Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792–1854
2Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, 15 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
of a section of the Erie Canal, for the Erie Canal while
3Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, 9 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Briggs, Isaac; and Erie Canal [index entry] Clinton, DeWitt; and Erie Canal [index entry]
4To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 22 November 1821 (Jay Papers)
The Erie Canal. See also Samuel Young (1779–1850), Saratoga County Bucktail politician, Convention delegate, Erie Canal Commissioner (1816–40), and later New York Secretary of State (1842–45).
5Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, 21 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Briggs, Isaac; and Erie Canal [index entry] Clinton, DeWitt; and Erie Canal [index entry]
6Theodorus Bailey to Thomas Jefferson, 2 May 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry] maps; of projected Erie Canal [index entry]
7DeWitt Clinton to Thomas Jefferson, 25 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Clinton, DeWitt; and Erie Canal [index entry] Erie Canal [index entry]
8William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 12 November 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
was the Erie Canal.
9Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 14 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Clinton, DeWitt; and Erie Canal [index entry] Erie Canal [index entry]
10Theodorus Bailey to Thomas Jefferson, 2 April 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry] maps; of projected Erie Canal [index entry]
11Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Briggs, 18 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Briggs, Isaac; and Erie Canal [index entry] Erie Canal [index entry]
12Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, 17 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Briggs, Isaac; and Erie Canal [index entry] Erie Canal [index entry]
13Theodorus Bailey to Thomas Jefferson, 18 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry] maps; of projected Erie Canal [index entry]
14To Thomas Jefferson from Jesse Hawley, 2 November 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
...the pseudonym “Hercules” that promoted the idea of a canal between Lake Erie and the Mohawk River. Years later, after his authorship of the essays became public, Hawley gained recognition as one of the founding fathers of the Erie Canal. He later served in the New York legislature and as collector for the district of Genesee (Gerard Koeppel, ...Union: Building the Erie Canal and the...
15DeWitt Clinton to Thomas Jefferson, 27 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Clinton, DeWitt; and Erie Canal [index entry] Erie Canal [index entry]
16William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 27 March 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
was the Erie Canal.
17To James Madison from Arthur Breese, 11 April 1794 (Madison Papers)
...Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, which planned improvements on the Mohawk River. The company’s early efforts, directed by Philip Schuyler, were unsuccessful (Nathan Miller, “Private Enterprise in Inland Navigation: The Mohawk Route prior to the Erie Canal,”
18To James Madison from Isaac Briggs, 16 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
...national capital in the 1790s, and Jefferson had appointed him to survey parts of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and 1804. Later in his life Briggs worked as an engineer on many canal projects, including the construction of the Erie Canal (Ella Kent Barnard, “Isaac Briggs, A.M., F.A.P.S.,”
19To Thomas Jefferson from R. Riker, 28 April 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
The Corporation of the City of New York have caused Medals to be struck, to commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal which unites the great Western Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
20From James Madison to Stephen Van Rensselaer, 11 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 4th. inst. inclosing the address of Mr. Eaton relating to a geological & agricultural survey of the vicinity of the Erie Canal. As far as my judgment extends, his instructions are ably drawn up, & give an adequate scope to the researches & observations most likely to be scientifically and practically useful. In the execution of the task objects not...
21To James Madison from Valentine Gill, 4 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
Valentine Gill eventually left Nova Scotia and was employed in 1819 as a draftsman on the construction of the Erie Canal. He published at least two maps, one of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the other of Rochester, New York (
22To James Madison from James Monroe, 5 February 1820 (Madison Papers)
...by the Federalists and some Republicans to oppose JM for the presidency but lost the election by 128 electoral votes to 89. While governor of New York state, 1817–23, 1825–28, he spearheaded efforts to construct the Erie Canal, which successfully opened in 1825.
23From Thomas Jefferson to R. Riker, 8 June 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve, Gentlemen, with great thankfulness the Medals you have been pleased to send me, commemorative of the completion of the Erie canal. this great work will immortalize the present authorities of New York, will bless their descendants with wealth and prosperity, and prove to mankind the superior wisdom of employing the resources of industry in works of improvement rather than...
24To James Madison from Nathan Williams, 5 September 1806 (Madison Papers)
...four others, but owing to Burr’s acquittal, Tyler was never tried. He moved to Montezuma, New York, in 1811, served as a commissary in the War of 1812, and was involved with the construction of the Erie Canal (Dwight H. Bruce, ed.,
25To James Madison from Richard Riker and Others, 28 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
The Corporation of the City of NewYork have caused medals to be struck to commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal which unites the great Western Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
26From James Madison to Stephen Van Rensselaer, 6 May 1824 (Madison Papers)
A Geological and Agricultural Survey of the District Adjoining the Erie Canal in the State of New York …
27To Thomas Jefferson from DeWitt Clinton, 14 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
...of a waterway to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, Clinton won reelection as governor in 1820, 1824, and 1826. He did not run in 1822. In 1825 he led the celebration upon the completion of the Erie Canal (
28To James Madison from Charles Austin, 30 August 1824 (Madison Papers)
.... The seed from which this Wheat was rais’d was imported from Spain some 2 or 3 Seasons since & cultivated by a Farmer of Cayuga county New York, whom I met this Summer on the Erie Canal conveying 250 Bushels to a friend of mine in Troy and who obligeingly let me have one Barrell, although previously engaged for some Farmers of Maryland & other parts of our country. It is said to...
29From James Madison to Richard Riker and Others, 31 May 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your letter of April 28th. and with it a Medal of Gold, commemorating the completion of the Erie Canal, presented in the name of the City of New York by order of the Common Council; the Medal being accompanied by a box made of Maple brought from the Lake in the first Canal boat the Senaca Chief.
30To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Eddy, 9 February 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
...the reputation and effectiveness of the prison declined sharply in subsequent years. In his only other letter to TJ, dated 16 May 1817, he sought TJ’s advice regarding the appointment of an engineer to oversee construction of the Erie Canal (
31To James Madison from Stephen Van Rensselaer, 4 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
To the Gentlemen Residing in the Vicinity of the Erie Canal
32Thomas Jefferson to James Oram, 29 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
parade celebrating the completion of the Erie Canal, he was described as “the oldest printer in the city” (John Flavel Mines,
33Thomas Jefferson to Elkanah Watson, 16 May 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; Erie Canal [index entry]
34To John Adams from R. Riker, 28 April 1826 (Adams Papers)
The Corporation of the City of New York have caused medals to be struck, to commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal which unites the great Western Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
35Isaac Briggs’s Account of a Meeting with Madison [1 November 1820] (Madison Papers)
...state, Briggs surveyed parts of the Louisiana Purchase lands between 1803 and 1807, and laid out the post road from Washington to New Orleans. Later in life he worked as an engineer on several canal projects, including the Erie Canal (
36To James Madison from Churchill C. Cambreleng, 22 May 1826 (Madison Papers)
It gives me great pleasure to be the medium of conveying to you a gold medal, commemorating the opening of the Erie Canal, presented by the Corporation of the City of Newyork and transmitted to me by the Recorder. I must however express my sincere regret that the late hour at which it was received should have deprived me of the pleasure...
37From James Madison to Thomas Eddy, 10 March 1806 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
...to philanthropy, particularly in the area of prison reform, and spent more than twenty-five years working for the reform of New York prisons and penal code. He helped DeWitt Clinton with the Erie Canal project, was an active supporter of the New York Hospital, and a founder of the Bloomingdale Hospital for the Insane. A founder of a free school for poor children, the House of Refuge, the...
38Peter B. Porter to Thomas Jefferson, 25 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry]
39To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Moore, with Jefferson’s Note, 21 June 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
, 7 [1912], 416; Julius Rubin, “Canal or Railroad? Imitation and Innovation in the Response to the Erie Canal in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston,” APS,
40Elkanah Watson to Thomas Jefferson, 24 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
, where he died. Watson was an early supporter of the construction of the Erie Canal and the movement to establish local fairs and agricultural societies (
41Maria Jay Banyer to Peter Augustus Jay, 27[–28] June 1821 (Jay Papers)
’s daughter and her party of “cousins” (probably McVickers) followed what was becoming a standard tourist route through Upstate New York, the Erie Canal route to Niagara Falls. The post coaches and canal and river boats traversed the route from New York City to the tourist destination of Canandaigua, in eight days. See
42Tadeusz Kosciuszko to Thomas Jefferson, 15 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry]
43To James Madison from George Joy, 2 January 1822 (Madison Papers)
The enclosure is M. Joy to George Joy, 1 Jan. 1822 (3 pp.), commenting on a book about the construction of the Erie Canal and on a volume of the
44To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 12 May 1820 (Jay Papers)
...Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Robert Fulton, and others, who were charged to purchase the rights of the former Western Inland Lock Navigation and Northern Inland Navigation Companies in 1812. This new company began construction in 1817 on the Erie Canal after the sale was completed by a court-appointed panel of appraisers including Richard Varick and Obadiah German.
45Valentine Gill to Thomas Jefferson, 12 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
as an engineer surveying the route for the Champlain and Erie canals. Gill settled by 1819 in
46To George Washington from Elkanah Watson, 10 February 1797 (Washington Papers)
...three miles of canals were in place on the Mohawk River, at Little Falls and at German Flats, N.Y., by 1798. In 1812, the state of New York took over the company as part of the Erie Canal project (see
47James Madison: Notes from State Papers, December 1830 (Madison Papers)
see Case of [ ] [Erie] Canals
48Thomas Eddy to Thomas Jefferson, 16 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Erie Canal [index entry]
49To John Adams from Elkanah Watson, 17 December 1822 (Adams Papers)
correct Map of the rout of the Erie Canal extant—On that account it is valuable—It contains also a plan of a harbor at the Outlet lake Erie which contrary to my calculation as the work of future ages is in consequence of being brought in to view...
50Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, 16 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
...Briggs’s expenses himself. The legislature did not vote to settle his federal accounts until 1818. Briggs resigned his federal surveyorship in 1807 and returned to other business ventures. He worked as an engineer on a section of the Erie Canal, and when that was completed in 1819 he moved to