Steamboat

The settlers who followed the hunter were, with some exceptions, soldiers of the Revolutionary Army and farmers of the middling order and mechanics from the towns english scotch-irish germans poor in possessions and thrown upon the labor of their own hands for support sons and daughters from well-to-do eastern homes sometimes brought softer manners but the equality of life and the leveling force of labor in forest and field soon made them one in spirit with their struggling neighbors even the preachers and teachers who came when the cabins were raised in the clearings and rude churches and school-houses were built preached sermons and taught lessons that savored of the frontier as any one may know who reads peter cartwright's a muscular christian or eggleston's the hoosier schoolmaster the west and the east meet the east alarmed a people so independent as the westerners and so attached to local self-government gave the conservative east many a rude shock setting gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee breeches agog with the idea that terrible things might happen in the mississippi valley not without good grounds did washington fear that a touch of a feather would turn the western settlers away from the seaboard to the spaniards and seriously did he urge the east not to neglect them lest they be drawn into the arms of or be dependent upon foreigners taking advantage of the restless spirit in the southwest aaron burr having disgraced himself by killing alexander hamilton in a duel laid wild plans if not to bring about a secession in that region at least to build a state of some kind out of the spanish dominions adjoining louisiana frightened at such enterprises and fearing the dominance of the west the federalists with a few conspicuous exceptions opposed equality between the sections had their narrow views prevailed the west with its new democracy would have been held in perpetual tutelage to the seaboard or perhaps been driven into independence as the thirteen colonies had been not long before eastern friends of the west fortunately for the nation there were many eastern leaders particularly from the south who understood the west approved its spirit and sought to bring the two sections together by common bonds washington kept alive and keen the zeal for western advancement which he acquired in his youth as a surveyor he never grew tired of urging upon his eastern friends the importance of the lands beyond the mountains he pressed upon the governor of virginia a project for a wagon road connecting the seaboard with the ohio country and was active in a movement to improve the navigation of the potomac he advocated strengthening the ties of commerce smooth the roads he said and make easy the way for them and then see what an influx of articles will be poured upon us how amazingly our exports will be increased by them and how amply we shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to effect it jefferson too was interested in every phase of western development the survey of lands the exploration of the waterways the opening of trade and even the discovery of the bones of prehistoric animals robert fulton the inventor of the steamboat was another man of vision who for many years pressed upon his countrymen the necessity of uniting east and west by a canal which would cement the union raise the value of the public lands and extend the principles of confederate and republican government the difficulties of early transportation means of communication played an important part in the strategy of all those who sought to bring together the seaboard and the frontier the produce of the west wheat corn bacon hemp cattle and tobacco was bulky and the cost of overland transportation was prohibitive in the eastern market a cow and her calf were given for a bushel of salt while a suit of store clothes cost as much as a farm in such circumstances the inhabitants of the mississippi valley were forced to ship their produce over a long route by way of new orleans and to pay high freight rates for everything that was brought across the mountains scows of from five to fifty tons were built at the towns along the rivers and piloted down the stream to the crescent city in a few cases small ocean-going vessels were built to transport goods to the west indies or to the eastern coast towns salt iron guns powder and the absolute essentials which the pioneers had to buy mainly in eastern markets were carried over narrow wagon trails that were almost impassable in the rainy season the National Road.

To far-sighted men, like Albert Gallatin, the father of internal improvements, the solution of this problem was the construction of roads and canals.

Early in Jefferson's administration, Congress dedicated a part of the proceeds from the sale of lands to building highways from the headwaters of the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio River and beyond into the northwest territory in eighteen o six after many misgivings it authorized a great national highway binding the east and the west the cumberland road as it was called began in northwestern maryland wound through southern pennsylvania crossed the narrow neck of virginia at wheeling and then shot almost straight across ohio indiana and illinois into missouri by eighteen seventeen stage coaches were running between washington and wheeling by eighteen thirty three contractors had carried their work to columbus ohio and by eighteen fifty two to vandalia illinois over this ballasted road mail and passenger coaches could go at high speed and heavy freight wagons proceed in safety at a steady pace CANALS AND STEAM BOATS A second epoch in the economic union of the East and West was reached with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, offering an all-water route from New York City to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley.

Pennsylvania, alarmed by the advantages conferred on New York by this enterprise, began her system of canals and portages from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, completing the last link in 1834. in the south the chesapeake and ohio company chartered in eighteen twenty five was busy with a project to connect georgetown and cumberland when railways broke in upon the undertaking before it was half finished about the same time ohio built a canal across the state affording water communication between lake erie and the ohio river through a rich wheat belt passengers could now travel by canal boat into the west with comparative ease and comfort if not at a rapid speed and the bulkiest of freight could be easily handled moreover the rate charged for carrying goods was cut by the erie canal from thirty two dollars a ton per hundred miles to one dollar new orleans was destined to lose her primacy in the mississippi valley The diversion of traffic to eastern markets was also stimulated by steamboats, which appeared on the Ohio about 1810, three years after Fulton had made his famous trip on the Hudson.

It took twenty men to sail and row a five-ton scow up the river at a speed of from ten to twenty miles a day.