Morris tribune., 1898-05-04
THE ERIE CANAL.

! G1a11nS naOS IN bGnS1T governor O14D%
ton, Gouverneur Morris and Others.
A blue pitcher in the possession of
E.P. Powell of Clinton has inscribed
on oae side Utica, village in the
state of New York, 80 years since a
wilderness; now, 1924, inferior to
none in the western section of the
state in population, wealth, COM
MERGE, enterprise, active industry,
and civil improvement. On the
other side of the pitcher is inscribed:
"The great Erie canal, a splendid
monument of the enterprise and re-
sources of the state of New York.
Indebted for it's early commence
ment and rapid completion to the
active energies, pre-eminent talents
and enlightened policy of De Witt
Clinton, late governor of the state. I"
Canalboats and locks cover the rest
of the pitcher.
It is one of the very few now in
existence of these memorable me-
mentos of the building of the great
canal. It is interesting, however,
mainly for the fact that it claims
for De Witt Clinton the chief honor
of this great water course. It is now
known, however, that the Erie canal
did not owe its conception to the
Clintons. In July, 1910, De Witt
Clinton wrote from Mann's Mills,
on Irondequoit creek, "Here is
where Mr.. Geddes proposes a great
embankment for his canal. This
recognition of Mr.. Geddes as the ia
Their of the enterprise is distinct.
But still back of this we have this
record that Gouverneur Morris, in
1903, in a conference with some
friends in Albany, spoke to Simeon
De Witt of a project that he had in
his head of tapping Lake Erie in
order to let the waters run overland
to the Hudson, making short line
of navigation from New York to the
lakes. Geddes heard of this project,
caught it up and pushed it with all
the energy of his active mind. In
1915 he was made engineer of the
proposed canal, in conjunction with
a French engineer, and these two
had charge of the surveying and
supervision of the construction.
These records seem to give the
original honor of the Erie canal to
Gouverneur Morris and to Geddes as
a close second. But another claimant
appeared in 1882 in the person of
Jesse Hawley. Mr.. Hawley left
will in which we find this clause: II
give to the Historical society of New
York my original essays entitled
Observations of Canals, printed
from October, 1902, to April, 1903.
In these essays claim to be the first
protector of the overland route of
the grand Erie canal, from Buffalo
to Utica. And I now herein declare
it for truth, under all the solem-
nifty of this last document of my
life, that the idea of tapping Lake
Erie and taking it's water across
the country to the Mohawk at Utica
was an original conception of my
own mind, which occurred to me at
Seneca Falls early in April, 1906"
After complaining that the state
had not condescended to acknowl-
edge his services in any public man.
ner he requests the Historical soci-
ETY. to accept the evidences and to
keep them in its sacred care.
Notwithstanding Mr.. Hawley's
claim, it is clear that others had
been thinking of the subject prior to
himself Whether the project was
really originated by Gouverneur
Morris or not we cannot say, but no
historic record has as yet been pre-
sented which antedates his discus
sion of the matter in 1903. It must
be added that it seems quite prob
able that the restless mind of this
statesman gave birth to a project
which at the time seemed chimer-
ical. No glory can be taken away
from the Clintons in this case, for,
while the national government was
appealed to for public improvements
In every other section of the coun-
try, the Empire State, under the
presiding care of the Clintons alone,
without national aid, created the
grandest engineering enterprise OF
the age.-Utica Herald.