an exact imitation of his boats. I do not believe you could prevail on any person who was embarked in that enterprise, to agree with the committee, that the plan of Fulton and the plan of Fitch were in substance the same. If they had entertained such an opinion they would undoubt edly have yielded to the many reasons there were to induce them to prefer the plan of Fitch.

The consequences which Messrs. Livingston and Fulton had anticipated from the establishment of the Albany boats, were fully realized. There was a combination to break down Messrs. Livingston and Fulton, which it was obvious they could not resist. The owners of the Albany boats haying their residence in this city, being intimately acquainted with all its inhabitants, and their inAluence extending to the remotest parts of the state, were enabled to divert almost all the passengers from the boats of Messrs. Livingston and Fulton. The Albany proprietors had not only their agents in every tavern in this city, but their emissaries on every road. These men made it their business, not only to seduce to the boats of their employers the persons who wanted a passage to New-York, but to traduce Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton by the most wanton misrepresentations. Such an effect did this wicked industry produce, that the latter gentleman was looked upon by many who had hearkened to his calumniators, as a vile impostor; and often have I listened with indignation to his

T

calm and magnanimous recitals of the personal abuse and indignities he was daily accustomed to meet. Sir, I think your posterity will blush for the part you have taken against this man, and the family he has left to the mercy of the world. Should the efforts which are making succeed, and they be reduced to poverty, so help me God, I would not for an hour stand in your place, though you should obtain, by the course you are pursuing, all the celebrity and advantage with which you may have been flattered by a delusive imagination.

I was once myself a witness of the effects. of these measures. In the summer of 1811, I was a passenger on board the Paragon, then new and recently established, confessedly, in every respect, and particularly as to accommodation and speed, superior to the Albany boats. Chancellor Livingston was himself on board; and I recollect that Mr. Jacob Barker and his wife, and I think Mr. Walter Bowne, now a senator from the southern district, were also among the passengers, who in the whole were eighteen. We started a few minutes before one of the Albany boats. Something happened to our machinery before we had got far from the wharf, which stopped us, and enabled the Albany boat to go ahead. She must have had upwards of an hundred passengers on bord: her decks were absolutely crowded. I wish you could at that moment have seen the Chancellor, and heard his reflections. I think too well of you

not to suppose they would have had an effect on your feelings. For my own part, all his philosophic considerations on the nature of man, which reconciled him to the events, as the result of those evil dispositions of human nature which we ought to be prepared to meet and bear with fortitude, did not, though I had not then any pecuniary interest in the establishment, diminish my detestation of such injustice and ingratitude.

In September in that year, Messrs. Livingston and Fulton filed their bill in Chancery for an injunction; which, upon an appeal from the Chancellor's denial, was granted and made perpetual by an unanimous decision of the Court of Errors.

They decided, that the law of 1798 was not invalid, though it was passed before the term limitedfor Fitch's exclusive right was expired.

They decided, that the subsequent laws were so many confirmations of the exclusive right originally granted to Mr. Livingston.

They decided, that the states had reserved the power to make such exclusive grants, and that they were not in violation of the constitution of the United States, either as interfering with the power ceded to congress to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, or to regulate commerce. And, they unanimously decided, that a perpetual injunction should be granted.

Had not these boats been stopped by this summary process; had Messrs. Livingston and Ful

ton been obliged, according to the decision of Chancellor Lansing, to look on at these boats in operation till the forfeiture could have been established by a suit, which would unquestionably have been delayed by bills of exception, writs of error, and all those means, which the practice of our courts afford, and which might have procrastinated a final decision for several years; Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton, or at least the latter, would have been ruined. For though Chancellor Livingston's fortune might have been sufficient to encounter such a shock, Mr. Fulton, who had embarked all his means and all his credit in this enterprise, could not have withstood the effects of any continuance of this opposition. The receipts of a steam boat are very great, but the expenses, independent of the interest of the capital, are enormous. And I will venture to say that no steam boat on any part of the waters of this state (unless it be Governor Ogden's or some other ferry boat) has ever given one third of the gross receipts as net profits. The consequence is, that if the receipts be not very large, the boats must be run at a very ruinous loss. It must be recollected, that the whole capital employed in establishing a boat is entirely sunk every five or six years; and as often as that term there must be an advance of from eighty to an hundred thousand dollars for a new boat. The last boat built on the north river, the Chancellor Livingston, cost one

hunderd and twenty thousand dollars. You say, with your wonted candor and accuracy, that the proceeds are immense. Without entering into any calculation on this subject, to shew how prejudiced and erroneous you are, I now offer to sell my whole interest in the north river boats, to any one acceptable to the rest of the company, who will give me my principal with interest from the time I advanced the capital, which is about two years ago. And every proprietor of this city, whom I have had an opportunity of conversing with since I have been here, will gladly part with all his interest on the same terms. Why will you then, sir, for the sake of gratifying your prejudices or your passions, make, upon mere conjecture, a statement as to the value of this property which is so far from being "true in fact."

I rely on the foregoing statement to justify the legislature in passing the law of 1811. I have not attempted and I shall not attempt, to follow you through all your course of argument in relation to these penalties. I am not answering your letter as such I have not had that design from the beginning. I am only availing myself of the opportunity which you have afforded me, and for which I assure you I am greatly obliged, of bringing into view the merits of the claims under the exclusive grants.

When it was perceived that without a summary remedy the grants to Messrs Fulton and Li