USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. III > Part 2
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of others to pay the assessment that had to be made upon the shares of stock that had been sub- scribed. There had been but 672 shares sub- scribed and the estimated expense was 225,000 dollars. Gen. Schuyler wrote to Governor Chitten- den on October, 17 1793, that there was little doubt but that relief would be obtained from the Legislature of New York by donation to the Com- pany or by taking an extensive number of shares in the stock; and that the directors had been ad- vised that it was probable the Legislature of Ver- mont would contribute to the important under- taking, and said :--
"Should aid be extended by your State your Excellency will pardon the liberty I take in sug- gesting the stipulations which appear to me prop- er to accompany any free gift- and which will se- cure its application to such part of the improve- ments in which the citizens of Vermont are more immediately interested,-and which are, that the gift should [be] exclusively appropriated to clear- ing, straitning and deepning Wood Creek, from the canals and locks now being constructed at Skensboro [Whitehall] to that part of said creek where it will be intersected by a canal to be drawn " from Hudson's River near Fort Edward, and that the improvements should be made on such a scale as to admit the passage of vessels of sixty feet in length, ten in breadth, and to draw, at least, two feet of water, and that if the whole gift is not ex- pended in this improvement, the residue to be laid out on the canal to Hudson's River aforesaid,- but if the Legislature should prefer to direct the
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EARLY HISTORY
subscription of a number of shares, then noth- ing more will be necessary than to make provision for the payment of fifty dollars on each share, be- ing the sum paid by the original subscribers, and to direct the payment of such future requisitions as the directors may call for on each share, in a general requisition upon all the stockholders.
"If aid is extended to the company in either way, by the Legislature of your State and by this, I am perfectly confident that the improvements may be made in five years to carry vessels of the burden above mentioned, and even larger, from Lake Champlain to the town of Troy. It is cer- tainly needless to detail the advantages which will be derived to the community from the comple- tion of the contemplated work. They will readily occur to your Excellency and to the enlightened Legislature of the State in which you preside."
This letter was communicated to the General Assembly by Gov. Chittenden and was referred to Samuel Hitchcock of Burlington, Daniel Far- rand of Newbury, Enoch Woodbridge of Ver- gennes, Matthew Lyon of Fairhaven, and Elijah Robinson of Weathersfield, to whom Councillors Samuel Safford and Ebenezer Marvin were joined ; and on Nov. 4, 1793, the committee reported, "that the Legislature take measures to direct the purchase of twenty shares in the company for the use of the State," but no legislative action was taken until 1796. Governor Chittenden received another letter from General Schuyler, bearing date at Albany, October 10th, 1796, in which he stated that the directors of the company had determined
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to recommence their operations to complete the canal and locks at Skenesborough ( Whitehall) and complete communication between Lake Cham- plain and the tide water of Hudson River, and the expense had been estimated at 300,000 dollars; and that the Legislature of New York had be- stowed 12,000 dollars on the company and sub- scribed 200 shares on the part of the people of the State, and said, "As a very considerable portion of the citizens of Vermont will participate in the benefits which will result from the operations of the company, the directors are persuaded, that they may with propriety respectfully solicit the aid of your Legislature, and therefore entreat that respectable body to subscribe fifty shares to the stock of the company." The letter, with accom- panying documents, were presented to the assem- bly on October 20, 1796, and referred to a com- mittee, who reported, recommending to the Legis- Jature to comply with the requisitions contained in the letter and recommended the laying of a tax on each acre of land in three tiers of towns ly- ing east of Lake Champlain, each tier of towns paying the tax in proportion to the supposed ben- efit they would receive from the construction of the canal; the proportion being fixed by the Leg- islature. At this session the Legislature passed an act, the preamble of which was as follows :--
"Whereas the Legislature of the State of New York have established a company in said State, called and known by the name of the President, Directors, and Company of the Northern Inland Lock Navigation from the now navigable part of
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EARLY HISTORY
Hudson's River to Lake Champlain; and have en- abled said company to receive and enjoy certain profits which may arise therefrom. And whereas the President of said company has made applica- tion to this Legislature to subscribe for fifty shares thereof-And although it appears to the Legislature, that the purchase of said shares, for the purpose of encouraging said undertaking, would be highly beneficial to the State at large, vet as it would be more particularly beneficial to the western and north-western parts thereof, the Legislature do not think fit to purchase said shares with money taken from the public treasury, but for the purpose of encouraging an undertaking so laudable and beneficial to mankind, the Legisla- . ture have thought fit to enable such towns as, from a spirit of liberality and enterprize, shall have a wish to become stockholders in said com- pany, to tax themselves for the purpose." This act authorizes towns to levy a tax for the purpose of aiding the company in the construction of the canal, but nothing resulted from it.
While Gen. Schuyler was striving to push on the work of his company, men of enterprise in the Valley of the Connecticut River were endeavoring to improve its boating facilities. By companies chartered by Vermont, and in one instance, at least, by a lottery, means were raised for clearing the bed of the river and constructing the necessary canals and locks. Massachusetts and Connecticut co-operated in the work, and finally the river was made available for transportation by flat-boats and rafts, much to the advantage of the people of
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the valley in Vermont and New Hampshire, and specially so to those engaged in the lumber trade. In 1830, a small steam-boat ascended the Connec- ticut River as far as Wells River village; in 1831, five additional boats were built and put on the river, and were run about a year, but in 1832 the company failed, and the boats were withdrawn.
Governor Samuel C. Crafts in his message to the Council and the House of Representatives in 1829, called their attention to the survey of a ca- nal route from Onion River in Montpelier across the heights to Connecticut River by the way of Wells River. The Governor stated that in the month of June, 1829, he received a communication from Captain Graham, of the corps of Topograph- ical Engineers, stating that he had arrived at Montpelier, with three assistants, and with direc- tions from the Engineer Department to continue the surveys and examinations in this State, with a view to the connection of the waters of Lake Champlain and the River Connecticut, through the valley of Onion River. As the engineers were necessarily unacquainted with the topography of the country to be explored, and the object entrust- ed to them being of general interest, he thought it his duty to designate some person, who had a gen- eral knowledge of the country to beexplored, to act as agent in behalf of the State, and he appointed Joshua Y. Vail, Esq., as such agent. This and oth- er surveys demonstrated the impracticability of canals across the Green Mountains, but the sur- veys served the purpose of indicating the possibil- ity of railroads across the State.
(2)
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. Governor Van Ness in his message to the Legis- lature in 1825 advised that body, that he had in May previous received a communication from the Secretary of War Department of the United States that orders had been given to cause an examina- tion and survey to be made of the country be- tween Lake Memphremagog and the Connecticut River at Barnet with a view to ascertaining the practicability of constructing a canal to unite those waters, and that an engineer would be at Barnet by the 10th of May to cooperate with an engineer or commissioner that might be sent to that place on the part of Vermont, but the Gov- ernor thought he had no authority to incur the expense. Arrangements, however, were made by individuals, and he appointed Horace Evertt of Windsor and Nichols Baylies of Montpelier as commissioners and the survey was made, but the construction of the canal was not undertaken.
If it had been possible to construct the canals contemplated in and through Vermont, it would have resulted in important consequences; it would have diverted to New York City a very considera- ble portion of the commerce of the State which previously had been divided between Portland, Maine, Hartford, Conn., and Boston. Of the Ver- mont towns Burlington was the most largely ben- efited from the construction of the canal that was completed in the year 1822 or 1823, connecting Hudson River with Lake Champlain. By reason. of that water-way Burlington won the trade from northern and northwestern Vermont that had long been.enjoyed by the merchants of Montpelier.
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. These results, as well as the greater cheapness of transportation by water than by land carriage, stimulated inquiries in Vermont as to the practica- bility of river navigation by artificial improve- ments and the construction of a canal from Lake Champlain to Connecticut River and from that river to Boston, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H.
Governor Van Ness in his speech to the Council and the House of Representatives in 1823 said: "Permit me to congratulate you on the prospect which is opened to us by the completion of a canal communication between Lake Champlain and the Hudson river. This great work has been exclus- ively accomplished by the noble and munificent spirit which has animated a neighboring State, and which shines with still greater splendor in an undertaking far more grand and stupendous, though not so immediately interesting to the peo- ple of this State. A new era has indeed burst up- on us, when we can hear of the arrival of vessels at the city of New York, from the northern ex- tremity of Vermont. The immense value of such a communication to this State will soon be exten- sively seen and felt in the different branches of bus- iness carried on within it."
On May 17, 1825, the citizens of Montpelier met and appointed a committee to examine the practicability of a canal from Lake Champlain to Connecticut River. The committee made a re- port, at an adjourned meeting held on the 7th of June, 1825, to the effect that a canal from Mont- pelier via. Wells River to Connecticut River was feasible, and via. the Gulf at Williamstown and
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White River was less so. At this meeting the com- mittee was enlarged so as to include Araunah Waterman, Sylvanus Baldwin, E. P. Walton, Sen- ior, Joshua Y. Vail, Joseph Howes, Samuel Pren- tiss, Timothy Hubbard, Parley Davis, Nicholas Baylies, Jeduthan Loomis, George Worthington, Timothy Merrill, Calvin Winslow, John Spalding, and Edward Lamb .. This meeting called a con- vention consisting of delegates from the Counties of Chittenden, Washington, Orange, and Caledo- nia, which met at Montpelier on June 30, 1825; that convention resolved upon a survey from Lake Champlain to Connecticut River, and appointed three commissioners to carry the resolves into ef- fect, who employed an engineer for the work; and Gov. Van Ness communicated to the Legislature of 1825 the report that was made by the commis- sioners. The Convention also requested the Gov- ernor to apply to the U. S. Secretary of War for surveys under the directors of that department- the surveys referred to were those that were made of the Country between Lake Memphremagog and Connecticut River and a survey of that River from Lake Connecticut in New Hampshire to Long Is- land Sound, which were ordered on the request of Congressmen from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
On Nov. 17, 1825, the Legislature requested Gov. Van Ness to apply to the Secretary of War to direct and employ some suitable engineer or en- gineers to ascertain the different heights of land and the waters on the several routes in this State where it was contemplated to make canals. There
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was communicated to the twentieth Congress by the U. S. engineers the report of a survey for a ca- nal connecting the waters of Lake Champlain near Burlington with those of Connecticut River by the valleys of Onion and White Rivers. The conclusion was, "that the adequacy of the supply of water was too doubtful to warrant the con- * struction of so expensive a canal as this would be." This report was a fair type of the conclu- sions of the reports of the other surveys; and all schemes of this sort were abandoned.
One of the first indications of the prosperity of a community or nation and advancement in civil- ization is the convenient means of interchange of its merchandise and its unrestricted and easy com- munication between the people of municipal divi- sions. At an early day in Vermont the attention of its people, through their representatives in the Legislature, was directed to the survey, building and repairing roads, constructing turnpikes and building bridges throughout the State. In doing this the purpose and effect was to impose a por- tion of these burdens upon the owners, both resi- dents and non-residents, of the land to be benefited by the expenditure; and each male person, with a few exceptions, was required to work out on the highway a tax annually; and the exclusive right to run stages and maintain ferries, was granted by the Legislature. The members of the Legisla- ture were so impressed with the importance of good roads throughout the State, they passed, on Nov. 2, 1802, the following resolution :-
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EARLY HISTORY
"Whereas the opening necessary and conven- ient roads tends greatly to the wealth and popu- lation of this State, by encouraging settlements, and rendering public travel convenient; and as a good road, from North to South, directly through this State, beginning at Huntsburgh [Franklin] or Berkshire, thro' Enosburgh, Bakersfield, part of Fletcher to Cambridge, Underhill, Jericho, Rich- mond, Huntington, Buel's Gore, Lincoln, Ripton, Goshen, Brandon, and to fall into the publicroad at Brandon or Pittsford, through which towns there are roads laid, tho' not sufficiently occupied for public travel, yet capable of being made feasible for public travel, and would shorten the travel from north to south about twenty miles if straightened and mended-Therefore, Resolved, that a Commit- tee of three be appointed from this House, to join such a Committee as the Governor and Council may appoint, to take under consideration the util- ity and necessity of opening, straitening and re- pairing the road thro' said Towns."
One of the first expensive projected roads was constructed from Newbury near Connecticut River to Peacham, and thence to Cabot, Walden, Hard- wick, Craftsbury, Albany and Lowell to Hazen's Notch near the line between Lowell and Montgom- ery. This originally was intended as a military road and was to extend to St. Johns in Canada : it was commenced in 1776, by Gen. Bayley and com- pleted about 1780 by Brigadier Moses Hazen. Grants and aid were frequently asked by interested parties for roads, turnpikes and bridges, some of which were as follows: a petition in 1801, that a
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grant may be passed for a turnpike road from the mouth of Wells River to Danville, through the towns of Ryegate, Barnet, Peacham, and Dewy's Burgh; application in 1797, to lay out a County road from Chelsea to Danville; and in 1799, to lay out and survey a road from Montpelier and Calais to Danville, and an act asking the right of making a turnpike from Brookfield to Onion River; in 1791, a petition from the inhabitants of Woodstock praying for a grant of a lottery of three hundred pounds for the purpose of repairing the road across the mountains through Killington (Sher- burne); and a petition praying for a lottery to be granted for the purpose of building a bridge over White River, and one to complete a bridge over Deerfield River in Readsboro; in 1803 a bill was passed appointing a committee to lay out and survey a public road from Berkshire to Brandon. In 1795, a petition of Sherburne Hale was made, praying for "the exclusive right of making a road in Rockingham and receiving toll from passengers in like manner as ferrymen across Connecticut River." This seems to have been the first sugges- tion of turnpike toll companies in Vermont, many of which were subsequently granted in place of the former practice of building roads and bridges by money derived from lotteries,
On Nov. 7, 1826 a bill became a law relating to the arch-bridge across Onion River between Mont- pelier and Berlin; this was one of the first arch- bridges erected in Vermont. On October 13, 1795, a petition was presented praying to have the ex- clusive right of running a stage from Windsor to
1
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EARLY HISTORY
Burlington for a term of years, and one for the ex- clusive privilege of running a stage from Windsor to Benjamin Wright's on White River in Hartford. These last two petitions originated the great mail stage route that became so famous about the year 1835 and for many years later by Mahlon Cottrill of Montpelier, and over which route the Vermont Central Rail Road was at a later date constructed.
Many of the above mentioned applications for the survey and laying out of highways, and many others, were granted and built; and many of them, as well as turnpikes and bridges, were constructed by the aid of lotteries granted by the Legislature. The exclusive right of running ferries was granted from time to time. On November 4, 1805, there was an act before the Legislature to establish a corporation by the name of the Boston and Mon- treal Turnpike Company, and the Council resolved to concur with the House in passing the bill. The writer is unable to state what was done under the act, but it shows the State was encouraging large undertakings and improvements.
On October 30, 1798, a grant was given to Jos- eph Hawkins to raise by lottery the sum of two thousand dollars. Hawkins resided in Alburgh and went on a voyage to the coast of Africa in 1794 and 1795, on commercial pursuits, and after enduring uncommon fatigues and dangers, his suf- ferings received an aggravating consummation of distress by a deprivation of his sight. At the time of this grant he was of the age of twenty-six. He desired to go to Europe to be treated by skilled oculists, but he was unable from poverty to un-
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dertake the voyage and the act was for the pur- pose of furnishing him the means. It was stated in the "Rutland Herald" of Dec. 31, 1798, that Hawkins "had written an instructive and enter- taining account of his voyage and travels in Africa and was engaged in literary pursuits and publica- tions." There were many licenses granted by the Legislature to individuals presumably to aid them in carrying forward private enterprises of their own, and no public object was specified in many of the grants.
The granting of lotteries for the promotion of any enterprise or scheme, and especially those of a private nature, was of questionable policy. In the early days of Vermont the survey and construct- ing of roads, canals, and other means of communi- cation through the State, and the encouragement of manufacturing, were urgently demanded, but money was hard to be got and the means to bring about these needed improvements were not easily to be obtained, and hence lottery schemes were resorted to, to enable these improvements and industries to be carried forward. Under these cir- cumstances, in the early history of Vermont, the people and their legislators did not seem to doubt the propriety or question the policy of resorting to lottery schemes to aid in promoting these en- terprises. The general policy of the State from the earliest times has been the prohibition of lot- teries, except allowed by special grant as shown by the laws of the State as contained in the vari- ous revisions. And when leave was given by the Legislature for the raising of a lottery, the selling
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EARLY HISTORY
of the tickets and the management of the lottery were guarded by strict regulations provided by the law-making power of the State. At length a more enlightened policy obtained. On Nov. 5, 1804, in the Council, a committee, appointed on a bill to grant to the Common Council of the City of Vergennes liberty to raise the sum of two thou- sand five hundred dollars for the purpose of build- ing a bridge over Otter Creek in said city, reported that the same ought to pass, which report was not accepted, and on motion "resolved to non- concur with the House in passing the said bill in- to a law," and the Council gave as reason for the non-concurrence: "1st, Because Institutions of this kind tend to invite individuals to enter into speculations in obtaining property different from the modes dictated by honest industry; 2nd, be- cause the experience of this government has taught us that lotteries have created evils to communities greater than they were designed to remove." In this case the grant was finally given, but the op- position that it met with, showed that the senti- ment of the people had begun to exert itself against the evils of lottery schemes, and none have been granted for many years. It would not be out of place here to refer to the active stand that was taken by several of the Governors of the State, on questions of internal improvements, but it is thought best to defer an account of their public utterances in favor of such improvements, and for the public welfare, until we come to the chapters devoted to their services.
The Legislature of the State enacted many laws
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from time to time, designed to encourage manufac- tures of various kinds. It was stated in the sec- ond volume of this History, in substance, that the early settlers of the State, by their persevering in- dustry, raised a little flax and wool, which were spun, woven, colored and made into clothing by the wives and daughters, and thus. their wants were supplied. At that day there were but few trades that were deemed indispensable; the blacksmith, the shoemaker and the wheel-wright were the principal ones. As the condition of the people im- proved, they, by degrees, extended their desires be- yond the mere necessaries of life; first to the neces- sities and then to luxuries and elegancies. This produced new wants, and manufacturing on a large scale was demanded, and the Legislature to some extent gave its aid for its promotion.
On October 17, 1801, an Act passed granting to Araen Elliot, his heirs and assigns, the exclusive right of manufacturing Crawley and Blistered Steel for the term of ten years; on Nov. 9, 1807, the House adopted the following Preamble and Reso- lution :-
"Whereas, it becomes the interest of the good people of this and the United States, as far as pos- sible to encourage domestic manufactures, and more especially when the peace of this country is threatened by the nation with whom we have the greatest commercial intercourse; and whereas the most ready method of introducing such manufac- tures will be to take proper measures to make them fashionable,-Therefore,
RESOLVED, the Governor and Council concur-
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EARLY HISTORY
ring herein, that it be recommended to the Gov- ernor, members of the Council, and House of Rep- resentatives, to appear at the next session of the Legislature, clothed in the manufactures of this or some other of the United States."
This resolution was concurred in by the Council.
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States on July 28, 1809, through a resolution of Congress of June 7th of that year, issued a circular to the several States for the purpose of obtaining information for the means of protecting and fos- tering the manufactures of the United States, to- gether with a statement of the several manufac- turing establishments which had been commenced, and thereupon, in the Vermont Assembly on Octo- ber 25, 1809, a committee of one from each county was appointed to prepare a statement of the man- factures of the State. The committee made their report, which included the following table: viz.,-
Counties. Cotton & Linen.,
No. Yds.
Woolen, Clothiers Carding Furn . Forges. No. Yds. Works. Machines aces.
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