MORRIS, Governeur (1752-1816) and others

Report of the commissioners appointed by joint resolutions of the honorable the Senate and Assembly of the state of New York, of the 13th & 15th March, 1810, to explore the route of an inland navigation from Hudson's River to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie

New York: Prior and Dunning, 1811. 8vo. (8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches). 38, [2 blank] pp.

Gathered signatures, stitched, as issued

An important document in the history of the Erie Canal, prepared by the bipartisan canal commission chaired by Gouverneur Morris and including DeWitt Clinton, Simeon DeWitt, Thomas Eddy, William North, Peter B. Porter, and Stephen Van Rensselaer.

In the present work, the commissioners report on their examinations of the region between the Hudson and the Great Lakes, including the existing river route, and present the results of surveys by engineer James Geddes. They conclude that a direct inland navigation from Lake Erie to the Hudson is practicable. In doing so, the report articulates in print the vision of a continuous artificial waterway across New York State that would, within little more than a decade, result in the construction of the Erie Canal (authorised 1817, opened 1825). The document thus serves as an early state-level response to the broader Gallatin programme for internal improvements and one of the printed expressions of New York's canal ambitions.

Shaw & Shoemaker list an Albany printing of this title of the same year, but not the present New York edition.

Item #42609

Price: $350.00