The PRESIDENT-The report will be referred | to the Committee of the Whole and be printed. Mr. HATCH-I desire to submit a minority report from the committee, which I will ask the Secretary to read: The SECRETARY proceeded to read the report, as follows: The undersigned, approving many of the positions taken by a majority of the committee. respectfully presents the following as a statement of some of the considerations which have prevented entire concurrence in the conclusions of the majority. REPORT. The amendment recommended in the majority report applies the revenues of the canals, after deducting the cost of superintendence and ordinary repairs, for a period of above eleven years (until October 1. 1887) to the payment of the canal and general fund debts in the aggregate $21,417,681.22;| and after that period appropriates for the general purposes of our State government the same net revenue to the payment of the $18.007,287.68, the sum of the advances to the cauals since 1846, and the interest thereupon-a sum arrived at, however, upon the questionable basis adopted by the majority of the committee. The policy thus recommended is the total oppo site of that which has existed ever since the canal system of the State had its inception. It involves an entire cessation of that gradual enlargement and improvement of the canals which hitherto has been the general policy of the State, which has built up the canals, made them a splendid financial success, and poured through the State the great channels of internal trade, accompanied with incalculable consequent advantages. To the undersigned, it is plain that such a change is worse than retrogressive. It is experimental without progress. It substitutes for a system most successfully tried through every vicissitude of financial and political change, an untried policy. It substitutes for a system of growth and such development as has enabled our canals to almost keep pace with the requirements of commerce, a system of inactivity, most unmasterly, so to speak, for the reason that cessation of improvement for so long a period as that contemplated by the report of the majority of the committee, in this age of rapid progress, of shift and fluctuation in the channels and eddies of trade, of very necessity implies failure to meet the increasing requirements of the times, involves decay, and it well may be the utter failure of the great scheme of the State canals. In this great century of progress, the undersigned cannot regard that as an enlightened policy which shall, for eleven years, stop in its mid career of success the great scheme which has so long been the pride of the State, and thus afford the only possible opportuuity for successful rivalry to contending routes and opposing views. In the view of the undersigned, the greatest questions of State or even national policy are to be found in the unprecedented growth of the inland commerce of the country; and in consideration of the comparative advantages, disadvantages, capacities and claims of the various actual and possible lines of transit across the continent. In the view of the undersigned, the canals of the State, as they havo hitherto formed, in the future should form, in connection with the western lakes and with the Hudson, a most important link in the most practicable line across the whole continent. In the view of the undersigned, the enlargement of the capacity of the trunk canal, and the improvement of those lateral canals, the revenues and local traffic of which would hereafter pay for the improvement, is so entirely in consonance with the long tried policy of the State, and is absolutely demanded by the necessities of the immediate future and even of the present, that it would be worse than temerity to adopt the fundamental change recommended by the majority of the committee. Entertaining these views, the undersigned cannot, with any regard to duty, avoid some expression, brief as the magnitude of the cousiderations will admit, of the reasons which compel dissent from the majority report, and some allusion to the history of the past which can best teach wisdom for the future. The construction of the Erie canal was commenced in 1817. It was open for transportation of property in 1825. From the very commencement, the national character of the work was recognized, and it was foreseen that a navigabie communication between lake Erie and the Atlantic ocean would promote, to use language then employed by the Legislature, "agriculture, manufactures and commerce between the States." The experience of almost half a century has fully approved the statesmanship which originally adopted our canal policy, which was to improve the natural advantages of our geographical positionto pass through our State the then undeveloped commerce of the West, and gradually to improve the facilities afforded to a degree requisite to meet the requirements of its growth. The sagacity and foresight of the early friends of the Erie canal enabled them to see clearly in the future the necessity which would require this commercial highway. It was a gigantic enterprise, and only those who have studied the history of the times are able fully to appreciate its magnitude. Once completed, it immediately gave promise of future success, and comparatively little difficulty was found in securing its enlargement. So plain was the necessity, and so palpable the benefits which it conferred, that the work was pushed forward with enthusiasm. Of course, the patronage attending so large an expenditure of public money was accompanied by the usual amount of corruption, from which no government has ever yet been exempted, for no pure government has ever yet existed on this earth, except in the dreams of such visionaries as Sir Thomas Moore, in his Utopia. Unable to oppose the popular tide of sentiment which had set in favor of speedy enlargement, localities distant from the trunk line sought to take advantage of it for selfish ends, and the lateral canal system was engrafted upon the original policy. From this date arose most of the difficulties with which the Erie canal has since had to contend. Canals of doubtful utility were projected and forced upon the acceptance of the State as concessions to local interest and to silence oppo sition. They thus became burdens upon the trunk canal; and when the Erie canal was no longer able to bear these burdens, taxation followed, and with it has arisen an unjustifiable and indiscriminating clamor against all our canals. The policy thus adopted, and partially carried out, loaded the State with an enormous debt, and diverted the revenues of the Erie canal to the support of the unremunerative branches. The people have lost sight of this fact, and have justified an opposition to the whole system by the expense and taxation chargeable solely to the lateral canals. The wise development of our original canal policy is now threatened with destruction from a misapprehension of facts or an interested antagonism. whole spirit of the Constitution, as well as State and national policy, required that invidious measures should not be adopted in any State, and that each State, in this view most especially, should regard itself as but a part of the great whole-a part of a great nation, the prosperity and harmonious development of whole and part, in a most important measure, dependent upon substantial freedom in commercial communication of each with all the others. The unprecedented development of this inland commerce can be briefly stated. No longer ago than 1825, the trade of the lakes was transacted in a few schooners of only thirty or forty tons. The arrivals and departures from Buffalo were only sixty-four. Last year the arrivals and departures were 14,000; the value of property passing through Buffalo, $256,000,000. Every State has undoubted right to indemnify itself for the money it has advanced and the risk it has run in making any canal or road, by levy- If we regard alone the statistics of the census ing sufficient tolls on the articles of which it has reports as to the population, productions and thus facilitated the transit. It is impossible to resources of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, imagine any more equitable method of levying a Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, we tax. The owner of the property thus passing are led to surprising results. In 1850, their popto market profits by the transaction. But ulation was only 5,403,595. Ten years later, in there is an obvious and important distinc- 1860, it had advanced to 8,955,962, having intion between works belonging to individuals creased at the rate of 65.74 per cent in the brief and those of which the State is the owner. In private companies carrying goods or making canals or roads, there is a right to make whatever profit can be made on freight or tolls. The principle of competition ordinarily checks undue extravagance or extortion in their charges. But in such a case as that of the Erie canal, the State has within its own limits virtually no competitor of the kind. If it levies tolls for profit, either to defray the expenses of the State or to be expended for any other purpose than those of the canal itself, tribute is in reality exacted from the people of other States, on the same principle as if tolls were levied on property carried through its domains by private companies. Such a State exacts money by the force of its geographical position. No one will deny that whatever any single State has a right to do in this way, others have an equal right to do toward it. The Constitution of the United States wisely provides for freedom of commerce upon all the rivers and lakes But as our country became more generally cultivated and more densely peopled, many lines of railroad and canal have been made, and the navigation of many rivers has been improved or completed by links of railroad or canal. A very large amount of the transit of property and passengers depends upon the connectious made by the enterprise and labor of man. The question annually assumes proportions of greater magnitude. It becomes evident that unless some general rule or principle of action is adopted, results may ensue detrimental in the highest degree to that free commerce between the States on which the welfare of all so much depends. Before the adoption of the Federal Constitution and in colonial times, embarrassments and restrictions upon internal trade similar in effect to these existed. The evil was of so great magnitude as to form a controlling reason for the adoption of a national Constitution, by which commerce between the States might be regulated and controlled. The space of ten years. At the same rate of progression they will, in 1870, have a population of 14,833,401; in 1880, it will be 24,584,878; and at the approaching termination of the present centu tury it will amount to 66,788,208. So little have their resources been hitherto developed that, unless interrupted by the devastations of war, we may reasonably expect the present ratio of increase to be continued until the latest period here indicated. They have an area of 284,992,640 acres, of which little more than one-sixth has yet been brought under cultivation. In 1850, they produced 310,384,775 bushels of grain, including 43,842,038 bushels of wheat, and 222,208,502 of corn. In 1860, this product had been increased to 557,551,811 bushels, including 89,293,603 bushels of wheat, and 392,289,751 of corn. These eight food-producing States yielded more than 550,000,000 of cereals in 1859, a crop which was nearly one-third deficient in comparison with those of 1860 and 1861. The mind scarcely realizes the magnitude of quantities thus represented in abstract figures. Beyond the chief region now known as the great grain producing States, but including Min nesota, Dacotah, and the Red river country, is a vast territory, well watered, possessing a suffi. cient supply of timber, of exceedingly fertile soil, peculiarly adapted to the production of wheat, yielding, for many years in succession, crops of such abundance as aro scarcely credible to the inhabitants of less favored regions. It is stated on competent authority that an area of not less than the whole of the United States east of the Mississippi exists west of the 98th meridian and above the 43d parallel. This region is now almost wholly unoccupied, but is perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by civilized man. Spring opens about the same time along the vast expanse of plains stretching from St. Paul's to the Mackenzie river, a distance as great as that from St. Paul's to the southern extremity of the long peninsula of Florida, as far as from the most southerly point in the territory of the United States to Augusta, the central port in Maine. must be on the great lakes, so as to appropriate the benefits offered by cheap navigation on the way further east. Already the extension of telegraphic facilities in China is the sure forerunner of internal railway communication which will revolutionize the society of that country, and enormously increase its foreign trade. The capacity of these vast regions when brought into practical connection with market and seaport, by rail, canal, or other artificial improvement, to increase the bulk of the cereal products of the country can be best illustrated by referring to a single instance of the kind among the many stated Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of in the report made last winter by Gen. Warren to the trade we shall acquire with those Congress, on the rivers and the proposed improve-oriental nations from the fact that Japan ment of the Upper Mississippi. He reports that alone has a population computed to be 35,by constructing a canal thirteen miles loug Can-000,000. Hindostan contains 160,000,000 of non river can be connected with the Minnesota human beings, and the Chinese empire, with its river, and a navigable channel thus established enormous territory, and 367,000,000 of people, which would open to settlement and cultivation contains a greater amount of inhabitants and an area of land of 844.800 acres, two-thirds of wealth than are elsewhere united under any one which would be tillable, which would produce government. And to this may be added those annually 20.000,000 bushels of grain-a productiveness which, according to another estimate in the same report adopted by him, deducting 4,000,000 bushels for consumption at the places of growth, would leave 16,000,000 for exportation to our eastern market. populous regions, full of the most migratory races in Asia, between China and the Amoor river, where American enterprise has already penetrated, and from which Genghis Khan and Tamerlane descended with their immense armies to conquer the world. A region is above described many times larger But the most important consideration remains than that tributary to the commerce of Chicago, to be noticed-the addition to our national wealth,. which will send its products to the eastern mar- and the rapid development of our inland commerce kets through ports near the western end of Lake which must be produced by the introduction into Superior, their chief transit being by way of the our country of the exhaustless supply of the lalakes and by the Erie canal, through the State boring element of Asia. The immigration of the and to the city of New York, using the canal to Mongolian races has already commenced. Thouthe utmost possible capacity of its enlargement. sands are already working in the fields and mines Railways are now being constructed from St. Paul of our Pacific States and territories. The extent to the head of Lake Superior and to Pembina, on of this immigration can only be estimated by conthe borders of the British possessións. The nu-sidering the swarming millions which this merous chains of lakes capable of being connect- ancient hive of mankind has sent ed by short lines of canal with Lakes Winnepeg and Superior are a remarkable feature in the formation of this country. Five railroads, at least, are projected, and will probably soon be completed, connecting the great lines of traffic and transit in the interior with the head of Lake Superior. over the face of the earth. They are moving in an easterly direction as our Pacific railroads are constructed, and when these railways are completed, connecting with all our natural and artificial lines of transportation running to the Atlantic, who can doubt but what this immigration will move on, filling up our vast unoccupied area of the It is not only with these regions that we shall interior, their industry developing our inland com. soon have an extensive commerce. The Northern merce with a rapidity never known except in our and Central Pacific railroads, as well as cheaper own wonderful history. No difference in climate means of transit by water, or partly by rail and can prevent any such immigration, as an examipartly by water, will connect us with the Pacific uation of the isothermal lines, traced from conticoast. The incalculable value and rapid develop-nent to continent by careful observations, made by ment of the rich mines of gold and silver and the most scientific men, will show. Pekin, San other metals, in the Rocky Mountains, extending Francisco and New York, well to the northward nearly to the Pacific Ocean, and from north to south throughout the entire continent, promote with unprecedented rapidity the settlement of regions many hundreds of miles beyond those known within a few years as the "Far West." Beyond all these is the Pacific Ocean itself. already traversed by steamers from San Francisco to the vast and populous regions of the Orient, whose trade has always been and is to-day the great desideratum of the European nations. It is a well known law of trade that it seeks the cheapest avenues of transportation to its centers, insurance and interest on capital covering risks, and time, being elements of cost. This consideration must bring over our Pacific railroads the trade of India, China, Japan, and the adjacent regions, and lead to the further conclusion that the eastern termination of these roads in their respective countries, are of about the same temperature or on the same isothermal line, each about the fortieth degree of latitude. New Orleans and Canton are in the same isothermal line, well to the southward; Canton being, however, some eight degrees further to the south than New Orleans. Acclimation in the respective countries upon the same isothermal line will necessarily be easy, and no difficulty in the nature of things can exist in the development of our vast natural advantages in all that development which results in the greatest social, State, and national prosperity, through the employment of the millions which the growth of our means of transit will afford. Adam Smith, in his inquiry into the nature and causes of national wealth, finds the solution of the economic problem in the "annual labor of every nation," and the product of labor. The increase of national wealth to be accomplished nage to tide-water over 3,390,399. It is also a through the labors of nations thus to be won and well known fact that when this amount of tonnage added to the immeasurable natural advantages is pressed upon the Erie canal for transit, it cre afforded through undeveloped territory, stretching ates detentions, increases price of freight, and through so many degrees of latitude, iar tran- large portions of western commerce are diverted scending even the conceptions of man. History into cheaper and speedier rival channels of transcan afford no approach to its parallel, for no other portation. No one could estimate the loss of tonnation has ever possessed a tithe of such unde- nage at such times to the Erie canal less than veloped resource, with such opportunity for its half a million or more. The forthcoming testimony development. Nor upon any limited scale can taken by the Canal committee in relation to the the past even hint at the possibilities of a future capacity of the Erie canal, will confirm these statehere indicated. An undeveloped empire invites ments if anything more is required. In order the co-operation of millions, eager for employment, to retain the western trade to the Erie canal, we and invites that co-operation through means must accommodate it with a more ample and known only to the modern day-through the cheaper transit. The tables of the statistics of instrumentality of steam, and all the great inven- the tonnage of the Erie canal, show that in tions and improvements which so facilitate modern progress. In estimating our inland commerce and transit, we must soon include the great overland trade and travel between Europe and Asia. At New York the various products of all these regions will meet shipping from the eastern ports of the Atlantic, and the multiform products of the machinery of Europe, and of the industry and ingenuity of her people, as well as of our own, will in return be diffused throughout our continent and into Asia. every decade this tonnage has been doubled; and in the present capacity of the Erie canal, as is claimed by some, is now adequate, are we not imperatively called upon to make some provision for increase, to meet the demands of the future? The population and productions of the west, and the tonnage of the Erie canal, as has already been shown, have doubled in every decade for the last twenty years. No one can doubt but what this ratio of progress will be continued in the future, with a proportionate increase of revenues from the Erie canal, without we abandon our past wise canal policy. The necessity of the enlargement, and the means through which it can be accomplished by the application of the revenues of the Erie canal, have been so fully and so recently set forth and recommended in Governor Fentou's message, which is sustained in other official docuThe ability of the Erie canal to meet the re- ments from the Comptroller, Auditor, Canal quirements of this vast and growing inland com- Commissioners and State Engineer, that it merce can be best ascertained by stating its does not seem necessary to add to them. assumed maximum capacity for downward freight, If their views are correct, the cost of 4,000,000 tons. To pass this large tonuage a boat transportation would be reduced, by a further enmust go through the Alexander lock (the recog-largement of the Erie canal, one-half. There is nized standard of tonnage of the Erie canal), every no doubt that the increased traffic which would ten minutes during every day and hour of the season of navigation, irrespective of breaks or detentions. The annual tonnage of the Erie canal, from this and other States, for the last decade, is as follows: The central position of this continent, midway between Europe and Asia, makes our territory not only the highway for our own trade, but the great thoroughfare for the world, and at no distant time our metropolitan center will become the city of the world's commerce. From this State, tons. Total tons. be invited to the Erie canal would enable the State to reduce the tolls, in a few years, one-half, and still leave an increasing surplus every year to pay off the present canal debt, with the additional debt to be paid from the revenues for immediate improvement; and then, if it must be so, pay back to the State the taxes which the people have paid for our unremunerative lateral canals-the bad investments of the State made to promote the interests of political parties or the ambitious schemes of politicians. The Erie and Champlain canals have paid into the treasury the sum of $192,455,779.57, leaving a balance to their credit of profit and interest, 1,420,715 above the cost of construction and maintenance, 374,580 1,587,180 and all other expenses and charges, of $23,108,1,117,199 1,496,697 326.01. 327,839 197,201 379,086 291,184 2,594,837 322,257 2,279,252 368,437 1,907,136 239,498 1,903,642 173,538 2,449,609 414,699 1,451,333 Add to the above debt of the Champlain canal, If the local or internal traffic of the State is added to the through downward tonnage, the above amounts are largely increased. It is ascertained that in 1862, this item increased the ton INDEX. ABOLISHMENT OF COURT OF APPEALS, Resolution in reference to, 233. ABOLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Resolution in reference to, 193. ADJOURNMENTS OF LEGISLATURE, Amendment of Mr. Hitchcock in reference Amendment of Mr. Ketcham in reference to, 881. Amendment of Mr. Van Campen in refer- ence to, 3594. Resolution of instruction to committee on 1919, 1951, 2058, 2098, 2263, 2528, 2529, Committee on, resolution to obtain infor- mation from, 641, 643. Debate on report of committee on, 3265 to Debate on report of committee on revision Report from committee on, 2274. AGAN, FRANK, Appointed messenger, 29. ALBANY, Resolution tendering thanks of Conven- Resolution to appoint select committee to ALDERMEN, BOARDS OF, prepare, 3777, 3865. Report from committee on, 3916. ADJOURNMENT, Debate in reference to, 187, 2655. ADJOURNMENT TO SARATOGA, Resolution in reference to, 25, 161, 358. ADJOURNMENT, FINAL, OF CONVENTION, Remarks of Mr. Develin on, 3140. ALIENISM AFFECTING TITLE TO REAL ESTATE, Resolution in reference to, 647, 673, 3283, ALIENS, EQUAL RIGHTS OF, TO HOLD REAL ESTATE, 3891 Remarks of Mr. Alvord on, 3258. |