The Railway Library, 1909. Various
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to internal improvements as a solution of their troubles; their only hope was in a home market—in better roads, and in the development of the resources about them.
In the United States agriculturist and manufacturer turned to the national government for relief. But so long as the administration remained in the hands of the foreign trade party, the way was blocked to internal improvements. During the first three administrations after the adoption of the constitution, the individualistic republicans had been unable to gain control of the government; but with the admission of Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio and the settlement of the parts of the sea coast states remote from transportation facilities, the anti-commercial constituency gained the balance of power. It was to the voters of these new regions that Jefferson owed his success. It was to satisfy the demands of the West for an outlet to the gulf that Louisiana was purchased. To satisfy the insistent demand for internal improvements the national government also built the Cumberland road, and contributed to many other transportation projects. It was the open hostility of the West and South toward the commercial East which forced the embargo, and broke down the domination of the seaboard interests in national affairs.
RIVER TRAFFIC DEVELOPED BY PRIVATE CAPITAL.
The inland routes which required the least capital to utilize in a primitive way were the rivers. Here the chief obstacle was the current. In the early nineteenth century long lines of rafts, flat-boats and "arks" might be seen floating down the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Susquehanna and the Potomac. There were 2,800 miles of rivers tributary to the Atlantic seaboard which were navigable, or which needed only to be cleared of snags and rocks to render them available for use by small craft. It was estimated that on the eastern slope there were about 25,000 miles of streams which might be utilized by the construction of locks and canals. In the Mississippi valley there were 14,000 miles of navigable rivers, and about 75,000 more which were considered possibilities. But with a three or four-mile current it was impracticable to row, pole or warp a boat and cargo upstream for a long distance. The result was that along those streams which nature had provided as highways the producer first built his boat out of the timbers of the forest, then loaded it with the produce of his farm or mill, and floated down stream to market. Upon reaching his destination, he abandoned his craft and returned by stage or on foot. This was indeed an expensive process—expensive in time, expensive in funds and expensive in human effort. It was an expense of production, however, and one which did not require capitalization.
It was not until 1807 that the steamboat became a commercial success. At this time New York was becoming well settled, and as the Hudson was a natural highway a boat which could drive against wind and stream had every promise of success. Robert Fulton, who had been interested in the problem of steam navigation since 1802, returned from Europe after several years of investigation, and brought back one of Watt's engines. He obtained the financial co-operation of Chancellor Livingston, and together they obtained a monopoly of steam navigation in New York waters. A boat was fitted with the Watt engine, and a successful trip was made from New York to Albany and return. The route yielded large profits from the start, and other boats were built. By 1813 six boats were doing a profitable business on the Hudson. The success of Fulton and Livingston proved attractive to others. Crowded out of New York's waters by the monopoly, John Stevens, in 1809, took a steamboat around from Hoboken into the Delaware. The Phoenix now found business so good in those waters where Fitch had failed that it was soon followed by two other boats. Soon the whole Atlantic seaboard, including the St. Lawrence, was supplied with steam craft.
But enterprise in steamboat navigation was not confined to the coast. Business opportunities in the Mississippi valley attracted the attention of one Nicholas Roosevelt, who proposed to Fulton and Livingston that he would make a trip to New Orleans to survey the prospects for an inland water route, with the understanding that they should finance a steamboat line if his report was favorable. So favorable was it that he was placed in charge of the construction of a river boat at Pittsburg, and in 1811 the New Orleans made her maiden trip down the Mississippi. Thereafter Roosevelt's boat took a regular route between New Orleans and Natchez. Other boats were added, but it was not until 1815 that a voyage was made upstream from New Orleans to Louisville and Cincinnati. After assisting Jackson in the campaign about New Orleans, the Enterprise, taking advantage of high water, steamed to Louisville in twenty-five days. In 1817 the Washington accomplished the same feat while the river was within her banks, and the public became convinced of the practicability of upstream navigation. The same year the Shelby reduced the time to twenty days, and by 1823 fifteen days sufficed. With the success of the steamboat, the Middle West was opened to rapid communication with the gulf.
WAGON ROADS INTO THE INTERIOR.
From 1807 to 1815 two changes had a marked effect upon the national attitude toward internal improvements. Before the outbreak of the European wars manufactures had made some progress in New England and in Pennsylvania. During the first struggle, and before the peace of Amiens, the only serious obstacle to American industry was the tendency to divert capital to wheat raising, shipbuilding and foreign trade. Prices were high, and the makers of goods found encouragement in large profits. With the cessation of hostilities American manufacturers looked to Congress for protection, for foreign goods poured into the country in such quantities and at such prices as to threaten the destruction of domestic production.
At the most, however, the manufacturing population was relatively small, but the disturbances to industry from 1815 to 1818 were such as to throw many out of employment, and to bring to the verge of bankruptcy and starvation those who had been engaged in shipbuilding and foreign trade. A great exodus to the interior was the result. In wagons, on horseback, or on foot—sometimes using handcarts, sleds and wheelbarrows to carry their provisions and light luggage—emigrants crowded the wooded paths that led to the West, where they might find conditions more favorable to independent livelihood.
All these conditions conspired to increase the depression in the East, and drive her people into agriculture and the development of the interior; while the opening of the Mississippi by the steamboat added to the attractions of the rich valleys in the Middle West. But upon his arrival in the West the newcomer found himself beyond the range of any market except New Orleans. To reach this market he "would produce or get together a quantity of corn, flour, bacon and such articles. He would build a flat-bottomed boat on the shore of some river or large creek, load his wares into it, and, awaiting the rise, with a few of his negroes to assist him, would float down to New Orleans. The voyage was long, tedious and expensive. When he arrived there he found himself in a strange city, filled with sharpers ready to take advantage of his necessities. Everybody combined against him to profit by his ignorance of business, want of friends or commercial connections, and nine times out of ten he returned a broken merchant. His journey home was performed on foot, through three or four nations of Indians inhabiting the western parts of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. He returned to a desolate farm, which had been neglected whilst he had been gone. One crop was lost by absence and another by taking it to market. This kind of business was persevered in astonishingly for several years, to the great injury and utter ruin of a great many people." It was the demand for safe transportation arising out of this situation which made Roosevelt's steamboat enterprise a success.
DEVELOPMENT OF COASTWISE COMMERCE.
The British blockade of our coast during the war of 1812 had a marked effect upon the development of inland routes of transportation, as may be seen from the following: "The interruption of the coasting trade was indeed a very serious affair. For years past that trade had given occupation to thousands of coasters and tens of thousands of sailors. The shoes made at Lynn, the Yankee notions of Connecticut, the cotton cards, the domestic cottons, the playing cards produced in New England, the flour of the Middle States, the East India goods brought in from abroad had found a ready market at Charleston, Savannah and Augusta, whence great quantities of rice and cotton were brought North. On the arrival of the British fleet this trade, no longer to be carried on in safety by water, began of necessity to be carried on by land. At first some merchants at Boston, having chartered a few wagons, despatched them with loads to Philadelphia, and even to Baltimore. This was enough. The hint was taken. A new industry sprang up, and by early summer the roads leading southward exhibited one continuous stream of huge canvas-covered wagons tugged along by double or triple teams