carry their beaver to Albany, where they got double the price they must have sold for in Canada.

It may be objected against this argument, that the Canada Company as soon as they find that the traders cannot sell at their established price, will allow a greater price. But if we consider the duties the French company is obliged to pay to the king, they cannot allow so great a price as the English can at New-York. And if it should be insisted, that the French company may obtain a remission of those, yet if the clandestine trade with Albany be entirely stopt, the French traders will be ruined before such remission can be obtained, and their trade will be at an end.

My inclination led me to show what advantages not only the Indian trade would reap by extending our frontiers as far as the lakes, but likewise the British trade in some other branches, which the parliament of Great Britain seem to have much at heart, viz. naval stores; for the soil on both sides of the Mohawk River being as rich as it is possible, I believe, for any land to be, will be found the most proper for raising of hemp of any part of America, and the whole country round it being full of the largest pines, the royal navy is as likely to be well provided with masts there, and at as cheap a rate as any where else. But I have already too far presumed on your excellency's patience.

CADWALLADER COLDEN.

NOTE O. p. 91.

Entering upon the subject of the claims of the late Gouverneur Morris to the honour of projecting the system of canal navigation which has been adopted by the state of New-York, I freely confess that the first impressions upon my mind were the same with those of many who have ascribed to him the credit of having been the first to suggest the interior route, by a direct canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie, as the means of connecting the lakes with the ocean.

That his enlarged and early views of the improvement and extension of the navigation of the western waters of this state, may have indirectly contributed to the great achievement which has been effected, is not to be doubted; for few men possessed the same expanded views that Mr. Morris entertained of the great commercial prospects and resources of his native country, or possessed the talents to exhibit them to his fellow-citizens with equal eloquence in speech or in his written communications. Under these impressions, I applied to Mrs. Morris for the purpose, and with the expectation of obtaining access to his papers relative to that subject, with the view of doing justice to his memory by introducing into these pages the testimonials of his merits in originating the canal navigation of this state, and of discharging a debt of gratitude which I owe to that distinguished man, and which I shall ever feel and acknowledge, for the friendship and hospitality with which he honoured me during many years. Having been unsuccessful in my applica tion to Mrs. Morris, who intends herself to publish the documents left by her husband upon that subject, I am compelled to confine myself to the following papers, some of which have already appeared before the public, while others have been obtained from the friends of Mr. Morris, and from the manuscripts left by the late Thomas Eddy. From these documents it will appear ques. tionable how far Mr. Morris, notwithstanding his conversation with Simeon De Witt in 1808, and with Mr. Brodhead of Utica, had prior to 1810, when he was appointed one of the canal commissioners, seriously contemplated any other communication between the Hudson and Lake Erie, than by the circuitous route by Oswego and Lake Ontario, as distinctly expressed by him in his subjoined letter to General Lee, which course had been previously designated by the bill passed by the legislature in 1798, for opening the navigation between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, but which was never attempted to be carried into execution.

Indeed, it will be seen, that as early as the year 1786, it had been proposed by Jeffrey Smith, of Long Island, to extend the navigation, if practicable, from the Mohawk to Lake Erie (probably intended by the same route as that afterwards stated by Mr. Morris, by way of Oswego and Lake Ontario,) and

indeed had been actively and repeatedly discussed in the legislature during the session of that year.

Being informed in a late interview with Governor Lewis, that he had held conversations with Mr. Morris relative to the internal navigation of this state, as early as the year 1777, and that in a communication to Hermanus Bleecker, Esq. to whom he referred me for the same, he had reduced the substance of those conversations to writing, I addressed to the latter gentleman the following note, for the united purpose of ascertaining the services rendered by Mr. Bleecker himself, when a member of the legislature, during the discussion, on the canal policy, and the extent and validity of the claims of Mr. Morris as the first projector of the Erie Canal.

DEAR SIR,

NEW-YORK, Dec. 13th, 1828.

Knowing that you at a particular period took an active concern in the support of the measures relative to the canal navigation of this state, and being desirous to obtain all the information relative to it from the individuals themselves, for the purpose of supplying in my appendix to the Discourse I am about to publish, in relation to our late governor, a full and authentic history of the origin, progress, and completion of the Erie Canal, I write to request a statement of the particular services you rendered in that memorable work.

I also write to obtain from you the copy of a letter written to you by Gov. Lewis, upon the subject of Gouverneur Morris's claims to the first suggestion of the Erie Canal. Governor Lewis refers me to you for that paper. Your compliance with my wishes will enable me to make an important addition to the life of Mr. Clinton now printing, at the same time that you will oblige your friend

HERMANUS BLEECKER, Esq. Albany.

DAVID HOSACK.

To this letter Mr. Bleecker kindly and promptly replied, enclosing the communications I had solicited, which follow.

ALBANY, Dec. 23, 1828.

DEAR SIR,

I have received, and am much obliged to you for your letter of the 13th instant. I very soon took an interest in "the measures relative to the canal navigation of this state," and solicitously watched their progress; but as to my "particular services in that memorable work," I can only say, that I rendered "none to speak of."

Of the merit of the late Gouverneur Morris in regard to the canals, I have a deep impression. I witnessed with great interest, his zeal and intelligence— his efforts to inform others-and his elevation above the ignorance and prejudice by which the project was condemned as premature and chimerical.

You know that he and Mr. Clinton were deputed by the canal commissioners to attend at the seat of the general government for the purpose of procuring its aid. In the month of January, 1812, they appeared before a committee of the House of Representatives, consisting of a member from each state, and Mr. Morris made a grand and luminous exposition of his views in relation to the Erie canal, and several other similar projects in various parts of the United States.

It is grateful to me, now, to see how just and enlightened his views were ; and to think how much he was in advance of those who doubted, those who were passive, and those who condemned and ridiculed what appeared clear to his discerning mind. What he then prophesied is now history. I believe all the reports made by the commissioners to the legislature during Mr. Morris's life-time, except one, were drawn by him. The lofty spirit of the report made in March 1812, has, of course, excited your attention. You have seen his letter to Mr. Parish in 1800, and the letter of Mr. De Witt to William Darby, written in February 1822. A gentleman, who was at a dinner at Washington in 1800, has informed me of a very interesting conversation, in which Mr. Morris, who was one of the party, spoke of the Erie Canal as a matter of which he had long thought. It seems to me that justice has not been done to his memory.

I send you herewith copies of my letter to Governor Lewis, and his

answer.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

DAVID HOSACK, M. D.

H. BLEECKER.

Letter from Hermanus Bleecker, Esq. to Morgan Lewis, Esq.

ALBANY, May 12th, 1828.

DEAR SIR,

I think it is due to the memory of the late Gouverneur Morris, that something should be done to preserve the evidence of the conversation he had with you and General Schuyler, at Saratoga, during the revolutionary war, on the subject of the canal between the lakes and the Hudson. I hope you will excuse my making this suggestion.

If you see no objection to give such an account of that conversation as may be preserved, you will of course adopt such a mode of doing it, as seems most proper to you. If no better way occurs to you, it may be in a letter to me. Having had an opportunity of knowing much of Mr. Morris's zeal and intelligence on the subject of the canal, I have a much stronger sense of his merit and services, in regard to that work, than seems to be now generally entertained. In saying this, I am not conscious of a disposition to detract in the slightest degree from the fair claims and reputation of any other person.

I am, Sir, with great respect,

Your obedient servant,

H. BLEECKER.

MORGAN LEWIS, Esq.