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Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

Remonstrance against the proposed measure of discriminating in tolls against the Oswego canal.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

Digital Edition.

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Call number: Smith 715

REMONSTRANCE

Against the proposed Measure of discriminating in tolls against the Oswego Canal.

Your memorialists, Inhabitants of [space], beg leave respectfully to represent - That a petition is circulating, originating in Buffalo, asking your Honorable body to impose by law, the same Canal tolls from Oswego to Albany, 200 miles, as is now charged from Buffalo to Albany, 365 miles, on all property passing to and from the Upper Lakes, through the Welland Canal, and shipped on the Oswego ; or, in effect, charging on the Oswego Canal, 40 miles in length, the same amount of toll as that charged on the Western Section of the Erie beyond Syracuse - 205 miles.

Your Memorialists remonstrate against this measure as unjust and unwise; as reversing the settled policy of the State of forty years standing ; as fraught with great mischief to the Industry and Commerce of the State; violating the Constitution of the United States; impracticable in execution, and finally, impairing the Canal revenues instead of augmenting them - its ostensible patriotic object.

The paper under review opens with the following paragraph: "In the great extent of the West, and in the incalculable richness of its natural advantages, the projectors of the Erie Canal, beheld the seat and source of an internal trade, which, could it be led through our own State, would be the direct cause of a large revenue, and in its incidental advantages, would insure benefits of the utmost importance to the future of the State."

Here we discover the origin of discrimination, the fallacy on which this new and mischevious theory is founded ; a fallacy which prevades the whole argument. The great blunder which it is our aim to expose is, that Revenue was the prime object of our Canal System, and Commerce an incident. In the language of the Buffalo paper, the Erie Canal would be the direct cause of a large revenue, and in its indirect advantages, would insure benefits of the utmost importance, &c. Here, revenue is the object - Commerce the incident; Commerce must be held subordinate to revenue, and be made to minister to its wants: recognizing the absurd theory that Commerce was made for Canals, not Canals for Commerce.

Now, your memorialists humbly conceive that the opposite of this proposition is true, that Canals were made for Commerce, and have been constructed with references and held subservient to, the interest of commerce; and that revenue has been an incident, an important one to be sure, but always second and subordinate to the great and pervading interest of Commerce; and such has been the settled and established policy and opinions of our Statesmen and people since the canal system was commenced. If revenue was the prominent object sought by our statesmen, projectors of the early canals, and if this revenue was to be levied upon strangers, our north Western neighbors, according to the present project, why was not the short cheap route, via Oswego and Niagara, adopted and charged with heavy tolls? Here could have been opened a mine of wealth, which would have satisfied the appetites of states men much more sordid than the illustrious Clinton. Or, when the Erie Canal was completed, at a cost of five millions, why not leave it of the smallest possible dimensions, charged with the highest possible rate of toll? It is true the Northwest might have escaped our extortionate exactions, through neighboring States and Provinces, better and more wisely governed, but our own citizens of Central and Western New York could not escape them; and the five million expenditure could have been made to yield a rich revenue, which the forty million expenditure can never do. If this penurious policy controlled the councils of the State, why were the lateral canals constructed, promising no revenue ? Like the Chenango, in relation to which, the Canal Commissioners reported to the Legislature that it would not pay interest and repairs, or either of them; and the Genesee Valley and Black River Canals still worse. Why were rail roads constructed under State patronage and State bounty, exempt from canal tolls ? Why enlarge the Erie canal at a cost of more than thirty millions? All these measures through a period of forty years adhered to by all parties, and under all the vicisitudes of popular change, have looked with a steady aim to the great, the paramount. interest of commerce, and well may we exult in this policy, which has placed our State, commercially, at the head of the second commercial nation of the world, and made New York city the second Commercial Emporium of the world; and no part of the state has better reason to be satisfied with this liberal policy than Western N. York, where public patronage and public bounty have been distributed with a liberal if not a lavish hand.

What would have been our condition, if the policy sought now toy be inaugurated had prevailed, by making Commerce subserve our single Canal, by the attempt to force trade through it under heavy toils, by blocking up our cheap routes, by withholding charters, loans, and donations from Rail Roads, or burthening them with Canal tolls ? The trade of the North West would have been lured to better markets, through cheaper channels. Our Commerce would have deserted our Sea Ports and Lake Ports - our manufactories been paralysed - our population arrested, and our wealth annihilated. Buffalo, the Queen City of the West, would have I remained a Hamlet; Albany and Troy respectable Villages; New York a small City, tributary to Boston. Baltimore and Philadelphia.

WILL THIS SCHEME INCREASE CANAL REVENUES? The argument of the Buffalo memorial assumes that there is a given amount of Western or Upper Lake trade which must pass the Oswego and Erie Canals, and that the portion passing the Oswego is abstracted from the Erie, and will continue to pass this Canal charged with quintuple toll, or, it not, the inference is obvious, though not Stated, that it would be restored to the Erie, otherwise these $350,000 of loch revenue could not be recovered.

Here we are met and surprised by another glaring fallacy. Now if all other channels to and from market are shut up except the Erie and Oswego Canals, the Rail Roads annihilated, and the Divers and Canals dried up, the Oswego would not retain this trade under a five-fold burden, nor would the Erie Canal recover it.

Commerce has its laws more potent and more inflexible than legislative enactments, and one of these laws prescribes this rule: When prices for transport are augmented, or facilities withdrawn from a channel of trade, the region or circle, from which trade was drawn to this channel is contracted and circumscribed, in proportion as prices are enhanced or facilities withdrawn, and the region lost is the exterior or outside portion of the circle, where one mile is equivalent to many of the interior portion; nor is this all, many commodities from the remaining territory or inner circle cannot bear the extra charge and cease to be marketable, and are either not produced or consumed at home. While commodities at the east that can not bear this imposition seek other markets, again both country and city consumers, deprived of their markets, are restricted in their consumption, and become stinted and poor customers to each other. For these reasons, this heavily burthened trade would be crippled, contracted, and partly annihilated.

But the case in hand, is much worse than the one imagined. There can be no doubt the trade in question under this enormous burthen would be as effectually lost to the Oswego Canal as if that Canal was demolished or dried up. But would the Erie Canal recover this lost trade, and with it these three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of additional revenue ? Here another of these inexorable edicts of Commerce steps in to dispel these golden schemes of revenue; by this law Commerce will seek the best markets through the cheapest channels. It so happens that there are, at least a dozen competitors for the trade proposed to be withdrawn from the Oswego Canal, and most of them Are more inviting than the Erie Canal. The Oswego and Syracuse, the Cape Vincent, Home and Watertown, and the Northern or Ogdensburgh Rail Roads, are now strong competitors with the Oswego Canal for the trade in question. The competition is now so sharp that a quarter part of the proposed discriminating toll imposed upon the Oswego Canal, would suffice to give is all to these three roads. Beside these competitors, the Erie will find at her very door the Central Road, ready to profit by this new wind-fall; the Erie Road, with two efficient lines of freight Propellers to feed their cars, the one from the south shores of Lake Erie, and the other from Detroit; a line of twelve freight Propellers, connecting Ogdensburgh and Chicago through the Welland Canal ; the Great Western Rail Road, connecting Detroit with the Central at Niagara, and with Hamilton on Lake Ontario; the Grand Trunk connecting the great Lakes with Portland and Quebec - all these, together with the Rail Roads and Canals of our neighbor States, as well as the Mississippi, would prefer their claims to such portions of this trade as were not destroyed or annihilated by this hazardous experiment.

Even the Mississippi, remote as she is from the scene of conflict, will probably share more largely than any, and perhaps than all other competitors in this trade, for the obvious reason that the Oswego Canal being the cheapest, route to market, extends its influence further, and draws more strongly on the valley of the Mississippi than her more feeble, because longer and more highly taxed, competitors.

The Buffalo paper professes to give to the Legislature a list of articles seeking our markets through the Welland the Oswego, and the eastern section of the Erie Canal, escaping entirely the Western section of the Erie from Buffalo to Syracuse, and by this means defrauding the Canal revenues of $350,000 annually, which would go far to enlarge the Canal and relieve the State from taxation. To repair this loss and correct this abuse, it is proposed to recover these $350,000 by imposing them upon these Welland Canal commodities for their transit of 40 miles over the Oswego Canal. The Buffalo paper argues and asserts "that this moderate imposition would not drive into other channels the trade which now finds its way through our State," meaning, we presume, other channels than the Oswego and Erie Canals. For the trade must adhere to these two channels to preserve and augment the revenues under this new imposition. Now it will be apparent to all that this entire trade must be destroyed or driven into other channels, as it can not pay these $350,000 with the Welland Canal tolls superadded, hence the State, instead of winning $350,000 by this financial scheme, will have lost that sum, which she now derives from regular tolls on this property passing over the Oswego and eastern section of the Erie Canal.

The protectors of this scheme could not have been so blind as not to have foreseen this result, and must have anticipated that this trade would be transferred bodily, and entire to the Erie Canal at Buffalo, For this result alone can save the State from a loss of $350,000 and add that amount to her revenue. Your Memorialists are of opinion, and for the reasons already stated, that the Erie Canal at Buffalo can not recover more than a tithe of this trade, lost to the Oswego and eastern section of the Erie. If so, then the account will stand thus: Loss of revenue on the Oswego and eastern section of the Erie Canal 200 miles by prohibitive tolls on Upper Lake or Welland Canal property [space]

[space] $350,000

Recovered at Buffalo for the entire Erie canal one tenth part of the property thus prohibited or diverted [space] 35,000

Loss to canal revenues [space] $315,000

To fortify this opinion, the receipts by Lake and shipments by Canal at Buffalo, for the season of 1856, of a few leading articles are subjoined:

[col. 1]

RECEIPTS AT BUFFALO.

Flour, bbls. 1,518,085
Pork, " 61,053
Beef, " 32,184
Bacon, lbs. 11,319,967

[col. 2]

SHIPMENTS BY CANAL.

[Flour, bbls.] 76,476
[Pork, "] 28,032
[Beef, "]4,843
[Bacon, lbs.] 3,948,307

[end cols.]

It will appear from this exhibit what an inconsiderable portion of the Lake produce landed at Buffalo leaves that city by canal, add to which two formidable lines of Propellers, as before stated, are feeding the Erie Railroad. With such competitors at. its door, and still more formidable ones on Lake Ontario, how can the Erie canal hope to win this large volume of trade, which the Oswego canal only could hold against all competition.

If this scheme should find favor with the Legislature, it must result in a heavy loss to our canal revenues, in protracting the Erie carnal enlargement, and in largely increased State taxation. Commerce would be disordered and crippled - a large capital in canal boats sunk. The whole Lake tonage would be impaired in value, deprived of the longest voyages by diversion of trade, and Railroad competition. The city of Oswego with her Mills, her Lake and canal tonage her Warehouse and Elevator property, to a vast amount, invested in the commerce of the Lakes and canals, on the faith of State Legislation, would share largely in this calamity.

The Buffalo memorial admits that the construction of the Oswego Canal was well enough when the Niagara Falls was deemed an insurmountable obstacle to Canalling : but when this delusion was dispelled by the Welland Canal, then the mischief became apparent - the Oswego Canal was a great blunder, although the State sought out the shortest and cheapest route for a Canal, with the main Object of commanding the trade of the great West; yet this route proves to be too short and too cheap; it performs the work too well, in the estimation of Buffalo, and commands a large volume of trade that no other route can command, and what is better, has a strong tendency to conduct this trade to New York over 200 miles, of our Canals, performing all the healthy offices of a great commercial channel, yielding to our treasury ample revenues to commerce a rich reward; giving occupation to the boatmen, the sailors, the mechanic, and the manufacturer; building and enlarging villages, towns and cities. Yet all this is deemed an evil which the Legislature are called upon to correct.

[col. 2]

Your memorialists beg leave to state, that the Welland Canal is an established channel of trade, of purge capacity, and will be still improved and enlarged; this Canal is beyond our control, and will conduct to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence a large volume of trade from the Western Lake States, as well as a large return trade to those States. The Peninsula of Upper, or Canada West is equal in territory and superior in soil and climate to the State of New York. She has constructed a Ship Canal and two Rail Roads - one of 250, and the other of 90 miles across this peninsula; expressly to bring traffic and travel from the Upper Lakes to Lake Ontario. This large and rich province yields an increasing annual surplus of 8 or 10,000,000 bushels of superior wheat. She desires through these magnificent channels, favored by the treaty of reciprocity, to trade with our State, and through our Canals with the City of New York, and through New York with the lower British Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, &c.

The lower Province, or Canada East, and Great Britain, are struggling hard to lure this trade from New York, by means of the Grand Trunk Rail Road and a splendid Ship Canal, to Boston, to Portland, to the lower provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, &c., and through Montreal and Quebec to England.

Let us imagine all these improvements to have preceded the construction of the Oswego canal, and this great and growing trade was pouring down upon Lake Ontario from Canada West and the States beyond, what, under these circumstances, would be the duty of the great commercial State of New York, when told that by the expenditure of a million on a 40 mile canal she could command the major part of the trade of Canada West, yielding $250,000 in revenue, and still another portion of Western and Upper Lake trade, which no other channel could command, yielding an additional revenue of $150,000. Could a sane Legislator, representing a commercial State hesitate about his duty? But Buffalo would prohibit all trade having passed the Welland canal; this trade which cannot be arrested, should be turned over to Boston, to Portland, to the Lower British Provinces and to England, but why single out the Welland canal, and reject the trade offered by this charnel, while we accept the same trade from the Great Western and Collingwood Roads - all bring the same commodities, taken indiscriminately from Canada West and from Western States.

Here is presented another absurd feature of the new doctrine of discrimination. The Great Western Railroad may fill its cars with wheat at Detroit or Windsor, or both, on opposite sides of that straight, and deliver it to the Central Railroad at the Suspension Bridge, or send it through the Oswego Canal to New York, and thence to Nova Scotia, with impunity, but the Propeller and Schooner laden at the same ports from the same bins, must be driven from the Oswego canal by quintuple tolls, and her wheat must be dispatched by Railroad to Boston or Portland, or by a sea voyage to New Brunswick or Liverpool. And how is the canal collector to distinguish between the high toll and low toll wheat, both come lawfully to Oswego, and both go into the same garner for grinding or for shipment, wheat has no ear marks.

Your Memorialists here take occasion to remark, in answer to the assertion that the St. Lawrence cannot divert trade from our channels owing to its situation in a frosty latitude; that more than three quarters of the tonage of the world is owned and navigated from regions as high as Quebec. England, Hol1and, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Russia, are the navigators and fishmen of Europe.

Finally, if the great and prosperous State of New York cannot or will not bear the amount of taxation required to complete the enlargement of the Canals, and the commerce of the State must be laid under contribution for this purpose, we beg leave respectfully to recommend, that the Commerce be taxed and this object reached through the Railroads of the State. This would yield ample revenue, and bear upon all parts of the State, as the Railroads are all pervading, while the attempt to impose the burthen upon a short canal, yielding in revenue a nually a sum almost equal to its original cost, must end in failure, disappointment, loss of revenue, the ruin of this Canal, and the loss of its abundant and rich contributions to the commerce and wealth of our State.

In a relation to the project of raising $350,000 more, by the imposition of heavy tolls, principally on wheat and corn, so soon as the Oswego Canal shall have been blocked up, or inhibited from carrying Western products, it is sufficient to say, that this over-burthened wheat may, in diminished quantity, seek other channels to market; or assuming the shape of flour, follow the million and a half barrels over the Railroads from Buffalo. Heavy tolls will also drive corn into other channels, and to other markets, and cause it to be converted to pork, and transported to market in the carcass by Railroad.

This scheme, a worthy counterpart to discrimination will disappoint its projects and result in loss of revenue.