IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) <^.-^ '/. <° 1.0 I.I U|2A au |io "^^ i^B lAO 11:25 i 1.4 1 2.0 il.8 lil^Hi 1.6 V] /^ # ^> Hiotographic Sciences Corporalion 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 1 4580 (716) 872-4503 ^ ■^ '<^ THE S^ NIAGARA SHIP CAML ITS MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL NECESSITY. NEW YORK 18G3. \ ll -JHH| -_!.' -i.- r--'' A A\ K^'' PEINDLETOIN \ WHEAT FIELD 4,. \ MAP or sruvKVS l\ ^ iagaha vo STATE OFJVEITI^OII FOR THE NIAGARA SHIP CA Scale I Aft J e fo an f/ir/i AMHERST ^ . i TO l\ AW Al\ DA It ^ AP MAGAHA ( Or.XT^ >R THE SHIP CANAL lih fo (in Inch «<^f J 'I >^ fc. ■*- (' .fzr '**»-n ■•• **• *r » ,A' r . -. >^, m 1 ^;^i^: 4 i i ; ■k 1 5 / %..,-<' ■(' i / t. ^ { It 'i 1 ^ J-J J :Ai^-, *\i »-««v««>-«'s»v4(i»SKi^!jt|ig*iiicfe3iisb^!i«»; :»»•»««** jjy- vfc.>».y :.vw«Bei' ««,«llfc»i«»«« , ■*'ifc.-"Vl£S-^;'. .^1 ''W^Ji.- s';. '.■0 /'•^..iK.'-^'^'^^'^^^ -'''o THE lAGAKA SHIP CANAL: ITS IILITARY AND COMMERCIAL NECESSITY. i KEW YOKE, 1863. K«iS»?*W«'Bi»eEiJ2W'«*t'- i-^-'-j-aSatfets— > NIAGARA SHIP CANAL, ITS MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL NI-rESSIlT. ^' IST. — ITS MILITARY NKGESblTY. This great enterprise has claimed the attei;';-'!! of the General Guverurnent for uiaDy yeart<, and nnmer<>na Committees of Conii-ress liave recommended ii ..s a w ork truly National iu its character, and detnan!-."! Isv iht hij^hest considerations of public interest. Many 8ur\(^ys have been made of the work, nil >i:uw- ins its entire feasibilitv. Amonff the most elaborate and reliable of these surveys, is that made under ilie direction of the General Government, in 183G, by the lato Caj'tain Wm. G.Williams, of the United States Engineer Corps, an officer of distinguished ability and high pr*.-ro.-s!u!ial at- tainments, [lis Report, with survey and cptimntcs, h contained in Doeunient No. 214 IL R. 24th (nug. let kiesa. It strongly recommends the construction of the work as " a measure of military tlefence, and great commercial importance.'' The estimated cost of the Canal, one hun- dred and lifty feet wide at the surface, with locks two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, to pass vessels drawing ton feet, varies from three and a half to five rnd a half millions of dollars, according to the line adopted, the shortest line being less than eight miles. The an- nexed Map, No. 1, exhibits the several propoeed routes. The advance in the price of labor, since the report was made, will, of course, increase somewhat the cost of the work ; but the estimates of Captain Williams are conclu- ' — « THE NI.VOAUA ^IIIP OANAL. sivc. tiiat it can he (•.«.»! istructed at a niodurato cost, com- pared with the great benefits it wonlil seeure to the country. Local jtialoiisies, and /apjr.e and oxtrava<:^ant ideas as to tlie expenditure required to ooinj^h.te this Canal, with an overweenijiii; eiMilidence that the peaceful relations so lung existing lictwce!) our (Toverninent and that of Great Britain, »veiv mu likely to be di^^iurh^'i, have all con- sj)ired to delay it, till at length its military and conuner- cial neeesRiry have become palpable and imminent. Tiie (loverument of the United States has rested su- pinely f<,*r near half a century under the disalnlities for the defence of the Lake Frontier, imposed by the treaty of 1817 wiih England, by which tlie naval force of each (Tovernment, on the I^akes, was restricted to one vessel, of not over one hundred tons, carrying a single gun, for Lake Ontario, and not to exceed two vessels of like size and armament fur all the Upper Lakes. But the British Governmcat has been pursuing, steadily and effectively, a policy looking to the command of the Lakes, by u suffi- cient navaJ force, whenever she chooses to assert it. Since tfie ^r-.^atv of ISIJ. she lia;? oonrtructed the Tvidcau Canal, avowedly a military work, connecting Montreal with Kingston, on Lake Ontario, by an interior route, with locks one l.-undred and thirty-three feet long and thirty-three feet wi«Je, well calculated to pass large gun- boats in balbist ; and the St. Lawrence Canals, connecting the san\e p"int8, with locks two hundred feet lung and forty-live fei't wide, to pass gun-boats drawing nine feet. She has also constructed the Welland Canal, connecting Lake Ontario with the Upper Lakes, with locks one hun- dred and forty -five feet long and twenty-six i'eet wide, to pass gunboats drawing ten i'eet. Theso Canals have cost little less than twenty millions of dollars, and still another Ship Canal is projected b; the Canadian Government, between the city of Montreal and the Georgian Bay, on Lake Huron. By this route, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, with their vast tonnage II TUK NlAftAKA SIIII' (lANAL. 5 of a<,'rieukural and iniDoral frcighl, will lu- brouiiht 305 miles nearer to the city ofMontreal, than they now are by by tliu Lake and Erie canal to tide water on the Hudson. Through her Canals, already constriictid, the IJritisb Governuient can pass gun boats, of the inosr e'.lieicnt si/e now in use, from Moiitreal to Ivingstoii in twenty lour hours, aiid to Laki; Erie in less lliati forry-eight hours. She has, luoreovor, e^lal)]ished and nKiii'taihs, in conne'''- tion with these Canals, largo naval ■'.(.■jiul>- ar Kingston, on Lake Ontario; at ^MaMen. ^m Like Erie, ai'.' at l\'n:Uan- irashine, on the Geor<>ian Lav ; fhu.v ki'oi*ii.ir in ron- stant preparation for ellieienr u..\-:\\ oporalions on all the great Lakes. She is, in fact, about as well prepared for offensive war on the Lakes as she (vnild h;iv- been if the treaty of 1817 had limited the na\;d force of the United States, as it now does, and left the British Governtnent at liberty to build and lit out V(!ssel6 of war us slie pleased in all her Lake ports. When, in ISHl, jn consoiiuence of the seizure ©f the rebel loaders, Mason and Slidell, on the British steamer Trent, war betweL^n the two nations seemed almost inevita- ble, it was claimed extensively in the British }.ress, that a large force of gun-hoats was in readiness at Montreal to pounce Ujjon our unprotected Lake Frontier and its im- mense commerci:;! marine, at the very commencement ot hostilities. The i xposed condition of the Frontier seemed to b" aj»preciated by our own Government, which notiiied the Governors of States, bordering on the Lakes, to 1)6 prepared to meet the threatened (hingor. It is now a matter of little m anent, whetiier these armed vessels were really at Montreal, in readiness for the expected onslaught, or not. The fact that they can be thus concentratvar a million of our citizens, surrounded by all the '.riiiti rial wealth incident to a high state of a^'ricul- tural. manufacturing and commercial prosperity. Fruiu ri.ese cities, and through these Lakes and Rivers, more thnn on." hundred millions of l)U8hels of grain, in- cluding wheat manufactured into flour, and other agricul- tural pnxln; :H in proportion, are already distributed annu- ally to JN'cw York, New England and the Atlantic cities North ofiiad including Baltimore, for the consumption of thos^e States and for exportation to foreign countries. This vu:^i. agricultural production, yet literally in its infaney, is curried forward on the Lakes by more than sixteen hundred steam and sail vessels, measuring, in the aggregiite, tnll five hundred thousand tons, which return westward fioighted with foreign and domestic merchan- dize. Tlie annual value of this trade exceeds four hun- dred millioii?' of dollars. While ti:> Wostward-buund commorco is highly impor- tant to the comfort and convenience of our Western fellow-citizens, their agricultural products are indispensa- ble to the East. The arrest of this commerce, even for a brief period, would create a state of suffering and desti- tution to the inhabitants of New York and Now England unparalleled in the history of our country. And yet, as it were, right under the guns of a foreign nation, jealous of our commercial prosperity and increasing national power, and constantly assuming a threatoning attitude to- THR NIAGARA 8Hir CANAI.. wards us, on the slightest pretences, these great municipal and commercial interests aro utterly unprotected. We have not a fortification on the Frontier that a modern iron-clad gun-boat cannot pass with impunity ; nor a city on the Lakes that their shells could not speedily lay in ashes. Our Government has not sufticicnt naval stores, on all the Lakes, to fit out a single efficient vessel of war, and only a single vessel in commission of less than a hundred tons, carrying a single gun, on all the Upper Lakes, and none on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. As the British G«vernment constantly stands prepared for aggressive war on the Lakes, the treaty limiting her naval power, except on the six months' notice, is no protection to us. — War between nations ends their treaties ; and the first bel- ligerent act may be the violation of a treaty stipulation. The question naturally presents itself, how are these great Frontier interests to be placed in a condition of greater security ? They are National in extent and gene- ral character, and have a right to demand the protection of the General Gevernment, whose Constitutional duty it is ^' to provide for the general safety and welfare." The proposed Ship Canal is the only link wanting to give free communication through and between all the great Lakes and the Eiver St. Lawrence, for vessels of the largest size navigating the Lakes. On the Upper Lakes, the commercial marine is almost cxclusivelv American ; on Lake Ontario and the St. Law- rence, the preponderance is largely in favor of Canadian bottoms. By the cstablisiimont of Naval Depots on Lake Ontario and the Upper Lakes, at several points least ex- posed to attacks from the Lakes, the vessels engaged in coniinerce, among which are a large number of propellers of the very first class, could be speedily converted into vessels of w^ar, which a Ship Canal around the Falls, un- der American control, could pass between the Upper Lakes and Luke Ontario and the St. Lawrence, as the exi- gencies of the case might require ; thus using the natural excess, in time of peace, of American tonnage on the 8 rUK NIA«iAKA Smi' rANAr, Upper I.jikes not only for the detVnce ot'tlios(! Liikos, but also for llio dcfoncc ot Lake Ontario and tlio St. Lawrence in time of war. Tlic importance of lids commnnication l)etwi'('n the Lakes to the Nation, in case of war. cannot well he over- estimated. The tacility it would ^ive for tlie concentra- tion and ready condnnation of our naval and military for- ces, and the transportation ot military stores through all the Lakes ndght, of itself, decide the Mar in our favor. The want of such a commuideation l)etwecn the Lakes, during our last war with England, was a serious obstacle to the success of our arms, and ty the Xiaa^ara Ship Canal, the inti-n'sts <<\' the Lake and Sr, Lawrence Frontier will have littlo to nppre- iiend tVoia toroign aggression. 2. — XriB COJLMKKCIAL NKCKSSITT OF TJIK OAXAL. Urgent as is the necessity of this great work from mili- tary considerations, its construction as a clmnnel of trade between tlie North -Western and Eastern States, including New York, is of little luss importance. In the vear 18G2, at least thirty milli(»ns of bushels of grain, including wheat numiifactured into Hour, to say nothing ot" other agricultural products of Western States, passed from the Upper Lakes to Lake Ontario through the Wellaud Canal, and over Canadian Railroads, stretch- ing from Lake Ontario to the Upi)er Lakes. More than three-fourths of this grain found its way from Lake On- tario and the St. Lawrence, through American channels, to New York and New England ; near twenty millions of it was shipped Eastward from Oswego and Cape Vin- cent, and some five millions of bushels from Ogdensburgh over the Northern Railroad. Tiie return trade from the East to the West, through these channels, for the same year, was correspondingly large. This commerce is annually increasing in niagintude, and becoming more and more necessary to the develop- ment and prosperity of the great divisions of the Union between which it is conducted. The vessels bearing this trade on the Lakes are entirely American ; and yet, American as this trade is in its inception and destination, it is all under the direct control and at the mercy of a foreign, and that not a friendly Government. The per- manency of the trade is continually threatened by the misunderstandings S'"> otlen arising between that Govern- ment and our owp Already have the Canadian authori- 10 THB NIAGARA BHII" CANAL. ticB 80 rogul.ited tlieir Canal tolls as to discriminato in favor of vessels and cargoes going to Montreal, for the purpose of diverting the trade from American to Canadian channels ; and the same ])Ower can, at any time, adopt measures fatal to this commerce, as far as American iu- tcrcfits are involvctl. The proposed Ship Canal would relieve this trade from these constantly imj^ending dangers ; and it is clearly the duty of the General Government to give to so great an interest of her citizens, this measure of ])rotection. But if tliese dangers from ahroad did nut exist, there are other conniderations imporativcly demanding the con- struction of this great work. The existing channels of transportation hetween the Lakes and tide water are not largo enough to meet the present demands of the trade. A committee of the New York Legislature reported, in April last, "that during a considerable portion of the last three years, the enlarged Canals have been taxed to their utmost capacity, not from deficiency in its main trunk, but from the impossibility of passing more boats through the locks ; and it is notorious, that the Railroads, connecting the East with the West, except for a brief period in summer, cannot carry forward the freight offering for transportation to the sea-board. The annual increase of agricultural products of the States tributary to these Railroads and Canals, for the last five years, has not been less than twenty per cent.; and all the elements of this wonderful development of ag- ricultural production, promise to continue in operation for many years to come. Not a tenth part of the knd is yet occupied. Foreign and domestic emigration is bring- ing it rapidly under cultivation, and Railroads are being extended in all directions for the transportation of their increasing products to the Western Lake cities. Without new and larger channels for these products to our markets, their production must be checked by the onerous rates of transportation always charged on over-burdened channels of trade. The inevitable result must be a limitation of this THE NIAOA.RA SHIP CANAL. 11 producti(>n, or the opening of now channels for its accom- modation. So great is tlic ncccpsity felt at the West tur more unntario, 3 The above statement bhuws a dilfercnei' '\n favor of the Niagara Ship Canal ronte o\' !?1 02 on a ton of -wheat or flour from Chicago to JSew Y'>rk. In arrivlnir at this result, the same rate of freiii-ht is charged on the comparatively short Lake voyage from Chicago to Buffalo, as is charged ou the longer Lake voy- age from ChicagK to Oswego, when, on the principle of Mr. McAlpine's data, it should be from a (piarter of a mill to half a mill per ton per mile higher. Then, again, the tiuie required is assumed to bo the same on the two routes ; when by propellers, or other steam vessels, there would be at least two and a half days saved in time by the Niagara Canal route. But the prices of transportation between the Western States and tide water would not only be reduced by the greater cheapness of the Ship Canal route, as abort MHI u I UK NIAGARA SHIP CANAL. eliowii, but also l>y the competition, which a now cbaiinei for any tradt;, always creates and sustains ; and hence, the benefits of lower rates of transportation would not be conlined to the property passing through this new chan- nel, but all other channels between the P]ast and West would be compelled to reduce their prices on through- freight, so as to conform, or nearly so, tt> the prices charged by the cheaper channels. What the aggregate saving would be aii'.iually to the Western States^ it is dit- ticult to estimate with accuracy ; but that it would be numbered by millions of dollars, is beyond a duubt. The two prominent objections urged in opposition to this Canal are — First, that the trade of the Upper Lakes if let down to Lake Ontario, will pass oji to Montreal, and thus be diverted from our own Atlantic cities. And secondly, that If it was not so diverted to Montreal, but passed on from Lake Ontario to the Hudson, through the Oswego and Erie Canals, and over the Xorthern Railroad from Ogdensburgh to the States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Ma8sacliusett8, it would deprive the State of New York of a large amount of tolls, which she would realize if the trade were forced through the n'hole length of the Erie Canal. The answer to the first objection is, that a h^rge trade from the Upper Lakes, through Lake Ontario, has been going on for many years, and that in -re than three-fourths of it has passed on, through American ciiannels, from Os- wego, Capo Vincent and Ogdensburgh to the sea-board, or for consumption in the interiov u*" the New England States and the State of New York. There is no good reason why the course of this trade should differ, in the future, from wliat it has been in the past, unless influenced by Canadian legislation, against which the Niagara Ship Canal would fully protect it. It is evident that the nearer the large Lake vessel can ap- proach tide water on the Hudson, the more surely will onr Atlantic cities control the trade as against Canadian, competition. TUE NIAUAKA SHIP CANAL. ia As to the second objection, the loss of tolls to the State of New York, the apprehension is not well-founded ; and if it was, it would not be a valid objection to the construc- tion of the Ship Canal. No State can expect to stand in a great highway of the nation and levy tolls upon the products of her sister States, beyond the amount necessary to defray the super- intendence and repairs of the work she may construct for its accommodation, and the creation of a sinking fund to refund the cost of its construction within a reasonable pe- riod. For commercial objects, channels of trade are bonds of union between States and Nations When their main ob- ject is the accumulation of revenue beyond the limits above prescribed, they become subjects of discord and strife. — The Canals of New York between the Lakes and tide-wa- ter, as heretofore stated, are tilled to uvertl owing, and the business seeking them constantly increasing ; and no rea- sonable doubt can exist that the State will always ob- tain all the tolls slie can justly levy upon the productions and consumption of tiie AVestern States. The best interests of the country demand the chcapes possible transportation between the interior and the Atlan- tic coast. This would be oi)taiucd between the Lake coun- try and tide water by the Niagara Ship Canal. It would relieve us from all apprehension of the diversion of any considerable portion of this trade fj'om our own commer- cial cities. It would create a new bond of union between the East and West, and forever secure the military and commercial ascendancy on the great Lakes, to the Govern- ment and citizens of the United States.