

ever at the front in enterprise, has contributed her full share.

It is our good fortune to have homes in this Valley, dear to many

of us as our birthplace, and to all of us by fond memories and cherished

associations. We, who love the Valley and the River, here pay tribute

to all who have labored for, and through their labors have advanced.

the improvement of the greatest channel of commerce in the world.

They have been governed by no selfish purpose, but by a noble, un

selfish desire to benefit our homes, to make more prosperous our Val-

ley, to leave to their children and to generations yet unborn a heritage

rich in commerce, their valley teeming with intelligence and populous

with contented men and women-with more schools, more churches,

more of all that makes life desirable and that adds to the sum of

human happiness.

 

Another speaker of the evening was the nearest descendant

of Robert Fulton, Rev. C. Seymour Bullock, of Fall River, who

spoke as follows:

Mr. Chairman: His Excellency, the Governor, Your Honor, the

Mayor; Ladies and Gentlemen: I am happy in bringing to you, unof-

ficially, the greetings of a New England city that has just secured for

itself a State appropriation of one million dollars to improve its al-

ready magnificent harbor.

More and more are we coming to realize that the future of our

country depends upon the conservation of its natural resources and

the development and utilization of its waterways as avenues of trans-

portation. The total bankage of the rivers of Europe is but 34,000

miles while the river banks of streams east of the Rocky Mountains,

that are 100 miles long and navigable, will total more than 80,000 miles.

On our Great Lakes in one year we carried freight with a total ton-

nage sufficient to tax the carrying capacity of a train of cars of or-

dinary size that would completely belt the globe. If the engine of that

train were to pull out from Boston it would pass thru San Francisco,

cover the Chinese Empire and Turkestan and Persia, bridge the Med-

iterranean and the Atlantic and speed on again almost to Salt Lake

City with its train of loaded cars before the caboose left Boston. Mr.

Chairman, that is something of a freight train!

With no such system of inland seas the European countries are

fast outstripping us in the race for commerce. France and Germany

have developed or are developing systems of internal water communi-

cation on a basis of one mile of waterway to each twenty-five miles of

territory. Already France has 3,021 miles of canals in operation, while

Germany, aside from the Kaiser Wilhelm, has 15,011 miles of canals

and 1,500 miles of canalized rivers.

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32         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

I realize, Mr. Chairman, that although I am talking of water, this

is a dry subject, but I want to show that we are all interested in

what is being done by others. No man can be made to take much in-

terest in any subject until he sees that it concerns his pocketbook.

This is especially true of an American.

 

"France sings the lily, England sings the rose,

Everybody knows where the shamrock grows;

Germans sing the Rhine, with its many-castled hills,

But the Yankees sing in chorus of the "long-green" bills.

 

When the New Yorker saw that the Erie canal ran through his

back yard and into his pantry and set the price on each mouthful of

bread, then the New Yorker voted $101,000,000 to deepen and enlarge

the canal that brought his flour from the West, for the West had been

feeding him since the year 1833 when the first cargo of flour was sent

from  near Sandusky, Ohio. The Erie canal sets the maximum    that

the New York Central railroad may charge for transporting the produce

of the West. In other words, on account of the Erie Canal the New

York Central railroad can charge only so much per bushel or per barrel

for carrying wheat or flour if it is to get any to carry and this sets

the rate for the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio and the

Chesapeake and Ohio so that what we have to pay for bread and what

the man in the West has to pay for shoes and cotton goods depends upon

what the State of New York sets as a rate for the Erie Canal.

But what has this to do with Pittsburgh?     Much every way.

There is a place out yonder on the shore of a lake that was built

up with money made here in Pittsburgh. The coal dug from these hills

was mixed with brain-sweat and brow-sweat and to this was added

ores from mines at the north till there ran from the furnaces streams

of molten gold. With that gold other furnaces were built nearer to

the mines whence came the iron with the result that steel can now be

made at Gary for less than it can be made in Pittsburgh and when the

barge-canal across New York state is ready, the finished product of the

Gary mills can be put down in New York City, or swung on board

some ocean-going vessel in New York harbor, for $2.75 or $3.00 a ton

less than the steel that is made in Pittsburgh.

We are not going to argue the question as to whether the railroads

are charging too much for the transportation of the iron ore from the

lake to the furnace. Either one of two things is true-the railroads

cannot afford to carry the raw material, or the finished product, for

less than they are now charging and therefore should not be expected

to do it, or else they do not intend to carry either for less money and it

is therefore useless to ask them to do it. In either case the fact remains

the same and it still costs $1.25 a ton to get ore from the lake-port to

• 32
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           33

 

Pittsburgh and it takes about two tons of iron ore to produce one ton

of steel and these conditions will prevail in Gary's favor until by

digging a ship-canal from the Ohio-Pittsburgh to the Lake shall be made

a seaport with direct communication with all the world.

The same conditions faced Manchester, England, that now faces

Pittsburgh. Vacant stores along the highways of trade! Tenantless

houses on streets that had throbbed with life! These told the story

as the hectic flush on the cheek of a consumptive tells of the havoc

being wrought within. Manchester was dying of proximity to Liver-

pool and then Manchester dug a canal 351/2 miles long, with a lift of

60½ feet above the level of the sea, and became a sea-port. It cost $85,000,-

000 to do it but in a year's time 100,000,000 tons of freight passing through

the canal demonstrated the wisdom of that expenditure. Breslau, too,

faced similar conditions. For years Breslau, a city on the river Oder,

having half a million inhabitants, was the chief city of that region,

but in 1895 the State of Prussia opened the canalized Oder to Kosel,

with its extensive artificial harbor, and the next year Kosel was

shipping 1,300,000 tons of coal while Breslau's tonnage had fallen from

2,150,000 tons to less than 1,000,000 tons. Then Breslau woke up and

built new docks with every up-to-date appliance for the handling of

freight and soon regained its lost prestige.

Mr. Chairman, I am here tonight participating in the festivities

that celebrate a century of steam navigation on the Ohio rivers. The

steamboat of to-day is a growth.   No great invention ever leaped,

Minerva-like, full-fledged from the brow of genius. Devices that have

meant much for the world's progress have come first to some one man

as an inspiration and have then been hammered into shape and com-

mercial utility on the anvil of intense thought. I regret that my friend

Fitch of Greenville is not here tonight that you might look upon a

descendant of the man who first successfully propelled a boat by the

power of steam. The original steamboat crank hailed from the State

that is now my home. It was the waters of the Ohio that most in-

terested John Fitch who wrote in 1788 to Alexander Hamilton to

enlist his sympathies for a steamboat line from "Fort Pitt to the shores

of Kaintuck". Others came and reaped the benefits of Fitch's radical

scheme and I am here as one of the collateral descendants of the man

who put the money into the proposition-the poorest one of all the

representatives-proud of the achievements of the hundred years, and

full of hopes that before the last hour shall be struck for me on the

horologue of time, I may come into Pittsburgh from the Great Lakes

by a canal that would open a new era for this city and prove a blessing

to every hamlet, town and county through which it shall pass.

 

 

Vol. XXII - 3.

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34       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

On Tuesday afternoon the replica of the New Orleans

was spectacularly christened. This boat was built by the City

of Pittsburgh through the agency of the offices of the Historical

Society of Western Pennsylvania.

While a deafening roar caused by the blowing of hundreds

of steam whistles and the hurrahs from more than 50,000 throats

reverberated through the valleys surrounding Pittsburgh, Mrs.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, standing near President Taft, broke

a bottle of domestic wine over the replica of the first steam

propelled vessel to plow through the western waters and said:

"I christen thee New Orleans." This was the marking of the one-

hundredth anniversary of steam navigation on the Ohio. The

wine was very lively, and when Mrs. Longworth broke the bottle,

the champagne sprayed her from head to foot and all those per-

sons nearby were liberally sprinkled. Mrs. Longworth laughed,

although her furs were drenched. The christening of the good-

looking craft took place at the Monongahela wharf in view of

one of the largest crowds that ever assembled there. Not only

was the crowd the largest, but the display of river craft was

by far the best ever seen in this section. With their noses pushed

against the wharf, 45 steamboats filled the place between the

Smithfield street and the Wabash railroad bridges. Each was

gayly decorated with flags and hunting and streaming banners.

All the buildings along the water front were similarly decorated.

The New Orleans, which was gayly decorated with the nation's

and Pittsburgh's flags, occupied a prominent place. The sight

was an inspiring one.

President Taft, in charge of the reception committee, left

the Hotel Schenley about 1:40 o'clock and drove over Grant

boulevard to the downtown. The ovation tendered him all along

the route was warm. In the outlying districts, the crowds were

scattered, but upon arriving at Thirty-third street and the boule-

vard, more than 500 people had assembled. Every person in

the crowd held a flag. They waved these banners and cheered

lustily.

At Grant school in Grant street, near Seventh avenue, about

500 school children and their teachers filled the fire escapes.

All waved flags and sang as the party passed. Mr. Taft recog-

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         35

 

nized the cheering by standing upon his automobile and waving

his hat. Grant street, Fifth avenue and Wood street were lined

with thousands.

The moment the automobile bearing the President appeared

in Water street, it was the signal for the beginning of one of

the greatest ovations ever extended a nation's chief executive

in this day. Every boat tooted whistles, as did locomotives and

factories. The spectators cheered.   People on the surrounding

hillsides took up the cry. Factory whistles for miles along the

rivers were blown.

When Mr. Taft stepped from his automobile to board the

Virginia the cheering was renewed. Again, when he stepped

aboard the New Orleans, it was taken up with renewed vigor.

The cheering and the blowing of whistles lasted for fully 17

minutes.

As the ovation subsided somewhat, Mrs. Longworth christ-

ened the unique vessel and the cheering was again taken up.

Finally Mayor William    A. Magee walked to the front of the

New Orleans and introduced Mr. Taft. While only a small por-

tion of the large crowd could hear him, those who could not

maintained silence.

 

President Taft's remarks on the "New Orleans."

We are met to celebrate the opening of steamboat commerce upon

the Ohio River; not only that commerce of 100 years past, but also of

that greater commerce soon to come in which Pittsburgh is to enjoy the

greater part. In order to justify the expenditure of public moneys in

river improvement there ought to be enough of traffic to warrant the

expenditure. In reference to the improvement of the Ohio there is ample

commerce to satisfy this requirement, and the tonnage justifies the appro-

priations made and forthcoming to make the river more suitable. Con-

gress has designated $63,000,000, and intimated that it will authorize

the expenditure at the rate of $12,000,000 a year for that purpose.

But the interest of this great gathering in the improvement and

throughout the country suggests to me that it is most fitting that the

name of Roosevelt will ever be associated with the beginning of this

new commerce as it was connected with the start of the old and figured

prominently. It was the broad action of a Roosevelt which made the

Panama Canal possible. It is not possible for me to talk and be heard

by a square mile of people, and hence I will not detain you in positions

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36       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

of discomfort longer. I congratulate Pittsburgh on the magnificence of

this demonstration and wish her well in gaining the commerce soon to

come. Goodbye.

Immediately after the President's address the committee-

men accompanied him back to the Virginia. He was taken to

the pilot house. From that point of vantage he viewed the great

throng, declaring it to be the greatest gathering he had seen

during his travels through the United States on his present trip.

The New Orleans slowly moved from its moorings to mid-

stream amid a renewed roar of whistles and cheers. Turning its

prow down the Monongahela river, it began its cruise down the

river. The flagship, the Virginia, followed closely. Then came

scores of other large boats laden with passengers. Immediately

behind them came hundreds of smaller craft.

With the New Orleans leading the way, a trip down the

Monongahela and up the Allegheny river as far as the Sixth

street bridge and then down the Ohio to the penitentiary was

taken. Arriving at the penitentiary the Virginia, which had pre-

viously passed the New Orleans, turned and started back, thus

permitting the other boats to pass in review.

President Taft took up his position in the rear of the pilot

house on the third deck. The members of the reception com-

mittee and other invited guests were with him. As each boat

slowly passed, those on board gave him a rousing reception.

All along the river banks thousands cheered as the boat made

its way through the water. Employes in the various numerous

shops and mills laid down their tools and hurried to the tops

of the buildings to cheer.

The Virginia returned to the Monongahela wharf at 5:10

o'clock and the President and his party returned over the boule-

vard to the Hotel Schenley. He rested there until 7 o'clock.

The boats that took part in the pageant, besides the New

Orleans and the Virginia, were the Exporter, Swan, Coal City,

Kanawha, Charles Brown, Sam Clark, Cruiser, Fallie, Tornado,

Crescent, Volunteer, Helen White, G. W. Thomas, B. F. Jones,

Jr., Clyde Juniata, A. R. Budd, Vulcan, Braddock, Henry Laugh-

lin, Robert Jenkins, Jim Brown, Charlie Clark, T. P. Roberts,

Alice, T. J. Wood, Carbon, Clipper, Cadet, Crusader, Diamond,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          37

 

Steel Queen, Lee H. Brooks, Slackwater, Frank Tyler, Margaret,

Return, Frank Fowler, Troubador, Sunshine and Emily Jung.

The fleet was in command of Capt. James A. Henderson.

The New Orleans was in command of Melville O. Irwin, mate;

Thomas Walker, engineer, and T. Orville Noel, steward.

 

Fortunately for those in attendance at the Fifth Annual

Meeting, the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce took the oppor-

tunity of President Taft's presence to hold Tuesday evening its

annual banquet. The Historical Society of Western Pennsyl-

vania generously provided tickets to all members of the Ohio

Valley Association present in the city. The banquet was held

in the Memorial Hall and the banquet room presented a scene

of unusual beauty. The event of the evening was the long-to-be-

remembered reply of President Taft to the address of Congress-

man Littleton who advocated the repeal of the Sherman Anti-

Trust law. These addresses have become historic, but as they

are foreign to the subject of Western history and the occasion

of the "New Orleans" centennial, they are omitted from this

report.

Hon. Job E. Hedges followed President Taft; speaking on

"The Third Party to the Contract" as follows:

Much of the present day discussion is wide from the mark, so

far as helping the solution of problems is concerned, and especially so

if the endeavor is made to square it with governmental tradition. I

do not believe that the foundation stones of the Republic are crumbling.

I do not believe that the life of this great Nation hangs in the balance.

I do not believe that vice has a strangle hold on virtue, and that there

are only one or two men who can pull vice off. When the adviser

on political and social problems becomes so didactic that he is mentally

lonely, his diagnosis may be logical and learned, but is useless in ad-

ministering his own remedy. The impediment, if any, the danger, if

any there be, to a republican form of government is its size and the

fact that by virtue of its very numbers fewer people have the oppor-

tunity to make themselves felt by virtue of the fact that they are limited

in their opportunities for discussing the same topic at the same time

with others of the same belief, or those whose belief they propose to

affect.

So great has governmental influence become, so far-reaching, that

the law may be either a scourge or a remedy. It seems to have escaped

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38         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

popular contemplation that a man has a duty to Government outside

of statute law, and outside of the strict phrasing of the Constitution.

Under a Government with an unrestricted male franchise such as ours,

it is impossible to think of a contract which comes under the provisions

of law where the parties thereto do not bear a political relationship to

all the rest. In other words, there is always a third party to the con-

tract, and that third party represents the rest of the Nation. In part

or in its entirety that contract must be determined if there is anything

whatever in the duty of man to government, according to whether after

the competitions between the contracting parties have been phrased, the

result of that contract would be to the detriment of the people at large.

We are getting away from the moorings of simple things. We

are confused by the element of size and numbers. We are disturbed

by the terrific power of personal influence, and what can be done with

it and money. If we will but admit that men like power, that men like

to accumulate, that men like influence, that competitions may be so in-

tense that a man may think the Golden Rule, but be so out of breath

he cannot utter it, we have gone far toward solution. We are deceived

by proposed self-immolations on the altar of government, by panegyric

on behalf of the common people, which is supposed to bring about an

uprising. Men devote themselves rhetorically to the interests of others,

and shed tears over the sadness of the misfortune when they would

not contribute a dollar to the person who is suffering.

There is a day far beyond the Constitution and statutes in this

country, and it is a duty which if recognized politically means nothing

more nor less than the practical adoption of the Golden Rule. It is

well to practice virtue because it is virtue. If we cannot get on as

high a plane as that it is better to practice virtue from selfish reasons

and reasons of utility rather than not to practice it at all.

Present conditions are the direct results of the failure to observe

these two simple platitudes. Until every election results in an expression

of opinion which means the actual expression of actual people actually

living the part of citizens, law is a guess and its enforcement a gamble,

and discussions as to its wisdom more or less academical. Many men

before the public today are acting as if they thought they were a

special providential dispensation. Others appear to think and to act as

if our national existence was to close with the closing of their eyes.

The human problem here is not the problem of the poor and the suf-

fering, cost of high living, or the cost of any living. It is the attitude

of mind and the conduct of people of intelligence, refinement, wealth

and social position in their relationship to the Government and the obli-

gations they will admit as a matter of ordinary selfishness in working

out the life of this great nation.

Financiers tell us that capital is timid and business predicated on

confidence. Yes, that is true. Business depends, however, more upon

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          39

 

the confidence of the general public in the man who controls the capital,

and its belief in his integrity individually than it does in the contribu-

tion of a few dollars per capita, which when lost makes up the added

capital of the leader of finance. I read the other day that business was

at a standstill because of some decision that had been rendered in con-

nection with a law called the Sherman law, and the article went on to

say that no business could be done until there was a law passed which

stated specifically what could not be done in business, and that nothing

should be left to the so-called rule of reason.

It seems to me that nothing is so safe for the people at large

as a general proposition. If the highest court says what may not be,

and leaves to the lower court the function of determining how the

"may not" be avoided, that is about all that law can do. The hazard

of business can never be reduced to an absolute certainty for one side

of the problem, when the advantages are with it, and have the other

side take all the chances. The functions of government are too much

relied on by the people and the people rely too much on the penal code

to determine what they shall not do, and too little on a sense of obliga-

tion of each man toward the public to determine what they should do.

The third party to the contract is never absent from its interpretation

and never should be.

With increasing numbers of population this duty is to become

more and more apparent, and if the final contest is to place upon the

statute books a law to give rights to one class or that makes a distinc-

tion of rights, the inference is that there is no equality of right; although

we know that there is no equality of opportunity, the result will be

confusion, and, from that, confusion worse confounded.

The only permanency in public opinion and the only virtue that can

come from it, and which is a final and lasting benefit is that kind of an

opinion which is formed regardless of publicity, but by virtue of which

men of prominence and potential force will refrain from doing what

they would not do if they were certain that the entire public understood

the entire problem before they attempted to work it out.

The prosperity of the country as such, its uplift and moral growth

depend at this moment more upon the people who are decrying the force

of law; who have all the advantages of social, financial and intellec-

tual position, and who seem to be afraid to enter into the competitions

of life without having every chance in their favor, than they do upon

any other class of the community. The man whose earning power is

limited to his hands, or who is forced to walk in some of the plain

paths of life, however much he may yearn to influence public opinion,

and therefore governmental functions, is practically limited to casting

a "no" vote on something submitted for his approval or disapproval.

The affirmative part of our national life is passing away, and is passing

away because men will not stop to think that most every human, bar-

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40         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ring a man's relationship to the God who made him and the home over

which he presides, has a political significance.

You might as well talk of removing politics from business as to

talk of asking the sun to stop shining, as long as a human being votes

upon the election of a man who will vote for a law there is always

politics, and there always should be politics. Instead of there being

too much politics in this country there is too little politics in this country.

It is not a question of the volume of political activity so much as it

is a question of the quality of it. If we could amend the Constitution

and disfranchise the man who did not vote, strike dumb the man who

criticises another for doing what he does, and split the tongue of the

man who agitates the people for the purpose of selling that agitation

at so much per year, some problems would now disappear as the mist

before the sun.

Wednesday morning the chairman Harry Brent Mackoy

called the meeting to order and introduced Professor Callahan

of West Virginia University:

 

 

 

THE PITTSBURGH-WHEELING RIVALRY FOR COMMERCIAL

HEADSHIP ON THE OHIO.

 

BY JAMES MORTON CALLAHAN,

Professor of History and Politics, W. Va. University.

 

The Wheeling Bridge Case in the Supreme Court in 1849-52 and

1854-56 is as interesting through its relations to the industrial history

of the period as it is from the standpoint of constitutional questions

involved. Its study introduces us to the earlier rivalries of coast cities

to secure the trade of the West, the systems of internal improvements

planned to reach the Ohio, the development of trade and navigation

and the extension of improvements and regulations by Congress on

the Ohio, and the rivalries of Pittsburgh and Wheeling to obtain the

hegemony by lines of trade and travel converging and concentrating at

their gates.

Pennsylvania was early interested in plans of internal improvements

to connect Philadelphia with Pittsburg and the free navigation of the

Ohio. Occupying a central position, resting eastward on the Atlantic,

north on the Lakes, and flanking on the Ohio which connected her with

the Gulf and the vast region of West and South, she had advantages

over other states for both foreign and domestic commerce. These ad-

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           41

 

vantages she cultivated from the earliest period. In 1826, influenced

by the improved conditions of steam navigation on the western waters,

by the effects of the Cumberland road in diverting to Wheeling much

of the westward travel which had formerly passed down the Monon-

gahela to the Ohio at Pittsburg, and by the success of the Erie Canal

which also diverted travel and trade from Pittsburg, she began a system

of canals to connect the Atlantic and the Lakes which had begun to

bring to her western gates the commerce from the Gulf and the Mississippi

and at great expense and sacrifice she forced her way westward, from

the end of the horse railway at Columbia, up the Juniata to Hollidays-

burg. Then, in 1835 by an inclined plane portage railway for thirty-eight

miles across the Appalachians at the base of which other enterprises

halted, she connected with the western canal from Johnstown to Pitts-

burg. Over this route she transported both passengers and goods-

carrying to eastern markets the rice, cotton and sugar of the South,

the bacon and flour of the West, and the furs and minerals of the

Northwest. In 1844 her connections with the Ohio were improved by

a packet line established between Pittsburg and Cincinnati. By 1850,

these improvements, together with her interest, in a slack water naviga-

tion from Pittsburg to Brownsville and up the Youghiogheny to West

Newton, and the importance of the ship-building industry at Pittsburg,

made her watchful of the problems of navigation on the Ohio. At the

solicitation of her legislature, and to meet the needs of growing com-

merce, Congress beginning its policy of improvement of Ohio navigation

in 1824, had appropriated large sums (by 1850) to remove obstructions

in the river.

In the meantime Wheeling, whose growing importance had received

its first stimulus from the completion of the Cumberland Road to the

Ohio in 1818, threatened to rival Pittsburg in prosperity, wealth and

greatness, and to become the head of navigation on the Ohio as well as

the western terminal of the first railway to reach the western waters

from the East, and a center of other converging lines from both East

and West. After persevering efforts of nearly a quarter century she

scored her greatest victory by securing the route of the Baltimore and

Ohio Railway whose charter of 1827 had prohibited the termination of

the road at any point on the Ohio below the Little Kanawha and whose

engineers on reconnaisance and surveys in 1828 had considered several

routes terminating on the Ohio between Parkersburg and Pittsburg.

Coincidently, after the unsuccessful efforts of over half a century, she

secured the first bridge across the Ohio-a structure which she regarded

as a logical link and incidental part of the national road, and a fulfill-

ment of the provisions of the act of 1802 by which Ohio had been

admitted as a state, but which Pittsburg regarded as an injury to

navigation-obstructing it much more effectively than Congress had been

able to improve it by her recent expenditures of public money.

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42         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

The story of the efforts to obtain the bridge is a long one, re-

flecting the industrial progress and energy of the West and the evolu-

tion of national policies, and punctuated with the spice and pepper of

rival memorials and resolutions. In 1816 during the construction of the

national road from Cumberland to the Ohio, the legislatures of Virginia

and Ohio incorporated the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company and

authorized it to erect a bridge which, however, was to be treated as a

public nuisance liable to abatement if not constructed so as to avoid

injury to navigation. Unable to raise funds necessary for the work,

the Company in 1830 asked for a national subscription to the bridge,

and its request received a favorable committee report in the House¹

Two years later citizens of Pennsylvania submitted to the House a

memorial against the erection of the bridge.²

Under the old charter of 1816 the company in 1836 built a wooden

bridge from the west end of Zane's Island to the Ohio shore, leaving

the stream east of the island free to navigation. At the same time

petitions to Congress backed by resolutions of the Ohio legislature,

urged the construction of the bridge over both branches of the stream

in order to facilitate trade and travel-and to prevent inconvenience and

delay in transporting the mails by ferry, which was frequently obstructed

by ice and driftwood and especially so in the great floods of 1832. A

congressional committee on roads and canals made a favorable report

recommending the completion of the Cumberland road by the erection

of the bridge³; but the objection was made that the bridge might prove

an obstruction to the high chimneys of the steamboats whose convenience

Congress did not think should yield to the benefits of the bridge. In

1838, government engineers, after a survey made under the direction of

the war department, presented to Congress a plan for a suspension bridge

with a movable floor which they claimed would offer no obstruction to

the highest steamboat smoke-stacks on the highest floods,⁴ but the plan

was rejected. In 1840 the postmaster general recommended the construc-

tion of the bridge in order to provide for safe and prompt carriage of

the mails-which had been detained by ice from seventeen to thirty-two

days each year⁵; but his recommendation was buried in the archives.

Early in 1844, Pennsylvania, awakened by the fear of plans to make

Wheeling the head of navigation, became more active in her opposition

to what seemed an imminent danger to her interests and the interests

of Pittsburg. By action of her legislature she opposed the request of

Wheeling and the Ohio legislature for national appropriations to con-

 

1House Rep. 339 and 349, 21-1, vol. III.

2 House exec. docs. 188, 22-1, vol. V.

3 Rep. Corn. 672, 24-1, vol. III. Rep. Corn. 135, 24-2, vol. I.

4H. Docs. 993, 25-1, June, 1838.

5 Cong. Globe, vol. 25, p. 973. Also see House Does. 137, 29-1,

vol. IV.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         43

 

struct the bridge, and soon took new steps to secure the construction

of a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburg.6  The House committee on

roads and canals, deciding that the bridge could be constructed without

obstructing navigation, reported a bill making an appropriation and sub-

mitting a plan of Mr. Ellet for a simple span across the river at an

elevation of 90 feet above low water, but those who spoke for Pennsyl-

vania urged the specific objection that 90 feet would not admit the pass-

age of steamboats with tall chimneys, and defeated the bill. In vain did

Mr. Stoenrod, the member from Wheeling, propose hinged smokestacks

for the few tall chimneyed boats and press every possible argument in

favor of the bridge.⁷ Opposition increased after 1845 with the increase

in the size of the Pittsburg steamboat smokestacks-an improvement by

which speed power was increased through increased consumption of fuel.

Baffled in her project to secure the sanction and aid of Congress

for a bridge which Pennsylvania regarded as a plan to divert commerce

from Pittsburg by making Wheeling the head of navigation, Wheeling

next resorted to the legislature of Virginia in which the remonstrating

voice of Pennsylvania could not be heard. On March 19, 1847, the

Bridge Company obtained from the legislature a charter reviving the

earlier one of 1816 and authorizing the erection of a wire suspension

bridge-but also providing that the structure might be treated as a com-

mon nuisance, subject to abatement, in case it should obstruct the navi-

gation of the Ohio "in the usual manner" by steamboats and other crafts

which were accustomed to navigate it. Under this charter the company

took early steps to erect the bridge. At the same time, and coincident

with the beginning of construction on the Harrisburg and Pittsburg

railway at Harrisburg under its charter granted by the Pennsylvania

legislature on April 13, 1846, she managed to secure a promise of the

western terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio railway--which after a

long halt at Cumberland received a new charter from the Virginia legis-

ture⁸ and prepared to push construction to the Ohio ahead of the Penn-

sylvania line.

The possible strategic and economic effects of the Baltimore and

Ohio terminal at Wheeling increased the activity of Pittsburg against the

bridge, which the engineer of the Pennsylvania and Ohio railway openly

declared was designed as a connecting link between the Baltimore and Ohio

and the state of Ohio -by which Wheeling was also endeavoring to make

 

6 House Docs. 95, 27-3, vol. III; ibid 67, 28-1, vol. III. Sen. Doc. 84,

28-1, vol. I.

7House Rep. 79, 28-1, vol. I. Also see 42 Ohio Laws, 269; 29 Pa

Laws, 487 and 31 Pa. Laws, 591.

8 See U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 16 Howard, 314-354, A. J. Mar-

shall v. The B. and 0. Railroad.

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44         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

herself the terminal of the Ohio railways which Pittsburg sought to

secure.⁹

A determined struggle followed. Before its cables were thrown

across the river, the Bridge Company received legal notice of the

institution of a suit and an application for an injunction. The bill of

of Pennsylvania, filed before the United States supreme court in July, 1849;

charged that the Bridge Company under color of an act of the Virginia

legislature, but in direct violation of its terms, was preparing to construct

a bridge at Wheeling which would obstruct navigation on the Ohio and

thereby cut off and divert trade and business from the public works of

Pennsylvania, and thus diminish tolls and revenues and render its improve-

ments useless.10 In spite of the order of Judge Grier (August 1, 1849),

the Bridge Company continued its work, and in August 1849, Pennsylvania

filed a supplemental bill praying for abatement of the iron cables which

were being stretched across the river.11 The Bridge Company continued

to work and completed the bridge. The state treasurer of Pennsylvania

reported that it threatened to interfere with the business and enterprise of

Pittsburg whose commercial prosperity was so essential to the productive-

ness of the main line of the Pennsylvania canal. In December 1849,

Pennsylvania filed another supplemental bill praying abatement of the

bridge as a nuisance, representing that the structure obstructed the

passage of steamboats and threatened to injure and destroy the ship-

building business at Pittsburg. With no appeal to force (such as had

recently occurred on the Ohio-Michigan frontier), or blustering enactments

of state sovereignty, or threats of secession, she sought a remedy by in-

junction against a local corporation. In January 1850, the Pennsylvania

legislature unanimously passed a resolution approving the prosecution

instituted by the attorney-general. At the same time the Bridge Company

secured from the Virginia legislature (on January 11, 1850) an amendatory

act declaring that the height of the bridge (90 feet at eastern abutment,

931/2 feet at the highest point and 62 feet at the western abutment above

the low water level of the Ohio) was in conformity with the intent and

meaning of the charter.

In the presentation of the case before the supreme court, the at-

torney-general of Pennsylvania and Edwin M. Stanton were attorneys

for Pennsylvania and Alex. H. H. Stuart and Reverdy Johnson for the

Bridge Company.

The counsel for Pennsylvania urged that the bridge had been erected

especially to the injury of Pittsburg (the rival of Wheeling in com-

merce and manufactures), whose six largest boats (those most affected

 

9Cong. Globe, vol. 25, p. 1049; Pittsburg Gazette and Commercial Jour-

nal, June 30, 1849.

10 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 9 Howard, 647.

11 Ib., 11 Howard, 528.

• 44
 

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         45

 

by the bridge) carried between Pittsburg and Cincinnati three-fourths

of the trade and travel transported by the Pennsylvania canal. "To the

public works of Pennsylvania the injury occasioned by this obstruction

is deep and lasting," said Stanton. "The products of the South and West,

and of the Pacific coast, are brought in steamboats along the Ohio to

the western end of her canals at Pittsburg, thence to be transported

through them to Philadelphia, for an eastern and foreign market. For-

eign merchandise and eastern manufactures, received at Philadelphia,

are transported by the same channel to Pittsburg, thence to be carried

south and west, to their destination, in steamboats along the Ohio. If

these vessels and their commerce are liable to be stopped within a short

distance as they approach the canals, and subject to expense, delay and

danger, to reach them, and the same consequence to ensue on their

voyage, departing, the value of these works must be destroyed."12

The Bridge Company, through its counsel admitting that Pennsyl-

vania had expended large amounts in public improvements terminating

at Pittsburg and Beaver, over which there was a large passenger and

freight traffic, alleged the exclusive sovereignty of Virginia over the

Ohio, submitted the act of the Virginia legislature authorizing the erec-

tion of the bridge, denied the corporate capacity of Pennsylvania to in-

stitute the suit, and justified the bridge as a connecting link of a great

public highway as important as the Ohio, and as a necessity recognized

by reports of committees in Congress. It cited the example set by

Pennsylvania in bridging the Allegheny, in authorizing a bridge across

the Ohio below Pittsburg at thirteen feet less elevation than the Wheel-

ing bridge, and in permitting the bridging and damming of the Monon-

gahela by enterprising citizens of Pittsburg under charters from the

state. It declared that the bridge was not an appreciable inconvenience

to the average class of boats and would not diminish the Pittsburg

trade, and suggested that the chimneys of steamboats should be short-

ened or put on hinges for convenience in lowering. It also contended

that the bridge was necessary for transporting into the interior the

passengers and much of the freight which would be diverted from the

streams by the greater speed and safety of railroads which would soon

concentrate at Wheeling.

The court, accepting jurisdiction, appointed Hon. R. H. Walworth,

a jurist of New York, as special commissioner to take testimony and

report. The report indicated that the bridge obstruction would divert

part of the total traffic (nearly fifty millions annually) from lines of

transportation centering at Pittsburg to the northern route through New

York or to a more southern route. Of the nine regular packets which

passed Wheeling in 1847, five would have been unable to pass under the

bridge (for periods differing in length) without lowering or cutting off

 

12 U. S. Supreme Court, 13 Howard, 538.

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46         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

their chimneys. The passage of three of the Pittsburg-Cincinnati packets

had been actually stopped or obstructed. One, on November 10, 1849,

was detained for hours by the necessity of cutting off the chimneys.

Another, the Hibernia, on November 11, 1849, was detained thirty-two

hours and was obliged to hire another boat to carry to Pittsburg the

passengers except those who preferred to cross the mountains via Cum-

berland. Later she was twice compelled to abandon a trip-once hiring

another boat, and once landing her passengers who proceeded east to

Cumberland. Two accidents had also occurred.

The report indicated a preponderance of evidence against the safety

of lowering the chimneys, which at any rate was regarded as a very slow

and expensive process. Although the commissioner recognized that it

would be a great injury to commerce and to the community to destroy

fair competition between river and railroad transit by an unnecessary

obstruction to either, and recognized the propriety of carrying railroads

across the large rivers if it could be done without impairing navigation, he

concluded that the Wheeling bridge was an obstruction to free naviga-

tion of the Ohio. Of the 230 boats on the river below Wheeling, the

7 boats of the Pittsburg-Cincinnati packet line were most obstructed

by the bridge. They conveyed about one-half the goods (in value) and

three-fourths of the passengers between the two cities. Since 1844, they

had transported nearly a million passengers.

The Wheeling Bridge Company complained that Mr. Walworth had

given the company no chance to present its testimony.

The decision of the court was given at the adjourned term in

May, 1852. The majority of the court (six members) held that the

erection of the bridge, so far as it interfered with the free and unob-

structed navigation of the Ohio, was inconsistent with and in violation

of acts of Congress, and could not be protected by the legislature of

Virginia because the Virginia statute was in conflict with the laws of

Congress.

Justice McLean who delivered the opinion of the court held that

since the Ohio was a navigable stream subject to the commercial power

of Congress, Virginia had no jurisdiction over the interstate commerce

upon it, and that the act of the Virginia legislature authorizing the

structure of the bridge so as to obstruct navigation could afford no

justification of the Bridge Company. However numerous the railroads

and however large their traffic, he expected the waterways to remain the

great arteries of commerce and favored their protection as such instead

of their obstruction and abandonment. The decree stated that unless

the navigation was relieved from obstruction by February 1, 1853, the

bridge must be abated.

Chief Justice Taney dissented on the ground that since Virginia

had exercised sovereignty over the Ohio and Congress had acquiesced

in it, the court could not declare the bridge an unlawful obstruction

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          47

 

and the law of Virginia unconstitutional and void. He preferred to leave

the regulation of bridges and steamboat chimneys to the legislative de-

partment. Justice Daniels, also dissenting, declared that Pennsylvania

could not be a party to the suit on the ground stated in the bill (diminu-

ation of profits in canals and other public improvements many miles

remote from the Wheeling bridge) and that the court could take no

jurisdiction in such cases of imperfect rights, or of merely moral or

incidental rights as distinguished from legal or equitable. "And," said

he "if the mere rivalry of works of internal improvement in other states,

by holding out the temptation of greater dispatch, greater safety, or any

other inducement to preference for those works over the Pennsylvania

canals, be a wrong and a ground for jurisdiction here, the argument

and the rule sought to be deduced therefrom should operate equally.

The state of Virginia which is constructing a railroad from the seaboard

to the Ohio river at Point Pleasant, much further down that river than

either Pittsburg or Wheeling, and at the cost of the longest tunnel in

the world, piercing the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, should have

the right by original suit in this court against the canal companies of

Pennsylvania or against that state herself, to recover compensation for

diverting any portion of the commerce which might seek the ocean by

this shortest transit to the mouths of her canals on the Ohio, or to

the city of Pittsburg; and on the like principle, the state of Pennsylvania

has a just cause of action against the Baltimore and Ohio railroad for

intercepting at Wheeling the commerce which might otherwise be con-

strained to seek the city of Pittsburg."13

Justice Daniels, intoxicated with the recent effects of the develop-

ment of railroads, directed considerable attention to the reigning fallacy

which Pennsylvania urged upon the court-that commerce could be

prosecuted with advantage to the western country only by the channels

of rivers and through the agency of steamboats whose privileges were

regarded as paramount. He urged that the historical progress of means

of transportation exposed the folly and injustice of all attempts to

restrict commerce to particular localities or to particular interests.

Against the narrow policy of confining commerce to watercourses whose

capacity was limited by the contributions of the clouds, he urged the

superiority of railroads for speed, safety, freedom from dependence on

wind or depth of water, and unifying power in interfluvial regions.

Plans were proposed by the defendant's counsel to remove the

obstructions to navigation at less expense than the elevation or abate-

ment of the bridge, and the court (March 3, 1852) referred the plans

to J. McAlpine who made a report on May 8, 1852.

The majority of the court, looking only to desired results and

not to methods, then agreed that the former decree would permit the

 

¹³U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 13 Howard, 661.

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48         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Bridge Company to remove the obstruction by a two hundred foot draw

in the bridge over the western branch of the river. Justice McLean

then delivered the opinion of the court in which he stated that the right

of navigating the Ohio or any other river does not necessarily conflict

with the right of bridging it; but he declared that these rights could

only be maintained when they were exercised so as not to be incom-

patible with each other. If the bridge had been constructed according

to the language of the charter, he said, the suit could not have been

instituted.

Defeated before the courts, Wheeling took prompt steps to save

the bridge by action of Congress. In her efforts she received the co-

operation of one hundred and twenty-one members of the Ohio legis-

lature who (in April, 1852) petitioned Congress to protect the bridge by

maintaining it as a mail route-and also by resolutions of the Virginia

and Indiana legislatures.14  She even had the sympathy of thirty-six

members representing the minority of the Pennsylvania legislature, who

presented a petition in favor of protecting the bridge.15 On July 8, the

committee on roads made a favorable report asking Congress to declare

both bridges post roads and military roads and to regulate the height

and construction of chimneys of steamboats navigating the Ohio.16 On

August 12, an adverse report was made on a resolution of the Penn-

sylvania legislature. In the debates which followed (from  August 13

to August 18)" the advocates of the bill included: (1) those who felt

that the entire proceeding against the bridge originated in Pittsburg's

jealousy of Wheeling, (2) those who felt that the recent decision of

the supreme court was a strike against state sovereignty, and (3) those

who (favoring the encouragement of better facilities for travel) as-

serted that within two years one could travel from New York to Cin-

cinnati via Wheeling bridge as quickly as one could now pass from Cin-

cinnati to Wheeling in either of the seven tall chimneyed Pittsburg

packet boats, and with no danger of stoppage of transportation alter-

nately by low water and frozen water.

Some of them who opposed the bill regarded the proposed legis-

lation in favor of the bridge as giving a preference to boats bound to

Wheeling over those bound to Pittsburg and as a strike at the pros-

perity of Pittsburg. Others in opposition directed attention to the fact

that bridges adapted to railroad purposes could be erected near Wheeling

without obstruction to navigation and that the Ohio Central railway and

the Baltimore and Ohio, which had recently intended to connect at

 

14 H. Misc. Docs. 50, 32-1, vol. I. Sen. Misc. Docs. 103, 32-1, vol. I.

H. Misc. Docs. 63, 32-1, vol. I.

15 Cong. Globe, 32-1, p. 602.

16 H. Reports 158, 32-1, vol. I.

17 Cong. Globe, 32-1 vol. 25, pp. 967-968, 972, 974, 1037-1049, 1041, 1044,

1047, 1065 and 1068.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          49

 

Wheeling, had found a more convenient point four miles south of

Bogg's Ferry where a bridge could be constructed at sufficient height

to avoid the objection taken by the supreme court to the bridge at

Wheeling.l⁸

The bill passed the Senate on August 28 by a vote of 33 to 10,

and the House on August 30 by a vote of 92 to 42.19 On August 31,

before the time designated for the execution of the decree of May,

1852, it became an act of Congress legalizing in their existing conditions

the bridges both of the west and the east branch, abutting on Zane's

Island. It declared them to be post roads for the passage of United

States mail, at the same time requiring vessels navigating the river to

regulate their pipes and chimneys so as not to interfere with the eleva-

tion and construction of the bridges.

The Bridge Company relied upon this act as superseding the effect

and operation of the decree of May, 1852, but Pennsylvania insisted

that the act was unconstitutional. The captain of one of the Pitts-

burg packets showed his displeasure by unnecessarily going through the

form of lowering his chimneys and passing under the bridge with all

the forms of detention and oppression.20

Meantime the rival railroads had been pushing westward to con-

nect the rival cities of the Ohio with rival cities of the East. The

original line of the Pennsylvania whose construction began at Harris-

burg in July, 1847, was opened to the junction with the Allegheny

Portage railway at Hollidaysburg at the base of the mountains on Sep-

tember 16, 1850.21 The Baltimore and Ohio, notwithstanding delays in-

cident to the difficulties experienced in securing laborers was opened for

business from Cumberland to the foot of the mountains at Piedmont

on July 5, 1851. The western division of the Pennsylvania line from

the western end of the Portage railroad at Johnstown to Pittsburg

was opened on September 22, 1852, and a through train service via the

inclined planes of the Portage railway was established on December

10, following.

By the beginning of 1853, Wheeling seemed to have won new ad-

vantages over Pittsburg through the strategy of prospective railway lines

and new steamer lines which induced the belief that Pennsylvania with

her foot on the Ohio was but at the threshold of the promised land.

The B. & 0. won the race to the Ohio by a single continuous track

over which through train service was established from Baltimore to

Wheeling in January, 1853. To connect with it at Wheeling the Wheel-

ing and Kanawha packet line was established by the Virginia legisla-

 

¹⁸Cong. Globe, 32-1, vol. 25, p. 975.

19 Ib. 32-1, vol. 24, pp. 2442 and 2479.

20Wheeling Intelligencer, Feb. 23, 1853.

21 H. V. Poor, Manual of Railroads, 1881, p. 258.

Vol. XXII - 4.

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50         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ture and the Union line of steamboats was established between Wheeling

and Louisville.²² At the same time steps had been taken to construct

several other prospective railways which would naturally converge at

Wheeling.²³ These included the Hempfield to connect with Philadelphia,

a line from Columbus, a line from Marietta, and also a line from

Cleveland which was expected to become an important point in case

the proposed treaty of reciprocity with Canada should become a law.

While the James River and Kanawha canal and the Covington and Ohio

railway still hesitated to find a way westward across the mountains

farther south, and before the construction of the Northwestern Virginia

railroad from Grafton to Parkersburg, Wheeling especially expected

to divert the trade of southern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee and to

center it at Wheeling. Wheeling was also favored by cheaper steamer

rates to the west and by the dangers of navigation between Wheeling

and Pittsburg at certain periods of the year. Early in 1854, New York

merchants shipped western freight via Baltimore and Wheeling. Oysters

too, because of the bad condition of the Pennsylvania line of travel

were shipped via Wheeling to Cleveland and Chicago.²⁴

Pittsburg, however, undaunted by the chagrin of defeat, and with

undiminished confidence in her ability to maintain her hegemony of

the upper Ohio and the West, prepared to marshal and drill her forces

for final victory by efforts to regain ground lost and to forestall

the plans of her rival by new strategic movements. She declared that

Wheeling was outside the travel line. She stationed an agent at Graves

Creek below Wheeling to induce eastward-bound boat passengers to

continue their journey to Pittsburg and thence eastward via the Penn-

sylvania line of travel in order to avoid the tunnels and zigzags, and

the various kinds of delay on the B. & O.-to which the Wheeling

Intelligencer replied by uncomplimentary references to the slowness of

travel over the inclined planes and flat rails of the Pennsylvania Central

railway.25 Through her mayor and her newspapers she warned travellers

against the danger of accidents on the B. & O.-to which Wheeling

replied that the frightful accidents on the Pennsylvania line hurled more

people into eternity each month than had ever been injured on the

B. and 0. She also endeavored to prejudice travelers against the Union

line of steamers, complaining of its fares and food, and also of the

reckless racing encouraged by its captains who had bantered the boats

of other lines for exhibitions of speed.26 She was also accused of using

her influence to secure the location of the route of the Pittsburg branch

of the Cleveland road, on the west shore of the Ohio, from Wellsville to

 

²²Wheeling Intelligencer, Feb. 12 and 26, 1853.

23 Ib. Sept 1852.

24 Wheeling Intelligencer, Jan. 20 and March 2, 1854.

25 Ib. March 7, 1853.

26 Ib. April 1, 1853.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           51

 

Wheeling, causing Brooke and Hancock Counties to threaten secession

from Virginia.

As a strategic movement against the proposed Hempfield road, by

which Wheeling hoped to get not only direct connection with Philadel-

phia, but also a connection with the Marietta road, Pittsburg resuscitated

a movement in favor of the Steubenville and Pittsburg railway and

revived the project of the Connelsville route to Baltimore. She also

strained every nerve to open connections with the New York and Erie

line via the Allegheny Valley.²⁷

The proposed Steubenville and Pittsburg railway, especially, was

strongly opposed by Wheeling by whom it was regarded as a project to

cripple her by diverting her trade. Largely through her influence,

Pittsburg's attempt to secure a charter from the Virginia legislature for

the road for which she proposed a bonus on every passenger, was

defeated in the lower house by a vote of 70 to 37, and later failed to

secure the approval of the house committee.28 When the promoters of

the road tried the new plan of getting a route by securing the land in

fee with the idea of rushing the road through in order to get the next

Congress to declare it a post road, the Wheeling Intelligencer declared

that Congress would not dare thus to usurp the sovereignty of Vir-

ginia.²⁹ An injunction against the road was proposed, and in order to

prevent the construction of the railway bridge at Steubenville a plan to

construct a road from   the state line through Holliday's Cove and

Wellsburg was considered.30

From the consideration of plans to prevent the construction of the

Steubenville bridge above her Wheeling turned to grapple with a more

immediate danger of ruin which threatened her by a proposed connec-

tion of the B. and 0. and the Central Ohio railway at Benwood, four

miles below her. This she claimed was in violation of the law of 1847

granting a charter to the B. and 0.; and, to prevent it, she secured an

injunction from Judge George W. Thompson of the Circuit Court-

causing the State Journal of Columbus to place her in the list with

Erie, Pa. (which had recently attempted to interrupt travel between

east and west), and to assert that the Benwood track case was similar to

the Wheeling Bridge case An attempt was made to secure combination

and cooperation of the railroads to erect a union bridge in Wheeling to

replace the old structure.31

Meantime, transportation facilities improved on the Pennsylvania

 

27 Wheeling Intelligencer. Dec 15, 1852. and January 1853; also Feb-

ruary 8, 1853.

28 Ib. February 23, 1853 and February 1, 1854.

29 Ib. May 13, 1853.

30 Ib. November 9, 1853 and April 3, 1854.

31 Wheeling Intelligencer, October 1854, January 1855; March 17,

June 8 and June 19, 1855.

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52         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

line after the mountains were conquered by a grade for locomotives.

The mountain division of the road, and with it the whole line, was opened

on February 15, 1854, and by its cheaper rates soon overcame the ad-

vantages which New Orleans had held in attracting the commerce of the

West.32 Pennsylvania promptly passed a bill (1854) authorizing the sale

of her unproductive public works, and abandoned her portage railway

across the mountains. Three years later (1857), she sold to the Penn-

sylvania railway the main line of the system of public works undertaken

in 1826, including the Philadelphia and Columbia railway.33

Coincident with the determination of Pennsylvania to dispose of

her unproductive public works, the old Wheeling bridge over the main

branch of the stream was blown down by a gale of wind (in May, 1854)

and was promptly removed to avoid obstruction. Some regarded the

disaster as a just judgment for trespass upon the rights of others by

Wheeling in order to make herself the head of navigation. The Pitts-

burg Journal, edited by the ex-mayor of the city, gloated over Wheeling's

misfortune.34  The Pittsburg and Cincinnati packet Pennsylvania, in

derision, lowered her chimneys at the place recently spanned by the

bridge. Her second offense, a few days later, exasperated the indignant

crowd on shore and induced the boys to resort to mob spirit and to

throw stones resulting in a hasty departure of the vessel; but further

trouble was avoided by an apology from the captain and the wise advice

of older heads.

Another and a final Wheeling Bridge case before the Supreme Court

(arising in 1854 and decided in April, 1856,)35 resulted from the decision

of the company to rebuild the bridge. When the company promptly

began the preparations for rebuilding, Pennsylvania, stating that she

desired to secure a suspension of expensive work until the force and

effect of the act of Congress could be judicially determined, asked the

United States Supreme Court for an injunction against the reconstruc-

tion of the bridge unless in conformity with the requirements of the

previous decree in thecase. Without any appearance or formal opposition

of the company, the injunction was granted (June 25, 1854,) during

vacation of the court, by Justice Grier whom the Wheeling Intelligencer

called the Pittsburg judge of the Supreme Court. The Intelligencer

regarded the question as a grave one, involving the sovereign authority

of Virginia and a direct law of Congress, and illustrating the aggressions

of the Supreme Court, which it feared were becoming daily more alarm-

ing. Charles Ellet, the engineer on whom the injunction was served,

promptly announced that he expected to have the bridge open for traffic

in two weeks, and the bridge company asked Congress to investigate

 

32 Star of the Kanawha Valley, January 9, 1856.

33 H. V. Poor, Manual of Railways, 1881, p. 258.

34 Wheeling Intelligencer May 20 and 22, 1854.

35 U. S. Supreme Courts, 18 Howard, 421-459.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         53

 

charges against Judge Grier to the effect that he had invited bribery.³⁶

The new suspension bridge was opened as a temporary structure on

July 26 at an expense of only $8,000.

The injunction having been disregarded, Pennsylvania asked for

attachment and sequestration of the property of the company for con-

tempt resulting from disobedience of the injunction of Justice Grier.

At the same time, the company asked the court to dissolve the injunction.

Pennsylvania insisted that the act of Congress was unconstitutional and

void because it annulled the judgment of the court already rendered and

because it was inconsistent with the clause in Article I, Section 9, of the

Constitution against preference to the ports of one state over those of

another.

Justice Nelson, in delivering the decision of the court on the latter

point, said: "It is urged that the interruption of the navigation of the

steamboats engaged in commerce and conveyance of passengers upon the

Ohio river at Wheeling from the erection of the bridge, and the delay

and expense arising therefrom, virtually operate to give a preference to

this port over that of Pittsburg; that the vessels to and from Pittsburg

navigating the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are not only subjected to

this delay and expense in the course of the voyage, but that the obstruc-

tion will necessarily have the effect to stop the trade and business at

Wheeling, or divert the same in some other direction or channel of

commerce. Conceding all this to be true, a majority of the court are

of the opinion that the act of Congress is not inconsistent with the

clause in the constitution referred to--in other words, that it is not

giving a preference to the ports of one state over those of another,

within the true meaning of that provision. There are many acts of

Congress passed in the exercise of this power to regulate commerce,

providing for a special advantage to the port or ports of one state

(and which very advantage may incidentally operate to the prejudice of

the ports in a neighboring state) which have never been supposed to

conflict with this limitation upon its power. The improvement of rivers

and harbors, the erection of light-houses, and other facilities of com-

merce, may be referred to as examples."37

The court decided that the decree for alteration or abatement of

the bridge could not be carried into execution since the act of Congress

regulating the navigation of the river was consistent with the existence

and continuance of the bridge-but that the decrees directing the costs

to be paid by the bridge company must be executed. The majority of

the court (six members), on the grounds that the act of Congress

afforded  full authority to reconstruct the bridge, directed that the

motion for attachments against the president of the bridge company and

others for disobedience and contempt should be denied and the injunc-

36 Wheeling Intelligencer July 1 and July 17, 1854.

37 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 18 Howard, 433.

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54         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

tion dissolved; but Nelson agreed with Wayne, Grier and Curtis in the

opinion that an attachment should issue, since there was no power in

Congress to interfere with the judgment of the court under pretense

of power to legalize the structure or by making it a post road.

Justice McLean dissented, feeling that the principle involved was

of the deepest interest to the growing commerce of the West, which

might be obstructed by bridges across the rivers. He opposed the idea

that making the bridge a post road (under the purpose of the act of

July 7, 1838,) could exempt it from the consequences of being a nuisance.

He regarded the act of Congress as unconstitutional and void; and,

although he admitted the act might excuse previous contempt, he

declared that it could afford no excuse for further refusal to perform

the decree.

A sequel to the preceding case arose in the same term of court

(December, 1855,) on motion of the counsel for the bridge company for

leave to file a bill of review of the court's order of the December term

of 1851, in regard to the costs. The court had already determined that

the decree rendered for costs against the bridge company was un-

affected by the act of Congress of August 1, 1852; but the court

declining to open the question for examination declared "there must be

an end of all litigation."^38.

The later history bearing upon the subject here treated-the later

regulation of the construction of bridges across the Ohio under act of

Congress, the later opposition which found expression against the con-

struction of bridges such as the railroad bridges of Parkersburg and

between Benwood and Bellaire³⁹ (which were completed in 1871), the

decline of old local prejudices and jealousies, and the rise of new problems

of transportation resulting from the extension of railways, cannot be

considered within the scope and limits of this monograph.

Professor Callahan was followed by Editor Wiley of Eliza-

beth, Pa.

 

 

SHIP AND BRIG BUILDING ON THE OHIO

AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

 

BY RICHARD T. WILEY.

 

The coming of the steamboat on the western rivers was soon

followed by the end of a movement in the commerce of the region,

which seems strange as we compare it with present-day conditions and

activities. To think of Pittsburgh and the river towns of the Ohio basin

38 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 18 Howard, 460-463.

39 Wheeling Intelligencer, April 13 and April 20, 1869.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           55

 

as seaports seems like a wild flight of the imagination, yet that is what

they were in effect at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and for

a few years thereafter. Strange as it may seem, sea-going vessels of

large tonnage for the time, sailed from various settlements on the

Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, while these were yet hardly

more than frontier outposts, following the rivers to the Gulf of Mexico,

and proceeding thence to ports in various parts of the world, in both

hemispheres, laden with the products of this region. And the building

and equipment of these vessels became an important industry of various

river towns. Can it be now that with the deepening of existing water-

ways and the opening of a deep water connection between the Great

Lakes and the Ohio, history is about to repeat itself, and again sea-

going vessels be seen in our local waters?

The story of this wonderful development of a few years in the

early days has never been adequately told, and can only be touched

on in its most conspicuous features in this paper. Much time and

effort, search and research, have been given in an effort to trace it back

to its very beginning; and while much interesting material has been

unearthed, it cannot be said with certainty that the beginning has been

reached. The search has been a fascinating one, with rewards by the

way, of facts discovered here and there, and the incentive always of

hinted facts just beyond. A number of claims have been made in the

past, with a positiveness which seemed to be warranted by the informa-

tion at hand, that this or that ship was the first to sail these western

waters, only to be shown by the uncovering of further information to be

in error. Of this more anon.

It would seem that this transportation development of the time

was an evolution, even though a comparatively rapid one, rather than

something which had its genesis suddenly in the building and sailing of

some particular vessel. Navigation of these rivers began with the red

men and their canoes, which were of two types -the dugout, made by

shaping and hollowing out a log into boat form, and the bark canoe,

made by carefully peeling the bark in one piece from a large tree trunk,

shaping it to pointed prow and stern and pitching the seams to make

them impervious to water. A third type of Indian canoe, made by

stretching skins of animals over wooden framework, does not seem to

have been much, if at all, in use among the Indians of this region.

The first white men who came to the western country followed

the models provided by the Indians and made themselves canoes of

dugout logs for navigating the streams, but they soon improved on the

primitive pattern, and the first advance was the pirogue. With better

tools and facilities for shaping it than the Indians could command, the

whites employed much larger tree trunks for the making of these craft,

and sometimes joined two great logs for the making of one pirogue,

forming a boat capable of floating a considerable weight, be it of persons

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56         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

or of merchandise. The bateau was the next development. It was a

freight boat, built of planks, square at each end and widest at the

middle. Its ultimate development is seen in the coal and freight barges

on our rivers to-day. The flatboat was the usual conveyance of the

emigrant down the rivers, in his migration to the west. It also was

built of planks, with the seams caulked, was square and flat bottomed,

and was roofed over for the protection of the people, their animals and

goods. This craft, though unwieldy, was capable of carrying large

loads. The modern coalboat is its lineal descendant. The keelboat,

which finally came largely into use as the river packet of the day, alone,

of all the craft described, followed the established plans of marine arch-

itecture, having a ribbed frame, planked over in straight lines and curves,

after the manner of shipbuilding. Its name really gives a very good

hint of its form and manner of construction, which was much like that

of the canal boats of later days, pointed at prow and stern, and having

a low cabin.

While paddles, oars, poles and cordelles were used on these various

types of craft as the ordinary means of propulsion, they nearly all

carried masts and sails for use when these could be employed to ad-

vantage. Note the two facts-the development of types into a marine

form of construction, with keel and ribs, along with the use of sails-

and the step was a short one to ships for plowing the main.

All of the information at hand seems to indicate that the beginning

of the building of ships in the Ohio basin was in the last few years of

the Eighteenth Century. Some careful writers have been misled by a

paragraph in Harris's Directory of Pittsburgh, into giving 1792 as the

time of the first ship-building operations at that city, but it will be

shown that there was an error in the date quoted by Harris, the

operations to which he refers having been begun ten years later than

the date given by him. Here is the quotation referred to. (Note par-

ticularly the dates and the names of vessels.)

"In the year 1792 a French company of merchants under the firm

of Tarascon, Berthoud & Co., came from Philadelphia and commenced a

large establishment at this place They brought with them about twenty

ship carpenters and joiners, and the first summer built the schooner

Amity of 120 tons and the ship Pittsburgh of 250 tons. Having sent out

caulkers, riggers, captains, mates and sailors, they were fitted out com-

pletely for sea; and the following spring the schooner was sent to St.

Thomas and the ship to Philadelphia, both laden with flour. The second

summer they built the brig Nanina, of 200, and the ship Louisiana, of

350 tons. The ship was sent direct to Marseilles; the brig was sent out

ballasted with stone coal, which was sold at Philadelphia for 371/2 cents a

bushel. She also had a quantity of staves, heading, hoop-poles, etc. The

year after they built the ship Western Trader, of 400 tons. This com-

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          57

 

pany were the first to introduce the navigation of the Ohio with keel-

boats."

Against this put the following, from "Pittsburgh's Hundred Years,

by the careful local historian, George H. Thurston, published in 1888:

"The building of sea-going vessels was established at Pittsburgh by a

French gentleman, Louis Anastasius Tarascon, who emigrated from

France in 1794, and established himself at Philadelphia as a merchant.

In 1799 he sent two of his clerks, Charles Brugiere and James Berthoud,

to examine the course of the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburgh to

New Orleans, and ascertain the practicability of sending ships, and

clearing them ready-rigged, from Pittsburgh to the West Indies and

Europe. The two gentlemen reported favorably, and Mr. Tarascon

associated them, and his brother, John Anthony, with himself, under the

firm of John A. Tarascon Brothers, James Berthoud & Co., and immedi-

ately established at Pittsburgh a wholesale and retail warehouse, a ship

yard, a rigging and sail loft, an anchor smithshop, a block manufactory

and all other things necessary to complete sea-going vessels. The first

year, 1801, they built the schooner Amity, of 120 tons, and the ship

Pittsburgh, of 250 tons, and sent the former, loaded with flour, to St.

Thomas, and the other, also loaded with flour, to Philadelphia, from

whence they sent them to Bordeaux, France, and brought back a cargo

of wine, brandy and other French goods, part of which they sent in

wagons to Pittsburgh, at a carriage of from 6 to 8 cents a pound. In

1802 they built the brig Nanina, 250 tons; in 1803, the ship Louisiana,

300 tons; in 1804, the ship Western Trader, 400 tons."

Original documentary evidence now at hand shows that neither of

the writers above quoted was entirely accurate, though the later one

was approximately so. Almost complete files exist, for the period under

consideration, of the Gazette and the Tree of Liberty, two weekly news-

papers published at Pittsburgh, and are now preserved in the Carnegie

Library of that city. One or both of these note the launching of all

the vessels above named, in the order there given. But the Amity, instead

of having been built in 1792, as Harris says, or in 1801, as given by

Thurston, was evidently constructed in 1802, for her launching on the

23d of December of that year is noted in the local news record. The

ship Pittsburgh was launched in February, 1803; the brig Nanina,

January 4, 1804; the ship Louisiana, April 6, 1804, and the Western

Trader, in May, 1804, as noted in the current news record.

It is inconceivable, of course, that the names and practically the

tonnage of vessels should be duplicated in the same yard, in a series of

five, within ten years, so it is very evident that the date given by Harris

as the beginning of operations by this firm was one decade too early.

Other things in the record make this indubitable. In the same newspaper

files already quoted from, first appears, in the autumn of 1801, adver-

tising of the mercantile house of James Berthoud, while in September,

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58         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

1802, notice was given the public that "the house of James Berthoud will

hereafter be known by the firm of Tarascon Brothers, James Berthoud &

Co." Further evidence of the unreliability of the Harris publication is

found in the statement that "this company were the first to introduce

the navigation of the Ohio with keelboats," for advertising of the period

shows that these were being built and offered for sale at Pittsburgh and

various places on the Monongahela river from four to six years before

the early date erroneously given by Harris as the time of the founding of

the Tarascon-Berthoud house.

But this concern was not the first one to build maritime vessels in

the Pittsburgh region or on the Ohio, though it is probable theirs was

the first establishment in the western country having facilities for their

building and complete outfitting. Note is made in the papers already

quoted from of the building of the Dean, a vessel of 180 tons, at a point

on the Allegheny river, eleven miles above Pittsburgh, in the year 1802.

This vessel sailed from  Pittsburgh in January, 1803, for Liverpool,

England, the intention being to take on a cargo of cotton at the mouth

of the Cumberland river. This was more than three months before the

sailing of the Amity and Pittsburgh from Pittsburgh.

The claim has long been made that the first sea-going vessel to be

built on the western rivers and to pass down these to the sea was the

schooner Monongahela Farmer, a vessel of 92 tons' burden, built at

Elizabethtown, now Elizabeth, on the Monongahela. It has figured as

such in history and story, and the present writer confesses to having, in

full belief of its correctness, done somewhat to perpetuate what there

is now good reason to believe was an error. This vessel was built in

the year 1800, and was launched April 23, 1801, by the Monongahela

Company, an organization of farmers of the vicinity. It was loaded

with flour and sent to New Orleans, becoming later a packet between

that city and the West Indies. The stock of the company was in twenty

shares of one hundred dollars each, and was owned by twenty farmers.

The owners of the vessel also owned its cargo. It sailed in May of the

same year, touching at Pittsburgh on the 13th. It was detained at the

Falls of Ohio (Louisville) for more than six months by low water, not

reaching New Orleans until the beginning of 1802. Very complete

records of this vessel and her voyage were preserved in a printed descrip-

tion of her materials and construction, the letter of commission and

instruction to her commander and letters from him on the way. The

commander was Capt. John Walker of Elizabeth. For three-quarters of

a century boat building operations were carried on by the Walker

family at Elizabeth, and representatives of it are still there and at

various other places in the country. It has constantly been maintained

by these Walkers that their forebear sailed the first ship down the inland

waters. He survived until 1856, and his son John died in Colorado

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           59

 

within the past year, so the span of these two lives covered the century

and more since the events under consideration.

Did the honor of being the first belong to the Monongahela

Farmer? The Tree of Liberty has this note in its issue of March 28,

1801: "Now riding at anchor in the Monongahela, opposite this place,

the schooner Redstone, 45 feet in keel, built at Chester's ship yard, near

Redstone, by Samuel Jackson & Co.--with masts, spars, rigging, &c.,

of the growth and manufacture of this western country." This was

nearly four weeks before the launching of the Monongahela Farmer, and

more than six weeks before her sailing. No further record can be found

of the schooner Redstone - when she sailed, for what port or the nature

of her cargo. Her departure from Pittsburgh may, of course, have been

subsequent to that of the Monongahela Farmer. The "Chester ship yard,

near Redstone," is doubtless identical with that referred to in an adver-

tisement in the Pittsburgh Gazette in its issue of October 7, 1786, which

announces that "Joseph Chester, boat builder, opposite the mouth of

Little Redstone, nine miles below Big Redstone, makes all kinds of keel

and other boats, in the most improved manner, and at shortest notice."

The mouth of Little Redstone creek is the site of the present borough of

Fayette City, and Allenport, on the opposite side of the Monongahela,

was, without doubt, the site of the Chester yard.

The ship which seems to have the best title to priority over the

Monongahela Farmer of any which have figured in the records up to

this time is the St. Clair, built at Marietta, Ohio. Different authorities

assign the years 1798, 1799 and 1800 as the time of her construction.

That she was built about the end of the century and sailed for Havana,

Cuba, with a cargo of pork and flour, under command of Commodore

Abraham Whipple, of Revolutionary fame, is generally agreed, though

Thurston speaks of the commander as Commodore Preble. The present

writer has been unable to find any documentary evidence, coming down

from the time, which fixes the date definitely, as in the cases of vessels

already considered. The spring of 1800 is the time which has most

favor as that of the sailing of this vessel. Prof. Archer Butler Hulbert,

of Marietta, an accepted authority on matters of history of the Ohio

Valley, referring to it in his excellent work, "The Ohio River, a Course

of Empire," says: "It was in the year 1800, probably, that the first

ocean-rigged vessel weighed anchor on the Ohio for the sea," and in the

same work he refers to the Monongahela Farmer as "the first [ship]

to descend the Ohio of which we have any clear record."*

In the year 1797, when war was threatened between the United

States and France, Congress authorized the building of two armed

 

*Prof. Hulbert quotes as his authority for the time of the St. Clair's

sailing, Hildreth's Pioneer History, issued in 1834, and an inscription on

the tombstone of Commodore Whipple.

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60         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

galleys for the defense of the lower Mississippi. These were built and

launched at or near Pittsburgh, the President Adams in 1798 and the

Senator Ross in 1799. Major Isaac Craig, writing at the time, spoke of

the first as "as fine a vessel of her burden and construction as the United

States possesses," and the second as "certainly a fine piece of naval

architecture, and one which will far exceed anything the Spaniards can

show on the Mississippi." But these were never intended to be sea-

going craft and probably were never in salt water.

And now to return to the claim long made that the first sea-going

vessel built west of the Allegheny mountains sailed from Elizabeth and

was commanded by Capt. John Walker. Various county and other his-

tories have accepted the correctness of this claim. Thus Thurston, in

"Allegheny County's Hundred Years," published in 1888, says: "Alle-

gheny County is more than historically connected in a general way with

the history of steamboat building. Elizabeth is the point where was

built, at the close of the Eighteenth Century, the first sea-going vessel

to navigate the western waters, and Pittsburgh is the place where the

first practical steamboat was constructed." Warner's and other histories

of Allegheny County make like claims, basing them on earlier publica-

tions. Note has already been made of the fact that the Walker family,

in an unbroken line of boat builders for three-quarters of a century,

always claimed that John Walker sailed the first ship down the rivers

to the sea. Could it be that this was correct and the vessel was an

earlier one than the Monongahela Farmer? Some things that have

recently come to light indicate a probability of this. The vessel named

has long been so well known, because of the very complete record

concerning it which has been preserved, that this, coupled with the fact

that Capt. Walker commanded it on its maiden voyage, may have brought

confusion in the general apprehension concerning it, and made it to stand

for something really belonging to another vessel. It is a matter of

history that besides taking the Monongahela Farmer to New Orleans

in 1801, with a cargo of products of the region, he also sailed the brig

Ann Jane, a considerably larger vessel, built and loaded at the same

place, to New York about three years later. Evidence is now at hand

that he made a water voyage to New York earlier than the first of these

two.

John Walker, Jr., son of Capt. John Walker, died at Mt. Morrison,

Col., a suburb of Denver, on the 23d of January in the present year,

aged 94 years. His son, John Brisben Walker, former editor of the

Cosmopolitan Magazine, and well known in various lines of activity,

has found among his papers a passport, written in Spanish and issued

to the first John Walker, of which a literal translation is given below,

furnished me by an interpreter employed in one of the Pittsburgh

banks, a Spaniard by birth. The superscription is handsomely engraved

and shows that the official issuing it was a veritable poohbah of that

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early day, as witness: "The Baron of Carondalet, Chevalier of St.

John's Religion, Brigadier of the Royal Army, Gen. Governor, Vice

Patron of Louisiana and Occidental Florida, Inspector of its Troops, etc."

Then follows the written portion: "I grant free and sure passport to

John Walker in order that on the schooner Polly, her captain, Mr. John

Bain, he may go to New York, showing his baggage at the office of the

Royal Duty. Given in New Orleans on the 17th of July, 1795. (Signed)

Baron of Carondalet."

Here was Capt. John Walker on a sailing vessel at New Orleans

in 1795, on his way to New York. A passport would be necessary,

because Louisiana was then a Spanish possession. He was not in com-

mand of the vessel as master, but could not be expected to have the

knowledge of seamanship to make him competent to take command of

a vessel as master on the sea. Six years later he was commissioned by

the owners of the Monongahela Farmer as "master and supercargo," but

that vessel, while carrying complete rigging, did not have it erected to

make her a sailing vessel on her passage down the rivers, and she was

sold, with her cargo, on reaching New Orleans.

The third John Walker informed the writer, in a recent conversa-

tion in Denver, that he had never gone into the matter in detail with

his father, but had accepted the current tradition that it was on the

Monongahela Farmer that his grandfather had made the pioneer voyage

down the rivers to the sea. Monongahela Farmer and Polly were both

familiar names to him in his early home life, in connection with family

traditions of the nautical life of his grandfather, and it was always his

understanding that both of them were built at and sailed from Elizabeth.

This could easily be, for, from the laying out of the place in 1787, it was

a boat building place, and skilled ship carpenters were employed there.

Thaddeus Mason Harris, the traveler and writer, arrived at Eliza-

bethtown April 14, 1803, and makes this note: "At this place much

business is done in boat and ship building. The Monongahela Farmer

and other vessels of considerable burden were built here and, laden with

the produce of the adjacent country, were sent to the West India

islands." Local history has long told of the sailing of the Mononga-

hela Farmer in May, 1801, and the brig, Ann Jane, in May, 1804, from

Elizabeth, but there is no record of any between them. The Pittsburgh

papers of that period seem to have been careful to note the sailing of

all ships from the home ports. They recorded the two above named

from Elizabeth, but only these two. Harris was there a year before the

launching of the Ann Jane, but speaks of "other vessels of considerable

burden," sent "laden with the produce of the adjacent country." This

is strong evidence that there were other sea-going vessels built there

before the Monongahela Farmer, and greatly strengthened the case of the

Polly, which was at New Orleans in 1795, with Capt. John Walker on

board, bound for New York.

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If, as seems probable, the Polly was built in this region, it carries

the local ship building activity back at least five years earlier than the

records heretofore have seemed to indicate, and seems to give firm basis

to the Walker claim of priority. All efforts to trace the subsequent

history of this vessel have been unavailing.

While it may not be said with positiveness which was the first

sea-going vessel built in these parts, it is evident that the movement had

its origin in the last decade of the Eighteenth Century. All the boat

yards of the region of which record can be found had their beginnings

not earlier than the late eighties of that century, and ship building here

seems to have attained its greatest activity in the first decade of the

Nineteenth Century. Within that period the records show that vessels

of this character were built on the Monongahela at Pittsburgh, at

Elizabeth and opposite the mouth of Little Redstone creek (now Allen-

port); on the Allegheny, at an unnamed point eleven miles from

its mouth; on the Ohio, at Freedom, Wheeling, Marietta and Louisville.

The Tree of Liberty, in its issue of May 30, 1801, in noting ship building

operations at the two points last named, said: "The spirit of enterprise

which exists now is really worthy of a free and industrious people.

Traders need not be confined to one market, but may carry the products

of the western country to any port in their own vessels."

It is true that these were only outward-bound vessels, for after

sailing away they did not return up the river. Either the vessel was

sold at New Orleans or its other destination, or it continued to be

sailed by its owners on the ocean between various ports. Possible

exceptions to this were small barks which did return up the river, but

these probably never saw the high seas, their commercial operations being

confined to the rivers. The verb "sail," as employed in this and previous

paragraphs, to designate the beginning of the initial voyage, is used in its

accommodated sense of denoting a vessel's departure, without reference

to the means of its propulsion; for, as a matter of fact, these sea-

going vessels, in no case that has been found, sailed down the rivers

under the impetus of the wind upon their own canvas. It is true, they

were usually provided with the materials for complete rigging--masts,

yards, ropes, sails and even anchors -but the rigging was not set up

until New Orleans was reached and the vessel was on the eve of begin-

ning its sea voyage. It would be built, loaded, equipped and made all

ready for a freshet, and then would be floated on the crest of this down

the rivers, when the freshet came, usually in the spring. The boating

operations on the rivers for a number of years before the building of

ships here had brought an active demand for cordage, and there were a

number of ropewalks in the region. Every material entering into the

construction, from the various hard and soft woods to the flax and

hemp for cordage and sails, was a product of the country, and was put

into form right on the ground. There is some evidence that at the

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beginning iron was imported into the region, but even it was forged

into nails, bolts and anchors right here.

Michaux, the French writer, who visited this region in 1802, says:

"What many, perhaps, are ignorant of in Europe is, that they build

large vessels on the Ohio and at the town of Pittsburgh. One of the

principal ship yards is upon the Monongahela, about 200 fathoms beyond

the last house of the town. The timber they make use of is whiteoak,

redoak, blackoak, a kind of nut tree [black walnut], the Virginia cherry

tree, and a kind of pine which they use for masting, as well as for the

sides of the vessels, which require a slighter wood. The cordage is

manufactured at Redstone and Lexington, where there are two extensive

ropewalks, which also supply ships with rigging that are built at Marietta

and Louisville."

The movement that we have been considering did not cover a long

period of years, and its decadence set in before the end of the first

decade of the Nineteenth Century. This came about from various

causes, three chief ones being: First, the difficulties of navigation of

this character, under the most favorable conditions, and the infrequency

of the times when it was even possible; secondly, the coming of the

steamboat which, because of its greater adaptability to the existing con-

ditions, soon relegated the sailing vessel on these waters to the limbo of

things that were; thirdly, the passage of the Embargo Act, under the ad-

ministration of President Jefferson, in December, 1808. Its object was, by

cutting off intercourse with France and Great Britain, to compel them to

recognize the rights of American neutrality, and by its operation all

American vessels were detained in the ports of the United States. It

remained in operation but fourteen months, but had its certaineffect in

checking ship building here, as elsewhere in the country.

The first of the reasons above enumerated is set forth somewhat by

some literature of the time. Zadock Cramer's Navigator, a Pittsburgh

publication of the period, with editions at irregular intervals, in its

issue of 1811, says, after giving a list of sailing vessels built in the first

years of the century at and near Pittsburgh: "Misfortunes and acci-

dents in getting these vessels down the Ohio, which most probably arose

from bad management in the persons entrusted with them, has given a

damp to ship building at present." The same issue notes the enterprise

of building the first steamboat at Pittsburgh, then under way, and the

writer ventures on a remarkable prophecy of what its successful out-

come would bring about-remarkable in that at this time it reads like

history. Espwick Evans, who made a pedestrian tour through this region

in 1818, left a record of what he found, and here is a quotation from it:

"Ship and boat building is actively carried on at Pittsburgh, but of late

no vessels of large tonnage have been made, on account of the dangers

incident to getting them down the Ohio. Very few of the vessels and

boats built here ever return up the river as far as this place [Pittsburgh];

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and, of course, there is a constant demand for new vessels." Further

along, after traversing a portion of the Ohio river, the same author

writes: "The boats which float upon the Ohio river are various--from

the ship of several hundred tons burden, to the mere skiff. Very few, if

any, very large vessels, however, are now built at Pittsburgh and

Marietta; but the difficulties incident to getting them to the ocean have

rendered such undertakings infrequent. An almost innumerable number

of steamboats, barks, keels and arks are yearly set afloat upon the river

and its tributary streams. The barks are generally about one hundred

tons burden, have two masts, and are rigged as schooners or hermaphro-

dite brigs. The keels have, frequently, covered decks, and sometimes

carry one mast. These and also the barks are sometimes moved up the

river by polling, and by drawing them along shore with ropes."

The first steamboat built on western waters, the New Orleans, was

constructed at Pittsburgh, in the year 1811, but four years after Fulton's

Clermont made its first successful trip on the Hudson. There is record

of a steamboat having been built by Capt. John Walker at Elizabeth in

1815, and soon after that there were yards in operation in various towns

on the Monongahela and Ohio, turning out the new type of vessels.

These soon largely took the place of all other kinds of craft in bearing

the commerce of the rivers, and the sea-going vessels made New Orleans

their port of arrival and departure. Indeed, so far as a searching

investigation has revealed, no ships were built in this region after the

construction of the first steamboat. Thus came to an end a notable

movement which in its entire activity does not seem to have covered

more than a score of years, but which must have done much, in its time,

to bring this then obscure region to the notice of the rest of the world.

 

 

 

 

PITTSBURGH A KEY TO THE WEST DURING THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION.

 

BY JAMES ALTON JAMES, M. D.,

Professor of History in Northwestern University.

 

From the opening of the Revolutionary War, American leaders

looked to the conquest of Detroit, the headquarters of the posts and key

to the fur trade and control of the Indian tribes to the northwest of the

Ohio.¹ Throughout the war this post, in the possession of the British,

"continued," as Washington wrote, "to be a source of trouble to the whole

western country."²

The garrison at Detroit, at the beginning of the year 1776, consisted

of 120 soldiers under the command of Capt. Richard Lernoult. The

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           65

 

fort was defended by a "stockade of picquets," about nine feet out of

the earth, without "frize or ditch." Three hundred and fifty French and

English made up the entire number of men in the town and nearby

country, capable of bearing arms.³ The majority of these men were

French militiamen assembled under their own officers. Commanding

the fort were two British armed schooners and three sloops manned by

thirty "seamen and servants." There was not a single gunner among

the crews; they were dissatisfied with the service and incapable of

making much resistance.

Three hundred miles away to the southeast was Fort Pitt, the only

American fortification (1775) guarding the long frontier stretching from

Greenbrier, in Southwestern Virginia, to Kittanning, on the Upper Alle-

gheny.⁴ This fort was without a garrison. The inhabitants were de-

pendent on the protection of the militia of the neighboring counties, and

large numbers were reported to be in a most defenceless condition.5

From these two centers, in council after council, were to be exer-

cised all of the diplomatic finesse of white men in attempts to gain

control over the Indians of the Northwest. Assembled at some of these

conferences were the chiefs and other representatives of the Delawares

of the Muskingum and the Ohio; the Shawnee and Mingo of the Scioto,

the Wyandot, Ottawa and Pottawattomi of Lake Michigan, the Chippewa

of all the lakes; and, besides these, the Miami, Seneca, Sauk, and

numerous other tribes. All told, the Northwestern tribes numbered

some 8,000 warriors.6

In general, the American policy tended towards securing Indian

neutrality, which was clearly stated by the Continental Congress in a

speech prepared for the Six Nations early in July, 1775. The war was

declared to be a family quarrel between the colonists and Old England,

in which the Indians were in no way concerned. It was urged that they

should remain at home and not join on either side, but "keep the

hatchet buried deep."⁷ They were apprehensive of the policy to be

pursued by the British. Consequently, three departments of Indian

affairs were created, to be under the control of commissioners, whose

duties were to treat with the Indians in order to preserve their peace and

friendship and prevent them from taking part in the present commotions.

They were to superintend also the distribution of arms, ammunition and

clothing, such as was essential to the existence of the Indians.⁸

Within a year, however, a resolution was passed that it was ex-

pedient to engage the Indians in the service of the united colonies and

especially to secure their cooperation in bringing about the reduction of

Detroit.⁹

The British early employed the savages to cut off outlying settle-

ments. Under plea that the "rebels" had used Indians in their hostilities

on the frontier of Quebec, after the capture of Ticonderoga, and that

Vol. XXII -5.

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they had brought Indians for the attack on Boston, General Gage urged

that General Carleton might be privileged to use Canadians and Indians

for a counter stroke.¹⁰

There was necessity for prompt action on the part of the Americans,

in order that they might gain the friendship of the tribes beyond the

Ohio. In the provisional treaty at Camp Charlotte, Governor Dunmore

promised the Indians that he would return in the spring and bring it to

completion. By that time, the revolutionary movement had assumed

such proportions that he deemed it inadvisable to risk a journey to the

frontier. Again, he found a ready agent in Dr. John Connolly,11 a bold,

enterprising, restless character, who had been left in command of the

garrison of seventy-five men at Fort Dunmore. In a conference at

Williamsburg, in February, Major Connolly was instructed by Lord

Dunmore to use his efforts to induce the Indians to espouse the cause of

Great Britain. In this he succeeded, in so far as he brought together at

Pittsburgh the chiefs of the Delawares and a few Mingo, whom he

assured that a general treaty, with presents, was soon to be held with

all the Ohio Indians.12 Disbanding the garrison in July, he returned to

find Dunmore a fugitive on board a man-of-war off York. Together they

concocted a plan fraught with grave consequences for the back country

and for the American cause in general. In a personal interview, Connolly

won the assent of General Gage to the plan, and received instructions

for its development.13 It was designed that Connolly should proceed to

Detroit, where he was to have placed under his command the garrison

from Fort Gage, led by Capt. Hugh Lord. This nucleus of an army,

together with the French and Indians of Detroit, was to proceed to Fort

Pitt. It was hoped that their force would be enhanced by the Ohio

Indians, for whom liberal presents were provided, and by numbers of

the militia from Augusta County, who for their loyalty, were to have

300 acres of land confirmed to each of them. Forts Pitt and Fincastle

were to be destroyed, should they offer resistance, and the expedition

was then to take and fortify Fort Cumberland and capture Alexandria,

assisted by troops led by Dunmore and landed under protection of the

ships of war.14 Thus were the Southern colonies to be cut off from the

Northern.

Conditions promised well for the success of the enterprise. Con-

nolly had won the favor of the Indians; Fort Pitt, as already noted, was

in a condition to offer but little defense; and the backwoodsmen were

without the necessary equipment in arms and ammunition to obstruct such

an expedition. They were disunited, also, because of the Pennsylvania

and Virginia boundary dispute. A letter from Connolly to a supposed

friend at Pittsburgh led to his betrayal.  Virginia authorities were in-

formed of the intrigue. Runners were sent out from all the Southern

provinces into the Indian nations through which he proposed to pass,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.        67

 

with orders for his arrest.15 With three associates, he was captured near

Hagerstown, while on his way to Fort Pitt.16

For upwards of two years thereafter the frontiers were free from

any general participation in the war. Meantime, immigration to the

West continued,17 and the contest went on between British and American

agents for ascendency over the Indians of that region.

Major Connolly had conducted his treaty with the Indians at

Pittsburgh in the presence of the committee of correspondence of West

Augusta County.18 The provisions and goods furnished by the com-

mittee on that occasion assisted materially in gaining the good-will of

the Indians for later negotiations. A petition to Congress from the

committee followed at an early date, setting forth their fears of a rupture

with the Indians on account of the late conduct of Governor Dunmore,

and asking that commissioners from Pennsylvania and Virginia should

be appointed to confer with the Indians at Pittsburgh.¹⁹

On June 24, therefore, six commissioners were appointed by Vir-

ginia for the purpose of making a treaty with the Ohio Indians, and a

sum of 2,000 pounds was appropriated for that purpose. Capt. James

Wood, one of the commissioners, a man well versed in frontier affairs,

was delegated to visit the tribes and extend to them an invitation to

attend the conference at Pittsburgh. He was likewise to explain the

dispute to the Indians, make them sensible of the great unanimity of the

colonies, and "assure them of our peaceable intentions towards them

and that we did not stand in need of or desire any assistance from

them."20

The day following, Captain Wood set out from Williamsburg on

his hazardous journey of two months, accompanied by Simon Girty, his

sole companion, who acted as interpreter. The report made on his return

was not wholly promising for the cause he represented. His reception

by the Delawares, Shawnee, and other tribes was friendly, for the fear

excited by the battle of Point Pleasant was still upon them.21   He

learned, however, that two British emissaries had already presented belts

and strings of wampum to seventeen nations, inviting them to unite with

the French and English against the Virginians.22 They were warned

that an attack by the "Big Knives" was imminent from two directions,

by the Ohio and by the Great Lakes. The Virginians were a distinct

people, they were assured, and an attack upon them would in no case be

resented by the other colonies. Besides, the invitation to a treaty, which

would be extended to them, should under no conditions be accepted; for

the representatives who were to meet at Pittsburgh could not be depended

upon. Similar advice was given the tribes of the Upper Allegheny

river, brought together at Niagara. Many of these Indians, at the insti-

gation of Governor Carleton and Guy Johnson, were induced to go to

Albany, and many more to Montreal, to join the British armies.

The Virginia commissioners, together with those appointed by

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Congress, assembled at Pittsburgh, September 10. Thus, notwithstanding

English opposition,²³ which in a measure had been overcome by traders,

chiefs and delegates from the Seneca, Delawares, Wyandot, Mingo, and

Shawnee gathered slowly for the conference. Each tribe on arrival was

received with "drum and colours and a salute of small arms from the

garrison."24

During a period of three weeks, the commissioners strove by speech,

and through presents of clothing and strings of wampum, to convince the

Indians that they should keep the hatchet buried, and use all endeavor

to induce the Six Nations and other tribes to remain absolutely neutral.

They were assured that the cause of Virginia was the cause of all

America. The commissioners say:25

In this dispute your Interest is Involved with ours so far as

this, that in Case those People with whom we are Contending

should Subdue us, your Lands, your Trade, your Liberty and all

that is dear to you must fall with us, for if they would Distroy

our flesh and Spill our Blood which is the same with theirs; what

can you who are no way related to or Connected with them to

expect? * * * we are not Affraid these People will Conquer us,

they Can't fight in our Country, and you Know we Can; we fear

not them, nor any Power on Earth.

In the event of American success, they declare, with true Ameri-

can assurance, they would be so incensed against those Indians who

fought against them, "that they would march an army into their country,

destroy them and take their lands from them."²⁶ To still further con-

vince the Indians of their invincibility, they assert that the Indian tribes

at the North were ready to become their allies, and that the people of

Canada, with the exception of a few of Governor Carleton's fools, were

friendly to the American cause.27 The natives were invited to send their

children to be educated among the white people, without expense to them-

selves.²⁸ No little trouble was experienced in leading the Indians to

agree to surrender all prisoners and negroes, and deliver up stolen horses.

This done, peace "to endure forever" was established.

While the treaty at Pittsburgh has been made, in the language of

its text, to last "until the sun shall shine no more, or the waters fail to

run in the Ohio," both of these reverses of nature seem to have taken

place in the Indian imagination by the following spring. In the mean-

time, they had been visited by British agents to secure their adherence.29

The traces to Detroit were well worn by the tribes which assembled there

to meet Hamilton, who strove in every way to excite the Indians to

take up the hatchet.30 To this end, British officers were generous with

their presents and lavish in their hospitality, partaking with the Indians

in the feast of roast ox, and recovering their dead anew with rum.

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Congress, early in April, appointed Col. George Morgan Indian

agent for the Middle Department. The choice was a wise one. For

a number of years he had been a trader in the Illinois country, where

he had become noted among the Indians for his generosity and strict

honesty. No man of the time better understood the methods necessary

in winning the friendship of the Western tribes. He was instructed to

forward at once the great belt presented to the Indians at Pittsburgh.31

The commissioners for the Middle Department were directed to conclude

a treaty with the Western tribes at the earliest convenient time. Mor-

gan was, so far as possible, to adjust all differences through arbitra-

tion³²--in the language of the instructions :33

Inspire them with justice and humanity, and dispose them to

introduce the arts of civil and social life and to encourage the

residence of husbandmen and handicraftsmen among them.

Arriving at Pittsburgh, May 16, 1776, Morgan, in his endeavor to

prevent the attendance of the Indians at a council called by Hamilton

at Detroit, proceeded at once to the Shawnee towns.³⁴ William Wilson,

a trader who accompanied Morgan, extended the invitation to other

tribes to assemble at Pittsburgh, September 10, for the purpose of mak-

ing a treaty.

At the time, the frontier defense was entrusted to 100 men at Fort

Pitt, 100 at Big Kanawha, and 25 at Wheeling, all in the pay of Vir-

ginia. These numbers were far too meagre for the purpose, much less

were they capable of any offensive warfare.³⁵  Messengers were dis-

patched to Congress and to Williamsburg, imploring an augmentation of

the numbers in the garrisons and the formation of new posts having

proper supplies of ammunition and provisions.36 The militia of West-

moreland and West Augusta counties were called out.³⁷ The county-

lieutenants of Hampshire, Dunmore, Frederick, and Berkeley were di-.

rected to collect provisions and hold their militia in readiness to march

to Fort Pitt for immediate service.38 A company of militia was ordered

out as "rangers" for Fincastle County. But notwithstanding the defense-

less condition of the frontier, apprehension was so widespread lest the

savages should destroy their homes during their absence, that the militia

was gotten together only after great delay,³9 many absolutely refusing

the draft.⁴⁰

Not until the 644 warriors and chiefs representing the Six Nations,

Delawares, Munsee, and Shawnee assembled at Pittsburgh, was it known

for what purpose they came. The conference served to dissipate the

widespread gloom, for these Indian envoys promised "inviolable peace

with the United States and neutrality during the war with Great

Britain."⁴¹ Twelve chiefs were induced to visit Philadelphia, where they

were introduced to Congress. For a few months after the treaty, all

the other Western tribes, with the exception of a few of the Mingo

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known as Pluggy's Band, seemed desirous of preserving peaceful rela-

tions.⁴²

With difficulty, Colonel Morgan persuaded the Virginia authorities

that an expedition43 against these banditti would tend to bring on gen-

eral hostilities with the tribes already jealous of the slightest encroach-

ment by Americans.⁴⁴ He thought it more essential to restrain the front-

iersmen and promote good order among them; to pacify leading men

among the tribes by liberal donations; and in all respects treat the

Indians with "Justice, humanity and hospitality."⁴⁵

Meantime much time was consumed at Pittsburgh in the discussion

on the character of aggressive operations to be undertaken. It was

counseled that an expedition to Detroit was the only remedy against the

incursions of Indians. Others held this plan to be impracticable and

unnecessary. No more telling reasons for the probability of a success-

ful attack on Detroit, were formulated during the entire war, than those

submitted by Colonel Morgan. He urged:⁴⁶ first, that the road was

practicable; second, that the Delawares and Shawnees were disposed to

remain quiet; third, that there were no powerful tribes near or on the

road to Detroit, to oppose such an expedition; fourth, that Detroit was

at the time in a defenseless state; fifth, that it was from that post that

the offending Western Indians were supplied "in all their wants and

paid for all their murders"; and sixth, that its possession would induce

all the tribes, through fear and interest, to enter into an American alli-

ance.⁴⁷ For the purpose, he advised from 1,200 to 1,500 regular troops

and such volunteers as might be secured. He opposed continuously the

plan of General Mcintosh, who looked toward retaliatory expeditions.

Not only were these expeditions failures, but they prevented the possi-

bility of the capture of Detroit. Finding that his advise was unheeded.

and confident that the policy then adhered to would produce a general

Indian war, Colonel Morgan resigned his office as Indian agent.

At this critical time, when the control of the Western Department

was about to pass into the hands of incompetent men; when conditions

seemed to warrant the recommendation by the Board of War for the

immediate assembling of the Indians for another treaty;48 and when it

seemed probable that the British and their Indian confederates were

prepared to overrun the entire frontier, the authorities at Detroit were

forced to turn their attention to the advance of George Rogers Clark.⁴⁹

With his coming, a new phase of the war in the West was inaugurated.

The brilliant work of this leader in capturing the Illinois posts is

a well-known story and the present is not the occasion on which to

discuss his plans for holding the conquered territory.  His thought

turned to the capture of Detroit, and his disappointment was a great

one when he learned late in December, 1778, that the expedition which

was to have been lead by General McIntosh against that post had been

abandoned.

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At the close of the campaign against the Shawnee, 1780, Clark was

free once more to develop plans for the capture of Detroit. He pro-

ceeded to Richmond, and by December 25, full instructions were drawn

up under which Clark was to advance with two thousand men into the

hostile territory at the earliest practicable moment after the opening of

navigation. The ultimate object of the expedition was to be the reduc-

tion of Detroit and the acquisition of Lake Erie. Such a movement

was intended to place the British on the defensive. If no check were

given their advance, militia would ultimately have to be withdrawn, it

was feared, from the South to be sent against them. Governor Jeffer-

son had appealed to Washington to furnish powder for the expedition,

the burden of which was otherwise to be borne by Virginia. Washing-

ton ordered Colonel Brodhead, at Fort Pitt, to give the enterprise every

possible assistance by furnishing, upon Clark's order, the supplies asked

for and a detachment of Continental troops, including a company of

artillery as large as could be spared. But the militia could not be induced

to enlist for the expedition, and the artillery company ordered to accom-

pany Clark from Fort Pitt was lacking in the quota of officers and men

necessary for that service and the equipment in cannon, shells, shot, and

other stores were inadequate.

The accumulation of supplies for the expedition was so much de-

layed that the time of setting out from Fort Pitt was extended to June.

During this period of waiting, Clark learned of the abuses incident to

the conduct of public affairs in the West. Instances were cited in which

goods belonging to the State were used in carrying on private trade with

the Indians. Reports of the subordination of public interests to private

gain were not, however, confined to any one section. A proclamation

was issued by the Council of Pennsylvania against forestalling by which

individuals gained control of flour and other necessities on the market

and thus enhanced the prices. These lapses in public morals are not

wholly surprising when the commanding officer at Fort Pitt makes the

following proposal to the Governor of Pennsylvania: "Should our State

determine to extend its settlements over the Allegheny river I should be

happy to have an early hint of it because it will be in my power to

serve several of my friends."⁵⁰ But the reply of President Reed came

as a well calculated rebuke to all such suggestions of graft. "At pres-

ent," he wrote, "my Station will prevent my engaging in pursuits of that

nature lest it might give offense and give Reason to a censorious world

to suppose I had made an improper use of my publick character." On

account of numerous accusations against him, the leading one being

speculation with public funds, Colonel Brodhead was, within a year,

forced to resign his command.

Early in May, Clark suffered his greatest disappointment upon

learning that Col. Brodhead had refused to allow the regiment under

Colonel John Gibson to accompany him. The surprise and disappoint-

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ment were the greater for Brodhead had already given assurance of his

complete co-operation.51 By the middle of March, Brodhead regarded

his own condition as desperate  He feared an attack from Detroit and

Niagara and in that event he believed that large numbers of the in-

habitants would aid the enemy.⁵² Besides he was confident that the

revolt of the Delawares that were not under Moravian influence was

about to lead to a general Indian war53 and three hundred men were

sent against them.

That volunteers joined this expedition in order to avoid accompany-

ing Clark cannot be definitely asserted, but it is certain his enlistments

were materially affected thereby. Col. Brodhead now sought some argu-

ment which would excuse his policy of opposition to Clark. He was

desirous of winning laurels for himself and a number of times had

appealed to Washington for permission to organize an expedition against

Detroit and Natchez and assistance in carrying it forward.54 Brodhead

was convinced that he was well within his instructions in refusing to

grant Clark's request for a regiment.

Clark's position was likewise tenable for he had interpreted Jef-

ferson's dispatch to mean that by the consent of Baron Steuben and

Washington, he was to be accompanied by Col. Gibson's regiment and

Heath's Company.⁵⁵

Both men appealed to Washington. "From your Excellencies let-

ters to Col. Brodhead," Clark wrote, "I conceived him to be at liberty

to furnish what men he pleased, * * * If you should approve of

the troops in this department joining our forces tho they are few the

acquisition may be attended with great & good consequences as two

hundred only might turn the scale in our favour." The next day he

appealed again for assistance, saying, "For in part it has been the in-

fluence of our posts in the Illinoise and Ouabash that have saved the

frontiers and in great measure baffled the designs of the Enemy at

Detroit. If they get possession of them they then Command three times

the number of Valuable warriors they do at present and be fully

Enabled to carry any point they aim at Except we should have a

formidable force to oppose them."56

Clark assumed that his request would be granted. Regular officers

and soldiers were desirous of going on the expedition which was sup-

posed to be aimed against the Indians.57 While awaiting Washington's

reply, boats were completed and provisions collected. Notwithstanding

the desire of President Reed of Pennsylvania to render all the assist-

ance within his power58 volunteers were secured only after the use of

extreme measures due chiefly to the dispute over the boundary.⁵⁹ A

general draft was finally resorted to.60  Enforcement of the order in

Monongalia County brought on a riot.61

Among other problems demanding Clark's attention besides the sup-

pression of this mob,62 was the difficulty of securing supplies with a

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          73

 

currency which steadily depreciated in value.⁶³ Findings of the general

court martial were reviewed by him in which such questions were con-

sidered as the legality of drafting, punishment of horse-thieves, and

embezzlement of public property.⁶⁴

Clark's problems were still more complicated because of a dispatch

from Washington by which he was informed that Colonel John Con-

nolly was about to join forces with Sir John Johnson and come by the

way of Lake Ontario against Ft. Pitt and other western posts.⁶⁵

In the midst of these preparations, social life at Ft. Pitt was not

lacking. "We have heard," Wrote Col. Gibson, "that the Gentlemen and

Ladies of Stewart's Crossings intend paying us a visit to-morrow, in

consequence of which a grand Bower is erected in the Orchard, a Bar-

becue is preparing for tomorrow and a Ball in the Evening at Col. Gib-

son's Room."⁶⁶  The celebration of the "Anniversary of our Glorious

Independence" also received due attention.67

While the necessary supplies had been collected by the first of June

at a cost approaching two million dollars the weeks wore on with Clark

still hoping to secure the requisite number of volunteers.68 His appeals

to Washington, that Col. Gibson's regiment might be permitted to accom-

pany him, failed.⁶⁹ Drafts were of slight avail, and finally, early in

August, despairing of accomplishing his designs in the face of deep

seated opposition on the part of the officials of the western counties

of Pennsylvania, he set out for Louisville, with four hundred men.⁷⁰

This number was little more than adequate to guard the boats which

contained supplies for fully two thousand men. Clark hoped his force

would be be reenforced in Kentucky and that he might still accomplish

his object or at least make some demonstration against the disaffected

Indians.⁷¹ Before setting out, he was forced to draw on his supplies

in order to relieve the distressed condition of the garrison at Ft. Pitt.⁷²

Plans were outlined whereby Colonel Gibson was to lead an attack

against the Wyandotte, September 4, and Clark was to march from

the Mouth of the Miami upon the Shawnee villages.

Clark's preparations had served as a defense for the frontiers.

Efforts were redoubled to put Detroit in condition to withstand an

attack.⁷3 Demands for presents made by the Indians in council at that

post increased "amazingly."⁷⁴ By the end of May, the fears of the

British and their allies were increased by the report that Clark was

descending the Ohio with one thousand men and that this number

would be increased by a like number from Kentucky.⁷⁵ Their confidence

was restored through a dispatch from General Haldimand contradicting

this rumor and assuring them that Detroit and the Indian country were

in no danger. They were ordered to act at once in order to prevent

the farther strengthening of the frontier settlements.⁷⁶  Such an order

meant war on combatant and non-combatant alike and the garrison of

militia of Pittsburgh were called upon to assume a full share of the

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defense but the events of which could not now be even enumerated for

the time allotted to me has already expired.

 

 

REFERENCES.

1. American Archives, 5th ser., iii, p. 1368; Mich. Pion. and Hist.

Coils., xxvii, pp. 612 et seq.

From this post, a trace led westward by way of the Maumee and

across the upper Wabash to Post St. Vincent. In like manner an Indian

path extended to Kaskaskia and other posts on the upper Mississippi

Not only was it a great centre for the fur-trade, but in years of good

harvests flour and grain were furnished to other posts from Detroit.-

Draper MSS., 46J9.   The post was of great importance during the

French regime. Indians from the Northwest took part, in common with

Canadians, in the battle on the Plains of Abraham. June 29, 1759, a

courier announced that there were about to arrive 100 French and 150

Indians from Detroit; 600 to 700 Indians with M. Linctot, 100 Indians

with M. Rayeul, and the convoy of M. Aubry from Illinois with 600 to

700 Indians. Twelve hundred other Indians from the same region were

also reported to be on the way.-Wis. Hist. Coils., xviii, pp. 212, 213.

2. Letter to Daniel Brodhead, Dec. 29, 1780.

3. Thwaites and Kellogg, Revolution on the Upper Ohio (Madison,

Wis., 1908), pp. 147-151.

Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton arrived Nov. 9, 1775, but Captain

Lernoult commanded the troops until the summer of 1776.

The total population in 1773 was about 1,400; 298 of them men.-

Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., ix, p. 649. The population in 1778 was

2,144; 564 being men.-ibid., p. 469.

4. Fort Blair, near the mouth of the Kanawha, had been evacu-

ated by order of Governor Dunmore, and was burned by some of the

Ohio Indians.-Amer. Archives, 4th ser., iv, p. 201.

5. George Morgan, Indian agent at Fort Pitt, in a letter of May

16, 1776, reported that there was "scarcely powder west of the Mountains

sufficient for every man to prime his gun and only 200 lb. wt. in the

Fort here."-Letter to Lewis Morris, Papers of Continental Congress,

vol. 163, entitled "Generals Clinton, Nicola, et al., pp. 237-239.

6. Delawares and Munsee 600, Shawnee 600, Wyandot 300, Ottawa

600, Chippewa 5,000, Pottawattomi 400, Kickapoo, Vermillion, and other

small tribes of the Wabash 800, Miami or Picts 300, Mingo of Pluggy's

Town (Scioto River) 60.-Morgan, Letter Book, iii, March 27, 1778.

Wyandot 180, Tawa 450, Pottawattomi 450, Chippewa 5,000, Shaw-

nee 300, Delawares or Munsee 600, Miami 300.-Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes,

iii, pp. 560, 561.

The Sauk, Foxes, and Iowa numbered some 1,400 warriors.

7. July 13, 1775.-Amer. Archives, 4th ser., ii, p. 665.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           75

 

8. July 12, 1775, in Ibid., p. 1879. The three departments were

Northern, Middle, and Southern. The Northern Department included

the Six Nations and all other Indians north of these tribes.     The

Southern included the Cherokee and other Southern tribes. The Middle,

all Indians between the territory of the two others. There were to be

five commissioners for the Southern and three each for the two other

departments.

9. Journals of Continental Congress, iv., p. 395.

The commissioners were instructed, May 25, 1776, to offer as an

inducement £50 of Pennsylvania currency for every prisoner (soldier

of the garrison) brought to them. The Indians were to be given the

free plunder of the garrison.

Washington was authorized to employ Indians, on June 17, 1776.-

Id. (new ed.), v, p. 452.

10. June 12, 1775, General Gage to Lord Dartmouth.-Amer. Ar-

chives, 4th ser., ii, p. 968.

11. Penna. Colon. Records, 1760-1776, pp. 477, 484, 485, 637, 682.

12. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 35.

13. The entire plan is given in Ibid., pp. 140-142.

14. Thwaites and Kellogg, Dunmore's War (Madison, Wis., 1905)

p. 86; Amer. Archives, 4th ser., iv, p. 616.

15. Id., iii, p. 1543.

16. A copy of the plan was in their possession. Capture of Con-

nolly, in Id., iv, p. 616.

17. More "cabin improvements" were made in 1776 than in any

other year.-Draper MSS., 4C485.

18. Rev. on Upper Ohio, pp. 37, 38.

19. Jour. of Continental Congress (new ed.), ii, p. 76.

20. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 35. *

21. These two tribes had invited others to unite with them against

the English in 1764.-Wis. Hist. Colls., xviii, p. 262.

22. Amer. Archives, 4th ser., iii, pp. 76-78.

23. Ibid., pp. 1542, 1543.

24. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 74.

25. Ibid., p. 95.

26. Amer. Archives, 5th ser., ii, p. 518.

27. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 95.

28. Amer. Archives, 4th ser., iii, p. 1542.

29. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 144.

30. Morgan Letter Book, ii, Aug. 31, 1776.

31. Jour. of Continental Congress, iv, p. 268.

32. One of the arbitrators was to be selected by the commissioners

-or, in their absence, by the Indian agent-and one each by the parties

in the dispute.-Ibid. p. 268.

33. Ibid., pp. 294, 301.

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34. Amer. Archives, 5th ser., ii, p. 514.

35. Morgan Letter Book, i, Aug. 18, 1776; to committee on Indian

affairs.

36. Congress directed that a ton of gunpowder should immediately

be sent.-Jour. Continental Congress, iv, p. 396.

37. Rev. on Upper Ohio, p. 200.

38. Morgan Letter Book, ii, Aug. 31, 1776; commissioners to

county-lieutenants.

39. Amer. Archives, 5th ser., ii, p. 513.

40. Rev. on Upper Ohio, pp. 174, 240.

41. Morgan Letter Book, i, Nov. 8, 1776: Morgan to John Han-

cock. Amer. Archives, 5th ser., iii, pp. 599, 600.

42. Morgan Letter Book, i, Jan. 4, 1777.

43. Ibid., March 12, 1777.

"You are to take command," wrote Patrick Henry to Col. David

Shepherd, "of 300 men drawn from the militia of Monongalia, Yoho-

gania and Ohio Counties or either of them and to march with utmost

secrecy and expedition to punish the Indians of Pluggy's Town for

their late cruelties committed upon the people of this state."

44. They were at the time exercised because of the settlement of

lands on the Ohio, below the Kanawha and in Kentucky.

45. Morgan Letter Book, i, April 1, 1777.

46. Morgan Letter Book, iii, July 17, 1778: submitted to Col.

Daniel Brodhead.

47. It was his belief that there were only some 300 hostile In-

dians in the Western Department. Schoolcraft estimated that of the

7,280 Indians capable of bearing arms, only 390 were in the employ

of the British. In this estimate, however, he did not include the num-

bers enlisted from the Sauk, Fox, and Iowa tribes. These alone were

able to summon 1,400 warriors.-Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iii, pp.

560, 561.

48. June 28, 1778. Jour. of Continental Congress, xi, p. 568.

49. Hamilton learned of the capture of Kaskaskia on Aug. 6,

1778.-Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., ix, p. 490.

50. Penna. Archives, 1779-1781, p. 121.

51. Feb. 24, 1781, Brodhead to Clark, See post, p. -   . "You

may rely on every supply I am authorized to afford to facilitate your

expedition."

52. Col. Brodhead to the President of Congress, May 30, 1781

Draper Coll., Trip 1860, vi, p. 120.

March 19, 1781, Brodhead to Clark, see post p.

"An Indian man has just brought in a letter which was sent by

some of the inhabitants to the Enemy at Detroit with information

that about one hundred of them were ready to join them so soon as

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           77

 

they could be informed they should be received by the Commanding

officer there."

53. March, 1781. Brodhead to Clark. See post, p.

"I have wrote the County Lieutenants to meet at my quarters on

the 15th instant to consult on means to protect our Settlements and

annoy the Enemy."

54. Draper MSS., Brodhead Papers, 1, H 122.

Washington to Brodhead, Jan. 4, 1780. Washington stated that

from the estimate he makes of the garrison at Detroit, the men in

Garrison at Ft. Pitt together with the militia would not be adequate

to make the attempt and that the same was true of Natchez.

55. May 20, 1781, Clark to Washington, See post, p.

Gibson agreed with Clark in this interpretation.

56. See post, p.

57. Draper MSS., 51J57.

58. See post, p. -     . President Reed wrote Clark, May 15,

1781: "But from common report we learn, that an expedition under

your command is destined against Detroit. We are very sensible of

its importance to this State as well as Virginia and there is no Gentle-

man in whose abilities and good conduct we have more Confidence on such

an occasion. After this it seems unnecessary to add, that it will give

us great Satisfaction if the inhabitants of this State cheerfully concur

in it. * * *"

59. Draper MSS., 51J49, 56.

60. Draper MSS., 30J51. June 12, 1781.

61. Draper MSS., 51J58, 59.

62. See post, p.

"We the subscribers being Accessary to a Riot in Suppressing a

draught in this County on the 12th Inst. Being Sensible of our Error

and as assurity of our future good conduct do hereby Engage to serve

Ten months in the Continental Service in Case we Should be guilty

of the like misdeminor."

63. See post, p.       Colonel Gibson to Clark.

"I am sorry to have to inform you that a set of Rascals have

begun to depreciate the Virginia money now in Circulation and some

of them have even gone so far as to refuse taking it, in particular

Smith the Brewer has refused to take it in payment for Beer, I am

much afraid it will reach the Country and of Course retard your pro-

ceedings."

64. Draper MSS., 51J73.

James Thompson convicted of horse theft and desertion was forced

to run the gauntlet through the Brigade.

65. Connolly, recently exchanged, had proceeded from New York

to Quebec. Sparks, Washington's Writings, vii, 25.

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"I doubt Sir," Clark wrote Jefferson relative to Connolly's expedi-

tion, "we shall as usual be obliged to play a desperate game this cam-

paign. If we had the 2,000 men just proposed such intelligence would

give me pleasure."  See post, p.

66. Gibson to Clark, June 26, 1781. See post, p.

67. Draper MSS., 51J65.

68. Va. State Papers, ii, 140, June 2, 1781. See post, p.

Clark in a letter to Jefferson (August 2, 1781), says he had given

Col. Harrison £126,581 to enable him to collect stores. £300,000 had

already been forwarded to Col. Harrison. Jefferson to Clark, April 20,

1781. Jefferson's Letter Book, 1781.

69. Papers of the Continental Congress, Reports of the Board of

War, 147. Vol. v, pp. 323-325. Washington to the Board of War, June

8, 1781. "As it seemed the public wish, that the expedition of Col.

Clarke against Detroit should be supported, I gave orders to Col. Clarke

against Detroit should be supported, I gave orders to Col. Brodhead

to deliver him a certain quantity of artillery and Stores and to detach

Captain Craig with his Company of Artillery, as there were neither

officers nor men of the Virginia Militia acquainted with that kind of

Service.

"I recommended also a small detachment of Continental Troops

from the 8th Pennsylvania and 9th Virginia Regiments, but it was

at the discretion of the Commandant and in case they could be safely

spared. I mentioned that I did not imagine the command could not

exceed that of a Major and perhaps not of a Captain. If therefore

Col. Brodhead saw that the post could not be defended if such a de-

tachment of Infantry was made, he was justifyable not sending it."

70. Va. State Papers, ii, 345. In a letter to Col. Davis, W. Crog-

han declared that the reason Clark was unable to get so few men at

Ft. Pitt was "owing to the dispute that Subsists here between the Vir-

ginians & Pennsylvanians respecting the true bounds of the Latter, and

the general being a Virginian was opposed by the most noted men

here in the Pennsylvania party. The people here bleam Virginia Very

much for making them & their lands (which beyond a shadow of

doubt is far out of the true bounds of Pennsylvania) over to Pennsyl-

vania."

Draper MSS., 16S4-59.

The force accompanying Clark was composed of Col. Crockett's

regiment of Virginia State Troops and Capt. Craig's company of Artil-

lery, together with volunteers and militia.

Clark was represented by some of the leading men opposed to

him as a flour merchant, and again as a trader and land jobber for

the State of Virginia. Draper MSS., 51J18.

James Marshall, County Lieutenant of Washington County and

County Lieutenants Cook and Davis, were named by Clark as his

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main opponents. Clark to President Reed, August 4, 1781, post, p.

Marshall advised the people to pay no attention to the drafts ordered

for Clark and offered protection to those who refused. He had told

Clark that while he could do nothing for the expedition as an official

that as a private person he would give every assistance within his

power. Penna Archives, 1781-1783, p. 318.

71. See post, p.

72. See post, p.

73. See post, p.

74. Mich. Pioneer and Hist. Coll's., x, p. 465.

75. Simon Girty to Major De Peyster, Mich. Pioneer and Hist.

Coll's., pp. 478, 479. This rumor was started on account of the expedi-

tion against the Delawares by Col. Brodhead.

 

 

 

 

 

THE FUTURE OF NAVIGATION ON OUR WESTERN RIVERS.

 

BY HON. ALBERT BETTINGER.

 

Stretching out between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountain ranges

for a distance of 2,000 miles lies the Mississippi Valley, containing three-

fifths of the area of the U. S. and more than half our population. The

Mississippi River, rising in the northern part of Minnesota and flowing

straight on to the Gulf of Mexico, bisects this great valley, and in its

course forms the boundary line between ten great states. From    the

foothills of the Rockies in the northwestern corner of the Valley, after

passing through the wheatfields of the Dakotas and Nebraska, and

receiving many tributaries great and small, comes the Missouri River,

entering the Mississippi a few miles above St. Louis. Further down

this great central stream is met by the Red, Arkansas, White and

Quachita Rivers, draining the Southwestern portion of the Valley.

From the Northeast, running diagonally through the State of Illinois,

the Illinois River meets the Mississippi a short distance above St.

Louis-and great efforts, now in progress, are soon to convert this

river into an effective connection with the Great Lakes System at

Chicago.

The valley of the Mississippi is politically and commercially more

important than any other valley on the face of the globe. Here, more

than anywhere else will be determined the future of the United States,

and, indeed, of the whole western world; and the type of civilization

reached in this mighty valley, in this vast stretch of country lying be-

tween the Alleghenies and the Rockies, the Great Lakes and the Gulf,

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will largely fix the type of civilization for the whole western hemi-

sphere.

At the extreme Eastern end of the valley, the Allegheny River,

rising in Pennsylvania and flowing North through a portion of New

York, thence South, and the Monongahela rising in West Virginia and

flowing North, unite here at the City of Pittsburgh, where this celebra-

tion is being held, and form the Ohio River which flowing for a dis-

tance of 1,000 miles in a general southwesterly direction through the

center of the Valley which it drains, after receiving thirteen navigable

tributaries, three from the North and ten from the South, joins the

Mississippi at Cairo midway between St. Paul and New Orleans, and

forming in its course the boundary lines between six states.  Fifty-

four rivers that are navigable by steamboats and hundreds that are

navigable by barges, all contributing their waters to the Mississippi,

are providentially so distributed over this enormous territory as to

be accessible from all parts of it, complete this great inland system of

waterways.

A description of this magnificent river system is found in a

memorial presented to Congress by the Ohio Valley States in 1872, that

will bear repetition here:

"To the development of a nation so powerful as this now

is, and as its domains and its resources foretell it will become,

the brain of the most sagacious rulers could not have desired a

more complete and convenient system of artificial internal water

communication with the whole interior, than Nature presents for

man's perfecting hand; one better designed to favor the inter-

change of the products of all sections, or to carry those products

to the market of the world. In its absence the statesman might

sigh in vain for its creation and the people deplore, without re-

lief, its want."

After the young Republic had been fairly established in the East

and the Star of Empire started on its Westward course, it was on

the shores of these rivers, one after another, that our fathers builded

their towns and cities and for three-fourths of a century they con-

stituted the great highways of commerce.

The canoe of the Indian and of the French explorers were suc-

ceeded by the sail and keel boats and broadhorns of the American

pioneer.

The launching at this city of the "New Orleans," the first steam-

boat, just 100 years ago, introduced a new epoch, not only in the

further development of this valley, but in the progress of the world.

A contemporaneous writer thus gives vent to his enthusiasm over

the prospect which this new invention opened up:

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           81

 

"This plan if it succeeds must open to view flattering pros-

pects to an immense country, an interview of not less than two

thousand miles of as fine soil and climate as the world can pro-

duce and to a people worthy of all the advantages that nature and

art can give them.   .....    . The immensity of country we

have yet to settle, the vast riches of the bowels of the earth, the

unexampled advantages of our water courses which wind without

interruption for thousands of miles, the numerous sources of trade

and wealth opening to the enterprising and industrious citizens, are

reflections that must arouse the most dull and stupid. Indeed the

very appearance of the placid and unbroken surface of the Ohio

invite to trade and enterprise."

The success of this new means of navigation was soon established.

Rapidly the steamboats multiplied in number, grew in size, power, com-

fort, safety and appearance. In the year 1840 there were built at Cin-

cinnati alone 33 steamboats aggregating 5,361 tons at a cost of $600,000.

In the same year 4,566 steamboats passed Cairo. In 1841 between 400

and 500 steamboats from 75 to 785 tons were navigating the Western

Rivers.

The entire steamboat tonnage employed in the United States in

1842 was 219,994 tons, of which more than half plied on our Western

rivers, Eastern ports being second and the Great Lakes third in im-

portance.

The steamboat tonnage employed in the Mississippi Valley at the

same time exceeded by 40,000 tons the entire tonnage of the British

Empire. Four thousand flatboats were at this time still employed in

moving the existing commerce.

Navigation kept even pace with the rapid development of the

West until in 1860 our Western rivers were teeming with steamboats

and barges.  (Produce, machinery and an endless variety of manu-

factures were carried from the upper Ohio to the South, and cotton,

sugar, rice and molasses were brought to the mills and consumers of

the North. Iron ore was brought from Missouri to the furnaces of

Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and coal was taken

back in return. A. great barge line carried wheat and corn and flour

from St. Louis to New Orleans for distribution through the south and

for export. Palatial steamers, luxuriously equipped for travel, carried

millions of passengers up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

The railroads then in operation acted rather as feeders than as com-

petitors to the steamboat lines. Except for intermittent seasons of

low water, river transportation seemed adequate for the commercial

necessities of the West, supplemented by inland lines of railroad.

But the extent and fertility of our agricultural lands was so

great, the resources of our mines so plentiful, the inventive genius

Vol. XXII -6.

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of our people in creating machinery and appliances for the increase

of our productions was so active, and the energies of our rapidly multi-

plying population so persistent that further extension of our trans-

portation facilities became a necessity, and the railroad having proved

itself an efficient and reliable carrier, we entered upon an era of rail-

road building.

In the thirty years from 1870 to 1900 our railroad mileage in-

creased from 52,922 miles to 194,262 miles. With the increase in rail-

road building came a decline of transportation by river, notwithstand-

ing an enormous increase in the general commerce of the country.

The decline was greatest in through traffic, as from   St. Louis to

New Orleans and from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to New Orleans, ex-

cept in coal. There has also been a decline in many packet trades.

And all this in spite of the conceded fact that the cost of transporta-

tion by water is about one-sixth of that by rail.

What, then, are the causes for this decline in transportation on

our Western rivers?

Much has been said and written officially and otherwise upon this

subject and many causes have been assigned, some purely local, others

far reaching in their effect. These are well summarized in the Prelimi-

nary Report of the United States National Waterways Commission,

Sixty-first Congress, Second Session, which divided the advantages said

to be possessed by the railroad over the river into two classes; one it

designates as inherent or fundamental, the other as artificial or tem-

porary advantages. Those coming under the first head are briefly stated

as follows:

1. The railway has a wider area of distribution, can provide for

the receipt and delivery of freight in car load lots at factories and

warehouses by means of switches. Can reach all cities or towns alike,

whether located on water or not.

2. Railways are provided with facilities at terminals for loading

and unloading.

3. The readier transfer of traffic from one line to another, as

compared with transfer from water to rail and vice versa, and the

practice of through billing and mutual settlement of accounts.  The

oscillation in river levels renders the installation of adequate unload-

ing machinery more difficult.

Under the head of temporary or artificial advantages, the Com-

mission enumerates as the

First and most important, the right of the railway to charge lower

rates between points where its line is in competition with water routes.

Second. The power of a railway to acquire steamboat lines or

enter into agreement with them for the purpose of stifling water borne

traffic, either by operating the steamboat lines or by discontinuing their

use upon competitive routes  In both methods, the Commission states,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          83

 

that it, in the acquisition and operation of steamboat lines in such

manner as not to compete with railways, and in removing them en-

tirely from the field of competition, the railway companies of the

country have been very active.

Third. The refusal of the railroads to prorate on through routes

where naturally the freight would be carried part by water and part

by rail. In many cases, the Commission says, the route which apparently

is the natural one, would be by water for three-fourths or more of the

distance, yet the charge for the remaining railway haul is so considerable

as to render carriage by the longer haul by water unprofitable.

Fifth. The better warehouse terminal and freight handling equip-

ment of the railroads, while no progress has been made on the water-

ways in the last 50 years in furnishing modern facilities for the storage

or handling of freights.

To these causes the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors

in its report on the survey of the Ohio River has added another which it

considers as the great cause of the failure of waterways, but which it con-

cedes now no longer exists. It is that heretofore the directions of water-

ways have not generally coincided with commercial routes. That the

trend of commerce has been East and West while our river systems

generally flow in a southerly direction.

It is now admitted, however, that the commercial development

of the west has reached a point from which future growth will be by

normal stages while the resources of soil and climate and mineral of

the South and Southwest invite development in which our internal

river system must play an essential part.

A careful analysis of this assignment of causes, I think will dis-

close but a single inherent advantage of the railroad over the river,

and that is the ability of the railroad to deliver freight in car load

lots direct to the warehouse or factory by means of a switch.   But

even this advantage is limited in the case of each railroad line to the

factories and warehouses located on its own line. If situated on an-

other line the delivery must be accomplished by license of that other

line, a privilege that can, by proper legislation, be made equally avail-

able to the shipper by river. The disadvantage to the river is confined

to the necessity and cost of transfer from the boat to the car, but

where water transportation is uninterrupted by seasons of low water,

then transferring machinery and appliances are or can be employed

which so reduce this cost that when added to the lower freight rate

by water still leaves the advantage in most cases with the river. In-

deed such transferring machinery, where water transportation is re-

liable, as on the Great Lakes, has been so perfected that railroads them-

selves employ it to effect transfers from rail to water, thus making

the waterway an integral part of the whole transportation system of

the country and lending to it the same area of distribution that is pos-

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sessed by any one railroad line. The error in ascribing to the rail-

road a greater area of distribution than to the river route lies in

comparing the river route with the railroad systems of the country

collectively, instead of limiting such comparison to each railroad line

separately.  Furthermore in crediting the railroad with ability to de-

liver in car load lots by switch to factory or warehouse, the ability of

the river route to deliver entire barge loads to the factory or ware-

house located on its banks, has been overlooked.

Nor is the oscillation in river levels a permanent or fundamental

disadvantage. Does not every railroad in its course encounter similar

differences in levels which in many instances it must overcome by the

employment of extra locomotive power?     What matters it whether

such difference in levels occurs during or at the end of the journey?

The towering loading machinery at Lake Erie ports overcome such

differences by hoisting entire railroad cars and dumping their contents

into the holds of steamers and at a cost which makes transfer from

rail to water profitable and hence desirable.

It is confidently asserted that there are but three conditions neces-

sary to give to commerce the full benefit of the cheaper transportation

by water and these are:

1. To provide permanent channels of adequate depth.

2. The co-operation of municipalities by retaining and recovering

their public landings and either erecting or affording opportunity to

erect suitable machinery and appliances for the cheap handling of mer-

chandise freight to warehouses at the top of the banks, there to be

transferred to railroad cars for further transfer and to delivery wagons

for local consumption.

3. To provide by legislation for mutual interchange of Bills of

Lading between river and rail routes and for prorating of freights.

Let us consider these in their order.

From the beginning railroads have been improving their road-

beds, by eliminating or reducing grades and curves, putting on heavier

rails, perfecting their ballasting, increasing the size of cars and motive

power and double tracking. They have built feeders in all directions

and have succeeded in making the railroad an efficient transportation

machine.

On the other hand, the river channel which corresponds to the

roadbed of the railroad, has not been effectively improved. The seasons

of low water are frequent and of long duration, greatly increasing the

cost of transportation, and often suspending navigation altogether. A

more or less desultory improvement of rivers has long been in progress,

but until recently the efforts were lacking in plan, policy and continuity

so that little progress has been made toward the establishment of a

coherent reliable river system of transportation and in consequence

navigation has continued to be intermittent, uncertain and unreliable.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            85

 

The situation, however, at the present time is more hopeful. The

Mississippi from Cairo to the Gulf with small interruption has a

minimum depth of 9 feet. From Cairo to the mouth of the Missouri

improvements to a depth of 8 feet are in progress. From the mouth

of the Missouri to St. Paul the project is for a depth of 6 feet. The

improvement of the Missouri as far up as Kansas City has again been

taken up.

But by far the most important tributary of the Mississippi River

is the Ohio River, which together with its tributaries forms a consider-

able river system by itself.

The improvements now in progress on the Ohio River contemplate

a complete canalization of the same to a minimum depth of 9 feet by

construction of 54 locks and movable dams, about thirty per cent. of

which is now completed and if the expressed desires of President Taft

are carried out, will be entirely completed in five years hence, but the

greater probability is that eight or even ten more years will be required

for their completion. Nearly all the tributaries of the Ohio have been

canalized or are in process of canalization, but their real usefulness

awaits the completion of the Ohio. There will then be in the Ohio

Valley alone a river system of 4,400 miles, and dependable water trans-

portation from the Pittsburgh district as far west as Kansas City and

from St. Paul to the Gulf. Here at Pittsburgh this great system is

to be connected by barge canal with Lake Erie, which, when con-

summated will establish cheap and easy water transportation between

the upper Ohio and the Great Lakes System, and by way of the Erie

Canal, now  approaching completion, with the Atlantic seaboard.  If

these channels had been provided as the railroads were being extended

and improved, river commerce would not only have been maintained,

but would itself have contributed to a still greater commercial develop-

ment than we have experienced. The intermittent, unreliable and un-

certain navigation is the real, and properly considered, the only cause

of the decline in water transportation. Other contributing causes are

but the result of uncertain seasons of navigation, and with dependable

channels would either have disappeared, or would never have arisen

at all. Indeed, but for the distinct advantages of cheapness, quick

delivery and unlimited capacity of water transportation over that by

rail, not a vestige of river traffic would be left. The survival of

packet lines on all our Western rivers, and the development of coal

transportation lines unique in the cheapness and volume of their de-

liveries, in spite of long and uncertain seasons of suspension of naviga-

tion are positive proof of inherent advantages of river transportation.

No railroad line similarly handicapped could survive the competition of

its rivals.

Nor is it correct to attribute any portion of the decline to crude-

ness of the steamboat or to lack of thrift of steamboat men or man-

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agers, as is so often done. The steamboat in its type, motive power,

tackle, equipment and accommodations, has been constantly improved

to take full advantage of the intermittently navigable river channels.

Alternating conditions of low and high water, swift currents, float-

ing ice, fogs, faulty disposition of bridge piers and of low bridges

and other obstructions have kept alive a spirit of improvement which

has produced steamboats thoroughly adapted to present conditions, not

only for their safe navigation, but for the handling of freight aboard

ship as well as for receiving and discharging. The balance rudder, a

clever device for the more effective control of the boat, and the steam

capstan now in use all over the world, were first introduced on the

Ohio river. The railroads have by no means surpassed the steamboat

in the manner of handling merchandise freight. They have not even kept

pace with the steamboat. In fact, the greater portion of this class of

freight, if not all, is handled by the shipper or receiver himself each

in his own way and with the means available to him.

Two citations from reputable trade journals might be quoted in

support of this statement. The Engineering News in a recent article

(Jan'y 5th, 1911) stated:

"All admit that our present methods of freight handling are

crude; they are no better than they were 50 years ago, while not

nearly so cheap."

The Electric World some time since called attention to the same

fact as follows:

"The present system of handling miscellaneous freight at

terminal stations is absurdly slow and expensive as compared

with the progressive methods in other branches of railroad man-

agement."

As to the second essential condition to bring about a revival of

river commerce, it should be said that during the period of ascendency

of the railroad and the corresponding decadence of river traffic, the

railroads have been systematically, especially within municipal limits, en-

croaching on the river bank and in many instances actually occupying

the public landings in such manner as to hinder and handicap their

joint use with steamboat transportation-and it is at these points where

local deliveries must be cheapened and economical connection between

steamboat and railroad must be effected. So thoroughly is the necessity

for such co-operation between municipalities and the general govern-

ment recognized that Congress has in some instances made appropria-

tions for river improvement conditioned thereon.  The same reason

obtains for such co-operation on the part of municipalities on inland

waters as induced the City of New York and other sea ports to pro-

vide municipal docks. The City of New Orleans owns its river front

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.            87

 

and has constructed extensive wharves and is now engaged in estab-

lishing a complete connection between steamboat, steamship and rail

lines by the construction of a municipal belt railroad. San Francisco,

Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Cleveland and Buffalo have done some ex-

cellent work along this line. Who can doubt that municipal ownership

and maintenance of public landings and terminals is less appropriate

or less beneficial to the public generally than the opening and mainte-

nance of the streets leading to them?

Mr. Herbert Knox Smith, Commissioner of Corporations of the

Department of Commerce and Labor, has excited general interest

throughout the country in this question by an exhaustive report of

three volumes on Transportation by Water, and by his announcement

that terminals are as important as channels.

The National Waterways Commission already referred to like-

wise recommended:

"That improvement in rivers and harbors be not made unless

sufficient assurance is given that proper wharves, terminals and

other necessary adjuncts to navigation shall be furnished by munici-

pal or private enterprise, and that the charges for their use shall

be reasonable."

This does not apply to bulk freight, such as coal, sand, brick,

stone, cement, lumber, timber and specialized traffic which is handled at

private wharves, all of which are already equipped with excellent han-

dling machinery for ready transfer between rail and water, and it is

safe to say that with dependable channels even these will be more

highly improved.

The third condition, that of enforcing mutual interchange of

bills of lading and pro-rating of freight charges between rail and

water routes, must be provided by amendment of the interstate com-

merce law. The power to refuse to honor through bills of lading

issued by water routes or to issue such bills over water routes and to

pro-rate on freights is the strongest weapon in the hands of the rail-

roads to suppress water competition.

There was another weapon very generally and effectively em-

ployed by the railroads, namely, the power to reduce rates between

competitive points below the actual cost of transportation, and, when

the suppression of the water competitor was accomplished, to restore

the regular tariff, recouping itself in the meantime by charging a higher

rate on the traffic not affected by the water route. To correct such

unfair competition, Congress, upon the recommendation of the National

Waterways Commission, passed an Act providing that when a railroad

reduces its rates in competition with a water route, the same shall not

again be raised except by permission of the Interstate Commerce Com-

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mission, on good cause shown other than the effort to crush out com-

petition.

The refusal of railroad lines to deal with steamboat lines the

same as they do with each other as to through billing and pro-rating

must be met with similar legislation, and accordingly all official re-

ports dealing with the subject and the National Rivers and Harbors

Congress have recommended to the Congress of the United States the

enactment of such a law, and it is believed that Congress will in the

near future carry out these recommendations.

This will not be done in hostility to the railroads, but in obedi-

ence to a broad economic law that the prosperity of the country is

largely measured by the efficiency of its transportation facilities. Nor

does the development of our river traffic in the end operate adversely

to the welfare of the railroad, for the world is full of examples con-

clusively showing that railways and waterways operated side by side,

each performing the functions best suited to it, conduce to the prosperity

of each other and to that of the people at large.

 

 

 

Having considered the causes of the decline of river commerce

in the Mississippi Valley and pointed out what may be done for their

removal let us take a peep into the future, to see, if we can, what

we may fairly expect of our new and permanent channels, and of the

establishment of harmonious relations between river and rail traffic

and the co-operation of localities. In making this forecast, however,

neither the volume nor character of the traffic carried in the halcyon

days of steamboating will aid us. Revival of river commerce does not

necessarily mean recovery of the kind of commerce lost. We must

view the question in the light of the new development. The popula-

tion of the Mississippi Valley in 1870 was 21,154,291; in 1910 it was

51,196,846. Productive energy has increased in proportion. The Mis-

sissippi Valley produces the greater part of the country's food stuffs;

two-thirds of our manufacturing interests are located here, and nearly

all the country's coal supply is drawn from the Mississippi Valley. The

demand for transportation is tremendous.  All these things must be

transported, not once, but many times and in many forms. In times

of ordinary prosperity the railroads are not equal to the task.  No

matter how well equipped, they have their limitations as to carrying

capacity.

The Interstate Commerce Commission has expressed this view in

the following statement:

"It may conservatively be stated that the inadequacy of trans-

portation facilities is little less than alarming; that its continua-

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          89

 

tion may place an arbitrary limit on the future productivity of the

land; and that the solution of the difficult financial and physical

problems involved is worthy the most earnest thought and effort

of all who believe in the full development of our country and the

largest opportunity for its people."

Hon. Elihu Root, while Secretary of State, in a public address de-

scribed the situation thus:

"We have come to a point where the railroads of the country

are unable to perform that function which is necessary to con-

tinued progress in the increase of our national wealth. Conditions

are such that there is no human possibility that railroads can

keep pace with the necessities of our natural production for the

transportation of our products, and the one avenue that is open

for us to keep up our progress is the avenue of water transporta-

tion." (Root, p. 17, N. R. and H. C., 1907.)

One other distinguished authority, Mr. James J. Hill, with charac-

teristic forcefulness, and with special reference to our western rivers,

in 1908 spoke as follows:

"What this country now wants of the waterway is assistance

in carrying a volume of traffic grown too large, in times of national

prosperity, for the railroads to handle with their present trackage

and terminals. Heavy freights along main lines can profitably

go by water. The traffic of the country will need, as soon as

normal conditions are restored, all the assistance that waterways

can give. The future of the waterway is assured, not so much as

a competitor, but as a helper of the railroad. ... You cannot

find a man eminent in railroading today who is not also an ardent

advocate of waterways improvement."

One other distinguished authority on transportation, Prof. Emery R.

Johnson, is worth citing. He says:

"The services that inland waterways are to perform in the

future will differ from  those they have rendered in the past.

Both the railroads and the waterways of the future are destined

to be more effective transportation agents than they have been in

the past. Although the railroad has reached a higher degree of

efficiency and has by no means reached the end of its technical de-

velopment, the usefulness of inland waterways as a part of the

general transportation system of the country will not cease to be

important. Indeed, the value of inland waterways will tend to

increase with the advance of our country in population and in-

dustry. The development of facilities for public carriage has be-

come increasingly important, and our industries will require both

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rail and water carriers for the adequate performance of the ever-

enlarging work of transportation."

The carrying capacity of the river is unlimited. Wherever freight

is to be moved in great quantities, barges are employed, which, with

their towboats, constitute the cheapest form  of freight carriers.  At

the appearance of the first rise in September last, within a day or two,

250,000 tons of coal and manufactured iron left the city of Cincinnati

and Louisville, and without interference with the regular traffic. To

move this quantity of freight by rail would require 5,896 cars of 45

tons each, made up in 196 trains of 30 cars each. No railroad, how-

ever well equipped, could have performed this service without inter-

ference with its regular traffic inside of sixty days, to say nothing of

its inability to assemble such a quantity of traffic at either terminus.

It is not only in carrying capacity, but in quick delivery, that

the steamboat outclasses the railroad in most cases-though popular

conception is to the contrary.  The Interstate Commerce Commission

reports the average movement of a freight car per day as 23 miles.

The immense body of freight just referred to was delivered at Louis-

ville, a distance of 598 miles, in four or five days.

An ordinary packet boat will average 120 miles per day, including

all stops and receiving and discharging of freight. One of the Pitts-

burgh and Cincinnati Packet Line boats will deliver 800 tons of miscel-

laneous cargo from  Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, a distance of 468 miles,

in sixty hours, which would not ordinarily be accomplished by any of

the railroads running between these points short of six days.

These conditions must attract a vast amount of transportation to

the river at all times, and in seasons of great prosperity, when great

freight movement is required, will surely avert a recurrence of the

congestions of 1906 and 1907. The relief to be afforded at such times by

our navigable rivers to immediately contiguous territory will be felt

throughout the land.

The gasoline engine has produced a new kind of boat which

has recently come into use throughout the whole extent of our river

system, which promises to be an important factor in the future of river

commerce. This is the gasoline packet and towboat. It measures from

15 to 40 tons, operates in short trades of from  15 to 50 miles. Its

original cost and expense of operation are small. It carries the farmer

and his products to the nearest market town, often towing one or two

small barges. These packets are the trolley lines on the river, and,

like their counterparts on land, are destined to perform a distinct and

important function in the economy of transportation.

But it is our firm belief that passenger travel on our new channels

will be quite as great as the freight movements. Travel on our Western

rivers has ever been popular-even at this day every packet boat relies

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           91

 

on its passenger list to preserve the equilibrium of its cash account. A

fine line of side-wheel boats has always been maintained between Cin-

cinnati and Louisville; and who has not heard of those magnificent

double-deckers, the United States and America, that nightly carried great

cabins full of happy travellers between those two cities, until one night

a disastrous collision brought a brilliant career to a tragic ending.

But a permanently navigable river which admits of deeper draft

than is now permissible will quickly replace the wooden inflammable

craft of today by a steel constructed vessel, so comfortably and elegantly

appointed, so safe, fleet and smooth of movement, through river scenery

of matchless beauty, gratifying every choice of distance and direction,

as cannot fail to appeal to our people.

Not that the hurrying commercial traveler will choose this method

for making five or six towns a day, but it will be sought by that great

body of leisurely travelers, the product of our unparalleled national

prosperity, which moves like a solid phalanx on our coast and lake re-

sorts in summer time, and like an army of occupation invades our

Southern States in winter; for whose comfort and enjoyment great

fleets of luxuriantly equipped greyhounds are speeding from ocean to

ocean and from shore to shore.

Another new and potent factor in the future commerce of our

Western rivers is the Panama Canal. Through its open gates the Ohio

and Mississippi Valleys will have direct water connection with the

west coast of South America, our own Pacific Coast, and the harbors

of the Orient. The largest share of American-made goods that will

seek these markets will come from the workshops and mills of the

Mississippi Valley. The greatest beneficiary of this new commercial

roadstead will be the Mississippi Valley.

 

 

 

 

AMERICAN INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC.

 

BY HOMER B. HULBERT, F. R. G. S.

 

When the founders of our Republic chose the eagle as the

symbol of our national life, they did not have in mind its carniv-

orous nature nor its predatory habit. They saw in it the only living

creature that could see the farthest and that could climb the highest

into the blue. There was in this choice some predetermination of Provi-

dence; for three hundred years ago when this continent was, like an-

cient Chaos, without form and void, there appeared on the Atlantic sea-

board a little fringe of Anglo-Saxons who never dreamed that they

were an empire in embryo; but there, already was the eagle's egg.

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Nor does the analogy stop here. An egg contains two component

parts, the white which develops into a bird, and the yolk which forms

its food during the process of incubation. Even so with the national

bird; the Anglo-Saxon immigrants were the living embryo while the

wide-sweeping plains, the forests and the minerals were the yolk which

was to nourish it during the period of gestation.

Slowly, patiently, doggedly the plow and axe bit and furrowed

their way westward into this unmeasured wealth of natural resources.

No human calculation could have foreseen that the Cyclopean wealth

of the continent would ever be exploited in its entirety. It was like a

bevy of ants attacking a mountain barrier with a view of its demolition.

But here, as with the egg, the living organism grew in size and appetite

while the yolk diminished until the relative proportions were reversed.

There were three capital assets of the American people. The first

was the mineral resources. These being fixed and measured in extent

are necessarily exhaustible without the possibility of renovation or re-

placement. Second, the agricultural resources. These being perennial

are inexhaustible, but, being susceptible of a fixed maximum develop-

ment, the time was sure to come when agriculture could no longer

suffice to absorb the excess of industry which rapidly increasing immigra-

tion was destined to bring into the country. The third asset was the

indomitable energy, the fiery enthusiasm and the inventive genius of the

people. But this third asset did not lie in the yolk of the egg. It was

the appetite of the living organism, the white of the egg. It was the

heat which made incubation possible. For, though the Anglo-Saxons

first came to escape the narrowness and bigotry of Europe, they soon

substituted for the negative motto "Get away from it" the more positive

and constructive one "Go to it."

I call you to witness that during the first three hundred years

of our national incubation this energy and enthusiasm and inventive

genius were almost wholly absorbed in the fascinating work of reaping

where we had not sown and gathering where we had not strawed. In-

estimable wealth lay right on the surface, titanic forests to be hewn,

fat plains to be tilled, rock ribs of iron and coal, copper and gold heav-

ing their rich deposits up to the very surface, all to be had for the

taking, without money and without price. Not that I would belittle the

herculean task that our pioneers performed, nor the swift, persistent

indefatigable march across the longitudes which is unparalleled in the

history of human achievements; but the rewards which they secured

for themselves and for their descendants were all out of proportion

even to their suberb devotion and their unfaltering faith. Hardly less,

in proportion, is the fledgling, lying in its shell required to pay for

the yolk that it consumes than our nation had to pay for this mighty

feast to which it came uninvited and unhindered.

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At this precise point we discover the genesis of the most character-

istic feature of the American people, the thing which differentiates them

the most clearly from their Anglo-Saxon forbears. The lust for un-

earned increment got into the very blood of the nation and was woven

into the very fiber of our body politic. It was a recrudescence, if you

will, of the old Viking spirit which harried the coasts of Europe in

search of unearned wealth; or, if this simile sound too harsh, it was

the child-nation drawing forth the gifts with which a kindly Santa

Claus had crammed its Christmas stocking.

But the time inevitably came when this riotous exploitation of

surface wealth could no longer afford an outlet for the fierce energy

that had been generated.   The fertile fields were all attached, the

forests were all preempted, the mines were all staked out, the buffalo

were all killed off, and gradually economic conditions came to assume

something of the sane and conservative aspect of European countries.

But note the appalling energy that had been developed through the en-

thusiasm aroused by this easy exploitation of resources. The momentum

of that energy was proportioned to the facility with which fortunes had

been made. It was a momentum that nothing could stop, and when the

material upon which it had expended its titanic power shrunk to normal

dimensions, some new outlet had to be found, some new field to

conquer.

Already under the spur of increasing wealth and of national de-

mand a beginning had been made in the work of supplying the people

with manufactured goods. At first these were crude and bungling and

those who could afford it still bought their manufactured goods from

Europe. But at last under the spur of necessity, the inventiveness of

our people, and incidentally the protective tariff, we forged ahead into

active and successful competition with Europe.

And now a new and immensely important development took place.

It was the wholesale immigration of European people. It grew by leaps

and bounds and the question became a legitimate one: How are we

to feed and clothe these millions? It was discovered that though agri-

culture, lumbering and mining could absorb a part of this surplus energy

that part was a mere fraction. The larger portion of it was diverted

into manufacturing lines and the terrific momentum of our progress

went on not only unhindered but accelerated. In the natural course of

events the fact was revealed that our people could no longer absorb

the product of our manufactories. In other words the yolk could no

longer suffice to feed the bird in the shell. One of two things must

happen: either the bird must hatch or else must stifle in its prison-

house. When we came to the point where our domestic markets could

no longer handle the products of our industry, we had to find new

markets or else smother in the plethora of our over production. To

change the figure, we were like a mighty locomotive engine sweeping

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along the track at sixty miles an hour and nearing the end of the track.

One of three things must happen. The momentum must be checked,

or the track must be extended, or there must be a catastrophe. To put

an efficient check upon that engine which represents the energy and

enthusiasm of the nation is impossible. The track cannot be extended

except it be beyond our own territory but to escape disaster this is the

only thing that remained to be done. To revert to our original figure

the bird hatched and America became what she was predestined to be-

come, or as some would prefer to say, foredoomed to become-a world

power.

There's many a mother that longs to keep her "little boy" in short

pants even after he has shot up beyond her own height. The lad goes

about shame-faced and mocked by his companions until the old gentle-

man sees how things are going, takes the boy down street and fits him

out in long pants without consulting the partner of his joys. Well,

there are some people in this country who would like to keep their

dear little six footer of a nation in short pants, but the head of the house

has grasped the situation.

Immigration and foreign markets are necessary complements of

each other. If we take in twenty thousand Austro-Hungarians who were

accustomed to make matches to sell in India, they ought here to make

steel to sell in China or else make some other commodity to sell abroad.

In other words, in addition to the fifty dollars that each one has to bring

to tide him over the interval until he secures employment, each one

should bring with him his economic market. Only thus can we evade

an ultimate excess of production and a consequent industrial catastrophe.

This needs no argument. It is axiomatic in its simplicity.

But in looking abroad to see where this increased market can be

found we see, first, that in Europe there is no possibility of any imme-

diate large increase of selling area. There is a commercial equilibrium

that gives no hope of our securing an expanding market sufficient to

keep pace with our growing need. Some people say that in South Am-

erica we can find a sufficient market; but we must note that area alone

does not make trade. It takes people; and in all South America there

are only a little more than twice the population of Korea, which we so

complacently turned over to the Japanese six years ago. There is only

one place where we can find a prospective market commensurate with

our need. That market is China. Empire still takes its westward way,

but now it is industrial empire and not political.

Some ill-informed people have affirmed that China is not a great

prospective market; that its people are too poor and too conservative.

It is true that their per capita wealth is small but the aggregate is

gigantic in its proportions. No one has attempted to estimate the gross

wealth of the Chinese people but it may well be doubted whether it

falls far below that of the Americans themselves. It is certain that

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          95

 

wealth is more evenly distributed there; for the clan rather than the

individual is the repository of wealth. Now a large homogeneous, thrifty

population of moderate average means is the best market in the world,

the most steady, the most dependable. They must have the necessities

of life and they are compelled both by their modest fortunes and their

native thrift to buy in the cheapest market. And here is where the

argument about conservatism breaks down. There is no superstition,

no custom, no tradition, no gilded god in all Asia that would stand

for an instant between a Chinaman and a bargain sale. It is a passion

with him, and before that passion as before the breath of a typhoon

every prejudice is leveled with the dust. Take their old-time notion

that China is the center of the universe and that all other nations are

but satellites. Why, the Chinese are more widely distributed through-

out the world than the Anglo-Saxons are, five times over. There are

more Chinamen in India than there are English, more in Mexico than

there are Americans, more in eastern Siberia than there are Russians,

more in Annam than there are French, more in Java than there are

Dutch, more in Singapore than all others combined, more in Europe

than there are Europeans in China. They bid fair to become the com-

mercial cosmopolites of the world.

But there are some who think that the Chinese market is pretty

well supplied already, that the demand is already met. One might as

truthfully say that the resources of Alaska have been exhausted. Only

the merest fringe of China has been touched. A thousand miles from

the nearest railway and hundreds of miles from navigation patient

camels plod across the mountains carrying American goods today to

inland points where only the wealthy can afford to buy. There are tens

of millions who want those goods but who cannot afford them. The

projected railways in China will open up the inland markets with a

rapidity and to an extent never before seen in the history of trade.

It is safe to say that China will afford the one market commensurable

with the demands of American industrial expansion.

This fact gives us a personal and poignant interest in that much

discussed but very indefinite phrase The Mastery of the Pacific. But

before discussing that term I should like to put in a demurrer against

the statement that trade follows the flag. My objection to it is a very

simple one, namely that it is not true. Trade does not follow the flag;

it follows the demand, and the flag follows the trade to protect it.

Demand is color-blind and cannot tell one flag from  another. The

ultimate consumer cares not an iota what flag convoys the goods so

long as the goods are good and cheap. It may therefore be confidently

believed that the future domination of the Pacific will be a commercial

and industrial one.

But there is one all-important question that has still to be de-

cided-the rules of the game. This is a more serious matter than our

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people are at all willing to admit. There are several nations vitally

interested in the trade of China; they may all be called competitors in

the game and unless there be some uniformity in method and in ideals

confusion is certain to result. If two football teams were to meet on

the gridiron each with its own private set of rules and without a referee

the game would probably deteriorate into a free fight. The same thing

is true about such a game as that which faces us in the Pacific. The

contest is on and yet the rules have not been formulated nor has a

referee been chosen. If we as one of the contestants should retire

from the field and refuse to play, on the ground that there are no

rules, all difficulty might be avoided, but as I have attempted to show

we cannot withdraw without doing a cruel injustice to the millions of

our industrial workers and the risk of economic ruin. It follows then

that if any one of the competing nations is willing to adopt for itself

a code of rules which countenance slugging and tripping, all the others

must follow suit or else give up the game and retire from the field;

or, as a last resort, they must induce the offending party to revise its

rules.

I have said that trade does not follow the flag. This rule like

all others has its exception. There is one people of whom it can truly

be said. That people has nowhere succeeded in commercial competi-

tion except where it has first secured a military domination and has

obtained control of the governmental agencies which determine trade

conditions. Take Manchuria as a case in point (and I do it not for

the purpose of criticising any particular people but merely as an illus-

tration of the wide variations in the rules of the game). Six years ago

American enterprise was flourishing in Manchuria. In fair competition

we held about half of all the foreign trade of that rich territory. To-

day we have comparatively nothing. Why the difference? The trade

is there, the demand is unimpaired, our merchants are as keen as ever.

The explanation lies in this one fact that we do not play the game the

way our competitors do. During the recent war trade was supended in

the affected provinces and when peace was signed we were told that it

would take two years to remove the troops and prepare for the re-

opening of the territory to general trade. But singularly enough this

rule was not made to apply to the very party that made it. Their

marchants poured into the country by thousands, their goods were car-

ried practically freight free, every seat of trade was preempted and

every point of strategic commercial advantage was seized; and when we

were blandly told that the door was now open we found that there

was not even standing room. We had bought our tickets to the ball

game but they were lost in the mail and everything was in the hands

of the speculators. When Secretary Knox asked that the game be played

according to some recognized rules he was told that there was "nothing

doing."

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At the time when these things were going on it was my fortune

to pass through Manchuria where I conversed for some hours with

every American Consul and with British, German and other officials,

and I found it to be the fixed opinion of every man I saw that the

term "open door" was not applicable to Manchuria, but that even after

the nominal opening there were gross acts of favoritism and special

privilege towards the merchants of the dominant power. One British

official in an important Manchurian port cited to me a case that came

within his purview. A Chinese governor was approached by a deputa-

tion of Japanese and asked for a certain concession. The magnitude

of it startled him and he said he would have to refer the matter to

Peking. They demurred at this and insisted that it be granted without

that formality, evidently being well aware that if it were referred to

Peking it would be certainly refused. The Governor persisted in his

determination and at last the visitors drew their weapons on him and

fiercely demanded his consent without an hour's delay. He laughed in

their faces and dared them to touch him. Of course they gave in. I

give this authentic instance to show merely the rule of the game as

played by the dominant party. No legitimate competition can overcome

such a handicap.

The question that faces us in the Pacific is the same as that which

faces the whole civilized world. Shall society advance only so fast as

the most backward shall dictate; shall the chain of evolution always be

measured by its weakest link. If so then all talk of universal peace

and disarmament must be laid aside. The American people hate war

with a hatred that is intelligent but without fear. We know there is

a better way and that in time the race as a whole will come to that

opinion. But the practical man as distinguished from the idealist wants

to know how we are to manage until the war-nations have been con-

vinced. In this year of grace 1911 there is no such thing as disarma-

ment. War is not a clash of weapons but a clash of wills, and as

society is now constituted if national passions are aroused and vital

national interests are endangered men will fight. Sink all the navies

and disband all the armies; the only result would be that in the clash

of wills that is called war, men would fight with cobblestones and brick-

bats. There would be no non-combattants and every individual and

home and village would be a legitimate object of assault. Civilization

has nowhere demonstrated its beneficent character more than in the

steady diminution of the area; the duration and the relative mortality

of war.

When you have killed the will to decide disputes by force then

disarmament has already come, however many dreadnaughts there may

be.

I thank God that the American people have no appetite for terri-

Vol. XXII-7.

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torial conquest. Even the little Philippines have almost turned our

stomachs, and if it had not been for a stern sense of duty we would

long ago have had recourse to an emetic. We have absolutely no will

to fight except in possible self-defense, nor would the possession of a

thousand dreadnaughts create the appetite for conquest. Unless a man

is hungry ten plates of food are no more tempting than one. The fact

is that the more efficient our navy is the sooner we will give the people

of the Philippines their liberty, for then we shall be better able to ensure

their defense from some less scrupulous power; but until the rules of

the game have been formulated and all the interested parties have sub-

scribed to them in such fashion that their infringement would call for

instant and united penalization, I affirm that the Philippine Islands are

worth a million dollars an acre to the American people, and would be

so worth were they as barren as the Sahara Desert. Look at a map

of the Pacific and you will see that there is a line of islands running

southward from Kamtchatka. They are the Kurile Islands, the Jap-

anese Islands, the Liu-chu Islands, Formosa and the Philippines. They

are like a veil drawn across the face of China and the possession of

them all would enable the possessor to command the seaboard of China

and dictate to anyone who wished to approach that seaboard. Every

one of these islands is in the possession of a single power, excepting

the Philippines. They alone are ours. They break the chain and they

guarantee entrance to the ports of China so long as the American flag

exists.

In saying this I cannot be charged with advocating war excepting

insofar as war is thrust upon us in defense of rights that are fairly

won and that are not only not a menace to any other people but are

of distinct value to all who believe in an open market and fair com-

petition. Might does not make right, but it has its legitimate place

and office, namely the defense of the right. And therefore, if America

is to give up the principle of defending the right by force when necessary,

we must reconstruct our whole scheme of social and economic life.

Our social system needs reconstruction in some lines but I affirm that

such reconstruction must be evolutionary and not cataclysmic.

What a pity it is that the weapons of offense and of defense are

identically the same. How delightful it would be if we could have a gun

that would shoot only bad people, burglars, assassins, traitors; but that

would be harmless against good people! Today the revolver which you

keep under your pillow to defend yourself from burglars is exactly the

same as that which the burglar uses in robbing you. Now I am safe

in saying that if there were a weapon that could be used only in de-

fense that is the only kind of weapon the United States Government

would buy. But unfortunately this is not so, and therefore there are

some otherwise excellent people who, whenever they see Uncle Sam

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          99

 

go into a store to buy a gun, scream out in terror: "He is going to

commit murder!"

Human nature is the same whether in the individual or in the

nation at large, and it is just as immoral for Uncle Sam to leave several

billion dollars worth of stuff lying about where anyone can steal it

as it would be for you to leave your watch and other jewelry out

on the front steps when you go to bed. It is not giving your neighbor

a square deal.

But then these casuists say that if a man has a gun he may make

a mistake and shoot when he does not intend to. Someone comes

and raps at your window at night. Being startled out of sleep you

draw your gun and shoot to kill, only to find out that it is your

neighbor's wife who has come to ask you to get a doctor for her

sick husband. But just here comes the difference between Uncle Sam

and the ordinary individual. Before the United States starts to shoot

a good many things must happen. Mr. Richard Hobson will not be

the only person to have his say (although I would remark parentheti-

cally that Mr. Hobson has a good deal more sense than many people

give him credit for). The House of Representatives would have to

discuss the matter, the Senate would probably get it out of Committee

sooner or later, meanwhile the good people of the United States would

not be entirely silent; and by the time Uncle Sam was ready to pull

the trigger it would be discovered whether it was a neighbor's wife

or a house-breaker!

In this connection the opening of the Panama Canal discloses possi-

bilities and releases forces which no one can fully foresee. Only the

crudest and most material results have been thought out. We do not

know what ambitions it may stimulate, what cupidities it may awaken,

what shifting of balances it may cause. The United States by opening

up this waterway makes herself responsible for the results. For this

reason if for no other it is morally obligatory upon this government

so to keep its hand upon the canal that any possible untoward develop-

ment may be nipped in the bud. Let it be plainly understood by the

whole world that this government once and for all removes the pos-

session of that waterway from the field of international cupidity, and

an enormous stumbling-block will have been removed from the high-

way of commerce. It has been objected that the fortification of the

Canal will show distrust of other powers. Since when have nations

shown themselves so worthy of trust that an object of such surpassing

value would prove no temptation to them? To leave the Canal un-

defended would be about as rational as it would be for a private in-

dividual of great wealth to remove the locks from his doors and

from his safes.

Another prime necessity in the securing of ample opportunities

abroad for the distribution and disposal of our surplus products is a

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Merchant Marine. We "protect" everybody in this country except those

who go down to the sea in ships. We protect hundreds of occupations

which are ludicrously small when compared with this of sea carriage.

It is wholly illogical, but the difficulty lies in the fact that the sailor

cannot be protected in exactly the same way as the manufacturer.

You cannot levy a customs duty on his competitors' wares very easily.

A  government subsidy is necessary, and when it comes to paying

good money out of the Treasury at Washington to a steamship com-

pany it causes an immediate outcry. Now I would ask a simple ques-

tion. Which is better, for the Government to say to the trust, "you can

put your hand into the people's pocket and extract the extra money

necessary for the protection of your industry against foreign com-

petition," or for the Government to take it out of the people by tax-

ation and hand it to the shipping company for their protection. To my

mind the latter way is the better by far; for when the Government

does it we know just how much it is getting but when the corporations

put their hands into our pockets we do not know whether it is getting

what it ought to get or whether it is getting three times too much. I

believe in giving the consumer the benefit of the doubt! We are told

that we could never learn to compete on even terms with the cheap

sea service of European countries.  So it was said about steel, but

the time has now come when that industry has made itself practically

independent of any "protection." It would be the same with the ship-

ping industry, if the Government would only encourage a beginning

whereby some of this surplus energy of our people could be expended

in the carrying trade. The inventive genius of our people would soon

make us the greatest carrying nation in the world. In the early days

of the Nineteenth Century we had a magnificent carrying trade. We

had plenty of sailors and of ships and that, too, at a time when the

great Middle West was casting its most seductive lure for the young

men of the nation. How then should we not have men enough now

when we are congested at every center of population and huge masses

of the unemployed are crying out for work?

Such are some of the factors that go to make up this Far Eastern

question as related to the water-shed of the Mississippi River, of

which this Ohio is the main tributary. The City of Hankow lies 600

miles up the Yangtse River in China.    St. Louis lies approximately

the same distance up the Mississippi, and it takes no prophet to foresee

the time when ocean vessels will load at St. Louis and discharge

their cargoes at Hankow. But more than this, far up the Yangtse lies

the city of Ichang which will some day be a great inland port, and

its logical counterpart is this splendid city of Pittsburgh and it is

not beyond the bounds of reason to hope that before the last word

is spoken Ichang and Pittsburgh may be exchanging their commodities

without breaking cargo. There is a restless energy in this country

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Ohio Valley Hist. Assn, Fifth Annual Meeting.          101

 

that will stop short of nothing that is humanly possible.  China is

arousing herself to a new national life that contains possibilities of the

most tremendous scope. America and China are natural complements

to each other. The Yangtse and Mississippi Valleys have more in

common than any other two equal tracts of country in the world.

The concluding paper of the morning was read by George

Cowles Lay of New York. The portion relating to the Ohio

Valley reads as follows:

 

 

INTERSTATE CONTROVERSIES ARISING FROM INJURIES

TO COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

BY GEORGE COWLES LAY.

By the Federal Constitution, the States are prohibited from enter-

ing into any treaty, alliance or confederation, or any agreement or

contract with another state or with a foreign power without consent

of Congress and in any case from engaging in war, unless actually in-

vaded or in imminent danger.

The states are thus debarred, in case of disputes, from the remedies

of diplomacy or the resort to arms, while acting under the Constitu-

tion.

Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist, with prophetic insight, antici-

pated "many other sources, besides interfering claims of boundary, from

which bickerings and animosity may spring up among the members

of the Union."*

So the history and development of the country have produced

many kinds of controversies, which among foreign states might have

resulted in wars and treaties but which have been happily settled by

judicial decisions. These disputes have arisen between States as far

removed from each other as South Dakota and North Carolina, and

as New Hampshire and Louisiana, over liabilities on State bonds, but

have chiefly affected adjoining states, whose citizens have been subject

to injuries affecting commerce, navigation and public health.

Where the health or material prosperity of inhabitants of a state

have been threatened by contamination of its waterways by diversion

or unreasonable use of navigable rivers flowing through several states,

by embargoes against passengers and freight in times of epidemic, or

by obstructions to commerce, the interference of the Supreme Court

has been sought in several cases of interest.

The principles governing this class of cases are the same as those

regulating the rights and remedies of individuals. The complaining

 

*The Federalist, Vol. LXXX.

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102        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

State seeks an injunction against unlawful acts threatened or com-

mitted and prays for an abatement of the nuisances, or for the redress

of grievances.

One of the most important cases and most interesting to people

of the Ohio Valley is the controversy over the bridge at Wheeling-

about 1850 the State of Pennsylvania brought suit against Wheeling and

Belmont Bridge Company in the U. S. Supreme Court.¹

This so-called "Belmont Bridge" case arose from a conflict be-

tween the interests of steamboat navigation and overland transporta-

tion. In 1847 the state of Virginia granted a charter to the Wheeling

& Belmont Bridge Company authorizing the construction of a wire

suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling and providing

that if the bridge should obstruct navigation it should be treated as

a public nuisance. Under this authority the Bridge Company proceeded

to erect a highway bridge, from Wheeling to Zane's Island, the highest

point of which was about 92 feet above low water; this height, how-

ever, was maintained only for a space of 100 feet in the middle of the

channel and was gradually reduced to about 64 feet at the extremities

of the structure.

It was claimed by Pennsylvania in a suit brought in the United

States Supreme Court to abate the nuisance, that the bridge was an ob-

struction to the navigation of the Ohio River, that it interfered with the

passage of large and swift packets plying between Pittsburgh and Cin-

cinnati, especially when the water was higher than 20 feet over low

water line. In the time of spring and fall floods the water rose to a

height of 30 to 38 feet and the space for the passage of steamers with

chimneys 74 feet high was claimed to be wholly insufficient.

It was shown that by various Acts of Congress the use and naviga-

tion of the Ohio was to be at all times free to all citizens of the United

States.

The Northwest ordinance of 1787 providing for the government of

the territory northwest of the river Ohio was quoted.

The fourth article of this famous document provides as follows:

"The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence and

the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and

forever free as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the

citizens of the United States and those of any other states that may

be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, import or duty

whatever."*

 

1Pennsylvania vs. The Wheeling & Belmont Bridge Co., 13 How.

518; 18 How. 421.

*It is interesting to note that this language is almost identical with

that of a resolution offered by Mr. Grayson of Va. in Congress in May,

1786 (Journal of Congress, 1786, p. 637).

Documents Illustrative of American History (p. 248) by Howard

W. Preston, 1893.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          103

 

It was pointed out that upon the admission of the states bordering

upon these waters into the Union similar conditions were imposed and

upon the admission of Kentucky as a state in 1789 the navigation of

Ohio River was declared to be free and common to the citizens of

the United States.

In the argument of Edwin M. Stanton, Counsel for Pennsylvania,

the Ohio was described "as the boundary of six states, its waters drain-

ing a large territory of four other states, flowing in a southwest direc-

tion from the Allegheny mountains to the Mississippi, presenting to

the navigator a broad and placid stream, one thousand miles in length,

more free from dangers and obstructions than any other navigable river

in the world."

Pennsylvania claimed that she had constructed great public works,

such as canals and railroads, stretching East from Pittsburgh, whereby

the products of the south and west and of the Pacific Coast were trans-

ported to Philadelphia for an eastern and foreign market, and foreign

merchandise and eastern manufactures were transported by the same

channels to Pittsburgh, thence to be carried south and west by steam-

boats on the Ohio and thence by way of the Mississippi to the Gulf.

All this commerce was obstructed by a bridge, which did not admit of

the passage of steamboats freely and without delay and expense.

The Bridge Company answered that the bridge was a connecting

link of a great public highway as important as the navigation of the

Ohio; that the bridge was not an appreciable inconvenience to the

average class of boats, and that the tall chimneys upon the largest

packets might be supplied with hinges or lowered or dispensed with

altogether by the use of blowers for a forced draught. The public

highway across the bridge was a continuation of the National Road,

used so extensively by the early pioneers.

The Supreme Court referred two questions for determination to

Hon. Reuben H. Walworth, former Chancellor of New York, as Special

Commissioner:

(1) Whether the bridge was an obstruction to the free navigation

of the Ohio and (2) if an obstruction, what alteration should be made

to the bridge to facilitate navigation.

The Commissioner reported the bridge to be an obstruction and

recommended that the flooring be raised so as to give a level highway

at least 30 feet wide and not less than 120 feet above low water.

The Supreme Court held that Pennsylvania had the right to in-

voke the jurisdiction of the Court, not because its sovereignty was

involved but because it had the same interest in protecting its property

and redressing its wrongs as an individual, and the only privilege it

enjoyed over individuals, due to its dignity as a State, was to bring an

original suit in the Supreme Court to abate the nuisance.

The Court then declared that if viaducts for railroads and bridges

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must be thrown over the Ohio for the accommodation of the numerous

and rising cities upon its banks, they should not be so built as mate-

rially to obstruct its commerce, and that the bridge in question was

a menace to navigation and should be so altered as to provide for a

height of 111 feet above low water for a distance of 300 feet over

the channel of the River. The Court passed a decree, directing the

abatement of the bridge or an alteration as above stated, or the re-

moval of the obstructions in the western Channel at the option of the

Bridge Company, which was given an opportunity to make the changes

or improvements suggested.

While the Pennsylvania interests were thus successful in obtaining

a decree of the highest court of the land which provided for the re-

moval of the obstructions, Congress interposed and passed an Act in

August, 1852, which provided as follows:

That the bridges over the Ohio at Wheeling in the State of Vir-

ginia and at Bridgeport in the State of Ohio, abutting on Zane's Island

in said River are hereby declared to be lawful structures in their present

positions and elevations and shall be so held and taken to be, any-

thing in the law or laws of the United States to the contrary notwith-

standing, and further, That the said bridges be declared to be and

are established post roads for the passage of the mails of the United

States and that the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company are author-

ized to have and maintain their bridges at their present site and eleva-

tion, and the officers and crews of all vessels and boats navigating said

River are required to regulate the use of their said vessels and of any

pipes or chimneys belonging thereto so as not to interfere with the

elevation and construction of said bridges.

A sharp conflict between the legislative and judicial Departments

of the Government was thus precipitated.

After the Act was passed, the suspension bridge was blown down

in a gale of wind and the Company proceeded to reconstruct it, when

the State of Pennsylvania applied to the Supreme Court for an in-

junction, which was granted. The Bridge Company disregarded the

injunction and then a motion was made by Pennsylvania for an attach-

ment for contempt, and thus the question of the power of Congress

to override a decree of the Supreme Court was presented to that tri-

bunal.¹ The case affords an admirable instance of the good sense of a

 

NOTE: This struggle between the steamboat men and the railroads

continued for many years and was renewed upon the erection of other

bridges over the Ohio and the Mississippi. Tall chimneys were sought

to be protected, until it was discovered by a steamboat captain on the

Mississippi, who, in order to test the law, ran his steamer at full speed

under one of the bridges and broke his chimney in the middle, that while

the draft was increased, the steamer consumed much less coal and by a

slight reduction of speed accomplished its voyage with greater economy.

He ceased to be an advocate of tall chimneys after this accident.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         105

 

majority of the court in preserving the proper balance between co-

ordinate branches of the government and calmly yielding to the con-

stitutional powers of Congress, when it might have been expected that

the Court would not have tolerated any interference with its decrees.

Indeed the Court declared that an Act of Congress could not

have the effect to annul a judgment of the court affecting private rights

and that had the remedy in the case been an action at law and had a

judgment been rendered for money damages the right to these would

have passed beyond the power of Congress-such right depending not

Upon the public right of the free navigation of the river, but upon the

judgment of the court. The court very frankly stated that the bridge

had been declared to be an obstruction to the free navigation of the

river in view of previous acts of Congress, providing that the navigation

of the river should be free and common to all citizens, but the subse-

quent legislation was to be regarded as modifying the former law and

although the bridge was still an obstruction in fact it was not so in

contemplation of law.

The court therefore held that after the passage of this Act the

bridge was no longer an unlawful obstruction as the right of naviga-

tion had been modified by competent authority and that the decree for

the abatement of the bridge could not be enforced.

This case in its final result is of striking interest in emphasizing

the paramount power of Congress in matters committed to it under the

constitution and in demonstrating the practical wisdom and admirable

self control of the judicial branch of our government in a peculiar

exigency, where the temptation to resist an apparent usurpation of

Congress was strong and not easily overcome.

That the powers of Congress are adapted to new conditions and

new developments of commerce is well stated by the Supreme Court in

another case as follows:l

"The powers thus granted are not confined to the instrumentalities

of commerce or the postal service known or in use when the Consti-

tution was adopted, but they keep pace with the progress of the country

and adapt themselves to the new development of time and circum-

stances. They extend from the horse with its rider to the stage coach,

from the sailing vessel to the steamboat, from the coach and the steam-

boat to the railroad and from the railroad to the telegraph as these

new agencies are successively brought into use to meet the demands

of increasing population and wealth."

At the Wednesday afternoon session the following three

papers were read. The first two, concerning the erection of an

 

NOTE: 18 How. 421.

1Pensacola Tel. Co. vs. West. Union Tel. Co. 96 U. S.

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historical library building at Pittsburgh, though delivered for the

promotion of a purely local enterprise, are so replete with in-

formation and suggestion pertinent to historical libraries in

general, that we take pleasure in producing them in full.

 

 

 

 

WHAT AN HISTORICAL LIBRARY BUILDING SHOULD DO

FOR PITTSBURGH.

 

BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES, LL. D.

Superintendent of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and Lecturer in

American History in the University of Wisconsin.

 

The immigrant from Europe, no matter how unlettered he may be,

quite generally brings to our shores a fairly accurate knowledge of

the most striking facts in the history of his native land. Its heroes

are his heroes, and the ideals they stood for are, in a measure, quite

apt to be his also. Especially do we find, if we have occasion to ques-

tion him, that the newcomer is conversant with at least the outlines of

the story of his native city or province. He is proud to claim as fellow

citizens those men of past generations whose heads have stood above

the throng. He knows something of the partisan struggles that in

various generations have in his community set neighborhood against

neighborhood, family against family, men against their kin; something

of the long-enduring and often devastating commercial and political con-

tests with other cities; something of the fierce battles that through

successive generations have been waged beneath the crumbling walls

that girt his town.

Sometimes on holidays I have watched groups of these people

wandering through a European art gallery or museum-peasants and

journeymen, with undoubted evidence of their vocations still clinging

to them, yet pausing with awesome although voluble admiration be-

fore some great historical canvas that eloquently sets forth a chapter

in the story of their country's past; or commenting intelligently upon a

skillful grouping of museum articles illustrative of the life, manners,

methods in vogue among men and women who trod this municipal

stage long generations ago.

When schools are in session, one cannot tarry long at any historic

shrine in Europe without encountering a schoolmaster or a school-

mistress having in charge an enthusiastic bevy of boys and girls who,

either resident or from a neighboring town, have come to see the house

connected with the career of some notable citizen, or to study in much

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detail the cathedral, the castle, the municipal building-or whatever other

relics of bygone days bring pilgrims to that place. Small wonder is it,

with these object lessons and the persistency of this youthful drilling,

if the European appreciates that his country has a past, of which he

is the logical outcome, and concerning which he must be informed.

He migrates to America. No adult with whom he is liable to

be thrown in social contact apparently knows anything whatever about

American history, much less does he hear it talked about. His children

obtain in the public schools a meagre and often badly-taught smatter-

ing of our national annals, but practically nothing whatever of that

state or local history in which they should especially be well-grounded.

We cannot be surprised if our immigrant comes to think that America

has no history worth the telling, at least no state or city heroes worthy

of the name; that America never stood for or meant anything, but is a

land that "just grew up," like Topsy of old-a land in which there is

opportunity to earn dollars.

Can we hope to make American patriots out of men coming to

us with such ideas, and finding no reason for changing them?   Can

a man love his country or his state or city unless he knows that here

great deeds have been done, that here high ideals are cherished? How

is the foreigner to know these things if we do not teach them to him?

Are even our boys and girls being made into the same sort of patriots

that they rear abroad?

Possibly the annals of our nation may in time be cared for, in this

connection. Certainly, the school texts are fast improving; more and

more is it being understood by teachers and public that instruction in

American history lies very close to the roots of civic patriotism. Com-

memorative celebrations like the present have had a marked influence

in stimulating popular interest in certain phases of our country's story.

The Centennial at Philadelphia, for example, gave a considerable impetus

to the study of the causes and conduct of the Revolution. The World's

Fair at Chicago brought home to our people a genuine appreciation of

the stirring romance of that great period of maritime exploration,

brought to a glorious climax by Columbus, when on that fateful Octo-

ber morning he doubled the known area of the world. The Buffalo

Exposition renewed and vivified our knowledge of and sympathy with

the careers of the Latin American republics. During the St. Louis

Exposition tens of thousands of Americans read earnestly and probably

for the first time, of the Louisiana Purchase, and gave some heed to

what resulted from it. At Portland, our thoughts as a nation were

closely connected with the ever-memorable story of Lewis and Clark's

triumphant exploration from the Mississippi to the Northwest coast.

The Pittsburgh sesquicentennial reawakened popular interest in the his-

tory of this locality. Again, during the present week, there is unrolled

before us the panorama of early trans-Alleghany settlement, and fresh

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concern is being manifested by the nation in the glowing tale of the

Ohio River when it was the broad highway to the virgin prairies and

primeval woodlands of the West.

But important as are these celebrations, they are necessarily spas-

modic. At best, they hold the slender attention of the public for a few

weeks or months. We stand in need of permanent instrumentalities for

the development, especially, of popular taste for state and local history.

Ours is a period remarkable for earnest popular demands for purer

and more efficient local government-for the increase and improvement

of public parks and play-grounds, for the development of the public

library through branches that shall reach out to the citizen upon the

farthermost confine of the municipality, for the use of schoolhouses

for lectures to the people and as meeting places for neighborhood bet-

terment clubs. The time is propitious for taking advantage of this

widespread civic re-awakening, for redeeming our cities from the familiar

taunt of the foreigner, that American towns are historically barren.

The study of local history is closely akin in object and method

to the study of nature, of which so much account is taken, and justly

taken, in our public schools. The child who becomes familiar with the

habits and characteristics of animals, birds, flowers, trees, and clouds,

finds that the great earth is teeming with interesting neighbors of man,

with whom it is worth while becoming intimately acquainted. He walks

thereafter in a broader and more inviting land than is known to his

untutored fellows who neither see nor hear the sights and sounds that

make beautiful this world of ours.

Exactly in the same way and for the same purpose should the

child acquire an intimate knowledge of the history of his locality. The

career, for instance, of a prairie community may seem at first to afford

few incidents of distinction. But surely some incidents there be that

may arouse attention. Merely answering the why of the town's location

often involves much research, and sometimes yields interesting facts.

Quite possibly it may lead the inquirer back to the aboriginal village

that in our West frequently preceded the white town; and this opens

up the field of local Indian archaeology, which is sure to attract a

considerable group of students.  Perhaps the first white to visit the

region was a fur-trader; if so, this fact suggests picturesque possi-

bilities. Worthy of our earnest attention is a study of the first agri-

cultural settler, his origin, and why and how he came; perhaps afoot

across country, or in a "prairie schooner," or on a flat-boat.

The story of the gradual growth and development of a town around

this nucleus of the first settler is food for the economist and the sociolo-

gist as well as the historian. What reason was there for the coming of

these people? What induced them to stay, when once they had arrived?

What social and civic institutions were first established, and where?-

the first schoolhouse, with its teachers and pupils; the first church, its

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         109

 

pastors and its congregation; the first village, town, or city hall, and

the first public officials chosen; the creation of clubs, societies, fraternal

organizations.  Then there is the question of the beginnings of com-

mercial and industrial establishments; the building of plank roads or

"gravelled" turnpikes, the construction of bridges, the coming of steam-

boats or railroads.  The smallest and apparently the least interesting

or American communities presents abundant problems for the local his-

torian or other student of life and manners.

But particularly fortunate in this regard is Pittsburgh. Here, two

pulsing streams combine to form yonder giant river, which long served

as the principal pathway to the interior of a great continent. Few Am-

erican towns have a history like unto this. In the beginning, its traditions

throb with the varied incidents of a strenuous aboriginal life-for here

at "The Forks", from time immemorial, were held great councils and

intertribal markets; from here were controlled the savages of a broad

area of wilderness; from here went war parties, hideous in paint and

gay in feathers, softly treading the warriors' paths that everywhere

streaked this storied land. The Forks played a large part in the pro-

tracted drama of French and English rivalry for the mastery of North

America, and with this particular scene Washington's name will always

closely be associated. About The Forks was waged the continued struggle

for territorial possession between Pennsylvania and Virginia-one of its

episodes being that fateful colonial war to which has been given the

name of Lord Dunmore. During the Revolution, the garrison of Fort

Pitt was chiefly concerned in protecting the Kentuckians from Indian

raids. Here really began the expedition of George Rogers Clark, that

won the Northwest for the United States. From here set forth that

little band of Marietta pilgrims who had won their Western lands by

fighting under Washington and Lafayette.  Here, through many years

were built and launched those fleets of picturesque pirogues, flat-boats,

keel-boats, "arks," and "broad-horns," that carried teeming cargoes of

pioneers and their chattels for the founding of American homes along

the banks of the Ohio and its far-stretching tributaries. Here set forth

that strange, machine-paddled craft which was soon to revolutionize the

West, and which gave occasion for our commemorative exercises today.

From that time to this, Pittsburgh has remained an important gateway

to the West; her history is in large measure a synopsis of Western

history.

The story of Pittsburgh has never quite adequately been told-

at least, in such fashion that we can feel the thrill and glamor of this

old town's eventful career. But some day it will be told, let us hope

as the outcome of this Centennial; and then we shall see that that

story is unexcelled in romance and significance by the records of any

other city in the world. Blessed will be the Pittsburgh child who shall

come to his knowledge of it at his mother's knee; for like the European

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youth, he will come to feel that the traditions and annals of the city of

his birth are a rich heritage which none may gainsay him. He will be-

come a better citizen by far than the lad to whom the town is an un-

meaning checker-board collection of streets, sidewalks, and houses.

The sole excuse for the maintenance of public schools by public

taxes is the fact that education makes intelligent voters, without whom

the republic cannot long exist. A general knowledge of American history

is recognized by every educator as an essential factor in the education

of our people. But the history of his state and locality should be con-

sidered quite as important an element in the intellectual drill of every

child in our common schools, who is being trained to effective citizenship.

"The curriculum is already overcrowded," say the teachers when

this suggestion is made. It is the long-familiar reply to every suggestion

for reform in educational methods. The trouble chiefly lies, I fear, in

the lack of equipment on the part of many of the teachers themselves.

Knowing nothing of local history, and having small concern for it, they

are readily self-convinced that there is no time for this study in the

treadmill of the scholastic day. Another consideration, doubtless, is the

dearth of attractive state or local texts, for undoubtedly among the most

dreary of books on our library shelves are those of the local annalist.

But were school boards to insist that state and local history should be

taught alongside of general American history, incentive would thereby

be offered to text-book writers possessed of attractive literary style, who

at present find but a narrow market for this sort of ware.

But quite apart from class-work in the common schools, there is

needed some other agency for the instruction of all the people in the

history of the town and region. There is no instrument quite so well

adapted or equipped for carrying on this form of popular education as

the historical society-city, regional, or state. Such an organization can

inspire archaeological explorations, accumulate archives, collect reminis-

cences from pioneers, amass data relative to social and economic history

and present conditions, conduct a well-selected historical and ethnological

museum that shall be representative of the locality, arrange for popular

lectures on these subjects, conduct historical pilgrimages and commemor-

ative celebrations, influence school and library boards, interest and in-

struct teachers and librarians, furnish the newspapers with accurate his-

torical data, publish pamphlets and books containing reports of their

discoveries, and in general awaken within the locality which it seeks

to represent an active and enduring historic consciousness.

The legislatures of many of our states in the Mississippi Basin

recognize the importance and necessity of this form of educational

work. Their interest is manifested by more or less liberal subventions

of such societies, and in a few states a somewhat similar duty is per-

formed by official departments of archives and history. But of the

several municipal or regional historical societies, that of Buffalo is, I

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           111

 

believe, unique in receiving an annual appropriation ($5,000) from the

city government, to aid in its educational propaganda.

In truth, there is no reason whatever why this example should not

generally be followed by large American cities. Exactly the same argu-

ment used in behalf of the school system can and should be urged for

the historical society. But such a society, state or local, can lay slight

claim to official aid if it be not popular in its organization and methods.

It must perpetually demonstrate its reason for being, by proving its

usefulness to the public. Its directors must heartily believe in the enter-

prise, and be willing to spend freely of their time and effort. Its sal-

aried staff must be headed by some one holding office for the good to

be done-an historical expert, yet at the same time possessed of a knowl-

edge of men and a capacity to influence public opinion in a good cause.

He must be not a mere dry-as-dust antiquarian, living in the world but

not of it, but be imbued with modern ideas and familiar with modern

business management-an earnest, practical man, in whom both scholars

and men of affairs may sefely repose confidence.

It is gratifying to learn that there is a project for the establish-

ment here in Pittsburgh of an institution such as I have described-a

logical fruit of this remarkably successful centennial celebration. Most

sincerely do I trust that the enterprise may from the beginning be well

assured of its financial future. To many of our municipal societies are

weakly and struggling, with means insufficient for virile public service.

Either well endow your society and its proposed historical building, or

make it an acknowledged part of your general educational system, and

place it in keen rivalry with similar institutions elsewhere.

Given such a society, adequately housed, properly supported, and

Pittsburgh may in this matter easily take first rank among the cities

of America. Her rich dowry of local history will then become the com-

mon possession of her people. Every boy and girl within her limits

will be proud to have sprung from such historic soil. Every foreigner

will rejoice to dwell within the gates of a city whose story, known of

all men, can kindle his affection.

 

 

WHAT AN HISTORICAL BUILDING SHOULD DO FOR PITTS-

BURGH.

 

BY CLARENCE S. BRIGHAM,

Librarian American Antiquarian Society.

 

"Among the singular advantages which are enjoyed by the people

of the United States none is more conspicuous than the facility of

tracing the origin and progress of our several plantations. * * With

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such advantages in our hands, we are wholly inexcusable if we neglect

to preserve authentic monuments of every memorable occurrence." Thus

began the "Introductory Address" of the Massachusetts Historical So-

ciety, organized in 1791 and the eldest of the great family of historical

associations which are now scattered throughout almost every portion of

the national domain. Admitting, as these founders did, the responsi-

bility which they considered placed upon them, it is to be regretted that

a similar thought had not occurred to a similar body of men a century

or so previous. Why did it take 184 years after the settlement at James-

town before any society was formed with the object of preserving the

records of the country?

The founders of these infant colonies and provinces knew that

they were making history in the Western World. Often in their writings,

we find them emphasizing the importance of political happenings, ex-

pressing a curiosity as to the judgment of posterity on certain actions,

or, Mother Shipton-wise, prophesying into the distant future. Many of

them, like John Winthrop, kept journals which were intended for far

more than private view; others, too numerous to mention, wrote his-

torical accounts and entertaining narratives; still others, like Thomas

Prince, made collections of valuable material bearing upon the history of

the country.

And yet, in spite of all these promising suggestions, nowhere in

the colonies was there established an institution destined to serve as a

depository of the record of achievement. It is true that there was no

central government or all-powerful colony to administer a neutral control

of such a depository. The colonists were subjects of England, and if

historical records were to be placed anywhere, they would presumably

be sent across the water. It is true, moreover, that there were few, if

any, prototypes of such record depositories in the country from which

the colonists came. The Society of Antiquaries of London, although

originated in 1572, was suppressed by James I and was not revived until

1717. The Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland was not founded until

1780. The Bodleian Library was chiefly scholastic in character, and the

British Museum was not created until 1753.

We can find sufficient excuse for this apparent lack of foresight

on the part of our ancestors, but this does not prevent us from bemoan-

ing the fact that they did not encourage the preservation of the materials

of history, and that as a result much of the highest importance has been

irretrievably lost.

Since 1791, this year of beginnings, the conditions have changed.

The very point noted in the "Introductory Address" above referred to,

that of the facility enjoyed by the people of the United States of tracing

the origin and progress of the several plantations, has aided in the be-

getting of a numerous progeny of historical societies scattered the country

over. Any sins of omission committed by the fathers have been more

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than atoned for by the activity of their descendants. Today there are

in the United States nearly 250 historical associations, each collecting

materials for the history of their respective localities and inspiring an

interest in the study of the past. The addition of another historical

society to this group-and here I speak of the Historical Society of

Western Pennsylvania as experiencing a renaissance rather than a new

creation-needs no apology, especially when that Society is so well

equipped with what is occasionally termed "this world's goods" to carry

on its work. I am thoroughly convinced that the good which a Histor-

ical Society can do is in direct proportion to the size of its income. An

early historical missionary who was pleading nearly one hundred years

for the Society which I represent, remarked, "It may be thought super-

fluous to observe, that a Society of this kind cannot be supported with-

out some permanent funds. Bodies of this cast, however well formed

and fashioned their structure, require some inherent stamina, or self

renovating power, as the spring of perpetual life and action." The His-

torical Society of Western Pennsylvania will not enter upon its career

unprepared. Its success is guaranteed from the start.

What is the peculiar province of a local Historical Society, as dis-

tinct from the numerous libraries and museums upon whose territory

it must never seek to encroach?   Along what lines should it try to

acquire material and in what fields should it endeavor to make its

activities felt? There are many things which it should not do reference

to which would seem needless in an elementary treatment of the subject,

were it not for the fact that even in these latter days of specialization

so many libraries are frequent transgressors. So ambitious a program

as that mapped out by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1791 "to

collect, preserve and communicate materials for a complete history of

the country," might be excusable in a day when there was no similar

Society elsewhere in America. But today it would be an unwise, if not

an impossible proposition. And yet I recently visited a Historical So-

ciety where a change of officers had nearly brought about the complete

submerging of a remarkable State and local collection into a general

collection of Americana, where its value would have been greatly less-

ened and its light quite dimmed. There are many libraries that I could

mention which, through the whim of officers in charge, are journeying

into strange and wonderful fields. I knew the custodian of a theological

collection who was spending no inconsiderable portion of his library's

income in purchasing books on the drama, perhaps because he desired

to follow in the steps of the learned author of the "Ecclesiastical History

of Great Britain" by writing a modern "Short View of the Profane-

ness of the Stage."  Another gentleman, the unsalaried guardian of a

small local collection, was so interested in Egyptian antiquities that he

could not refrain from endeavoring to make his library supreme in this

Vol. XXII- 8.

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114       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

particular field. Such cases seem exaggerated, but it is a fact that

unless a code of restrictions limits the ambitions of an occasional blun-

derer, or unless the policy of the institution is a settled one, a library

often finds itself facing the problem of how to make up for the ground

which has been lost.

What not to do, I suppose, is merely the correlative of the proposi-

tion of what should be done. The proper scope of a Historical Society

has been well portrayed by many writers from Isaiah Thomas to Reuben

G. Thwaites. A brief reference to some of these lines of activity, with

an occasional excursion into other fields which the allusion may suggest,

may not be amiss.

The cardinal principle underlying the collecting of every local his-

torical society should be the preservation of every book and pamphlet

printed in the territory which the society represents. The more limited

the territory, the less unsurmountable is the task. Only in this way can

the full history of a particular region-the story of its political, social,

economic, educational and scientific achievement-be traced and written.

In such a comprehensive scheme of collecting, nothing is worthless.

There has been an outcry from many quarters in late years against the

excessive accumulation in libraries of printed literature. It was only

a short while ago that President Eliot aroused the comment of the

library world by proposing that a fair share of the books in the Har-

vard University Library should be relegated to a separate collection or

cemetery of "dead" books, where the investigator whose researches led

him into fields beyond the ordinary academic scope, would be forced to

exercise much extra patience and effort in order to catch a glimpse of

his material. But who would be the chosen one to consign this "dead"

literature to such a limbo? The historian would doubtless be willing to

do without a large proportion of scientific books, the scientist without

the theological books, the theologian without the "profane" books as

they were once called, and the litterateur without the historical books.

After having been subjected to such a discarding process, there would

be scarcely sufficient books remaining to fill a "five-foot shelf."

Charles Francis Adams in an address delivered at the laying of the

corner-stone of the new building of the American Antiquarian Society

in 1909, said that he in a way heartily endorsed the suggestion once

made by Hawthorne who after wearisomely plodding through a great

European collection remarked that it would be a most desirable con-

summation if each generation could cart its rubbish off with it. "The

world of scholarship," said Mr. Adams, "would be in no wise appreciably

poorer if one-half, and that the larger half, of the printed matter now

accumulated in our public libraries could tomorrow be obliterated-swept

clean out of existence."

Only within the past month, the London newspaper reports have

contained the startling announcement that Edmund Gosse, the well known

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          115

 

author and critic, had declared that the time has come to regulate the

accumulation of books by some public system of destroying the worth-

less. "Why should not a printed book," he is reported to have said,

"enjoy its hour, and then disappear?"

Such statements as these, although apparently revolutionary in tone,

are justifiable outcries against the appalling increase in the production

of printed books. They concern, however, chiefly the general libraries

which have to exercise to the last degree the policy of selection, or else

be crushed under a pressure that augments with each succeeding year.

One solution of the problem is to have a library, state, sectional or local,

collect in toto all the printed literature of its own territory, thereby

dividing the labor of collecting, and relieving the general libraries of

their responsibility of preserving everything for posterity. Here most

assuredly is one of the most important fields to be covered by the his-

torical society. For many years many of the larger historical libraries

have been following this plan and have amassed collections of local

material that could not be equalled by a combination of all other exist-

ing collections.

Another leading feature of a local collection is a comprehensive

showing of works written by local residents. This should comprise, first,

all the publications of persons born in the territory covered, the native

authors, so to speak; secondly, the publications written by those who

have resided for a reasonable length of time in the locality. This later

class is open to considerable latitude. The rule at the Rhode Island

Historical Society was to preserve everything written by an author dur-

ing the time of his residence in the State, but the earlier and later

writings of the transient visitor only in case his residence was of suffici-

ent length or importance to identify his name closely with that of his

adopted home. Such a collection is of prime consequence in the forma-

tion of a state or local bibliography. In fact nearly every such biblio-

graphy has been based upon the contents of a large State historical

collection, and no State has yet produced a good bibliography where

such a collection had not been gathered.

It goes without saying that every published work dealing with the

territory in which a Historical Society is interested should be acquired.

All books referring to the region and its people-the journals of early

travelers, the impressions of visiting critics, the histories and statistical

accounts which cover a larger area but refer specifically to the smaller

locality, the biographies of its residents, and the genealogies of its fam-

ilies-all these would come under this category.  So far as concerns

printed genealogies, their importance has been often exaggerated in local

historical collections. It is true that families become so scattered that

a comprehensive family history touches almost every State in the Union.

Charles B. Tillinghast, the late librarian of the Massachusetts State

Library, once said to me as he pointed to one of the largest genealogical

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collections in the country, "There is the best cyclopedia of Massachusetts

biography existing." Such a voluminous scheme of collecting might not

be unwise for a large library where the wealth of books in other classes

of history made genealogy really a side-issue, but for a local historical

society, it has often proved an ever-increasing burden. Of course every

genealogical volume which specifically concerns the locality should be

obtained, but those expensive publications which primarily treat of the

families of other States can well be left for Societies which make a

specialty of this class of literature. I know of a certain local historical

library where over half of the work done consists of the search for

ancestry in other states, thus losing to sight the chief object for which

that particular Society was formed. Genealogical research is not to be

scoffed at, for it brings the student into contact with much historical

source-material which would otherwise remain untouched, and often in-

cites the curious climber of a family tree to look into historical matters

that concern others than those of his particular blood. The tracing of

ancestry, per se, is of considerable value, but it should not hold an

exaggerated place in the work of a Historical Society.

A tedious, yet important, feature in the amassing of a comprehen-

sive local collection is the effort to complete sets of the reports of in-

stitutions and societies.  Tedious, I say, and yet fascinating, for the

true collector rejoices more to obtain the final and long-sought for early

report of some struggling Bible Society than to possess the latest one

thousand page volume, criticism of which may be filling the reviews.

No library ever made a good collection of incunabula or school-books,

Indian narratives or temperance reports, by merely preserving. Collect-

ing, not preserving, gives a library reputation. As Dr. Jeremy Belknap

wrote Ebenezer Hazard in 1791, in regard to the Massachusetts His-

torical Society, "We intend to be an active, not a passive, literary body;

not to lie waiting, like a bed of oysters, for the tide of communication to

flow in upon us, but to seek and find, to preserve and communicate,

literary intelligence, especially in the historical way."

The more librarians have of the zeal and enthusiasm of private

collectors, the better invariably are the collections of which they have

charge. Scarcely anywhere can there be found a more illustrious example

of this type of librarian than in the person of Christopher Columbus

Baldwin, who more than eighty years ago was chosen to the official

position which I now hold. His diary, recently printed, reads as enter-

tainingly as the pages of Stevens' Recollections of James Lenox. In

one place, he writes, "There is no book so poor that it may not some-

time be called for, and no book which is wanted for any purpose, can

be regarded as useless. I have adopted a broad rule, and am so im-

partial I can give no offence. One day I am visited by a collector of

ordination sermons: the next, by a collector of 4th of July orations:

then comes a collector of geography: another wants religious newspapers:

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another wants books printed in New York before 1700. I accommodate

myself to all; for I want everything, and collect everything, and I have

more zeal than the whole of them: and in this way I am kept very busy.

Many things I obtain are of small value, but the course adopted will be

most useful to the society."

Again he writes, in referring to his endeavors to acquire files of

early newspapers, "I suffer no traveler to visit me, without enlisting

him in my cause, and giving him directions how to find (newspapers)

and how to send them to me. Though I may fail of getting as many

as I wish, I am sure I shall entitle myself to the gratitude of future

antiquarians." We can gain a glimpse of his zeal in this record: "The

happiest moments of my life are those employed in opening packages

of books presented to the library of the Antiquarian Society. It gives

me real, unadulterated satisfaction. It is then, that, like Tam O'Shanter,

I am, 'O'er all the ills of life victorious.'"

As a last pen-picture of this indefatigable collector, we find re-

corded in his Diary under date of August 2, 1834, the story of his

visit to Boston to examine the Wallcut collection of early Americana,

one of the most notable of libraries and one which today would bring

a fortune. He says, "I called on Mr. Wallcut this morning, and he

went with me to India Street, where the pamphlets, etc., of his uncle

were deposited. They were in the fourth story of an oil store, where

they had been placed about four months ago. They were put in ancient

trunks, bureaus, and chests, baskets, tea chests and old drawers, and

presented a very odd appearance. The extent of them was altogether

beyond my expectations. I went immediately to work putting them in

order for transporting to Worcester.  Everything was covered with

venerable dust, and as I was under a slated roof and the thermometer

at ninety-three, I had a pretty hot time of it. Nothing but a love of

such work could inspire any man to labor in such a place. The value

of the rarities I found, however, soon made me forget the heat and I

have never seen such happy moments. Everything I opened discovered

to my eyes some unexpected treasure. Great numbers of the produc-

tions of our early authors were turned up at every turn. I could hardly

persuade myself that it was not all a dream, and I applied myself with

all industry to packing, lest capricious fortune should snatch something

from my hands. I worked from eight in the morning until half past

two in a heat and dust and stench of oil that would have been intolerable

in any other circumstances. When I came out to go to dinner I could

but just crawl. Yet at three o'clock, I returned to it again and labored

until night."

The brilliant labors of this young librarian were cut short almost

at the beginning of his career of usefulness. In 1835, in behalf of the

Society, he set out upon a trip to Ohio, to investigate various historical

and archaeological matters. In traveling from Wheeling to Zanesville,

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118        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the stage in which he was riding was suddenly overturned and he was

instantly killed. His short, but studious life, so crowded with energy

and accomplishment, is an inspiration for all followers of his profession

today.

This picture of an old-time librarian I have drawn somewhat at

length with the purpose of making a plea for increased collecting on

the part of every historical society.  To search in every conceivable

hiding-place for material desired, to pore through countless book-lists

and catalogues, to corner every visitor to induce him to add to your col-

lections, to attract needed treasures away from the shelves and museums

of private collectors-these things are what make a historical society

strong and build it for the future. The holding of lectures, the issuing

of proceedings, the enlisting of popular interest all have an important

place, but the basis of continued prosperity rests upon the upkeep of the

collections.

The many other lines of acquisition appropriate to the scope of

a historical society, can receive but passing mention in a paper of this

length. The collecting of early newspapers, always beset with difficulty,

becomes doubly so as time goes on. The collectors of a century ago

possessed the opportunities in this direction, and today many of the best

files of western newspapers are in eastern libraries. Maps of a specified

region, although often uncommon if thought of as separate publications,

run into large number if considered as pages of atlases and compre-

hensive works. Engravings, views and portraits are an interesting feature

of every local collection. Manuscripts are among the most important

of desiderata and a discussion of their acquisition and care could well

form  the material for a separate discourse. The publishing of trans-

actions, reminiscences, historical documents, biographies and the legion

of subjects which go to make up the pages of a historical publication,

places upon record valuable facts for all time. The museum of a society,

especially if arranged to show the growth and development of aboriginal

and colonial life, and not in the haphazard method so common to the

old-fashioned exhibition cases, is a feature greatly prized by visitors.

The holding of lectures, the marking of historical sites, the arranging

of exhibits, the preparation of material for the school children all are

part of the historical society's field of activity, and enlarge the sphere

of its usefulness.

The work of a historical society can be performed by no other

institution which holds the cause of history merely as a side-issue. The

founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society realized this in 1791,

and in the first paragraph of their constitution, after outlining the pur-

poses of the Society, concluded:  "Such a plan can be best executed

by a Society whose sole and special care shall be confined to the above

objects." The prosperity of a historical society rests upon two things-

first, a sufficient supply of funds, and secondly, an interest on the part

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.                                 119

 

of its officers which is confined to matters purely historical                                                                      I con-

gratulate the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania upon its won-

derful opportunities. It has a fertile field of operations, hitherto but

little cultivated; it has enlisted an interest in its reorganization which is

almost national; it is surely destined to a prosperous and brilliant future.

 

 

THE RELATION OF NEW ENGLAND TO THE OHIO VALLEY.

 

BY CARL RUSSELL FISH, PH. D.,

University of Wisconsin.

A year ago I delivered an address at Indianapolis on the "Decision

of the Ohio Valley in 1861," in which I spoke of the New England

element as one of the minor factors which contributed to the result.

No sooner had I descended from the platform then I was attacked by

three local students who denied that New England had part or parcel

in the history of the Valley. When, therefore, I was asked to read a

paper on New England's influence, at this meeting, which is an embodi-

ment of the feeling of unity and distinctiveness in the Ohio country, I

realized that my subject was not a popular one. Moreover, I soon con-

vinced myself that this was no new sentiment. On examining a list

of six or seven hundred steamboats plying on the Ohio, between 1829

and 1836, I discovreed only four names calculated to appeal to New

England pride: Boston, Bunker Hill, Vermont, and John Hancock.

While every other president, and most presidents' wives, received recogni-

tion, there was no Adams; and although nearly all other statesmen

braved their way through the rapids and the currents, together with Na-

poleon, Josephine, Science, Jack Downing, and so on, there was no

Webster.  A somewhat larger proportion of the owners and masters

were from the six states; but it was obvious that the names to conjure

with, the names and episodes which made history vivid to the mass of

the population, were drawn from the South and from the old mountain

frontier.

Yet New England contributed no small share to the peopling of

this fertile region which began about 1750 to spread its enticements be-

fore the inhabitants of the older settlements. First came scattered New

England families dissatisfied with the regulated life of the New England

towns and beckoned onwards by the greater economic opportunities of

what was then the West.    Such a family was that of the Lincolns,

moving in successive generations from England to Massachusetts, then

to New Jersey, on the Pennsylvania, through West Virginia to Ken-

tucky, and finally early in the nineteenth century crossing over to the

north bank. Before the Revolution, John Adams wrote: "The colonies

south of Pennsylvania have no men to spare, we are told. But we know

better; we know that all the colonies have a back country, which is

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inhabited by a body of robust people, many of whom are emigrants from

New England, and habituated, like multitudes of New England men, to

carry their fuzees or rifles upon one shoulder, to defend themselves

against the Indians, while they carry their axes, scythes, and hoes upon

the other, to till the ground."

The influence of such pioneers was individual. They were too few

to impose their customs upon their neighbors, they inter-married with

other stocks, and they lost many of their New England characteristics,

but generally a core remained. Always they were inclined to look at

public questions from a moral point of view, and when a division

occurred as to the functions of government, they were apt to favor a

broader interpretation of them than their fellows from Virginia and the

Carolinas. They blended with the larger streams of emigration from

the southern and middle states, but in so doing contributed to them

slight shade of difference from their home communities, which helped

establish the distinctiveness of the valley population.

Not influence, but authority, not the tinging of an alien population

with their characteristics, but the chance to establish select communities

where the "sifted grain" might flourish uncontaminated by the tares of

the world, was the desire of the majority of New England emigrants.

Such was the plan of those Connecticut pioneers who before the Revo-

lution occupied northern Pennsylvania, and undeterred by the Indian

tomahawk and by the scarcely less hostile attitude of the white popula-

tion, persisted in establishing there a line of New England towns stretch-

ing to the sources of the Alleghany, although the courts decided that

their claim to the land was fantastic and untenable. Such, too, was the

plan of the company which in 1787 secured the Ohio Purchase, and in

1788 began the establishment of the most considerable New England

settlement in the valley, about the mouth of the Muskingum, with

Marietta as its center.  Composed of New Englanders and of those

kindred to them in tastes and ideals, they undertook their enterprise

only when assured of undisputed land titles and of a stable and satis-

factory form  of government.  "As the twig is bent so the tree is

inclined," a child may bend the twig, where a regiment could scarcely

incline the tree, and so it chanced, that they, acting while the country

was so young, were able in one particular at least to shape its future.

While credit for the suggestion belong to Jefferson, and credit for

furthering the plan belongs to members of congress from all parts of

the country, it can scarcely be denied that the motive impulse for the

Ordinance of 1787 belongs to this purposeful body of New England

leaders, and the prohibition of slavery which that Ordinance carried was

one of the most potent pieces of constructive legislation ever passed by

an American legislature. It made the Ohio, to some degree, a boundary

instead of a bond of unity, and its influence is felt to this day in the

politics and the life of the country.

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.         121

 

Early in the nineteenth century a number of similar, organized

movements took place to central Ohio. In 1802 a band of settlers from

Connecticut established Worthington in Franklin county, and a little

later a large number of the people of Granville, Massachusetts, decided

to try their fortunes in this new and pleasant county. Before leaving

home the emigrants organized their church, with pastor, deacons and

members, and they drew up a constitution to guide their life in their

new home. For forty-six days they moved westward, and finally halting

at what is now Granville, in Licking county, Ohio, they released their

oxen, and listened to a sermon from their minister.

All these settlements reproduced in many respects the characteristics

of the New England towns from which they had sprung. In all of them

education received attention. In 1797 Muskingum academy from which

developed Marietta College, was founded, in 1817 Worthington College

was established, Athens became, like the city from which it drew its

name, an educational center, and from all these radiated an influence

which helped color the surrounding population not of New England

stock.

After the introduction of the steamboat upon western waters, when

it became no longer necessary for prospective pioneers to tramp, like

those of Granville, for forty-six days beside their oxen-drawn wagons,

immigration began upon a larger scale. Moreover, just at this period

New England was more ready than before to supply the materials for

a larger movement.

After the close of the War of 1812 that region was in the throes

of an industrial revolution similar to that which earlier had driven

thousands of Englishmen to America, and that other which later became

one of the propelling forces of German immigration. The thirst for

adventure, and for freedom from the shackles of a thickly settled com-

munity, moreover, which earlier had incited many New Englanders to

migrate to New Jersey, New York, and Northern Pennsylvania, began

to prick their descendants to fresh movements beyond the mountains.

From these two sources came a stream of population which flowed con-

stantly, though now with greater, now with less volume, until after the

Civil War. This movement tended to become more and more a flitting

of individuals and of families, and less a series of organized exodus

such as those to Marietta and to Granville. Yet there remained as a

factor a desire to reproduce home conditions, and some tendency for

New Englanders to flock together.  The main current of this stream

went to the filling up of the Lake region, but by no means inconsiderable

portions diverged southwards into central and even southern Ohio and

Indiana, "Yankees" though unpopular, began to be found everywhere,

and to thrive, and certain localities came to have a decidedly marked,

even if not dominant New England strain. Such centers were to be

found in Wayne, Dearborn, and Switzerland counties, in eastern Indiana,

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122        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

in Monroe, Morgan and Marion counties in the center, and in Vigo

county on the Wabash.

Finally during the same period there was another New England

movement, less imposing in numbers, but more potent in influence. It

was the period of the New England Renaissance, a period of intellectual

and moral stimulation. Men and women felt that they beheld the truth,

and if it was not the great encompassing white light of the whole truth,

at least their devotion to such bright rays as came within their vision

was whole-souled and became in many cases the predominant motive

of their lives. A great missionary impulse swept over the population,

and sent forth hundreds of preachers, who taught, to be sure, not one

simple gospel, but from many angles and by many methods of approach

proclaimed the truth as they saw it. The world, but particularly the

United States, they felt to be the New Englander's burden, and vigor-

ously they sought to bear it.

At the same time New England was suffering from a plethora of

educated men, or rather of men educated according to a fixed standard,

a standard worthy and ennobling, but with so little reference to prac-

tical fitting for earning a livelihood, that New England may be said to

have possessed then, as Germany does today, a learned proletariat.

It was saved from the distress which this might have occasioned by the

call for men with such training from other parts of the country, and

particularly from the Northwest. As professors in fresh water colleges

and academies, as tutors in plantation homes, as school masters in the

little red school houses, they spread over the country, inspired with

their missionary zeal, and carrying the pure flame of their idolism and

the treasures now great now small of their learnings. For a time New

England may almost be said to have furnished the schoolmasters for

the nation, and nowhere was this more true than in the valley of the

Ohio.

Such were the elements from which New England influence in the

valley sprang. It remains to assess that influence. It is to be noticed

that the New England settlements, and to a very great degree the indi-

vidual New England settlers, were confined to the North bank.    It

followed that the New England element gave weight to those influ-

ences which were dividing the valley rather than to those which were

uniting it. This tendency was increased, moreover, by the fact that

politically the north bank was divided into several different units each

organically connected with a part of the lake region, where the New

England element was so much more powerful. Had the north bank

formed one or more states, with a boundary on the watershed between

the Ohio and the lakes, the history of the whole country would have

differed materially from what it has been, and the influence of New

England on the institutions of the valley would have been much less.

It was largely through this alliance between the New England

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          123

 

element in the valley with that in the lake districts, that to the great

numbers of educational establishments founded by individual initiative,

was added the substratum of a public schools system in each of the

states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Foreshadowed from the first by

the grant of the sixteenth section of each township, and aided by further

grants for schools and universities, the laws which put those grants into

operation, and which formulated the basic principles upon which Am-

erican education rests today, were for the most part the work of New

England men, and it was they who organized the systems thus pro-

vided for, and manned the institutions during their early period of storm

and stress

As the school comes home to everyone, so does local government,

and here also New England influence has been marked. The settlers

from the South had been accustomed to an all powerful county, those

from New England to an all powerful town. Out of this conflict of

tradition come the mixed system in which local functions were divided

between the county and the town, which has now so long prevailed in

Ohio and Indiana. The looser, optional system of Illinois, which allows

either method, has resulted in the fact that the river portion of that

state, where we have seen that the New England element was very small,

has retained, almost entirely, the Southern method.

The omnipresent school and the almost universal township, then,

were both largely due to the influence of the New England stock, ex-

erted either directly from within the valley, or indirectly through the

presence of New Englanders from the lake regions in the state legis-

lation and constitutional conventions. Other results are to be traced

more immediately to the presence of large bodies of New Englanders

in particular localities. From year to year, from  decade to decade,

through good fortune and bad fortune, from the times of Andrew Jack-

son to those of William Taft the political map of the northwestern

states preserves a substantial identity. Of the 271 counties making up

the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 98 have remained Republican

in such crucial elections as those of 1856, 1868, 1888 and 1900; 89 have

remained constantly Democratic, and only 84 have changed. Almost as

great a stability is preserved if we extend the study back into the strug-

gles of the Whigs and Democrats; and it becomes all the more evident

if it be pressed beyond the counties into the townships and communities

of which they are composed. At first sight these districts seem scattered

in hopeless confusion over the maps of the states. There is a permanent

Democratic patch in north central Ohio, about Sandusky, and extending

south through Pickaway county, another in northwestern Ohio adjoining

one in northeastern Indiana about Fort Wayne. There are permanent

Republican patches in northwestern and southeastern Ohio, and in the

west, adjoining central Indiana, and so on.

An examination shows that some of these persistent evidences of

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124       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

party loyalty are due to local industries, to conditions of transportation,

to the towering influence of great personalities, but perhaps the most

generally significant clue is the origin of the population. That the New

England population was generally Whig and almost universally Repub-

lican is a well-known fact, and a study of New England settlement to

a considerable degree explains the strength of these parties in certain por-

tions of the valley. Thus the Marietta district largely accounts for the

little group of counties along the Ohio and Muskingum which for many

years remained a Whig and Republican island in the midst of a sea

of Democrats. Washington, and Athens counties, and Noble after its

creation, never waver in their loyalty. In Delaware county, in central

Ohio, the same causes produced the same results, a later influx of New

England made Knox, which had not been Whig, Republican steadily

from the beginning of that party. In Indiana, New Englanders and anti-

slavery Quakers from North Carolina kept Wayne county in line from

1838. In the center, Monroe, Marion, and Morgan counties, while not

so steady, showed the same influences, while in the south and west.

Vanderberg county, with Evansville, and Vigo, with Terre Haute, scarcely

ever left the ranks of the Whigs and Republicans, although surrounded

by Democratic country. Thus Rufus Putnam and the other New Eng-

land pioneers left an impress, until now permanent, upon the valley, an

impress tangible and definite, which can be weighed at the ballot tax,

and which enters into the calculations of politicians.

I have no desire to exaggerate the influence of the New England

element. In mentioning certain definite things which they have con

stituted to the development of this region, I do not leave out of mind,

though I am forced to leave out of my paper, certain other definite

contributions of other stocks and other elements. Especially in recount-

ing their loyalty to their traditional parties, I wish not to seem to pre-

judge the question of whether they were right or wrong. The influence

of the New Englanders in the valley was somewhat greater than their

numbers alone would have assured, in part at least, because of the

political union between the valleys of the lakes and of the river. Still

in the valley the South was stronger, and the Middle States stronger

still, while even before the Civil War the foreign population had be-

come a factor. Yet there remains one function that they performed,

and which was perhaps the most important, for it was connected with

the peculiar and special place of the Ohio in American history.

From its first appearance this river was a nationalizing influence.

In 1748 the keen-scented land speculator began to sniff profits in its

fertile bottoms and its navigable waters. Already the French were aware

of its strategic commercial and military importance, and the struggle

began for its control. Soon blood was shed, and as Voltaire said, "A

torch lighted in the forests of America, put all Europen in conflagra-

tion."  For the first time a sentiment of American nationality was

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          125

 

aroused, and Franklin put forth his famous cartoon of the snake di-

vided into twelve parts, with the motto: "Join or die."

Again under the Confederation, the only thing which saved that

futile attempt at government from inanity, and gave the government

a national importance, was its acquired ownership and administration

of the national domain, which to the man of the day meant the Ohio

valley.

It was a matter of vital moment that this territory, won by the

whole country and forming a national possession, should have a national

population, drawn from no one section, but rather from all, that it might

become a place where the different elements could mingle, become con-

versant with and tolerant of one another's peculiarities and aware of

each others virtues.  It was just such a mingling which took place,

particularly to the north of the river, and its results are apparent in its

political history. Its population became in many respects the most Am-

erican, the least sectional, of that of any part of the country, its com-

mon political life became the school which best fitted men for the

leadership of the entire country. It is not an accident that Ohio always

has a presidential candidate and usually a president. The valley ex-

cluding the Tennessee and Cumberland, has furnished five presidents

and five important presidential candidates. Three other presidents and

one other great candidate have come from states of which the valley

is a part and in which the meeting of every legislature is like a con-

gress in petto, because of the representation of the traits, the virtues

and the vices, the intelligence and the prejudices of all parts of the

country. Half of these men have been of New England stock, which

is in itself sufficient evidence of its influence.

It is not, therefore, for itself alone that the New England element

is important. It is because it has been one of several elements. It

is not because of its solidity and cohesiveness, that it deserves recogni-

tion, but because giving, it also has known how to receive. Its final

rating in the history of the Valley depends on the fact that its presence

enabled the Ohio basin to become truly a melting pot of the nation,

to appreciate the sentiments and policies of all its parts, to sympathize

with their traditions, and to assume a national point of view. It was

characteristic of the valley that at the time of the Civil War it de-

layed its decision until all hope of reconciling the more isolated, less

complex, and therefore more radical sections had passed away. It was

characteristic that when that time came its decision was on the side

of nationality. When the New England element in its population has

become indistinguishable, its influence will still remain as one of the

compotent elements in that American population which nature decrees

shall live on the banks of that stream which flows between and binds

together the sections of this vast and diverse nation.

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