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To George Washington from Elkanah Watson, 10 February 1797

From Elkanah Watson

Albany 10th febr. 1797

Sir

My Short visit at Mount Vernon in Jany 1785 will always be a source of the Most grateful reflections to my mind, & I trust the important information I derived from you, at that time as to your vision in improveing the Navigation of the Potowmac, in connection with some branches of the Ohio Leading in the direction of Detroit, for the avowed purpose of diverting the fur trade from Montreal to Alexandria,1 has not been lost to this State, altho our Western Canals and the improvement of our interior water to the great Lakes will undoubtedly divert your main object: but considering ourselves as Americans on the great Scale, divested of local attatchments. In this view I persuade myself you will rejoice at the progress we have already made.2 We now contemplate Locking round the falls of Niagara—altho warmly opposed by Genl Schuyler. 3 or 4 of us are determind to Make an effort to obtain a Law;3 thus when the improvement are complea⟨ted⟩ to Oswego under the Law of 1792,4 and the Last mentioned object is Also effected an uninterupted water communication will be open from Lake Erie to the Hudson. I take the liberty to transmit to you by Mr Van Renssalaer my Short Tour in Holland in 1784, the year previous to my visit to your hospitable mansion.5 Shou’d it beguile a few moments from the weighty concerns of our new born Nation, in the solemn crisis in which we are now involved, it will be grateful to me.6 I am with profound respect & gratitude, Your devoted

Elkanah Watson

Copy, N: Watson Papers. No reply to Watson from GW has been found.

1Watson visited Mount Vernon on 19–20 Jan. 1785. He later recorded in his memoirs that those were “two of the richest days” of his life (see Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 4:78–79; Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 279). In his memoirs, Watson noted that during his 1785 visit to Mount Vernon, GW mostly conversed about “the interior country, and … the opening of the navigation of the Potomac, by canals and locks, at the Seneca, the Great and Little Falls.” GW reportedly also authorized Watson to “take minutes from his [GW’s] former journals” on the subject of canals. Watson made summaries of those minutes in his memoirs. The summaries contained information about the Potomac River Company. They read: “The preliminary preparations are in full train, to commence operations in the ensuing Spring, not only to remove the obstacles in the Potomac to a boat navigation from Georgetown to Fort Cumberland [now Cumberland, Md.] … but to the ultimate construction of a canal to Lake Erie, which is intended not only to give a direction of the fur trade from Detroit to Alexandria, but to attract the eventual trade of the country north of the Ohio.” According to Watson, GW especially sought to “demonstrate the practicability … of diverting the trade of the immense interior world yet unexplored to the Atlantic cities.” GW provided Watson with routes and a table of distances from Detroit to various cities, which Watson copied in GW’s “presence and with his aid, from the original manuscript.” GW’s “persuasive tongue” during his discussions on canals “infected” Watson with “canal mania.” At GW’s insistence, Watson followed his visit to Mount Vernon with travels to the Little and Great Falls of the Potomac River in order “to examine the proposed route of the canal.” Watson was later involved with numerous canal schemes (Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 280–81). For GW’s proposals to link the Potomac River with waterways flowing into the Ohio River via canals and other means, and for the table of distances that he had sent to various people to illustrate trade routes from the Northwest Territory to regions to the east, see GW to Benjamin Harrison, 10 Oct. 1784, and n.5 to that document, in Papers, Confederation Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1992–97. description ends 2:86–98.

2The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, of which Philip Schuyler was president, and Watson a director and commissioner, had sought since its formation in 1792 to open navigation between the Hudson River and the lakes Seneca and Ontario. In order to promote trade between the West and the Hudson River, the company looked to improve Mohawk River navigation by linking it with Oneida Lake and other waterways, and by creating a route from the Oswego River to Lake Ontario. The company began work on canals, locks, and channels by the spring of 1793. A number of canals and locks at Little Falls, N.Y., was in operation by 1796, and several locks and approximately 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 Shaw, Canals for a Nation description begins Ronald E. Shaw. Canals for a Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790–1860. Lexington, Ky., 1990. description ends , 9–11, 30; see also Lossing, Life and Times of Philip Schuyler description begins Benson J. Lossing. The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler. 2 vols. 1872–73. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 2:468–71; and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 11 July 1796).

3On 5 April 1798, the New York legislature passed “An ACT for opening the navigation between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario,” which incorporated the Niagara Canal Company. The company’s purpose was to “make a canal navigation” between Lakes Erie and Ontario, “passing by the falls of Niagara.” Watson promoted the venture and was one of the company’s directors, but the scheme was not immediately realized (N.Y. Laws, 21st Session description begins Laws of the State of New-York. Passed at the Twenty-First Session of the Legislature. Begun and Held at the City of Albany, the Second Day of January, 1798. Albany, 1798. description ends , 486–94; see also Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 369). Watson and Schuyler had disagreements while serving together in the Western Inland Lock Navigation and Northern Inland Lock Navigation companies. Schuyler reportedly had frequent conversations with the company engineer about canals to Lake Erie, “keeping the interior, so as to avoid the Niagara Falls” (James Cochran to Moses Cantine, 10 Feb. 1822, in Hosack, Memoir of De Witt Clinton description begins David Hosack. Memoir of De Witt Clinton: With an Appendix, Containing Numerous Documents, Illustrative of the Principal Events of His Life. New York, 1829. description ends , 263; see also Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 382–83).

4The “ACT for establishing and opening Lock Navigations within this State,” passed by the New York legislature on 30 March 1792, incorporated the Western Inland Lock Navigation and Northern Inland Lock Navigation companies, which Watson and Schuyler strongly supported (N.Y. Laws, 15th Session description begins Laws of the State of New-York. Fifteenth Session. New York, 1792. description ends , 35–43). On 22 Dec. 1792, the legislature approved the “ACT to amend” the 30 March law. The December law named conditions under which the president and directors of the companies were authorized to construct canals and locks deemed necessary. It also empowered them to determine ship tolls, and “estimate … the toll to be taken for passing any Lock or other improvement.” The act vested in the corporations any land occupied by them for canal construction (N.Y. Laws, 16th Session description begins Laws of the State of New-York. Sixteenth Session. New York, 1793. description ends , 10–12; see also n.2 above).

5Watson forwarded GW his Tour in Holland (Worcester, Mass., 1790), which provides descriptions of various regions of the Netherlands. Watson had embarked on his travels to the Netherlands in May 1784 (see Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 222–64).

“Mr Van Renssalaer” may refer to Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (1738–1810), a friend of Watson’s who accompanied him on a tour of central New York in 1791 in order to “scrutinize the opinions on the subject of inland navigation” (Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution description begins Winslow C. Watson, ed. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, Including His Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from the year 1777 to 1842, and His Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. New York, 1856. description ends , 335–36). Van Rensselaer represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to 1790. He was a member of the board of directors and later president of the Bank of Albany, which Watson organized. Van Rensselaer served as lieutenant governor of New York from 1801 to 1804.

6The “crisis” probably refers to recently strained Franco-U.S. relations, which involved the Directory’s decree of 2 July 1796 that threatened the seizure of U.S. vessels bound for British ports. Relations between the two nations worsened when French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet publicized his 27 Oct. and 15 Nov. 1796 letters to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering. Those letters contained harsh criticism of both U.S. neutrality policy and the Jay Treaty, and also alleged U.S. noncompliance with its treaties with France (see GW to Alexander Hamilton, 2 Nov. 1796, and n.2 to that document; see also Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov., and n.5 to that document). The strained relationship culminated in the Directory’s refusal to recognize Charles Cotesworth Pinckney as the U.S. minister to France (see Pinckney to GW, 25–28 Jan.). The Directory later issued a decree of 2 March 1797, which identified U.S. sailors aboard British ships as pirates (see Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 April 1797, and n.3 to that document, in Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 12:66–69).

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