ade
had arisen even so early as the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Interwoven inextricably with these problems was the whole problem of
colonial rivalry, which in its later form developed into an insistence
on state rights. Every improvement in the means of transportation, every
development of natural resources, every new invention was inevitably
considered from the standpoint of sectional interests and with a view to
its monopolistic possibilities. This was particularly true in the case
of the steamboat, because of its limitation to rivers and bays which
could be specifically enumerated and defined. For instance, Washington
in 1784 attests the fact that Rumsey operated his mechanical boat at
Bath in secret "until he saw the effect of an application he was about
to make to the Assembly of this State, for a reward." The application
was successful, and Rumsey was awarded a monopoly in Virginia waters for
ten years.

Fitch, on the other hand, when he applied to Congress in 1785, desired
merely to obtain official encouragement and intended to allow his
invention to be used by all comers. Meeting only with rebuff, he
realized that his only hope of organizing a company that could provide
working capital lay in securing monopolistic privileges. In 1786 he
accordingly applied to the individual States and secured the sole right
to operate steamboats on the waterways of New Jersey, Delaware, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. How different would have been the
story of the steamboat if Congress had accepted Fitch at his word and
created a precedent against monopolistic rights on American rivers!

Fitch, in addition to the high purpose of devoting his new invention to
the good of the nation without personal considerations, must be credited
with perceiving at the very beginning the peculiar importance of the
steamboat to the American West. His original application to Congress in
1785 opened: "The subscriber begs leave to lay at the feet of Congress,
an attempt he has made to facilitate the internal Navigation of the
United States, adapted especially to the Waters of the Mississippi." At
another time with prophetic vision he wrote: "The Grand and Principle
object must be on the Atlantick, which would soon overspread the wild
forests of America with people, and make us the most oppulent Empire on
Earth. Pardon me, generous public, for suggesting ideas that cannot be
dijested at this day."

Foremost in exhibiting high civic