10 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
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
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
12 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
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,
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
14 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
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
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
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,
10 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
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