The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-04-21

AN INCLUSION INTO THE EMPIRE STATE
Us~pyonisisg peafker at canandaigua-Hisfory of fAe Sc.
nsmsnf-0hOer Pheps-Anecdofe Of Judge Gorham-
te Sefaeme.f-Refxrs to I.Sar.-c1ange an a.
reafhe,-From AUBURN TO Syraeuse and detention hher
loo passengus-cousion at 6ony-Kind-hearfed Con
1t was showing and raining when I arrived a
Canandaigua and when one has Travelled by day
and by night four hundred and twenty-one miles
20 speak in the evening, a heavy rain, especially
IN the Country, where dry sidewalks and vehicles
do not much abound, is rather discouraging
And 30 we watched the signs Of the times with
some anxiety, and lamented over the weather
reconciling ourselves, however, to it at last, on
Two grounds principally, which mention because
they contain a practical philosophy, which may
be turned to account in graver cases One was,
that our lamentations and anxieties would do no
good the other that, though the rain was no
particularly desirable for us, it was greatly
wanted by the rest of mankind, - as the springs
were low. And 50 we submitted to the rain. 1t
did not appear greatly to tell upon the audience,
and the next morning Mr.. Granger handed me,
as the proceeds of the evening, a generous contri-
button to the Mount Vernon fund. Isuspect the
sum was omewhat increased by individual liber-
atty.
There is no more beautiful village, as far as
my observation has extended, than Canandaigua ;
lew pioct5 " GREATER IEtcIcSL III the history OF the
settlement of the Country. Ii was here, that the
settlement of the Western part of New York COM
menced, latter the purchase Of Messrs. Gorham
and Phelps,) in the year l7SS. In the summer
OF that year, Mr. Oliver Phelps, n person of truly
heroic character, who Is entitled to a place among
Lord Bacon's Conditores Lmperior11m Founders
Of empires) left Massachusetts,, for the purpose of
exploring and surveying the vast region, which
he and Judge Gorham had purchased,-now en-
braeing, l believe, twelve counties,-in the
Western part of New York. They penetrated
what was then q savage wilderness, ms far west as
Canandaigua, one hundred and thirty miles west
Of the German Flats, then considered the utmost
limits Of Civilization. Rev. Mr.. Kirkland,
father of President Kirkland of Harvard College)
who had long lived among the Indians as a Mis-
sionary, accompanied Mr.. Phelps and his party,
a. q Commissioner on the part of Massachusetts,.
An Indian Council was held on a beautiful
eminence overlooking Canandaigua lake; Red
Jacket denounced the proposed treaty but Far
mer's Brother pacifed the excited chiefs, and an
agreement was finally made for the extinction of
the Indian title to more than two millions of
acres Of land. After the treaty, the land was
surveyed under the direction of Mr.. Phelps, on
the system of townships and ranges, which has
since been extended to the whole public domain
of the United States, and forms one of the most
important and admirable arrangements, in the
practical administration of the Government of the
United States.
Some idea of the hardships attending the first
settlement Of new countries in general, and this,
in particular, may be formed from the descrip-
tion given of this now beautiful and highly Gull
tivated village, Astounding with all the improve
men.s of a prosperous rural district, in Mr..
Spafiord's Gazetteer, also cited in BARRIERS Col
~lections.
1870, and in 1877 I found it but feeble, coutending with numer-
Gus eubarrassmenss and difficulties The Spring Of that year
a erruunlx ~oS and crLI Rcafdl o1N1 Io.rn eclu.ss
-mrd knee-deep, mosquitoes and gnats 50 thick that you cpuld
hardly breathe without swallowing them; rattle snakes and the
uements,-sunounded by these,-in june Of that year. I saw
conrsss&ua and ve@oa Rsp Rsre p perdseaIy unaism a1sdd,e 'ioosins
forward in hope sure and sseadfast' They talked to me OF
I received it as All fable
Oliver Phelps died on the 2lst February, 1909,
in the sixtieth year of his age and future gene
nations will do justice to his memory. So rapid
has been the growth of this, in common with
many other parts of the country, that the pres
emit generation loses, in its familiarity with it,
an adequate appreciation of the stupendous pro-
cess, by which barbarous territories almost bound
less, have within sixty years been brought into
the domain of civilization. To illustrate the
rapidity of this progress, | often repeat an anec-
dote, which has descended by tradition in the
Gorham family.
On one occasion, when Judge Gorham was
musing. in a state Of mental depression, on the
almost total failure of this magnificent specula-
ton, he was visited by a friend and townsman,
who had returned from a journey to Canandai-
qua, then Just laid out. This friend tried to
cheer the Judge with a bright vision of the future
growth of Western New York. Kindling with
his theme, he pointed TO a son of Judge Gorham,
who was in the room, and added - You and I
shall not live to see the day, but that lad, if he
reaches three score years and ten, will see a daily
stage-coach running As far westas Canandaigua."
That lad WAS the late Mr.. BENJAMIN GOrEam,
who died a few years go,-wh represented Bos-
ton for several years in Congress with great
ability, and who lived to witness, not merely a
daily stage-eoach, entering Canandaigua, but two
great lines of Railroad and a gigantic Canal,
trayersing the State from East to West, with
Subsidiary communications in every direction and
end.
The next day Q5th December) at half past
ten, | left Canandaigua, regretting only the nee
esary shortnes of my visit, as / have to do con-
At Rochester we had the same menace
Of bad weather, which however, gave way before
evening" / met Mt the station President Ander-
son, General Smith, and Mr.. Moore, and was
by them to the hospitable dwelling of
Silas o. Smith, Esq, and To the enjoyment of all
the comforts of q cordial reception and "a friendly
home. sz
At Rochester we had inadvertently incurred
the risk of a pretty serious miscarriage. In order
to increase the receipts of the evening, and also to
some elderly persons, invalids, and
ladies, who might desire a comfortable seat in the
hall without going at an hour before hand, or
were unable to struggle for it at a crowded
door, the idea of reserving q portion of the seats
ut a higher price, occurred to those having charge
of the arrangements. 1t was not an entirely
novel plan but though a well meant, it proved
70 be an unfortunate suggestion. Seats are daily
reserved in many, nay, in most places of public
resort, in this country and in Europe, without
giving alarm to the most sensitive votary of re-
publican equality. But it gave offence to some
Of our Rodensian friends,-and it became neces-
sary, in Difference to the excited public feeling, to
abandon the discrimination and to place all the
at the lower price. This restored har-
mony, at Che expense, l suppose, of a hundred or
two of dollars to the Mount Vernon fund and q
noble audience filed the hall, which is one of the
best in the country. For myself, 1 am no aris-
eocrat. lido not own . quadruped larger than a
CIT, and she an Indifferent mouser nor any kind
Of q vehicle, with the exception, possibly, of a
wheal-baEIow. But | am willing my neighbor
6anh hv ma m his spirito6 horco -bsya I