pal and interest of the money for which such stock was issued.

This aid was asked for on the plea that it would insure the completion of the railroad, and was based on the report made by Engineer Benjamin Wright, that the railroad could be completed, with a single track, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie for $4,762,200, on which investment it was shown by the estimates of the Company that the railroad would return a profit of from 10 to 13 per cent. Although the Legislature was flooded with petitions from people all along the line of the proposed railroad, and from the authorities of New York City and Brooklyn, praying for the passage of the bill, there was a strong feeling in the same region against the legislation on the ground that it would authorize a misuse of the public funds, although, in fact, that feeling was fostered as a political measure. It found expression in the Eastern section interested in the building of the railroad, through a leading local newspaper as follows:

The company incorporated have declared their inability to proceed upon their own resources, and have petitioned for Legislative aid. A bill has been introduced in accordance with these petitions. Our opinion is that the State should construct the work as soon as its resources shall be adequate thereto. We dislike this mixture of State affairs with stockjobbing operations. If the company cannot fulfill its charter, let the Legislature annul it and take the matter into their own hands. The Southern counties have an equitable claim on the State for assistance, and when it is approved it should redound to their benefit, not to that of a private corporation. If the State cannot construct the road the avails will go into the public treasury for the common benefit; if otherwise, into the pockets of stock jobbers. If the work belongs to the State the tolls upon it may be reduced, after defraying the expense of its construction, to such an amount as may be necessary to keep it in order. If a corporation has the control, it remains a single monopoly, to be managed in such manner as shall most conduce to the pecuniary benefit of the stockholders. These and many other reasons may be urged why a work of such magnitude, involving the interests of so large a section of country, should not be intrusted to a private corporation. We are happy to see that the subject is awakening attention along the route of the proposed movement.-Independent Republican (Democratic), Goshen, N. Y., Feb. 24, 1835.

The same feeling on the subject in the Western counties was voiced by an influential newspaper as follows:

We are astonished, while noticing every petition introduced on this subject, that all the memorials ask for aid "-not one requesting the State to construct the road.

But we

venture to say that of all those memorialists not one in fifty knows they have prayed the Legislature to loan $2,000,000 to a wealthy company of speculators to secure them the inheritance of the most valuable stock ever granted in New York-instead of asking the State to construct the road, the tolls of which after five years would become an everlasting and increasing fund sufficient to defray all the State expenditures, to educate our children forever. The people have never intended to ask this grant for a company. We ask the State to perform this work. We demand it as a just claim. We demand that the State immediately take back the grant from the company, who have thus artfully stepped between us and the Legislature to rob us of the claim we hold for the funds taken from us to complete the great canals.-Farmers' Advocate (Democratic), Bath, N. Y., Feb. 16, 1835.

In the same strain the bill was opposed in the
Legislature, strong points being made against it by
Assemblyman Wilkinson of Onondaga County, who
declared that, under conditions for construction more
favorable than those on the route of the New York
and Erie Railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, the
Camden and Amboy, and the Columbia and Lan-
caster railroads, all then recently put in operation,
had cost from four to six times as much per mile
($30,000 to $50,000) as it was estimated by Engi-
neer Wright that the New York and Erie Railroad
was to cost. Mr. Wilkinson also showed, to the
disadvantage of the engineer's report on that sub-
ject, a surprising knowledge, for that day, of the
capacity and practical working of locomotives, and
used it effectively in behalf of the influence of the
Erie Canal. He also dwelt on the fact that the
New York and Erie Railroad Company had been
organized on a payment of but 5 per cent. of the
amount of stock required to be subscribed in 1833,
when the act declared that 10 per cent. should be
paid, and that it had made no report to the Comp-
troller, in violation of law.

"In the winter of 1833," said Mr. Wilkinson,
"they [the Railroad Company] said they would be-
gin the work if they were permitted to organize on
the amount of stock then provided for. They were
permitted to do so. In September, 1833, they pub-
lished a circular stating that they could not go on
without liberal grants and cessions of land to them.
In 1835 [recently] they profess to the corporation of
the city of New York that they can finish the Dela-
ware Division in two years without the aid of the
State. Now they tell the Legislature that they

T

will readily perceive how much shorter the distance from Geneva, even by way of Rochester, to Buffalo is than that from Elmira to Portland or Dunkirk. Add to all this is the fact that the end of a great improvement farthest from the sea coast is by far the less productive of toll, the company, therefore, actuated by all these considerations, during the term of seventeen years, until which they are not obliged to finish the railroad to Lake Erie, would have ample time and power, by arraying the rest of the State against us, to have withheld entirely the extensions of the railroad from Elmira to Portland or Dunkirk; but the members of the western counties, however obvious this was, did not perceive it.

،،

The very foundation of our railroad is the uninterrupted use of it during the winter months and the velocity of movement on it, giving a continued and rapid communication between the country and the city of New York. By commencing at the Hudson and Delaware Canal these two great features, its only support, were abandoned, and consequently all the members from New York, except three, voted against the bill, although they all more than ever have been in favor of the main project, and after a most violent and continued struggle of fifteen days the bill was, I am happy to say, entirely lost, notwithstanding Mr. Lord, Mr. Ruggles, and many lobby members sent by the railroad and the Trust Company were making astonishing efforts in its favor.

At the commencement of the debate Mr. Ogden of Delaware County made an allusion to me, although not by name, which was most triumphantly refuted, and Mr. Burke of Cattaraugus made a smart but injudicious speech, in which he attacked the motives of persons opposed to the bill, and which was full of personalities. This not only produced warm retorts on these members, but also occasioned, unjustifiably, very violent abuse of Mr. King, who had written a letter his friends were indiscreet enough to read to the house, and also upon Mr. Lord, who was in attendance on the part of the company, but who had not by any act brought his name into the Legislature. No one ever recollects so warm and long a debate.

66

Since the failure of the bill I have proposed to the friends of the company to join in trying to obtain the construction of the road by the State; but they have refused, saying that the company intends itself to construct the work, which, of course, is entirely out of the question. I cannot say at present what course I shall take in regard to our application from Allegany, and the one from New York, both joining in recommending its construction by the State.

"During the debate the Hudson and Delaware Canal stock rose from about 70 to 114, and many hundred shares have been sold at the advanced prices. I never felt more gratified than I have at this triumph over those who would have sacrificed the western counties, and indeed the whole project, to their own local and sordid views."

Yet, at the next session of the Legislature, 1836, a bill quite similar to the one so vigorously opposed and emphatically condemned by Mr. Church became a law, and it is recorded that it was opposed by Mr. Lord. Whatever of insincerity might have possessed his contemporaries in Erie, or however much he might have believed they were swayed by ulterior motives, either must have in time been made sat

isfactory to Mr. Church, or the work of their successors he must have regarded as having condoned for it all; for, in reply to the invitation sent him by the Company, May 1, 1851, to be present on the occasion of the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, he wrote as follows:

ANGELICA, May 10, 1851.

GENTLEMEN: I accept with great pleasure the invitation of the Board of Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company to be present at the contemplated opening of that great work; prosecuted with much energy and devotion, with so much skill and science constructed.

I remain, gentlemen, etc., etc.,

week.

No

But the people in other localities along the line of the proposed railroad did not share Mr. Church's views on the Erie relief bill of 1835, and their disappointment over its defeat was great. This feeling was vigorously expressed by an Owego newspaper, in its issue following the defeat of the bill. "It is with feelings of mortification, disappointment, and regret," this editor wrote, " that we announce the defeat of this bill in the Assembly on Friday of last The vote stood 61 to 45; who could have calculated upon such a result? Who, in view of the strong claims which the Southern Tier of counties have upon the State, and the acknowledged importance of the proposed road, who could have anticipated such a course at the hands of a Legislature claiming to be honorable and high-minded? one. We do not hesitate to say that their conduct has been illiberal and unjust in this matter, and dishonorable to them as Legislators. But we console ourselves with the conviction that the matter is not going to rest here. This road must and will be built! The intelligent and enterprising citizens of the Southwestern counties will never suffer themselves to be duped in this manner. They have rights which they will be bold to assert and, we trust, found able to maintain. If treated in this way, they will be driven to the ballot box for redress. There they can make themselves heard-and there they will be found! For our own humble self we would waive every political consideration rather than submit to a system of persecution so unjustifiable and dishonorable. No man shall have our vote whether for Governor or a less responsible station,