of social order, foster the spirit of avaricious speculation, cherish a propensity to idleness and dissipation, and increase the chances of crime and consequent wretchedness; to destroy the respect justly due to a wholesome frugality and to plain republican simplicity, and that independence of purpose, sentiment and action, which are deemed absolutely essential to the true dignity and the steady virtue of freemen, the purity of the administration of justice and the safety of the Commonwealth: and to create, in the midst of a social community of equals, all holding common rights and common immunities, a privileged order of men, claiming exelusive powers, and exercising them by the force and influence of baseless paper money, and claiming also to live without labor, in splendid luxury, upon the toil and sinews of the unprivileged and industrious many; by all of which, manifest moral wrong, and great and unnecessary and unmerited oppression and misery are inflicted upon the people, in direct violation of the principles and true intent of our social government:

Now, therefore, to the end that these evils may be no further multiplied upon the people, and that each member of the social compact may in due time, be brought to the wholesome and strictly republican condition of earning his own support by the labor of his own hands, and of securing his bread by the sweat of his face:

Your memorialists respectfully pray, that your honorable body, having the paramount welfare and highest happiness of the whole body of the people at heart, will be pleased to reject entirely, each and every application for additional banks, or the right of issuing any further amount of bank paper, on any terms whatever.

Your memorialists feel constrained to represent to your honorable body, that in view of our social relations, the genius and spirit of our government, the character and pursuits of a vast majority of the whole people, and the policy best calculated to secure to each and all, equal rights and privileges, equal prosperity and happiness, and the true greatness and glory of the State, they cannot but regard chartered monopolies of every kind, and partial legislation of any kind, and more especially, that kind which takes from the many and transfers to the few, the right of issuing on loan promissory notes, upon fictitious capital, and at a rate of interest usurious and ruinous, as being nothing less than so many broad departures from the course of moral justice; unwarrantable perver

sions of the immutable principles of eternal right, and consequently dangerous to the freedom of the whole body politic.

Your memorialists would ask with deep, but respectful solicitude, what must of necessity, be the consequences on the future condition of this growing country, of a continued increase of banks, and the unlimited circulation of paper money? If the history of past events furnish any rule by which those of the future may be determined, then it will require no gift of prophecy to predict the consequences.

Your memroialists refrain from troubling your Honorable body with a detail of the evils which they honestly believe must follow a further increase of banking privileges, nor will they now stop to offer any arguments to prove those fears well founded, for they apprehend that every man conversant with the nature of our polical institutions, and the history of past republics, will at once see those evils, and feel himself called upon to exert his highest moral powers to avert them.

If the interests of the State, and the welfare of the people imperiously require the existence of banks, and if paper money must be the future circulating currency of the country, the necessity of all, which appears to your memorialists extremely doubtful, then your memorialists would respectfully submit to your honorable body the propriety of establishing in the State, at the seat of government, and upon the funds of the State, a commonwealth bank, with such branches as the wants of the people may require, and of appropriating the nett avails of the whole to the support of the State government, and to the purposes of equal and universal education, disseminated among the people by means of manual labor schools, open alike to the rich and the poor.

By this course, if the business of making and issuing bank notes upon loan and interest, be profitable, the whole body of the people will share that profit, as well in being released from a large portion of public taxes, as in being furnished with the means of acquiring knowledge, and consequent usefulness and happiness.

But whatever may be the views of your Honorable body in relation to the plan of establishing a State bank and branches for the benefit of the whole people, your memorialists hope they will be pardoned the freedom of repeating their first prayer, and of be

seeching your Honorable body to refrain at all hazards from granting to any man or set of men, the right of establishing additional banks, or issuing additional quantities of paper money.

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will continue to pray.

IN SENATE,

March 12, 1833.

REPORT

Of the Canal Commissioners, on the petition of Harvey. Edwards, and others, in relation to the feeder on Limestone creek.

The Canal Commissioners, to whom was referred by the Honorable the Senate, the petition of Harvey Edwards, John McVickar, William M. Redfield, Daniel Collins and Darlin Thompson, together with other inhabitants of the village of Fayetteville, in the town of Manlius, and county of Onondaga,

REPORT:

The petitioners represent that the Limestone creek, in said town of Manlius, has been taken by the State as a feeder to the Erie canal; that said feeder is about three-fourths of a mile in length, and is navigable; that there is no road leading to said feeder, nor any way to approach the same, without passing over the lands of individuals, or private property, except by the Erie canal.

The petitioners further represent, that the persons above named are the proprietors of a canal, which was constructed by individuals, from the head of the navigable feeder constructed by the State, up said creek, to the north branch of the Seneca turnpike road, a distance of about one-fourth of a mile, which canal is navigable; has one wooden lock, and was constructed at an expense of about three thousand dollars.

The petitioners further represent, that said village is a place of considerable business, where a large amount of property is put on board of boats to send to market, and where a large amount of [Senate, No. 73.]

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merchandize is landed for the surrounding country, and that the proprietors of said lock and canal are desirous of releasing the same to the State.

The petitioners pray that a law may be passed, authorizing the Canal Commissioners, or other agents of the State, to take a grant or conveyance to the State, of the interest of said proprietors in said lock and canal, that the navigation may be free and uninterrupted from said turnpike road to the Erie canal.

The same rate of toll is charged upon that part of the Limestone-creek feeder, which was constructed by the State, as upon the other navigable canals. If the proprietors of the lock and canal, which were constructed by individuals, should release their interests to the State, toll would likewise be charged upon that part of the feeder. If the Canal Commissioners were satisfied that tolls sufficient to keep this part of the feeder in repair would be received from it, they would not hesitate to recommend that the State should take the title to it from the proprietors, and adopt it as a part of the public works: but they do not believe that the amount of tolls upon this part of the feeder would be sufficient for that purpose. If therefore the State should conclude to take this work, it must, in the opinion of the Commissioners, be from other inducements than the mere amount of tolls that can be expected from it.

It would undoubtedly be a matter of convenience to the inhabitants in the neighborhood of this feeder, to have it all owned and controlled by the State. If the individuals should allow their part of the work to be out of repair, so as to prevent navigation, or should not permit the use of it, in either case the inhabitants would be compelled to resort to land carriage to get property to or from the Erie canal, and the State would get no tolls from its part of the navigable feeder, because it could not be used without passing over individual property.

The petitioners state, that this work has been constructed "at an expense of about three thousand dollars; and that the proprietors are willing to convey the same to the State," as the Commissioners infer, without receiving any compensation therefor.

Since this petition was referred to the Commissioners, they have received the certificate of an engineer, shewing the condition