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copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.REPORT
UPON THE
FINANCES
AND
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
OP THE
STATE OF NEW-YORK.
183 8.
REPRINTED AT NEW-YORK
BY JOHN S. TAYLOR,
CORNER OF PARK RO\V ANb SPHU'CE-STREET.STATE OF NEW-YORK.
On the 12th of March, 1838, Mr. Samuel B. Rug-
gles, Chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means, of the Assembly of the State of New-York,
submitted to the House the following
REPORT
on the United States Deposit Fund, and on the
recommendation of the Comptroller to levy a direct
tax.
Mr. Ruggles, from the standing committee of
ways and means, to whom were referred so much
of the annual message of his excellency the Gov-
ernor, as relates to the surplus revenues of the
United States deposited with this State, and also
the annual report of the Comptroller, upon the
finances, begs leave, in respect to that portion of
the message, and also in respect to that portion of
the Comptroller’s report which recommends the
imposition of a direct tax, to submit the following
Report:
That under the act of Congress, passed June
23,1836, which directed the surplus moneys in the
treasury of the United States, beyond the amount
12
of five millions, to be deposited with the several
States, the sum of $3,974,520 71 has been paid
over to this State, being three-fourths of the
moneys which it was entitled to receive under that
law. By virtue of the subsequent act of Congress,
passed October 2, 1837, which directed the trans-
fer of the remaining fourth to be postponed until
the first day of January, 1839, the residue of those
moneys, amounting to $1,338,000, has hitherto
been withheld ; and whether it will be paid at the
time specified in that act, may for the present be
regarded as doubtful. Serious differences of opin-
ion have prevailed in respect to the expediency of
thus depositing this surplus revenue with the
States; and if the sentiments of those who believe
it more politic for the federal government to retain
it, shall happen to prevail, the fourth instalment
may possibly be permanently withheld from this
State.
It is not, however, reasonably to be anticipated,
that the money already received will be with-
drawn. The act of June 23, 1836, which direct-
ed the deposite to be made, declared that when
the money, or any part of it, “ should be wanted
by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United
States ” to meet appropriations by law, it should
be called for upon certain notice mentioned in the
act; but the subsequent law of October 2, 1837,
provided that the amount thus deposited should3
remain with the States, “ until otherwise directed
by Congress.”
It cannot be deemed probable, that a majority
of the States represented in the National Con-
gress, will direct the withdrawal of these moneys.
Whatever may have been the literal provisions of
the law, directing these moneys to be “ deposited ”
with the States, the intention of those who passed
it evidently was to secure a permanent distribution,
and not a temporary loan of the surplus revenues.
In fact the doctrine on that subject, as it was first
advanced by President Jackson himself, plainly
contemplated an irrevocable appropriation. In
his message to Congress, in 1829, he declared
that “the most safe, just, and federal disposition
which could be made of the surplus revenue, would
be its apportionment among the several States,
according to their ratio of representation— and
in the message of the subsequent year, he removed
all doubts as to his intention in that respect, by
stating, that in his prior message, he had felt it to
be his duty “ to recommend the adoption of some
plan for the distribution of the surplus funds among
the States, in proportion to the number of their
representatives, to be applied by them for objects
of internal improvement.”
The sentiments thus promulgated at Washing-
ton, were distinctly responded to and adopted by4
the Governor of this State, in his annual message
to the Legislature, in the year 1830; in which,
after speaking of the funds to be derived from the
surplus revenue, as “ applicable to the extension
of our public works,” he says that “ there can be
no valid objection to the distribution of the surplus
revenue among the States, to be disposed of at
their discretion.” The same chief magistrate, in
the succeeding year, 1831, after stating that one
of his most distinguished predecessors (Governor
Clinton,) had alluded to the same subject in his
message in 1827, renewed the suggestion contain-
ed in his former communication; and pressed it
earnestly upon the consideration of the Legisla-
ture. A committee of the Senate in the same
year, reported that in their judgement, the proposed
distribution was “ a matter of the first importance
and for the reason, among others, that it would
enable the State, in prosecuting her works of in-
ternal improvement, “ to satisfy the just claims of
all her citizens.” The committee fully concur in
the soundness of the opinions thus expressed, in
respect to the distribution of these moneys; and
in their judgement, the receipt by this State, of the
large sum of $3,974,520 71 thus allotted to it,
whatever may be the opinions of those who doubt
the expediency of the measure, ought to be a sub-
ject of unmixed congratulation.
Without pretending to question the obligation of5
this State to repay the money thus deposited, when-
ever it shall be legally demanded by an act of
Congress, it may, nevertheless, be assumed that
no reasonable probability exists that it will ever be
thus demanded. Of the several States which have
received their respective portions, amounting in the
aggregate to nearly forty millions of dollars, the
greater number have already appropriated it to ob-
jects of a permanent nature, from which it cannot
be withdrawn without serious injury and incon-
venience. Many of the States have expended it
in works of internal improvement, or in paying
debts previously incurred for that purpose. In
some instances it has been loaned to their citizens;
while one example, at least, is presented, in which
it has been actually distributed, numerically, among
all the inhabitants of the State. In nearly all
these instances, the repayment of the money, if
called for by Congress, will become inconvenient
and oppressive to the people of those States, and
can only be made by incurring a debt or imposing
burthensome taxes. Under these circumstances,
therefore, it may be safely predicted, that a ma-
jority of the representatives of the States and of
the people in Congress, will hesitate long before
they consent to withdraw from the States the mon-
eys thus distributed; but on the contrary, that
they will prefer (in case it should be found neces-
sary) to replenish the treasury by temporary loans
in anticipation of the revenue.6
The committee, therefore, wholly dissent from
the opinion expressed by the joint committee of
the last Legislature, upon the subject of this de-
posite fund, that the pecuniary means which it has
furnished to the State, should be regarded as mere-
ly “ temporary,” and that the period of repayment
is “ not far remote.” On the contrary, they are
well satisfied, that the sum of $3,974,520 71 thus
acquired, will never be withdrawn; and they re-
commend, that in all measures of legislation, it
should be treated as a portion of the permanent
property of the State.
The amount so received, has been loaned under
the law of the last session, upon mortgage, to the
citizens of this State, and yields a nett annual in-
come of about $250,000; and the question then
arises — How shall that income be appropriated ?
It may be used in either of three modes. First,
in defraying the ordinary expenses of supporting
the government; or, secondly, in paying the inter-
est on debts created, or to be created, for works
of internal improvement; or, thirdly, in providing
for public instruction, and the diffusion of know-
ledge.
It is not the province, or the intention of the
committee, to estimate the comparative merits of
these important objects. The duty of providing7
adequately for the education of the people, and
that of furnishing the means of cheap and easy in-
tercourse between the different sections of the
State, are equally pressing and imperative. If the
Legislature should be satisfied, however, that the
State possesses other resources for prosecuting,
with vigour and effect, all its necessary works of
internal improvement, no question need arise as to
the propriety of appropriating the whole of this
sum, (large as it may be deemed,) to the gratify-
ing office of diffusing more widely the blessings of
education. But before such an appropriation shall
be permanently made, it ought to be distinctly un-
derstood, that the other means of the State are,
and will continue to be, entirely sufficient to sat-
isfy the claims of that large portion of its popula-
tion, whose welfare is depending upon the proper
extension of its works of internal improvement.
The original intention of the State, in procuring
the distribution of the surplus revenues, evidently
was to apply its portion “to the extension of our
public works and until it shall be satisfactorily
ascertained, that this great duty may be otherwise
adequately discharged, it may well be doubted
whether these funds ought to be wholly appropria-
ted to any other object, however meritorious.
It is believed that an attentive examination of the
pecuniary resources of the State will satisfactorily
demonstrate its ability to prosecute and extend its8
system of public works on the most liberal scale,
without resorting for aid to the fund in question :
and the investigation of this point has occupied
the anxious attention of the committee.
This inquiry necessarily embraces not only the
present, but also the future fiscal condition of the
State, as its aspect may be varied from time to time
by the progress of the public works. The want
of a definite and well digested system, by which
to prosecute our measures of internal improvement
in regular and proper succession, increases the
difficulty of accurately estimating the future con-
dition of the treasury. The movements of the
State, for the last few years at least, have been ir-
regular and disconnected, yielding only to occa-
sional impulses, and proceeding without much plan
or method. A struggle for some time has been
going on between the friends of a vigorous system
of internal improvements, and those who deny its
expediency or safety: and our legislation has fluc-
tuated according to the prevalence of one or the
other of these contending opinions. It is not ne-
cessary or desirable to enter at this time into the
particulars of this controversy, and it is alluded to
only to explain the difficulty which it occasions in
predicting, with that precision which could be de-
sired, the future movements of our fiscal system.
In order to comprehend truly the present situa-9
tion of our finances, and correctly to estimate our
future progress, it will be useful to revert to the
condition of the treasury when the canal policy
was commenced.
Our financial history, during the last twenty
years, is indeed replete with instruction. Within
that eventful period we behold the origin, progress,
and final success of those great measures of inter-
nal improvement, which have overcome not only
the barriers of nature, but the more formidable
obstacles of prejudice, incredulity, and error, and
which are destined, in the latter respect at least,
to achieve victories yet more signal.
No fact in all that history is more striking
than the remarkable failure of our distinguished
men adequately to estimate the pecuniary value
of the canals. The most sanguine anticipations
of the most enthusiastic supporters of our policy
of internal improvement, fell far short of the
actual results which that policy has produced 5
while the doubts and forebodings of its oppo-
nents, are remembered only as curious portions
of our intellectual history. The State itself seem-
ed wholly unconscious of its latent strength. In
the present plenitude of our success, the fact is
hardly credible, and yet the documents of the
day testify, that before commencing the canals,
the Legislature by a deliberate act, directed
210
commissioners to solicit pecuniary donations in
aid of the enterprise, not only from Connecticut
and Vermont, but even from the States, then in
their infancy, beyond the Alleghanies: and so far
was this timid and discreditable policy pursued,
that the very preamble to the law of 1817, which
finally directed the canals to be commenced, took
care to express the humble hope, that the States
interested in the work, “ would contribute their
full proportion of the expense.”
The torrent of ridicule and obloquy which the
canals encountered, during the first few years of
their progress, as well as the more solemn doubts
of some of our ablest statesmen, will long be
remembered. Without adverting to names less
distinguished, it needs but to state the memorable
fact that Mr. Jefferson pronounced the undertaking
utterly visionary and chimerical, and that it was
“ at least a century in advance of the age.” Nor
did the more decided friends of the canals appre-
ciate in any just degree, their pecuniary value.
In the year 1821, four years after they had been
commenced, the Comptroller of the State, in obe-
dience to a resolution of the Legislature, prepared
an estimate of their respective revenues, in which
he stated, that for the ten years next succeeding
their completion, the tolls would amount annually
to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars! The
amount which was actually received during that11
period of ten years, exceeded ten millions of dollars.
Among the names truly illustrious in the early his-
tory of our public works, few are more distinguished
than that of Gouverneur Morris. His compre-
hensive intellect and ardent temperament, enabled
him to look far beyond most of his contemporaries
into the rapidly expanding future; and yet even he
fell short of the realities which the Erie canal has
brought within our view. In the singularly elo-
quent and animated memorial by which his fame
is forever connected with that great work, and in
which he endeavoured to enforce upon the Legisla-
ture the importance in all future time of connecting
the Hudson with the western waters, after depict-
ing the wide spread region around our inland
seas, and its capacity to supply the means of a
great and profitable commerce, he asked whether
it would be deemed extravagant to predict that
the canal, within twenty years, “ would annually
bring down 250,000 tons ?” The actual amount
which reached the tide in 1836, was 697,347 tons,
or nearly three-fold the quantity estimated by Mr.
Morris$ and the total tonnage of that year, ascend-
ing and descending, exceeded thirteen hundred
thousand tons.
The tolls of the canals in 1824, one year before
their completion, were $340,000. In the next
year they reached $566,000, and rose in 1826 to
$762,000. With the rapid progress thus strikingly12
exhibited, few of our citizens were inclined to believe
that the canals had impoverished the treasury, or
that they would prove in any way injurious to
the pecuniary interests of the State. The subject
was, however, presented to the public in the year
1827 in a new and unexpected light. In that year,
the canal committee of the Senate, of which Mr.
Silas Wright, jr., was chairman, introduced into
that body a report, made avowedly for the purpose
of drawing the attention of the public to the effect
which the construction of the canals had produced
upon the finances of the State, and of generally
diffusing among our citizens a knowledge of the
real situation of the public funds. It announced
that H an alarming change had taken place in the
public funds ” that the school fund was annually
charging the State with a debt of $15,000”—-
that the literature fund was “ no longer able to
answer the calls which the interests of education
required should be made upon it ” — that the ac-
tual income of the canals was “ highly exaggerated
in the public opinion ” — that their gross receipts
for the year 1826, without any deduction for ex-
penses, were but $752,000, and paid an interest of
only 6 tV per cent, on their total cost—that the
debt of the State for the canals then made or
making “ would more probably be enlarged than
lessened at the end of the year ” — that “so long
as it thus continued to increase, its final payment
was not even approaching ” — that “ unless assisted13
by auxiliary funds, the canals would not pay their
own interest and expenses, and redeem their debt
within any reasonable time, if they would ever do
it” — that “the debt, with the whole aid of those
funds, could not be paid off in a great number of
years yet to come ” — and finally, that any appro-
priations by the State for the purpose of construct-
ing other works, unless they should be more pro-
ductive than the Erie and Champlain canals, would
“ hasten the period when direct taxation must be
resorted to.”
The feeling of despondency which this cele-
brated document produced among the friends of
internal improvement, not only in this State, but
throughout the Union, is well recollected : and
yet it is somewhat surprising, that an intelligent
and sagacious people, should have permitted them-
selves for a moment to be misled by the financial
view which the report professed to take. Its fal-
lacy was obvious ■— consisting in the total omission
to take into the account, the prospective, but cer-
tain and inevitable increase in the growth of the
country, and the trade of the canals, and in assum-
ing the receipts of 1826 as an immutable basis.
It is needless to add, that the friends of internal
improvement made a resolute, though ineffectual,
struggle against the doctrines and tendencies of
this report. The late Governor Clinton, on the
assembling of the Legislature in the year 1828,14
laboured earnestly in his annual message to disa-
buse the public mind. He declared that “ the real
condition of the finances had been greatly dis-
coloured and misunderstood by inaccurate views
and partial examinations ” — that “ fallacious state-
ments had been mingled with the subject”—that
“the constant and progressive increase of the
canal revenue, and the correspondent diminution
of the debt, would in a few years produce its total
extinguishment”—that “the elaborate and sys-
tematic attempts to depreciate the utility and arrest
the progress of internal improvements, were equally
astonishing and mortifying ” — that “ the means
of the State were ample, her resources great, and
her credit equal to any emergency,” and he re-
newed, “ in the most earnest manner, his recom-
mendations in favour of the leading objects which
he had presented in his former communications.”
The death of this great man in February of
that year, withdrew from the cause of internal
improvement its ablest champion, and the loss has
been severely felt by the people of this State.
The predictions of his last message as to the
progressive increase of the tolls, and the extin-
guishment of the debt, have been fully realized.
The annual tolls, which in 1826 were 1762,167,
(or according to the statement of Mr. Wright
about $752,000,) amounted, in 1833, to $1,542,695,15
although the rates had previously been reduced
nearly 20 per cent.; and in the year 1835, to
$1,485,775, although again reduced about 15 per
cent.
On the 1st day of July, 1836, the tolls had ac-
cumulated in the hands of the commissioners to
an amount sufficient (with the aid of the auxiliary
funds previously realized from the salt and auction
duties) to extinguish the whole of the outstanding
debt. Previously to that time, upwards of four mil-
lions of dollars had been paid in cash directly to the
public creditors; and the residue, amounting to
between three and four millions, was then invested
in temporary loans by the Commissioners, as
trustees for the holders of the balance of the debt.
This final consummation may justly be regarded
as the crowning event in the canal policy of the
State, and fixes an important epoch in its fiscal
history. It affords, moreover, an opportunity pe-
culiarly fitting, not only to review the progress of
our treasury since the commencement of our
canals, but also to examine how far the view of
the finances taken by the committee of the Senate,
in the report of 1827, has been borne out by the
facts.
In the year 1817, when the canals were com-
menced, the funds of this State consisted of,16
1. Productive property in bank stocks, mort-
gages and other claims, amounting to, .	.	.	$4,779,302 70
The State then owed a debt of............... 1,503,685 00
Leaving a balance of................$3,275,617 70
Of these claims a portion was subsequently dis-
covered to be worthless to the amount of .	302,000 00
Leaving, .........................$2,973,617 70
The annual income of this balance
was about.................$180,000 00
The State derived a revenue from
auction duties of ...	.	191,123 38
and from salt duties imposed in
that year, and paying in 1818,	48,784 27
Making the total revenue .	. $419,907 65
2. Unproductive property in lands and public
buildings ; the former containing about a million
of acres. From the sales of these lands a fund
had been previously established for public in-
struction, called the “ Common School Fund,”
the principal of which, on the 1st January, 1817,
amounted to................................ .	$982,242 26
The Constitution of 1821, transferred to this
fond all the lands then remaining unsold, with
some unimportant exceptions.
Another special fund had also been established
principally for the support of academies, called
the “ Literature Fund,” the principal of which,
on the 1st of January, 1817, amounted to .	$26,696 10
By an act passed in 1826, the amount of17
$233,616 19 was taken from the $2,973,617 70
above mentioned, and transferred to the Common
School and Literature Funds, leaving .	.	.	$2,740,001 51
To contradistinguish this amount of $2,740,001-
51 from the two special funds above mentioned,
it was designated in the public accounts as the
“ General Fund.”
When the canals were commenced in 1817,
another special fund was created for the security
of the public creditors of whom money should be
borrowed for the construction of the canals, desig-
nated as the “ Canal Fund,” and consisting of the
salt and auction duties above mentioned, the tolls
to be received from the canals when constructed,
and some other items of minor amount.
The establishment of this latter fund conse-
quently diverted from the ordinary uses of the
treasury, the salt and auction duties, amounting to
$239,907, and reduced the nett income of the
State from $419,907 65, as above stated, to about
$180,000 annually.
A tax had previously been laid on the whole
property of the State, to defray the expenses of
the war, which had recently terminated. That
tax was continued at a reduced rate, until the year
1826, and was applied, together with the annual
318
income of $180,000 above mentioned, to the pay-
ment of the ordinary expenses of the government.
In 1826, the rapid increase in the canal tolls
began to exhibit itself as is above stated, and the
State tax was then discontinued, upon the ground
that the principal of the remaining balance of
$2,740,001 51, would sustain the government until
the debt for which the salt and auction duties and
canal tolls were pledged should be extinguished,
and that those revenues would then be liberated
and placed at the service of the State.
Between that time and the year 1836, the whole
of that balance was accordingly expended, princi-
pally in defraying the ordinary expenses of the
government, amounting to .	.	$2,740,001 51
and the State also borrowed the
bank safety fund, amounting to .	. 416,532 43
Making in all,................$3,156,533 94
Of this amount, a portion exceeding $500,000 was
expended in erecting the State Hall and the State
Prisons.
The aggregate amount of the salt and auction
duties which were received, between the years
1817 and 1836, by the Commissioners of the Canal
Fund, and paid over to the public creditors, and
which, if they had not been so applied, would have19
been used during that time for the ordinary pur-
poses of the government, exceeds 15,000,000 ; so
that although the above sum of $3,156,533 94 was
thus expended, the salt and auction duties remain
to the amount of the $5,000,000 virtually invested
in the canals, and stand as a substitute for the
$3,156,533 94.
In the year 1832, in order to extinguish a claim
of John Jacob Astor to lands in Putnam county,
sold by the State, and the title to which had
proved defective, a debt was created called the
Astor Stock, to the amount of $561,000.
Since the year 1825, the State has also created
debts in constructing lateral canals, which remain
outstanding, viz:
For the Oswego canal,..............$421,304
Cayuga and Seneca,	........	237,000
Chemung,......................316,000
Crooked Lake,	.	•	   120,000
Chenango,.................. 2,270,000
$3,364,304
And it has commenced the construction of the Black
River canal and the Genesee Yalley canal, and
created debts on those accounts, for .	.	.	.	190,920
Making the total existing debt for lateral canals, $3,655,224
Between the years 1817 and 1837, the Common20
School Fund was increased from 1982,242 26 to
$1,916,647 68, and the Literature Fund from
$26,696 10 to $268,092 87.
On the first of January, 1837, the productive
property of the State consisted of the canals: —
which produced a nett revenue in the year 1836,
(after deducting all expenses of collection, and
of maintenance and repairs,) of $1,107,871 30;
equivalent to an annual income at 5 per cent, on a
principal of.........................$22,157,742
The debts of the State now are:
To the Bank Fund, ..............$416,532
The Astor debt,................. 561,000
For the lateral canals,....... 3,555,224
-------- $4,532,756
Which, deducted from the productive property as
above, leaves a balance of.........$17,624,986
The income of the State may then be estima-
ted as follows:
Nett revenue from the canals as above, . .	$1,107,871 30
The revenue of 1836 is assumed in this esti-
mate, for the reason that the tolls of 1837 were
reduced by accidental and temporary causes.
The auction duties, which produced in 1837, .	214,458 62
The salt duties,	do.	,.	111,516 89
Total,
$1,413,846 8121
Brought forward, .........................$1,413,846 81
From which deduct interest on the debt of
$4,532,756 65,............................$226,662 83
There remains, ....	$1,187,183 98
The ordinary expenses of the government are
estimated at........................... 400,000 00
Leaving a clear annual surplus revenue of $787,183 98
It thus appears, that in the twenty years from
1817 to 1837, the productive property of the State
was increased from $2,973,617 to $22,157,742,
(or after deducting the debt, $17,624,986) ; the
annual revenue, from $419,907 to $1,413,846;
that during the same period, $500,000 was ex-
pended upon the public buildings; that the school
and literature funds were doubled; the State tax
discontinued, and the people relieved from burthen
or expense in supporting the government.
It would naturally be supposed, that the signal
success which has attended the prosecution of
our canal policy, would have removed all opposi-
tion to the extension of a system which has pro-
duced such prosperous and profitable results : and
yet there are still to be found within this State,
individuals of respectability and influence who
zealously maintain that the treasury has been im-
poverished and exhausted by our public works:
that the extension of the system will impose22
grievous and everlasting burthens upon the peo-
ple : — and that “ internal improvement,” (in the
often repeated phrase of a distinguished advocate
of these opinions,) “ is but another name for
eternal taxation.” Upon what ground this strange
doctrine rests, is really not easy to discover. The
State, within the last twenty years, has quadrupled
its productive property, relieved its citizens from
taxation, and now enjoys a clear annual revenue
of nearly eight hundred thousand dollars: and
how, under these circumstances, its treasury can be
regarded as impoverished or exhausted, is wholly
beyond the comprehension of the committee.
The supporters of this doctrine, however, allege that
the “ General Fund ” is squandered, and gone ; —
that the State has no other fund to which it can
legally resort; — and therefore, that the treasury
is exhausted, and taxation has become necessary.
But neither of these propositions is founded in
fact. The General Fund is neither squandered
nor gone, but now exists, in full vigour, invested in
the canals, and in that shape yields an ample reve-
nue to the treasury: and it is no more lost than
the seed is lost, which, when sown, produces an
abundant harvest. The treasury, in fact, is over-
flowing with the tolls derived from the canals;
and to those tolls the State may now legally and pro-
perly resort, for the purpose, not only of meeting
all its present obligations, but of extending the
benefits of internal improvement to those hitherto23
neglected portions of its population, at whose
common risk, and upon whose common credit,
the canals were constructed.
But it has been contended, that these revenues
are placed “ wholly beyond the reach ” of the
representatives of the people : and upon the ground
that the 10th clause of the seventh section of the
Constitution of 1821, has declared that the tolls
shall not be “ reduced or diverted ” at any time
before the “ full and complete payment ” of the
moneys borrowed for the construction of the Erie
and Champlain canals : and it is averred, that in
point of fact, those moneys have not been fully
and completely paid, according to the literal re-
quirements of that clause.
This objection, it will be perceived, if well
founded, will apply equally to the reduction, as to
the diversion, of the tolls: and as it involves in
both respects important consequences, it deserves
attention.
The Convention which framed the amended
constitution assembled in the year 1821, and only
a few months after the Comptroller had estimated
that the tolls of the canals for the ten years next
after their completion would be only one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars annually. From pecu-
liar causes, not necessary now to state, a large24
majority of that body participated in the doubts
and forebodings as to the eventual success of the
canals, which then prevailed with a considerable
party throughout the State; and there is good rea-
son to believe that many of its leading members hon-
estly feared, that the debt to be incurred in con-
structing those works would never be paid; and
that if the tolls should be reduced or diverted, a
perpetual tax to pay the interest would be imposed
upon the people. It was mainly Under the influ-
ence of this apprehension, and far less, if at all,
for the purpose of affording a specific pledge to
the public creditor, that the clause in question was
inserted in the constitution.
The total amount borrowed to construct the
canals, was $7,672,782, of which amount $5,326,-
295 has since been paid directly to the public
creditors, and certificates of stock have been can-
celled to that extent. The duty of receiving the
money and holding it for the creditors, is by law
entrusted to the board of Commissioners of the
canal fund; and that body stands between the
State and its creditors, acting at the same time as
agents of the State and trustees for the creditors.
The commissioners have discharged their duty so
far as to receive from the State “ full and complete
payment ” of the debt; and they are now engaged
in executing the remainder of their trust, by paying
the money to the creditors. They have repeatedly25
notified those creditors by public advertisements,
both in this country and in Europe, and also by
written circulars whenever their residence could
be discovered, that they had received the money,
and were prepared to pay it; but as the debt, ac-
cording to the terms of the loan, does not fall due
until 1845, the Commissioners, in order to avoid
the responsibility incurred in keeping so large an
amount permanently invested, have offered large
premiums to the creditors to come forward and
receive payment and surrender their certificates.
The Commissioners have thus reduced the amount
to $2,346,487; so that little more than two-sevenths
of the original sum now remains unpaid. As a con-
siderable portion of this remnant of the debt is held
by persons residing in foreign countries, it is not im-
probable that some of them may neglect or refuse to
receive payment until the year 1845, and the money
must consequently remain at least until that time
invested for their benefit in the hands of the Com-
missioners. It will be perceived, that whatever force
there maybe in this constitutional objection, will not
be diminished by the payment of any portion of the
debt,however large; so that whether five-sevenths or
ninety-nine-hundredths of the debt should be paid,
the position would not be varied. The pledge can
only be literally performed by paying the last remain-
ing dollar to the last remaining creditor. No middle
ground exists between this extreme consequence
and the position that the pledge is satisfied for all
426
fair and practical purposes, when the amount of
the debt is paid over to the Commissioners and
safely invested by them in trust for the creditors.
It is under these circumstances that the doctrine
is advanced, not on the part of the holders of this
remnant of the debt, (for it is believed that they
are wholly indifferent as to the matter,) but by
those who seek to arrest the progress of our public
works, that the canal tolls shall not be reduced or
diverted until the last dollar shall be literally paid
to the creditor. That no matter how important
it may become to our commerce and general inte-
rests to revise and regulate the rates of toll; that
no matter how just or pressing may be the claims
of other parts of the State for works of internal
improvement; the canal tolls shall be held “ beyond
the reach of the Legislatureat least until the
year 1845, when interest ceasing on the debt, the
creditor may probably be willing to receive pay-
ment:—and the doctrine involves this monstrous
consequence, that the whole accumulating amount
of the tolls, which with the compounding interest,
would produce, by the year 1845, at least ten mil-
lions of dollars, must be kept invested in money
as a further pledge for the payment of a sum of two
millions, and which very two millions already
exists in money invested on safe security: and
that in the mean time the public improvements of
the State must be deferred, and direct taxes27
imposed to defray the ordinary expenses of the
government!
In the judgement of the committee no such
absurdity was contemplated by the framers of the
Constitution, or could ever be submitted to by the
people. The clause in question evidently was
intended merely as a guaranty, not so much to
the public creditors as to the people of the State
at large, that a sum should be raised from the
tolls and other revenues pledged, sufficient to sat-
isfy the debt, and provide against the hazard of
taxation for that purpose. And this was all its
object. It was never dreamed that ten millions
should be accumulated in order to pay two millions.
The restriction was adopted upon the mistaken
calculation that the revenue would not more than
pay the debt as fast as it became due. Time has
disclosed that error. The money is raised and
ready, and upon every sound and rational principle
of construction the pledge is satisfied. The State
has done all that the most scrupulous good faith
could require, and no reason exists why the tolls
which are thus redeemed and unfettered, should
not be regulated or reduced in such manner as
the Legislature shall think fit, or applied to any
beneficial purpose which the public interests may
require.
And in this light the question has been viewed28
by the representatives of the people. By the act
of May 11, 1835, the Legislature directed that the
canal tolls should be expended in enlarging the
Erie Canal to such dimensions as the Canal Board
should determine, who were thereby also author-
ized to construct an “ independent canal,” in such
parts of the route as they should think expedient.
The canal, according to the plan since adopted
by the Board, will be about three times as large in
volume as the existing canal, and its location will
be changed for several miles of the route. The
Revised Statutes, in 1830, had explicitly declared
the Erie and Champlain canals to be completed:
so that both legally and practically, the canal thus
altered in dimensions and in location, may be con-
sidered as a new work. The tolls expended in
its enlargement, to all technical intents, are as
much “ diverted,” as if employed in constructing
a lateral canal or any other of the public works of
the State; and the consequences, so far as the
public creditors or the people of the State at large
are concerned, are in no respect different.
But the 9th section of the act placed the inten-
tion of the Legislature beyond all doubt: for it
directed that the expenditures in thus enlarging
the canal “ should be so limited as to leave from
the canal revenues an annual income to the State
of at least $300,000.” In other words, the Legis-29
lature appropriated that amount of the canal tolls
to the ordinary uses of the government.
By a subsequent act, passed May 16, 1836,
the Legislature increased this annual sum from
#300,000 to #400,000: but possibly for the pur-
pose of quieting constitutional scruples, the phrase-
ology of that law directed the Commissioners
of the Canal Fund to “loan” that sum annually
“ to the treasury of this State, for the use and
benefit of the General Fund;” and the Comptroller
was directed to charge the General Fund “ as a
debtor,” for such loan to the Canal Fund. It is
rather to be regretted that it should have been
thought proper or necessary to throw the transac-
tion into this form. If the State owned the tolls
free from the encumbrance of the public creditor,
no necessity existed for this legislative fiction. If
it did not, the propriety of abstracting the tolls,
under the guise of a loan to the General Fund,
(which fund existed only in the canals themselves)
may well be questioned: while the very fact of
charging the State, or the General Fund, “ as a
debtor,” for the amount of the tolls, was calculated
needlessly to perplex the public mind in regard to
the true state of the finances.
It is therefore quite evident that the tolls of the
canals have been brought fully within the reach of
the Legislature : and the very important question30
then arises, in what mode shall they be appropri-
ated so as most effectually to promote the progress
of the public works ?
By the acts of 1835 and 1836, the tolls, after
deducting $400,000 annually, (and of which sum
about one half is applied, in paying the interest
on the debt for lateral canals,) have been appro-
priated to the enlargement of the Erie canal. The
cost of that enterprise, originally estimated at
$12,000,000, will not probably fall short of $15,-
000,000: so that if only the nett revenues (now
amounting as it is above shown, to $787,183,)
shall be applied to that purpose, the work cannot
be completed short of twenty years: and during
the whole of that time those other works must be
deferred, which could be aided by this revenue
in case a proper scheme of finance were to be
adopted.
The policy and the plan of enlarging the canal, have
been definitely settled by the constituted authorities,
and after mature consideration. Expenditures have
already been incurred in prosecuting the work to
an amount exceeding $600,000, and contracts have
been made in addition to the extent of nearly three
millions. The idea of abandoning the undertaking,
even if it were desirable, is therefore quite out of
the question. The committee are moreover satis-
fied, that the speedy enlargement of the canal is31
required by the best interests, not only of the
inhabitants in its immediate vicinity, but of the
people of every part of the State. The Canal
Commissioners in their recent report to the Legis-
lature, have estimated its annual tolls within a few
years after it shall be completed, at no less than
three millions of dollars, equivalent to an annual
income of five per cent, on a capital of sixty mil-
lions, and that of this large revenue at least one
half will be paid upon property passing to and from
other States. It is quite evident that such an income
will enable the State, after making the most judi-
cious revision of the rates of toll, to extend its
fostering aid to every portion of its territory, how-
ever remote or sequestered. To secure such a
result with the least practicable delay, is therefore
an object of general importance*
The canal, when enlarged, will be greatly in-
creased in value and power, and in point of magni-
tude will be one of the most important works, not
only of this country, but of the age. Its capacity
exceeding that of the present canal, at least seven
fold—being seven feet deep and seventy feet
wide, with double locks of enlarged dimensions
throughout the whole line,—it will furnish the
means of convenient transit for not less than ten
millions of tons annually. The supply of water
will be abundant and unfailing, and the enlarged
size of the boats by which it will be navigated, will32
reduce the cost of transportation nearly one half;
so that if the tolls should even be retained at their
present rates, the saving to the community in the
aggregate expense of conveyance, would be from
one-fourth to one-third of the amount now paid.
It must be borne in mind however, that to effect
this saving, the enlargement must be completed
throughout the whole line, so as to avoid the
expense and delay of trans-shipment,— and from
this fact it will be obvious, that important financial
consequences are involved in its speedy prosecu-
tion. By proper efforts the enlargement may be
completed and made available within five years.
At the expiration of that period, the interest, at
five per cent., compounded half yearly, on the cost
of the work, (estimating it at fifteen millions) will
amount to about two millions and a half of dollars ;
whereas, if the completion shall be delayed twenty
years, the intervening interest alone will exceed
nine millions; showing a loss of interest by pro-
ceeding at the present sluggish rate, of at least six
and a half millions of dollars; a sum which of
itself would go far to extend the benefits of in-
ternal improvement to every other section of the
State.
In order thus to expedite the work, it will become
necessary to borrow money and incur a temporary
debt. That this suggestion will alarm those who
regard a public debt as the greatest of all public ca-33
lamities, is not improbable; and it may very pos-
sibly arouse opposition, as violent as that which
was arrayed against our canals in their early stages.
The hope is however indulged, that the successful
example furnished by that great experiment will
dispel any groundless fears, and impart to our
public councils that degree of moral courage which
the occasion requires.
Our fathers did not hesitate to encounter debt,
even when the means of paying the interest were
unascertained and contingent; and surely we may
venture upon a similar effort, now that we are certain
that the revenues of the State will suffice to pay the
interest. The present nett annual revenue of the
State, after paying its expenses and the interest on
its debt, is $787,183, as above stated. That sum
alone will pay the annual interest, at five per cent,
on $15,743,660; and that amount may therefore
be borrowed and expended, and the interest punc-
tually met without taxation. Any augmentation
which shall be experienced (either by means of
the expenditure of that sum, or from any other
cause) in the revenue of the canals, will itself in-
crease to a corresponding extent the ability of the
State further to borrow and pay the interest. It is
evident that every $500,000 of revenue will serve
as a basis of finance to sustain ten millions of
debt. If the estimate of the Canal Commissioners
is correct, (and from their well known caution
534
their opinions in this respect are peculiarly enti-
tled to confidence) that the enlarged Erie Canal
will yield an annual revenue of three millions,
equivalent to five per cent, on sixty millions, it will
at once be obvious that a sum of thirty millions may
not only be borrowed, and expended, but wholly
reimbursed, within twenty years; or that forty
millions may be so borrowed, expended, and re-
imbursed, in twenty-eight years.
Nor need it be apprehended, that in order to
produce these immense results, the tolls of the
canals must be maintained at oppressive or injuri-
ous rates. During the years 1833,1834, and 1835,
the rates were reduced in the aggregate about 35
per cent, and yet during these three years the
tolls amounted to $4,209,000; whereas in the
three years next preceding the reduction they had
amounted to only $3,185,000, exhibiting an in-
crease of upwards of a million of dollars. The
responsible duty of regulating the tolls to be im-
posed upon the great and almost illimitable trade
which our canals are to enjoy, and of fixing the
rates so judiciously as best to promote our com-
mercial and agricultural prosperity, and at the same
time adequately to strengthen our fiscal resources,
will undoubtedly be exercised with that prudence,
liberality, and forecast, which the magnitude of the
subject demands. Whatever rates of revenue may
be eventually adopted, we may safely assume that35
the State will take care to reserve such an amount
in the aggregate as the interests of its treasury and
the general welfare of its citizens shall require.
The committee, therefore, have no hesitation in
recommending that the State proceed promptly to
borrow such moneys as are needed to prosecute
most vigorously its public works; and in lieu of
appropriating the revenue only of the present
canals for the purpose of making such expendi-
tures as the general interests require, they would
suggest that the State should retain that revenue
as a sinking fund to pay the interest on all moneys
it may borrow, from time to time, to prosecute
and perfect a liberal system of internal improve-
ment.
It is not the appropriate duty of the present com-
mittee to point out those particular works which
stand most in need of the efforts or the fostering care
of the State. That gratifying office will devolve
upon those by whom it will doubtless be faithfully
and wisely discharged. The view which they
have sought to take, is purely fiscal in its nature :
aiming only to demonstrate the pecuniary ability
of the State to proceed promptly and liberally in
the great work of improving its internal condition
and developing its resources. They confidently
believe that the success hitherto attained in the
prosecution of our system of internal improvement
is but the precursor of triumphs far more im-36
portant: that the results we now enjoy but faintly
shadow forth the vast realities which are within
our reach; and that it needs but to employ promptly
and vigorously our resources to augment yet more
fully and gloriously the power and prosperity of
the State. Without trespassing upon the province
of those whose duty it is to prescribe the par-
ticular details of those great measures of policy,
by which our dormant energies may thus be roused
into salutary and profitable action, the committee
would observe generally, that the works which for
the next few years will occupy the attention of
our public authorities, are,
1.	The rail-roads connecting the distant extremi-
ties of the State, and the interior portions with
each other.
2.	The Erie canal with its various tributaries.
On the subject of the policy to be pursued by
the State in regard to the construction of rail-roads,
differences of opinion exist.
On the one hand it is contended that these
great avenues of travel and communication which
affect so intimately the convenience and welfare
of all our people, should be constructed and man-
aged exclusively by public agents acting under
public authority: and the success of those gov-37
ernments which have pursued that policy, not only
in cheapening the cost of transport, but in avoiding
the mischiefs of monopoly has been adduced as a
reason why the State should possess, and at all
times regulate, this important branch of our internal
improvements.
On the other hand it has been urged, that the
employment of the great number of persons re-
quired to conduct the manifold details of these
crowded channels of transportation, would throw
into the hands of the State, an undue amount of
power and patronage : and it is alleged that this
danger will be avoided, and the public conven-
ience in other respects promoted, by entrusting
their management to companies of individuals
duly incorporated. It is also contended, and es-
pecially by those who are habitually skeptical as
to the success of our public works, that the value
of rail-roads has not yet been sufficiently tested,
and that they will eventually fail to yield results
sufficiently profitable to render it desirable for the
State to construct them at the public expense.
The State has declined, hitherto, to construct
rail-roads on its own account, but has preferred
to commit that duty to incorporated companies;
and has afforded aid, at least, in one important
instance, by a loan of the public credit, taking as
security a mortgage of the work. If a similar38
course shall be pursued in respect to all the
rail-roads which may stand in need of public as-
sistance, and the interest on the stock to be thus
loaned shall be regularly met by the companies,
the treasury will remain wholly unaffected by such
measures of aid, and in a fiscal point of view, the
State will experience neither profit nor loss.
The legislature has taken care, however, in the
charters by which the rail-road companies have
been incorporated, to reserve the right ultimately
to take those works for public use, and the State
may possibly exercise this right at some future
period. The total cost of the leading lines will
not fall short of eighteen or twenty millions of
dollars; but the State will find no difficulty, when-
ever it may see fit to take these works, in making
such financial arrangements as the occasion may
demand.
The sum which the treasury will require for the
canals now in progress, will be:
1.	For enlarging the Erie canal,
including damages, ....	$15,000,000
2.	For the Genessee Valley and the
Black River canals, (authorized
to be constructed by laws pass-
ed in 1836,) in addition to the
amount of 1190,920 22, herein-39
before included as part of the
State debt, not less than .	. .	5,000,000
$20,000,000
For the two last mentioned canals, loans have
been already negotiated to the amount of $2,800,-
000, but the proceeds, (with the exception of the
$190,920,) have not yet been expended.
In addition to the amount above stated, it may
be observed that sundry projects for other canals
of smaller extent, have been more or less enter-
tained, including among others, an extension re-
commended in the Governor’s message in 1836,
of the Erie canal from Buffalo westward to a
point on Lake Erie less obstructed by ice: the
extension of the Black River canal into the mine-
ral districts of St. Lawrence county: the contin-
uation of the Erie canal, or the construction of a
branch from it to some proper point below the
Overslaugh: and some other extensions of exist-
ing works. If any considerable portion of these
projects should be carried into execution, the cost
will not probably fall short of $5,000,000.
The connexion which it is proposed to effect
by means of a ship canal between Lake Erie and
Lake Ontario, has been excluded from the above
estimate, under the belief, that a work so interest-40
ing and important in a military point of view, will
be constructed at the expense and under the au-
thority of the general government.
It thus appears:
1.	That the amount which the State must expend
under existing laws, for the enlargement and
construction of canals already commenced, will
be..............................$20,000,000
2.	That the amount to be paid from
time to time, for taking rail-roads
for public use, whenever the State
shall find it beneficial to the pub-
lic interests to do so, may be from
ten to twenty millions, according
to the extent of the works to be
selected: or say .	.	.	. ..	$15,000,000
3.	That the amount to be hereafter
authorized for extensions of the
present canals, may be	$5,000,000
Making a total of..............$40,000,000
It is not, however, to be inferred that the com-
mittee intend by stating the above sums to recom-
mend an expenditure to the amount of forty mil-
lions upon our public works. It is certain that,
under existing laws, at least one half of that sum
must be so expended; but whether any portion of41
the residue will be appropriated, will of course de-
pend upon the views of the present and succeeding
Legislatures. They wish merely to be understood,
that if the Legislature from time to time shall see
fit to expend that sum, it may be safely borrowed,
without imposing any burthens upon the people;
and that if the views of the Canal Commissioners,
as to the future revenues of the canal, are correct,
the whole amount,'within thirty years, may be re-
imbursed, and added to the productive property of
the State. It is not improbable that those who
are in the. habit of decrying our public works, may
assert that a debt is to be incurred to an alarming
amount, to be handed down as a grievous burthen
to all future generations: and yet, in truth, we shall
only hand down what our fathers have transmitted
to us, public works, paid for and free from debt,
and themselves affording the means of still further
augmenting the power and wealth of those who
are to follow us.
Nor will this event be deemed at all improba-
ble, when we reflect that within the last twenty
years the canals have come down to us free from
debt, and worth more than twenty millions. Actual
experience has thus familiarized us with the certain
operation of an excess of revenue in extinguishing a
debt created for public works,—but for the sake of
presenting the subject in a more perspicuous form,
an arithmetical table is subjoined,—exhibiting the
642-
progress of a debt within the next ten years, to the
extent of forty millions; and then the successive
stages by which it will reach its final extinguish-
ment.
In respect to that part of the annual report of
the Comptroller of this State on the finances re-
ferred to the consideration of the committee, which
suggests the expediency of levying a tax for the
purposes of the treasury, they are compelled to
state that, in their judgement, no necessity exists
for that measure. They are aware that, from the
year 1827, when the report of Mr. Wright an-
nounced to the public that internal improvements
could only be sustained by direct taxation, down
to the present time, our fiscal officers have habitu-
ally urged upon the Legislature the necessity of
resorting to that method of levying money for the
use of the State. It is not without diffidence, that
the committee feel themselves compelled wholly
to dissent from the experienced individuals who,
for the last ten years, have controlled our public
affairs; but, after a laborious and careful investiga-
tion, they have been unable to discover any reason
why such a mode of raising money should have
been recommended. In the opinion of the com-
mittee there is no possible ground upon which a
tax could be justified. The treasury is full and
needs no replenishing: and ample means are pro-
vided for meeting the future engagements of the43
State. Under such circumstances, to subject the
people to the burden of a direct tax, would be
equally unwise and unnecessary.
It is stated, however, by the Comptroller, and
the fact has been repeatedly urged in other offi-
cial communications, that Mr. Jefferson lays down
the rule that a government disposed to cherish its
credit “ should never borrow a dollar without lay-
ing a tax in the same instant for paying the inte-
rest annually, and the principal in a given time.”
But the maxim is not sound, to the extent to which it
is thus attempted to be applied. It will be recollected
that Mr. Jefferson lived in a period of war and
wasteful expenditure ; and in speaking of the con-
sequences of public debt, he doubtless intended to
refer to expenditures upon objects not of them-
selves yielding a pecuniary return — such as the
public defence, the protection of commerce, or
the expenses of the civil administration. No rea-
son can possibly exist for extending the rule to
debts incurred for public works, themselves pro-
ducing an income equivalent to the interest; nor
is it absolutely requisite that such revenue shall
be received “in the same instant” in which the
debt is created, provided that it will be realized
within a reasonably moderate period. It may, in-
deed, be admitted, that when such result is pro-
blematical, or only to be realized at a remote
period, the tax ought to be laid when the work is44
commenced; provided always that the government
possesses no other pecuniary means of paying the
interest. But then it must be shown that no such
auxiliary resources are possessed, for otherwise
there could be no necessity for levying money by
tax for the mere purpose of preserving pecuniary
funds which could be more directly and economi-
cally applied to the object in question. And this
is the view which the Legislature has taken of this
question, from the year 1826, when the State tax
was discontinued, down to the present moment.
Although annually urged to levy a tax, they have
annually refused : but have seen fit to rely on the
revenues from the public works, to meet the de-
mands on the treasury. The result has shown
that they were right; for although the State since
1825, has expended in constructing lateral canals
the sum of $3,364,304, it has still remaining an
annual surplus revenue of nearly $800,000; and
its people are free from taxation.
Without pretending, therefore, to detract from
the general authority of the maxim thus quoted, it
may be claimed that our own experience has shown
it to be inaccurate, when applied to debts created
for works of internal improvement. In truth, it is
hardly credible that Mr. Jefferson ever intended
thus to apply it; but if he did, it only shows, what
his incredulity in respect to the- Erie canal had
sufficiently testified, that enterprises of that cha-45
racter had not occupied his most deliberate at-
tention.
It will be perceived that the very foundation
upon which the financial calculations of the com-
mittee are based, is the estimate of the Canal
Commissioners submitted to the Legislature, in
which they state that the Erie canal, within a few
years after its enlargement, will produce an an-
nual revenue of $3,000,000. The importance of
verifying the accuracy of this estimate will be evi-
dent, as any material error would lead to the most
injurious consequences. The inquiry has neces-
sarily embraced details of unusual magnitude, but
having subjected them to a careful scrutiny, the
comittee state succinctly, the reasons why, in their
opinion, that estimate is entitled to reliance.
The steady progress of population and wealth of
that portion of our own State which is tributary to
the canal, needs little remark. Whether owing
to the growth of the country on its immediate
borders — or to the influence of the lateral canals,
in swelling its commerce, — the tables of tonnage
exhibit a rate of increase which will probably be
maintained for many years. Although the con-
tribution thus furnished by the State to the reve-
nues of the canal, at the present time is large, (for
two-thirds of the whole of its tolls are now drawn
from the trade of our own people,) yet the amount46
becomes relatively unimportant, when compared
with the enormous results we are hereafter to de-
rive from our commerce with the west. Let us
then advert briefly to the present extent and fu-
ture progress of that commerce, and the probable
effect which it is hereafter to produce upon our
fiscal affairs.
The western termination of the Erie canal looks
out upon Lake Erie, the most southerly and central
of the great chain of navigable lakes, which stretch-
es far into the interior from our western boundary.
Around these inland seas, a cluster of five powerful
States is rapidly rising. The territory which they
comprise, and which is to become tributary to the
canal, embraces that great area, extending from
the lakes on the north to the Ohio on the south,
and from the western confines of this State to the
upper Mississippi, and containing 280,000 square
miles. To measure its extent by well known ob-
jects, it is fifteen times as large as that part of
the State of New-York, west of the county of
Oneida—nearly twice as large as the kingdom of
France — and about six times as extensive as the
whole of England. It contains 180 millions of
acres of arable land, a large portion of which is
of surpassing fertility.
The productive power of this region, and its
capability of supplying tonnage for export, are47
greatly strengthened by the facilities which it en-
joys for cheap and easy transportation. In this
respect, no country on the face of the globe enjoys
greater natural advantages ; for it is nearly encir-
cled by navigable waters; and its broad area is
intersected in numerous directions by streams fur-
nishing ample means of conveyance, while unusual
facilities for the construction of canals, and other
artificial channels of communication, are afforded
by the level and uniform character of its surface.
These being its geographical advantages, it
needs only the requisite number of inhabitants, to
fully develope its agricultural resources. Its pro-
gress in this respect has been truly surprising. In
1816, Ohio was the only organized State govern-
ment within its limits. In that year, Indiana,
having obtained the requisite number of 60,000
inhabitants, entered the Union, and took its place
by the side of Ohio. Illinois and Michigan were
then distant and feeble territories, with a few set-
tlers thinly scattered over their broad surface;
while "W isconsin, unknown even by name, was an
undistinguished portion of the great North-Western
territory. In the brief period of twenty-one years,
such has been the influx of population into this
great district, that Ohio, the eldest member in this
brotherhood of nations, now numbers 1,400,000
inhabitants; Indiana upwards of 600,000; Illinois
and Michigan, (both of whom have organized their48
governments and come into the Union,) 700,000;
while west of lake Michigan, not only is Wisconsin
rapidly rising, but even beyond the upper Missis-
sippi, 30,000 citizens have already laid the founda-
tion of yet another State. Such is the onward
march of this population, that the amount of its
annual increase alone exceeds in number the white
inhabitants of ten of the States of the Union. The
population already embraced within the district in
question, falls little short of three millions, and if
the same rate of progress shall be maintained for
the twelve years next to come, by the year 1850
it will exceed six millions.
The peculiar activity and energy of these peo-
ple, and their power most rapidly to develope the
resources of the broad domain which they inhabit,
are also worthy of consideration, in estimating the
eventual extent of their trade. They probably pos-
sess a greater aggregate power of production than
any other portion equally numerous of the human
race. Their population is made up almost exclu-
sively of the young, the resolute, the vigorous, and
the intelligent, who have gone from the more
crowded communities in the eastern and middle por-
tions of the Union, to seat themselves around this
chain of waters, and there build up an empire. They
have taken with them the laws, the habits, the lan-
guage, and the institutions, civil and religious, of49
their parent States, but above all, they have carried
into that vast field, an honest love of labour, and
in the very act of organizing their governments,
they testified their willingness to exert and rely on
their own energies, by prohibiting slavery forever,
throughout all their limits.
This group of inland States has two outlets for
its trade to the ocean ; one by the Mississippi to
the Gulf of Mexico; the other through Lake Erie
and the navigable communications of this State to
the Atlantic. Whether it be attributable to simi-
larity of origin, of laws, or of habits, or to ties of
consanguinity, or superior salubrity of climate, this
people evidently prefer the market on the Atlantic,
and they are making prodigious efforts to reach it.
Three great canals, (one of them longer than the
Erie Canal,) embracing in their aggregate length
about one thousand miles, are to connect the Ohio
with Lake Erie, while another deep and capacious
channel, excavated for nearly thirty miles through
solid rock, unites Lake Michigan with the navi-
gable waters of the Illinois. In addition to these
broad avenues of trade, they are also constructing
lines of rail-roads, not less than 1,500 miles in
extent, in order to reach with more ease and speed,
the lakes, through which they seek a conveyance
to the sea-board. The undaunted resolution of
this energetic race of men is strikingly evinced by
the fact, that the cost of the works which they
750
have thus undertaken, (and most of which are in
actual progress) will exceed forty-eight millions
of dollars — a sum far exceeding all that New-
York, with two millions of inhabitants, and two
hundred years of accumulated wealth, has ever
attempted. The circumstance, moreover, is par-
ticularly important, that the public works in each
of these widespread states are arranged on a har-
monious plan, each having a main line supported
and enriched by lateral and tributary branches,
thereby bringing the industry of their whole peo-
ple into prompt and profitable action, while the
systems themselves are again united on a grander
scale, in a series of systems, comprising an aggre-
gate length of more than 2,500 miles, with lake
Erie as its common centre.
The various portions of this vast work are now
in a train of rapid construction. Indiana alone has
6,000 men in her employ ; and Ohio, Illinois, and
Michigan are making correspondent efforts; so
that it may be confidently predicted that within
seven years from this time, the whole inland trade
of that broad region around the lakes, will crowd
the entrance of the Erie canal on its way to the
Atlantic.
It will at once be obvious, that the whole of
the tonnage thus to be furnished by these com-
munities, whatever may be its bulk, will pay51
to our treasury a transit duty for the whole length
of the canal; and will therefore yield a revenue
twice as large as an equal quantity of products
from the districts of our own State, mid-way be-
tween the Lakes and the Hudson.
And what will be the amount of this tonnage,
and by what standard shall we measure it ?
’ If we take the area and the products, and the
population of our own State as a guide, we fall
far short; and even if we resort to more populous
nations — if we select England or France, and
compare their productive power with that of this
youthful and rapidly increasing race, the parallel
will not be complete; for a much smaller proportion
of the inhabitants of those kingdoms is devoted to
agricultural pursuits; nor is their inland commerce
wholly concentrated within any single channel.
But we, fortunately, possess an adequate and
appropriate standard in the Mississippi river, the
great rival and competitor of the Erie canal, with
which it is destined hereafter to hold divided sway
over the vast trade of the west. The number of
inhabitants who at present employ that stream and
its tributaries, for the purpose of conveyance, is
scarcely five millions, and yet the amount which
they paid during the last year for transportation52
on its waters, was between eight and nine millions
of dollars.
The momentous question, whether the tonnage
of the inland district under examination is to seek
the Atlantic through the Erie Canal, or descend
the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, is mainly
to depend upon the comparative cost of transport-
ation. But when we consider the circuitous course
of the Mississippi, the loss of time in ascending
its strong current, and the greater rapidity of
communication presented by the Atlantic route;
when we advert moreover to the ample volume
and trifling lockage of the enlarged canal; and
especially when we estimate the commercial effects
of the navigable passage opened by the Hudson
through the Alleghany ridge; we shall perceive
that when the artificial communications thus con-
centrating upon Lake Erie shall be put in full
operation, the cost of transporting agricultural
products from the interior of this district will not
materially vary, whether carried to the Atlantic or
the Gulf of Mexico. The inference, then, may
safely be drawn, that whenever a population of
five millions around these western waters shall
resort to the Erie canal for the means of convey-
ance, they will supply it with an amount of tonnage
equally great with that now transported on the
Mississippi by an equal number of inhabitants.53
It is estimated that the value of agricultural pro*
ducts which annually descend the Mississippi and
its tributaries, has already reached $70,000,000.
The value of the property transported on the ca-
nals of the State of New-York, during the year
1836, is shown by official tables to be $67,000,000.
Of that amount, it may be estimated that $50,000,000
consisted of property belonging exclusively to a
portion of the population of this State not exceed-
ing a million and a half in number, being at the
rate of $33 33 for each inhabitant; and that the
amount which they paid for its transportation ex-
ceeded two millions of dollars. If the same scale
of production and consumption shall be assumed
for the population of the district in question, (and
no reason is perceived why it should not be,) the
six millions of inhabitants in the west who will re-
sort to the Erie canal for the means of convey-
ance, will furnish tonnage, in exports and imports,
of at least $200,000,000 in value. The experience
of other nations will show that this amount is not
over-estimated. The food alone produced in Eng-
land in the year 1835, by an agricultural popu-
lation of about eight millions, was valued by their
political economists at $604,000,000; while that of
France was ascertained by its Minister of Finance
to be 5,237,000,000 of francs, or $980,000,000.
But there are peculiar reasons why the propor-
tion of agricultural exports of this great inland54
population should far exceed that of other nations.
The exuberance of their soil, the salubrity of their
climate, and the cheapness of their lands, (arising
from the vast supply within their limits) will ena-
ble them always to furnish food to every other
portion of the continent, on more advantageous
terms than it can be elsewhere produced. Labour
there reaps its best reward, and harvests of an
hundred fold repay its exertions; and such is the
superior productiveness of this region, that when
the completion of its great series of public works
shall bring a bushel of wheat on the plains of In-
diana within a few cents in price of a bushel in
New-England, its production in New-England must
cease. The same cause will probably operate to
change the culture of portions even of our own
State; for the unequalled fertility of the West will
always enable it to supply those products requir-
ing richness of soil with a less amount of labour,
and consequently at a cheaper rate, than they can
be produced within our own borders.
The consequences then of perfecting these sys-
tems of intercommunication will inevitably be a dis-
tribution of labour, on a grand scale, throughout the
whole northern part of the continent: the maritime
portions engrossing the active pursuits of naviga-
tion, commerce, and manufactures, while this cen-
tral group of agricultural States will become the
Common granary of the Union, and discharge the55
important duty of supplying subsistence to all the
surrounding communities. Indeed they have begun
even now to perform that office. The vallies of the
Miami, the Wabash, and the Illinois, are already
pouring out their overflowing riches upon the cotton
planting States below; and, although their power of
exportation has hitherto been kept in check by their
rapid increase in numbers, yet it is stated, that du-
ring the last season, exports amounting in value to
15 or 20,000,000 of dollars descended the Missis-
sippi and its tributaries, from that part of the val-
ley north of the Ohio, and constituting a portion
of the great district in question. Nor is this de-
scending stream of trade wholly withdrawn from
our own channels of conveyance, for its proceeds
find their way by a circuitous course through the
canals of New-York, and in that form swell the re-
venues of the treasury: — and the fact will strikingly
illustrate the value of the Union, in binding in bonds
of mutual benefit all our commercial interests, both
foreign and domestic, and in animating every por-
tion of our various industry, that the food thus ex-
ported from the inmost recesses of the West — ex-
changed for cotton at the mouth of the Mississip-
pi — exported in that form to the workshops of
Europe — again exchanged for their fabrics, and
brought home by our shipping to the seaports of
the north, — is at last returned through the Erie
canal to the luxuriant vallies from which it first
originated; thus revolving through the whole circle56
of our widespread commerce. It is only when
we view the Erie canal as one of the mighty seg-
ments of that vast circle, that we can rightly
estimate the importance and grandeur of its con-
nexions.
It is necessary also to be apprized of the course
of this trade, in order to explain the disparity in
value which will always exist between the des-
cending and the ascending cargoes. The amount
of merchandise now sent into the Western States
very far exceeds that of their products reaching
the Atlantic sea-board. An additional reason ex-
ists, it is true, for this difference. The flood of
emigration which has poured into that portion of
the country has temporarily produced so great a
disproportion between its consuming and produc-
ing classes, that they have scarcely been able to
obtain an adequate supply of food even from their
own exuberant soil. Population has outstripped
production : so that their agricultural products, in-
stead of seeking a market in the eastern portions
of the Union, have been sent westward in large
quantities into the upper lakes; and such is the
movement which animates all that region, that
more than four hundred vessels, during the last
year, reached the port of Chicago, at the south-
ernmost extremity of Lake Michigan. So long
as this great influx of population shall continue,
the capacity of these interior States to supply57
tonnage for the Erie canal will be necessarily
diminished, but the effect will be only to augment
more enormously their eventual power of expor-
tation ; and thus the present temporary check is
but adding increased energy to those causes, which
are operating with concentrated force to swell our
future commerce.
The progress in population of that portion of
this inland territory, immediately adjacent to the
lakes, has been three times as great as its pro-
gress in the portion adjacent to the Ohio. The
ratio of increase in the former, between the years
1820 and 1830, (as shown by the census,) was
130 per cent., and in the latter, only 44 per cent.;
and the comparative rates since that time have
not, probably, lessened. And this circumstance
explains why so large a surplus should have been
furnished for exportation from the section near
the Ohio, in comparison with that which has
hitherto found its way from the lakes into our
canals. The total amount of tolls, realized by
our treasury in the year 1836, from property pass-
ing to and from the country surrounding the lakes,
was only $385,000, or less than one-twentieth part
of the sum paid annually for transportation on the
Mississippi, and its confluents. To fix the pre-
cise period when the population, now swarming
into this district, will reach the point when their
power of furnishing products for exportation, will
858
fully exhibit itself, is, of course, impracticable.
The same causes which operate to diminish their
exports, now that their population has reached to
three millions, may not be wholly removed, when
its numbers shall be doubled, but it may be confi-
dently predicted, that before that time they will be
so firmly seated on their productive soil, as to be
able to supply a vast surplus of food for export.
The population of the western portion of our
own State still continues to increase with consid-
erable rapidity, but it nevertheless furnishes an an-
nual export of at least $20,000,000 in value. By
the year 1845, the States of the "West, surrounding
the lakes, will hold the same relative position in
respect to the whole of the Erie canal, which the
counties of New-York, west of the Seneca lake,
now bear to that part of the line east of Utica.
Our trade will then be measured, not by coun-
ties, but by sovereign States, themselves contain-
ing their fifty counties; and our revenues, no
longer dependent on the villages and townships
scattered along the borders of the canal, will be
drawn from the wide-spread and populous com-
munities, inhabiting the broad expanse between
the Ohio and the Lakes.
We obtain, then, the following facts, by which
to guide the present inquiry : —
That the value of the tonnage, annually trans-59
ported on the canals of this State, being $67,634,-
000, and the tolls paid being $,1,614,000, the rate
of toll is about 2 T" per cent, on the value of the
tonnage:—
That this rate increasing according to the dis-
tance from tide water, of the place from and to
which the tonnage is transported, the rate paid on
the western section of the Erie canal, is proba-
bly as high as four, or even five per cent.: —
(The present toll of 32 cents on a barrel of flour
worth $8, passing the whole length of the canal,
is 4 per cent., or 5 per cent., if valued at $6:—)
That the rate of toll, on commodities passing
to and from the States west of Buffalo, may there-
fore be safely assumed to be equal to at least two
per cent, on their value; and it is believed, that
the interests of the State will not require a reduc-
tion of the tolls below that rate: —
That a population, within this State, of one
million and a half of inhabitants, furnished a ton-
nage of $50,000,000 to the canals, — and that,
therefore, the population of the States in question,
when it shall amount to six millions, can furnish
a tonnage of $200,000,000. It may, however, be
allowed, that a considerable portion, and perhaps
two fifths of their exports, will continue to descend60
the Mississippi and its tributaries, and that one
fifth of their imports may ascend that stream.
We shall then have these results:
Descending cargoes, after deduct-
ing two fifths, ....................$60,000,000
Ascending cargoes, after deduct-
ing one fifth, .......	80,000,000
Total trade, . . . $140,000,000
At the present rates of toll, say at four per
cent., this trade would yield an annual revenue to
our treasury of $5,600,000; and if reduced to two
per cent., it would yield $2,800,000; and even at
one per cent., (equal to 2 cents only on a bushel
of wheat) it would yield $1,400,000.
The evidence furnished by these facts has there-
fore satisfied the committee, that the estimate of the
Canal Commissioners, that the tolls of the Erie ca-
nal when enlarged will, at the present rates, pay an-
nually three millions of dollars, and that one-half
of that sum will be received from property passing
to and from other States, is, to say the least, not
exaggerated.
It will be observed, that many of the views
which are above taken of the future magnitude of61
our inland commerce, will be applicable to the
two lines of rail-road which are to traverse our
territory from the Hudson to Lake Erie. The
immense effects which these wonder-working in-
struments of commerce are to produce in securing
the trade of the West to the Atlantic States, and
in binding the most distant portions of our country
in bonds of beneficial intercourse, would furnish,
upon the proper occasion, a subject of interesting
and profitable inquiry. Nor need it be apprehended
that they will affect injuriously our fiscal interests,
— for so far from lessening the commerce of the
canals, they will more probably serve to secure
and increase it, by affording the means of rapid
transportation for property and persons, during
those winter months in which their navigation is
impeded, and thereby preventing the diversion
into other channels of those more bulky pro-
ducts which furnish to canals their most lucrative
revenues.
Regarding the event as not improbable, that the
State at no distant period will take these great
thoroughfares of trade and travel as public pro-
perty, and that they are eventually to become a
portion of our system of public works, of which
all the parts will mutually sustain and strengthen
each other,—the growth of the West in swelling
their revenues is by no means a matter of indiffer-
ence to the public treasury.62
The committee will not trespass upon the at-
tention of the House, by expatiating upon the
grandeur of the prospect which would open upon
us, were we to look beyond the brief period,
which the present view has embraced. It is for
the philanthropist and statesman, to indulge those
feelings of honest hope and patriotic pride, which
cannot but arise, in contemplating the mighty
realities which the future has in store. The duty
which the present occasion has required of the
committee, has been of a more practical charac-
ter. They have attempted honestly, perhaps over
zealously, to show that our own noble State is
neither ruined nor bankrupt, — that its treasury
is neither impoverished nor exhausted, — and that,
however impeded in its progress by a narrow po-
licy which would retard its growth, undervalue its
strength, and stifle its energies, it is yet vigorous
and erect, and able to move onward with a giant’s
power. They have sought to show that the foun-
dations of our prosperity are deeply laid; that our
resources are manifold, and that they will prove
adequate to any efforts which our government may
make, to promote the prosperity, reward the in-
dustry, or stimulate the enterprise of our citizens,
whether occupying the fair and fruitful plains of
the west, — the forests and mines of the north, —
or the sunny slopes and fertile vallies of our south-
ern and midland districts.63
They will not attempt to measure the conse-
quences which the completion of a great and har-
monious system of intercommunication, extending
into the utmost recesses of the interior, and con-
centrating within our borders the trade of the
most populous portion of the continent, will pro-
duce, in augmenting the aggregate riches of our
State;—in covering its surface with opulent cities;
— in swelling its commercial marine; — in secur-
ing its political supremacy; — and in enlarging,
in all respects, its prosperity, power, and glory.
Nor will they seek to compute the pecuniary re-
sults which this vast and ever increasing stream of
inland trade, flowing through our territory for all
future time, will produce in augmenting the wealth
of its commercial metropolis. The history of
Venice, in its palmiest days, stretching her long
line of islands and colonies far into the East, and
controlling by her position the commerce of Asia,
presents but a feeble picture of the splendour and
riches which our own great mart must eventually
attain.
Still less will they seek to span within their nar-
row arithmetic, the pecuniary value of the illimitable
West. Were they to state that from an assessed
value in 1798, of only 26 millions, for all the vast
territory west of the mountains, stretching from
the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior, wealth has
arisen and been created within the short space64
of forty years to the amount of twelve hundred
millions of dollars, they would have attained only
the first step in that long series, by which an em-
pire is to ascend to a height of power and domin-
ion as yet unequalled in the history of our race.
Least of all will they attempt to compute the
pecuniary consequences of these great arteries of
trade, in cementing and preserving the union of
these free and flourishing republics. It is not for
New-York, or her sons, to “ calculate the value”
of that sacred bond. But if we would catch a
glimpse, however imperfect, of the gigantic stake
which is depending on our prudence and patriot-
ism — if we would count the cost of ruined cities,
and desolated fields, — of our lakes and rivers,
obstructed by fleets and fortresses in war, and by
commercial restrictions still more destructive in
peace, we may contrast Europe as it is, convulsed
by centuries of strife, and broken into jarring,
disunited, and discordant communities, with Eu-
rope, as it would have been, had its whole population
been united like ours, at the very origin of their
governments, under one common law, speaking one
common language, and bound by one common
constitution.
Let us then go forward in the broad path of
duty which is spread before us — and in riveting,
as now we may, the bonds which unite the mighty65
members of this glorious Union, discharge those
high and solemn obligations which we owe not
only to ourselves and those who surround us, but
to the long line of generations who are to follow
in after ages.
The committee, in order to carry out the views
of this report, will prepare a bill, making the neces-
sary appropriations, as soon as their object and
amount shall be determined by the proper com-
mittees, and sanctioned by the House. In the
mean time, they beg leave to submit the following
resolution:
Resolved, That it is not necessary or expedi-
ent to levy a direct tax.
SAMUEL B, RUGGLES,!
VICTORY BIRDSEYE,
THOMAS B. COOKE,
ABNER LEWIS,
March 12, 1838.
Committee of
j* Ways and
| Means.
9APPENDIX
REFERRED TO IN THE REPORT.
Estimate of the progress of a State Debt to the amount of Forty
•Millions of Dollars, and the progressive stages by ivhich it will
reach Us final extinguishment.
It is deemed safe to assume that the nett revenue from the ca-
nals for the year 1838, will be $800,000.
It is also deemed safe to assume that such a nett revenue will
increase for the four next years after 1838, at the rate of $100,000
per annum ; and that after that time, to the end of the year 1845,
owing to the completion of the enlarged Erie canal, and other works
of internal improvement, and the great increase of the commerce
through our public works, with the Western States, such annual
increase will be $200,000 per annum; and that after the year 1845,
owing to the operation of like causes, and the more extended and
perfect developement of the commerce and agriculture of the far
West, such increase will be at the rate of $300,000 per annum,
until such increase shall reach $3,000,000 per annum, which
will be in the year 1849.
It will be further assumed, that the tolls will probably be so re-
duced, that the nett revenues from the canals will not exceed the
said sum of $3,000,000; and that after the full completion of our
internal improvements, the State may make such further reductions
in the tolls, as the general interests and wishes of its people may
require.2
It is not supposed that this estimate Will be found entirely accu-
rate ; or that the ratio of gradations of increase in the different
years, will precisely conform to these assumptions. But inasmuch
as our past experience, and a reasonable estimate of our future
revenue, afford entire assurance that the estimates thus assumed
for future years, will fall below the actual results, it is deemed safe
to proceed upon such assumptions for the purpose of the present
estimate.
1.	We will suppose the State for the next ten years should
borrow four millions of dollars a year for the public service. The
amount of debt to be contracted will stand as follows : At the end
of the year
1838 . . . .	
1839 . . . .	
1840 . . . .	
1841 . . . .	
1842 ....	
1843 . . . .	
1844 . . . .	
1845 . . . .	
1846 . . . .	
1847 . . . .	
2.	It may be presumed that the loans of the respective years,
being in instalments, as the public service during the year may
require, the interest on the loan of any one year, will not be pay-
able for more than six months of the year in which it is contracted.
3.	Such moneys may be borrowed on five per cent, stock, not
under par, and redeemable at the option of the government after
10 or 15 years.
4.	The annual surpluses of income may form a sinking fund,
and invested in State stock or loaned to our citizens, so as to pro-
duce at least five per cent, per annum upon their principals.3
The following table is prepared, and exhibits the revenue pay-
able in each year ; the interest to be provided for in each year ;
the surplus revenue going to the sinking fund in each year ; and
the nett amount of the sinking fund at the end of each year; and
the period at which the sinking fund will suffice to pay off and
reimburse the whole principal and interest of the debt.
1. The nett revenue in		2. The interest	3. The surplus going	4. The amount of the	
each year will be for		to be paid in each	to the sinking fund will i	sinking fund at the	end
		year will be	be for each year	of each year	
1838	$800,000	$100,000	$700,000 00	$700,000	00
1839	900,000	300,000	635,000 00	1,335,000	00
1840	1,000,000	500,000	566,750 00	1,901,750	00
1841	1,100,000	700,000	495,087 50	2,396,837	50
1842	1,200,000	900,000	419,841 57	2,816,679	37
1843	1,400,000	1,100,000	440,833 06	3,257,513	33
1844	1,600,000	1,300,000	362,855 66	3,620,368	99
1845	1,800,000	1,500,000	480,018 44	4,100,387	43
1846	2,100,000	1,700,000	615,019 37	4,715,406	80
1847	2,400,000	1,900,000	745,770 34	5,461,177	14
1848	2,700,000	2,000,000	983,058 05	6,444,235	99
1849	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,322,211 79	7,766,447	78
1850	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,388,322 38	9,154,770	16
1851	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,457,738 50	10,612,505	66
1852	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,530,625 43	12,143,134	09
1853	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,607,156 70	13,750,290	79
1854	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,607,514 53	15,437,805	32
1855	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,771,890 26	17,209,695	58
1856	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,860,484 77	19,070,180	35
1857	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,953,509 01	21,023,689	36
1858	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,051,184 46	23,075,874	82
1859	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,153,793 74	25,229,668	56
1860	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,261,483 42	27,491,151	98
1861	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,374,557 58	29,865,709	57
1862	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,493,285 47	32,358,995	04
1863	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,617,949 75	34,976,944	79
1864	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,748,847 23	37,725,542	02
1865	3,000,000	2,000,000	2,886,277 10	40,611,819	12
Showing the final reimbursement of the whole debt in the year 1865.
N. B. If the stock shall be negotiated at a lower rate than five
per cent., or if five per cent, stocks shall command a premium,
this result will be correspondingly hastened.4
REMARKS
If the revenue assumed is not overrated, and it is believed that,
for the average of time, it is greatly underrated, the State has
an ample provision made for the punctual payment of the interest,
and the final discharge of the principal of a debt of forty millions
of dollars.
Yariations in the revenue received, or in the interest realized on
the sinking fund, may expedite or postpone the final discharge of
the debt for a very few years. But its sure and final extinguish-
ment by the means provided may be regarded as certain.5
The following tables, compiled from public documents, are pub-
lished with the preceding Report, for the purpose of exhibiting the
progressive increase during a series of twenty years, in the official
valuations of the taxable property in the city and in the State of
New-York respectively.
They embrace the two periods of ten years each, one imme-
diately preceding, and the other immediately following the com-
pletion of the Erie Canal, in the year 1825.
1. Official valuation of the real and personal property of the
city of New-York, from 1815 to 1825, inclusive.
Year.	Real Property. |	Personal Property.	| Total.
1815	$57,000,000	$24,636,042	$81,636,042
1816	57,308,200	24,766,000	82,074,200
1817	57,799,435	20,996,200	78,895,735
1818	59,827,285	20,426,806	80,254,091
1819	60,500,295	18,612,766	79,113,061
1820	52,084,328	17,446,425	69,530,753
1821	50,619,720	17,665,350	68,285,070
1822	53,330,574	17,958,570	71,289,144
1823	50,184,229	20,756,591	70,940,820
1824	52,019,730	31,055,946	83,075,676
1825	58,425,895	42,734,151	101,160,040
2. The like from 1825 to		1835, inclusive.	
Year. |	Real Property. |	Personal Property. |	Total.
1825	$58,425,895	$42,734,151	$101,160,046
1826	64,912,850	42,534,931	107,447,781
1827	72,617,770	39,594,156	112,211,926
1828	77,139,880	36,879,653	114,019,533
1829	76,834,880	35,691,136	112,526,016
1830	87,603,580	37,684,938	125,288,518
1831	97,221,870	42,058,344	139,280,214
1832	104,042,405	42,260,213	146,302,618
1833	114,124,566	52,366,976	166,491,542
1834	123,249,280	63,299,231	186,548,511
1835	143,732,425	74,991,278	218,723,703
Increase in the valuation of the real and personal
estate of the city, in the ten years preceding 1825,	$1,439,634
Increase from 1825 to 1835 inclusive, .	.	.	$135,648,0276
3, Official valuation of the real and personal estate of the State
of New-York, from 1815 to 1825, inclusive.
Year. |	Real Property. |	Personal Property. |	| Total.
1815	$239,667,218	$41,587,905	$281,255,123
1816	250,182,474	40,680,034	290,862,508
1817	265,710,214	38,457,247	304,167,461
1818	271,721,102	37,611,638	309,332,740
1819	243,942,231	37,054,513	280,996,744
1820	222,148,986	33,403,379	255,552,365
1821	207,446,531	33,199,982	240,646,513
1822	198,439,210	32,864,290	231,303,500
1823	215,238,913	46,903,723	252,142,636
1824	211,577,310	57,908,315	269,485,625
1825	199,533,471	63,893,875	263,427,346
4. The like from 1825 to 1S35, inclusive.
Year.	Real Property.	| Personal Property.	Total.
1825	$199,533,471	$63,893,875	$263,427,346
1826	214,802,204	64,590,093	279,392,297
1827	238,430,138	65,823,585	304,253,723
1828	275,861,471	68,785,292	344,646,763
1829	238,747,841	70,794,638	309,542,479
1830	250,975,885	68,142,411	319,118,296
1831	271,053,169	70,801,274	341,854,443
1832	294,596,149	75,956,259	370,552,408
1833 1834	Returns incomplete. 347,608,841	118,849,137	466,457,978
1835	403,517,585	125,058,794	528,576,379
Decrease ki the valuation of the real and personal
property of the State, in the ten years next pre-
ceding 1825,.............................$17,827,777
Increase in the ten years next subsequent, .	^ $265,149,033
G. F Hopkins & Son, Printers, 2 Ann-street-