acclamations of the people, was begun that great work which has spread civilization, wealth and refinement. . ."[1]
Thousands were ready to jump at the chance of securing contracts on the great work; money was scarce along the countryside and means to make it proportionately few; as was the case in the building of the Cumberland Road, a great contemporary work to the south, so the Erie Canal was an immediate boon to hundreds in that long strip of country through which the lines of stakes were driven. Most of the contractors were well-to-do New York farmers, and three-fourths of the army of laborers which now attacked the long task were native born; the foreign element which played so large a part in making the Cumberland Road did not figure in the building of the Erie Canal. Angry gangs of mutinous foreign laborers did not menace the first travelers on the Erie Canal. The commissioners had the good sense to mark out the work to be done in such a way that worthy men of little
- ↑ Id., pp. 42–43. Cf. p. 143, referring to the change of route at Rome and consequent dissatisfaction.
