A history of Ohio, with biographical sketches of her governors and the ordinance of 1787, Part 7

Author: Ryan, Daniel Joseph, 1855-1923
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio, A. H. Smythe
Number of Pages: 436


USA > Ohio > A history of Ohio, with biographical sketches of her governors and the ordinance of 1787 > Part 7


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13


The Paulding Reservoir, with its eighteen miles of canal, from Junction to the Indiana line, has lately been practically abandoned, and is no longer a per- manent part of the Public Works of Ohio.


This gives some measure of the vast undertaking assumed by the founders of internal improvements in Ohio. But it is only when we examine into their cost that we get the proper idea of the magnitude


96


A History of Ohio,


and importance of their project. The different canals, including their reservoirs, were built at the following expense :


Miami and Erie Canal $S,062,880


Ohio Canal. 4,695,203


Walhonding Canal 607,268


Hocking Canal.


975,481


Muskingum Improvement


1,627,018


'This foots up a total for the cost of the Ohio canals of $15,967,650.


For thirty years these waterways were the great controlling factors of increasing commerce, manufac- tures, and population. Through their influence villages became cities, towns were built where forests grew, farming developed into a profitable enterprise, and the trade and resources of the world were opened to Ohio. The newly found markets for farm products added fifty per centum to their prices, thus enlarging the field of agriculture and bringing wealth to the State by its extension. The touch of internal improvements acted upon Ohio like the mysterious wand of a magician, converting a wide, unimproved, and comparatively poor State, into a profusion of wealth, prosperity and greatness. Aside from the physical prosperity, the canals earned annually princely revenues for the state; for thirty- five years their receipts exceeded their expenditures $7,073,III. After that period the expenditures exceeded the receipts, up to 1886, in the sum of $809,201. The Canal Fund Commissioners of Ohio were not as wise as the founders of the canal system of New York, else they would have provided for the accumulation of the receipts of the canals into a


97


From 1810 to 1825.


canal fund. If that had been done, there would now be to the credit of the Ohio canals over $6,000,000. Ever since the first dollar was earned the annual receipts of the canals were credited to the general fund of the State, and used to maintain all the State institutions, thereby keeping down for thirty-five years the rate of taxation in every county.


While they have put into the State treasury over six millions of dollars more than they cost, they have exercised in still another direction wonderful influence for good upon the material interests of the State. As regulators of our domestic transportation charges, their effect has been marked and admitted. It is true that every canal line in Ohio has an effec- tive and tangible influence over the freight charges of the railroads. This does not grow so much out of any competition in the carrying trade of railroads and canals as it does from the moral influence, as it were, which water privileges of transportation always exercise over railroads. A canal that can be navigated and used is a latent and ever active force, which develops itself when freight rates are raised above a certain point. Albert Fink, a recognized authority, and who, in his capacity as Commissioner of Trunk Lines, has gained much experience and knowledge, says that railroads "can only increase their charges over the charges made by water routes to the extent that they offer additional advantages ; while somewhat higher rates can be charged by the railroads, the basis of their charges are the charges made by water lines ;" and again, "the water routes not only control the tariffs of their immediate rail- road competitors at points where they can render


98


A History of Ohio,


like service to the same people, but their influence reaches directly and indirectly to the remotest parts referred to." It was admitted again and again by the railroad officials before the United States Sen- ate Committee on Inter-State Commerce, at their sessions in 1885, that the influence of natural and artificial water-ways-rivers and canals-was marked, decisive, and controlling in fixing rail rates. The evidence taken before that committee shows much more than this. It shows that canals not only influence rail rates when coming into competition with railroads, but at points non-competitive with canals or other water routes, rail rates are much higher. For example, the freight charge from Henry to Chicago, 130 iniles, via the Illinois & Michigan Canal, including state tolls, is three cents per bushel on wheat. The Peoria branch of the Rock Island Road charges the same, three cents per bushel, from Henry to Chicago. Now, the effect of water com- petition can be seen. But mark, from Tiskilwa, 126 miles from Chicago, and on the main line of the same road, but away from the canal, they charge seven and one-fifth cents per bushel. Another examll- ple : according to the State Engineer's report of New York, the average actual cost of transporting freight on the New York Central Railroad, with its great four tracks, was ist of a cent per ton per mile, not counting the capital invested, and the average charge was 18% of one cent per ton per mile. Now, the charge for transporting wheat from Buffalo to New York on the Erie Canal and Hudson River was but 7% of one cent per ton per mile.


Throughout the entire testimony and report of the


*


---


99


From 1810 to 1825.


Senate Committee referred to, which, unfortunately, is too voluminous for popular reading, the importance of canals stand out pre-eminent, It is a view shared in by merchants, farmers, manufacturers, statesmen and economists. Mr. F. B. Thurber, the great whole- sale grocer of New York, says in his statement:


" Canals should be modernized. For twenty-five or thirty years they have remained just as they were. * The water lines are, I may say, the salvation of this country, and should be developed and extended in every way possible. While enor- mous improvements have been made in railroad transportation during the past twenty years, little or no improvements have been made in our system of American waterways. Steel rails, more powerful loco- motives, improved freiglit cars, which will carry two tons of paying freight for each ton of dead weight, in rolling stock, as against the old rule of ton for ton, improved methods of handling freight, improved sig- nals and labor saving appliances in every department of railroad operation, have enorinously reduced the cost of railroad transportation during the past two decades, while little or nothing has been done to imn- prove our system of waterways. This is doubtless largely to be attributed to the adverse influence of railroad corporations in legislation."


J. J. Woodman, Master of the National Grange, said :


"Water routes are indispensable in maintaining cheap transportation."


Mr. Charles Ridgely, President of the Springfield Iron Company, expresses his opinion as follows :


" I do not think too much emphasis can be given to


100


A History of Ohio,


the importance of developing and maintaining a sys- tem of water routes for the transportation of freight in the West. All of the freight rates in this section of the country have always been controlled primarily by the rates of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The influence of these great waterways in fixing rates has been as beneficial as it has been con- stant. A similar influence has been exerted by the canals, and this can be extended and increased by the opening of new canals in such directions as will bring large and important scopes of territory under their influence. The cost of such improvements would come back to the people many times over, in the reduced rates of freight which they would secure, even if all the freight went, as now, by rail, and the canals were unused."


Ex-Governor Seymour, of New York, who for almost a life-time stood as a defender of the canals, and finally succeeded in convincing his state of their importance, stated to the Committee :


"Canals as regulators of transportation will soon be appreciated. Water routes are the only reliable protectors against undue charges for carrying. The people will soon learn that fact. I do not think they are properly valued. This usefulness does not depend so much upon the amount of tonnage carried upon them as it does upon their influence upon the cost of transportation. As they are open to all, the moment undue charges are made upon other mnodes of transportation, boats, which are cheaply built, are placed upon them. Pooling arrangements cannot be made with boatmen, as they would only serve to multiply boats and boatmen. I value as highly as


101


From 1810 to 1825.


any one can our railroads. But they are forced into pooling arrangements which are hurtful to com- merce. We have strong proof of that in the history of the canals of New York."


It would be a work of supererogation to recite further proof that water carriage is the cheapest method of transportation. It is a fact so well estab- lished, at least in the investigation that has been referred to, that the Senate Committee, after their inouths of search and fifteen hundred pages of testi- mony, reported as follows :


" The evidence before the Committee accords with the experience of all nations in recognizing the water routes as the most effective cheapeners and regulators of railway charges. Their influence is not confined within the limits of the territory imme- diately accessible to water communication, but extends and controls railroad rates at such remote and interior points as have competing lines reaching means of transport by water. Competition between railroads sooner or later leads to combination or con- solidation, but neither can prevail to secure unreas- onable rates in the face of direct competition with free, natural or artificial water routes.


The conclusion of the Committee is, therefore, that natural or artificial channels of communication by water, when favorably located, adequately improved, and properly maintained, afford the cheapest method of long distance transportation now known, and that they may continue to exercise in the future, as they have invariably exercised in the past, an absolutely controlling and beneficially regulating influence upon


102


A History of Ohio,


the charges made upon any and all other means of transit."


Now let these results be applied to Ohio. Let us see wherein our canals can immediately effect rail- road transportation. The Public Works, as they are distributed over the State, come into direct compe- tition with nearly every railroad in it. The Miami & Erie Canal competes with the Cincinnati, Hamil- ton & Dayton Railroad, the Toledo, Delphos & Western Road, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Road, the Wabash system of rail- roads, the Panhandle system, and the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railroad. The Ohio Canal competes with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad, the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railroad, the Cleveland, Akron & Colum- bus Railroad, the Scioto Valley Railroad, the Balti- more & Oliio Railroad, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, the Panhandle Railroad, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad. This diagram of the railway locations makes the position of ship- pers clear with regard to the canals. The people of Ohio paid for railroad freight during the year 1885, in round numbers, $66,385,000. It is estimating it low, very low, to say that they are saved ten inillions of dollars annually by the canals. What is true of Ohio is true of other states having a canal system. Mr. William N. Brainard, late Chairman of the Rail- road and Warehouse Commission of Illinois, puts the saving to the people of Illinois, by the Illinois & Michigan Canal, at $180,000,000 in twenty-seven years. We have no positive way of calculating it in Ohio. But every bushel of wheat and corn that


103


From 1810 to 1825.


moves northward from the Scioto and Miami Valleys pays a freight that is regulated by the canals that flow through these valleys.


The rail rate on iron ore from every point on Lake Erie to the Ohio River is a common rate, and it is due entirely to canal influences. The rate of trans- portation which fixes the freight charges on roads paralleling canals controls distant roads. Every can- did railroad man in Ohio will admit this. The people of Ohio must awaken to the importance of their canals. They are behind the times on the canal question. Other states and countries are pushing rapidly the perfection of their internal waterways. We hear a constant grumble, not from the people, but principally in the Legislature, against any fur- ther expenditure of money on the canals. The ap- propriations are attacked annually. Althoughi our canal expenditures have only reached $250,000 in two years out of the last twenty-five, it is a struggle to obtain the money through the General Assembly. This should not be so. It costs the State of New York $706,000 a year to keep her canals in repair, and she pays interest on her canal debt in addition, which makes her canals cost her annually $1,350,- 000. Yet her citizens, without regard to party, met at Utica in 1885 and voted to spend $1,100,000 more to deepen the Erie Canal. And all this because they know the value of a good canal in maintaining free competition and regulating rates. England to-day, through her mercantile and farmers' associations, is moving towards the redemption of her canals, and only recently Manchester has concluded to bring the sea to the doors of her manufacturers through a


104


A History of Ohio,


canal thirty-five miles long, which is to cost $40,000,- 000. France spends nearly $300,000,000 annually on her canals and rivers, notwithstanding she owns a large portion of her railway system. Germany and Russia are industriously maintaining their old canals and projecting new ones. The truth of the matter is that as countries develop and manufactures in- crease, the farming interests become larger and more important. There is a greater consumption, and consequently a greater carrying trade of raw mate- rial. More than ever, then, becomes the necessity for cheap transportation. The best railroads in the country cannot afford to take freight at less than five mills per ton per mile, but it can be carried by na- ture's waterways at one mill per ton per inile, and by canals at two mills per ton per mile.


There is a large quantity of material in whose transportation rapidity of passage is not an import- ant eleinent. This is generally so with raw material. Take soft coal, cord-wood, hoop-poles, timber in the rough, sand, stone, brick, clay, iron ore, and many other articles of great value in the aggregate, which in the market are worth less than $5 per ton; these articles cannot afford to pay mnuch for transportation, hence it is an important item in their carrying that their shipper be given low rates. They have to get low rates to make any profit on them. To transport them long distances at rail rates absolutely, in many in- stances, would cost more than their value. The value of hay and corn is from $to to $15 per ton ; potatoes, rye, oats and barley is from $15 to $25 per ton ; wheat about $35 per ton; now, if the market be a thousand miles away, or even five hundred, the


--------


105


From 1801 to 1825.


difference between water and rail rates makes a decided difference in profit to the farmer. Canal rates have fostered low charges, and increased the wealth and population of the State until its passenger traffic, its mail and express goods, and such high-priced arti- cles as demand rapid transit, are now sufficient to support the railroads. From now on, each carrier in its own department of business of transportation is conducive to the success of the other. That is sure to be the result when the operation of each is ac- cording to fairness and justice. The canals of Ohio can never destroy its railroads, neither can the latter by any honest methods relegate canals to non-use and abandonment. While in later years their finan- cial returns have not equalled those of former days, yet, in the capacity of which we write, they have been of incalculable value to the people. The time will yet come, with encouragement and good mail- agement, when the canals of Ohio will pay as they did thirty years ago; they may not return the reve- nties of that day in dollars and cents, but they will be self-sustaining, with all their incidental value as factors in the commercial world.


The establishment of the school system of Ohio was contemporaneous with that of the canals. Neither could have been accomplished without the other. The opposition to both was wide-spread and aggressive, but the friends of the respective meas- ures associated their interests and thereby succeeded.


Those who were opposed to internal improvements, opposed popular education. Very natural. The spirit of the strict constructionist that could see no power in the Legislature that would enable it to build up thie


8


106


A History of Ohio,


material interests of the State, of course could not but object to the education of his neighbors' children. But the growth and progress of the nineteenth cen- tury demanded popular education. The primary duty of the State is to see that its citizens are educated. The early statesmen of Olio contended for that com- mon education which places within the reach of every child, rich and poor, the means by which that child may become capable of discharging the duties of citizenship. Yet as self-evident, almost, as this propo- sition is, it had opponents in the first days of State- hood. The New England element and its descendants throughout the State warmly advocated the common school system, and were among its most effective sup- porters. It was opposed largely by the anti-improve- ment party and the occupants of the school lands and those otherwise interested in them. The latter class did not desire to see any legislation which would make them account more strictly for their possession of lands, the income of which was destined for school purposes. So old fogyism and self-interest marched arm in arm in opposition to popular education.


If there was one idea that was as distinctly declared in the ordinance of 1787, as that against slavery, it was that of education for the people. "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encour- aged." So reads the third article. A provision of similar import was incorporated into the Constitution of 1802. But no system or idea of common schools was decided upon until more than twenty years after. The Governors from Edward Tiffin in 1804, to Jere-


107


From 1810 to 1825.


miah Morrow, in 1823, bombarded the Legislature an- nually in their niessages on the necessity of educated citizenship. Nothing looking towards a system of schools was even attempted until 1819, when Eph- raim Cutler, a son of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, intro- duced a bill providing for the establishment and support of common schools. It never became a law, and the subject was dropped until it was again agi- tated by Caleb Atwater, a member of the House of Representatives from Pickaway county, who brought the matter before the Legislature, in December, 1821. The result was the appointment of a com- inittee, with Mr. Atwater as Chairman, to which was referred all questions concerning schools and school lands. In a report, which the Chairman with pardonable pride claims to have written himself, the committee recommended that the Governor ap- point seven commissioners "to collect, digest and re- port to the next General Assembly a system of educa- tion for common schools, and also to take into con- sideration the state of the funds set apart by Congress for the support of common schools." A joint resolu- tion to this effect was passed on the 31st day of Jan- uary, 1822. On the same day, and within a few minutes, the law providing for the construction of canals passed. The same message from the Senate to the House of Representatives announced the suc- cess of both measures. So closely allied were the friends of each, and so uniformly did they work together.


The appointment of this Commission can be said to be the first practical step towards a system of common schools in Ohio. The seven Commissioners


108


A History of Ohio,


were Caleb Atwater, John Collins, James Hoge, Nathan Guilford, Ephraim Cutler, Josiah Barber and James M. Bell. Mr. Atwater was made chairman, and his whole energies were directed with love in his work. Governor Trimble, who appointed the Com- mission, was a firm friend of all measures, especially this one, looking towards a school system, and he therefore selected for the work men who were enthu- siastically friendly to the cause of popular education. The result was that Mr. Atwater had the fullest sup- port of his colleagues in the development of his favorite plans.


In Caleb Atwater's Commission was born the com- mon school system of to-day. Although beset with difficulties, obstructions, and oftentimes denuncia- tions, they worked faithfully all through the summer and fall of 1822. Thousands of letters were written, pamphlets to educate a popular sentiment that was not altogether friendly, were distributed, and every avenue of information or -knowledge painfully trod. Mr. Atwater afterwards, in his quaint "History of Ohio," writing of his labors, said :


" The Chairman was directed to collect all the sys- tems in use in all the states; and to consult by letter or otherwise all our most distinguished statesmen, scholars, teachers and jurists on this matter. In pursuance of this order, he opened a correspondence with not a few such men in all the old and many of the new states. This correspondence occupied all his time during the three following months of Sep- tember, October and November, until early in December, 1822, when the board again assembled at Columbus. During all this time not a dollar had


109


From 1810 to 1825.


been advanced by the State to this board, nor was there a dollar in the state treasury to spare for any object."


The Legislature which assembled in the winter of 1823-24 was opposed to internal improvements and school legislation. The report of the Commissioners therefore fell on stony ground. It was simply received with thanks. But the friends of education were not discouraged, and during the canvass for the succeeding General Assembly, the Twenty-third, they agitated with great success the questions of common schools and canals. The result was the election of a Legislature that stands in the history of the State as one which accomplished more for the public good and posterity than any which preceded or succeeded it. Its work relative to internal improvements has been referred to; on the day following the canal legislation, February 5tlı, 1825, "An act to provide for the support and better regulation of common schools" was passed. It was a wonderful step for- ward, crude and imperfect as it may appear from our advanced educational standpoint of to-day. It was the first law that authorized a general tax for the education of all. It provided for a tax of one-half of a mill to be levied by the County Commissioners upon the county duplicate for the use and maintainance of common schools. Under its requirements examiners were to be appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, and no teacher could be employed without their cer- tificate. The law was a command to the people of Ohio to educate their children. It was filled with careful details looking towards the establishment of a system of schools which were to be, in the language


110


A History of Ohio,


of the law itself, "for the instruction of youth of every class and grade without distinction, in reading, writing, arithmetic and other necessary branches of a common education." The author of this law, which first made popular and common education all established policy in Ohio, was Nathan Guilford, of Cincinnati. He will be remembered as one of the Commissioners appointed under Caleb Atwater's resolution. He was elected Senator from Cincinnati in 1824, and in the Legislature he distinguished him- self as a warm and persistent advocate of state education. He was made chairman of the joint committee on school legislation, and in that capacity he prepared the law in question and backed its claims by an elaborate and able report. The work commenced by Cutler in 1819, and revived by Atwater in 1821, was consummated by Guilford in 1825. To these three men Ohio owes her common school systemn. All subsequent legislation has been amendatory of the great idea which they developed and erected into a law.


The immediate results of the school law of 1825 were not favorable. There was still much opposi- tion to it in some parts of the state, and although the common school system had not advanced with that rapidity which its friends had predicted, it grad- ually but slowly grew in favor with the people. Its advocates had the double duty imposed upon them of sustaining and operating the law and fighting its enemies. Even after the law was in full force, efforts were made to secure its repeal. The Legislature following its enactment, was flooded with petitions asking for its suspension or repeal, but the law stood




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.