Very little progress
has been made since your departure in the plans for improving the great Dismal.
People near Edenton are afraid that a canal from Pasquotank to Elizabeth River,
through Drummond's Lake, would deprive that Town of its small remains of Trade
and the People on Pasquotank River who would be profited by the Canal have not
Enterprise enough to go on with the Work. They want a Conductor; an able and
persevering Director on the Virginia side would answer the Purpose. Our Company
has from 30 to 40 Thousand A[cre]s. We have a Party of Men working in the
Swamp. The manager has lately been through it. No part of the Lake is within
our Tract, for it is ¾ of a mile North of the Line. There is a Mill
on a head Branch of Elizabeth River to which the Tide flows, and it is said
that the stagnant Waters of the Dam of that Mill extend to within half a Mile
of Drummond's Pond. If so, a single Lock at the Mill and a very short Canal
opens the Carriage from Norfolk into the Lake and a Mile further brings it
among the weighty Junipers in our Swamp. I have directed our Agent to try to
buy two or three shares more for me, but don't know what success he may have.
A valuable
Improvement is said to have been made in mecanicks by a Citizen of Virg[ini]a
on Potowmack. He says that he has found a method of working a Boat carrying
from 5 to 10 Tons 70 or 80 miles a day by three men up such a River as the
Ohio. He says she will go @ 3 miles the Hour up a River where
the Stream runs @ 6 miles. Do you believe this? Genl.
Washington has seen the Boat in miniature and certifies that it has exceeded
his belief and he thinks it a useful Discovery. The Projector is getting Laws
in the different states to operate as a Patent for his Discovery for 10 years.1
You will soon hear
many Complaints concerning our Western Territory. The Spaniards have not only
interdicted the navigation of the Mississippi, but they seem to be making
Incroachments and are doubtless taking Pains to exasperate the Indians, to the
great Terror of our frontier Inhabitants and to the loss of some Lives. It is
true that the Spaniards had subdued two or three British Garisons in West
Florida and possessed the lower Part of that Province previous to the Peace.
Does such a Tenure give a good Title to a Country. Such Positions are
dangerous; they have been objected to by Spain herself.
There is a diversity
of Sentiments respecting the probable Effects of those strange proceedings of
the Court of Spain. Doubtless they are pointed with an evil Eye against the
Prosperity of the U.S., but I think they will be favourable in their
operations. Should the Navigation of the Mississippi continue open, Vast Bodies
People would migrate thither whose mercantile Connections could be of no Use to
the old States. In Taxation their assistance would be very inefficient. On the
contrary let the Navigation of the Mississippi be shut up and the Country
joining our present Settlements will be first improved and a durable commercial
and civil intercourse established.2
The Business I
suppose will cause us to send a Minister to the Court of Spain. From the strong
representations that have lately been made by Mr. Lawrence who says he is
requested by Doctor Franklin to do so I suppose the Doctor will be permitted to return. Should
that be the Case I hope you will be his successor at Versailles. In
that Case too we shall have much difficulty in determining who is to go to London.3 Perhaps Livingston,
Jay, or Adams. I think the last has
Prejudices too strong.4
We have lately heard
strange stories concerning a certain Doctor in Paris who performed some thing
in the Cure of Diseases like inchantment.5 Is there any useful
discovery made?
I have the Honor to
be with the utmost Regard, Dear Sir, your obedt. Servt.
HU. WILLIAMSON
[Inclosure]
|
Some Accot, of the Exports of No: Carolina. |
|
|
Tar, Pitch,
Turpentine annually. |
@ 120,000 Brls. |
|
Tobacco. |
10,000 Hhds. |
|
Indian Corn |
20 @ 50,000
Brls. |
|
Peas |
5,000 H. Bushels |
|
Herring |
3 @ 4,000
Brls. |
|
These 3 last articles are chiefly for the
West India Market. |
|
Pipe and Hhd Staves
in great plenty and of the best kind that are produced in America.
Boards and lumber of
all sorts; fit for the West India market; for building Ware Houses, etc., to
any Amo[un]t that can be in demand; also
Shingles — Cypress and
Juniper 18 Inches @ 3 feet.
Indigo and Rice -
from Wilmington.
Wheat - a
considerable Quantity is annually exported; also Bees Wax.
Pork, a great
Quantity, the cheapest in America.
_______________
* Hugh Williamson
(1735–1819), preacher, doctor, scientist and politician, was born in Pennsylvania,
but is most intimately associated with North Carolina, representing that state
in the Continental and Federal Congresses, and writing its history. He
published in the American Medical and Philosophical Register (New
York, 1811-1814) “Observations on Navigable Canals," using the signature
“Observer” or “Mercator." See Hosack, Biographical Memoir of Hugh Williamson, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections (1821),
III. 125. This scheme for a canal from Elizabeth River, Virginia, to Pasquotank
River, North Carolina, was actively taken up in the two states in 1786.
See State Records of North Carolina, XVIII.
1 The inventor was James Rumsey, at this time
keeping a boarding-house at Berkeley Springs. Washington's certificate is
printed in Writings of Washington (Ford), X. 402,
and he wrote to Hugh Williamson about it in March, 1785. Ib., 445.
It seems, however, that the use of steam was not at the time contemplated by
Rumsey, but came as an afterthought. Ib., XI. 187. Jefferson
regretted in 1789 not knowing the results of Rumsey's experiments, and in 1793,
after Rumsey's death, gave a note of recommendation to the attorney (Barnes) of
those interested in the invention. Writings of Jefferson (Ford),
VI. 266.
2 On June 3 Congress instructed the United
States ministers for negotiating commercial treaties with foreign powers not to
relinquish or cede “in any event whatsoever, the right of the citizens of these
United States to the free navigation of the river Mississippi from its source
to the ocean." Before this instruction could be acted upon, the King of
Spain set aside all pretensions of the Americans to the navigation of that
river, and this action was communicated to Congress November 16, 1784. Secret Journals,
in. 510, 517. The negotiations, as was usual in Spanish questions,
were protracted for many years.
3 This was the opinion held by Washington and
other leaders, and the concessions proposed by John Jay, Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, to be made in favor of the Spanish claims on the Mississippi awakened
a doubt of his integrity in the mind of Monroe, and produced a lasting
hostility on his part to Jay's political advancement. This hostile influence
made itself felt in the reception given to the Jay Treaty of 1796.
On December
17, 1784, Congress, on motion of a delegate from Georgia
(Houstoun), seconded by a delegate from North Carolina (Spaight, colleague of
Williamson), resolved to elect a minister to Spain, but no action was taken.
January 21, 1785. permission was granted to Franklin to return to America, and
March 10, Jefferson was elected minister to the Court of Versailles, on the
nomination of David Howell. Secret Journals, 111. 520,
522, 536.
4 Words in italics were written in cypher.
Adams was chosen February 24, 1785.
5 Mesmer, who had been exposed by Franklin and
his colleagues on the committee of investigation. Jefferson speaks of the
“maniac Mesmer."
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