ad tested a steamer on
the Seine; failed to interest Napoleon; tried, without success, to get the
British Government to adopt his torpedo; tried and failed again with the
American Government at Washington. Fulton's thoughts seemed to have been
riveted on his torpedo; but Livingston was confident of the future of the
steamboat, and had had an engine built for it in England, which Fulton
found lying on a wharf, freight unpaid, on his return from Europe. The
State of New York had meantime granted the two another monopoly of steam
navigation, and gave them until 1807 to prove their ability and right. The
time, though brief, proved sufficient, and on the afternoon of August 7,
1807, the "Clermont" began her epoch-making voyage. The distance to
Albany--150 miles--she traversed in thirty-two hours, and the end of the
passenger sloop traffic on the Hudson was begun. Within a year steamboats
were plying on the Raritan, the Delaware, and Lake Champlain, and the
development and use of the new invention would have been more rapid than
it was, save for the monopoly rights which had been granted to Livingston
and Fulton. They had the sole right to navigate by steam, the waters of
New York. Well and good. But suppose the stream navigated touched both New
York and New Jersey. What then? Would it be seriously asserted that a
steamer owned by New Jersey citizens could not land passengers at a New
York port?

Fulton and Livingston strove to protect their monopoly, and the two States
were brought to the brink of war. In the end the courts settled the
difficulty by establishing the exclusive control of navigable waters by
the Federal Government.

From the day the "Clermont" breasted the tide of the Hudson there was no
check in the conquest of the waters by steam. Up the narrowest rivers,
across the most tempestuous bays, along the placid waters of Long Island
Sound, coasting along the front yard of the nation from Portland to
Savannah the steamboats made their way, tying the young nation
indissolubly together. Curiously enough it was Livingston's monopoly that
gave the first impetus to the extension of steam navigation. A mechanic by
the name of Robert L. Stevens, one of the first of a family distinguished
in New York and New Jersey, built a steamboat on the Hudson. After one or
two trips had proved its usefulness, the possessors of the monopoly became
alarmed and began proceedings against the new rival. Driven from the
waters about New Yo