stopher Colles the entire profits of the navigation of the river
if he would improve it; yet work did not follow words. It was easy to
see what might be done, but the man did not appear who could do it. In
1791, George Clinton took a hand, securing the incorporation of a
company to open navigation from the Hudson to Lake Ontario. The
company completed three sections of a canal--aggregating six miles in
length, with five leaky locks--at a cost of four hundred thousand
dollars, but the price of transportation was not cheapened, nor the
time shortened. This seemed to end all money effort. Other canal
companies were organised, one to build between the Hudson and Lake
Champlain, another to connect the Oswego River with Cayuga and Seneca
lakes; but the projects came to nothing. Finally, in 1805, the
Legislature authorised Simeon DeWitt, the surveyor-general, to cause
the several routes to be accurately surveyed; and, after he had
reported the feasibility of constructing a canal without serious
difficulty from Lake Erie to the Hudson, a commission of seven men,
appointed in 1810, estimated the cost of such construction at five
million dollars. It was hoped the general government would assist in
making up this sum; but it soon became apparent that the war, into
which the country was rapidly drifting, would use up the national
surplus, while rival projects divided attention and lessened the
enthusiasm. Efforts to secure a right of way, developed the avarice of
landowners, who demanded large damages for the privilege. Thus,
discouragement succeeded discouragement until a majority of the
earlier friends of the canal gave up in despair.

But there was one man who did not weaken. DeWitt Clinton had been
made a member of the Canal Commission in 1810, and with Gouverneur
Morris, Peter B. Porter and other associates, he explored the entire
route, keeping a diary and carefully noting each obstacle in the way.
In 1811, he introduced and forced the passage of a bill clothing the
commission with full power to act; and, afterward, he visited
Washington with Gouverneur Morris to obtain aid from Congress. Then
came the war, and, later, in 1815, Clinton's overthrow and retirement.

This involuntary leisure gave Clinton just the time needed to hasten
the work which was to transmit his name to later generations. Bitterly
mortified over his defeat, he retired to a farm at Newton on Long
Island, where he lived for a time in strict seclusion, indu