pessimistic in regard to the matter, but it is certainly true that genius of all kinds was much oppressed in 1800.

Transportation facilities had not improved much since the period of the confederation. Road making had not yet been learned. There were a few fairly good specimens of turnpike road in the United States, but only a few. The Lancaster pike, extending from Philadelphia to Lancaster, was probably the best piece of road in the United States. It was built in 1792 by a company organized for the purpose and authorized to recoup itself by collecting toll. The method of making this road was ridiculous. After the trees were cut away the open space was covered with huge boulders, and when the chinks between the boulders were filled in with dirt and gravel, the work was complete. It required only one heavy rain to reveal the imperfections of the method. The dirt was soon washed away and the horses stumbled along over and among the boulders and were woefully bruised and beaten. An Englishman who was familiar with the MacAdam method finally took the matter in hand "and the road became the first turnpike in the United States." In the construction of this road that conservatism and prejudice which Fitch, Fulton, and Rumsey had to encounter was evident. The utility of such a turnpike should have been obvious, and its builders should have been looked upon as public benefactors. It was not so, however. The proposition to charter a company with power to condemn land and charge toll was met with a protest. An indignation meeting was held. Selfishness was evident, and public spirit absent. Resolutions condemning all such corporations and bristling with excerpts from Blackstone and the laws of Edward III. were passed. The promoters of the road became angry and submitted a reply to the resolutions. The reply was not dignified or courteous. It reviled the chairman of the protesting meeting, and declared the learned citations to be of no value because they consisted of detached sentences taken from various places and pieced together. Anything might be

Three views of the life-mask of Washington. From the original in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

proved in this way. The Bible says: "Judas went and hanged himself"; and in another place: "Go thou and do likewise." The chairman of the indignation meeting was advised to couple the citations and follow the advice. However, the company was chartered and the road built, and was a great boon to the adjacent land owners.

Travelling was difficult, tedious, and expensive. The trips were infrequent and slow. There was a stage once a week from New York to Philadelphia, making the trip in about two days. The stage went from Boston to New York three times per week, and made the trip in three days. In the South the roads were few and bad, and people travelled on horseback for the most part. A coach running from Charleston to Savannah was the only one south of the Potomac River. Jefferson found the trip from WashHe

ington to his home at Monticello a difficult one. remarks that there are eight rivers on the route and "five have neither bridges nor boats." In the North, the coach did not make more than four miles an hour on an average; in the South the speed was less. The average expense in the North was about six cents per mile exclusive of charges at the inns. Including inn charges, the cost was about ten cents per mile. Francis Baily, who travelled extensively in the United States at this time, made a trip of two hundred miles for $21.

The progress of the mails was directly dependent upon transportation facilities and may be inferred from what has been said. There were about twenty thousand miles of post road and nine hundred offices. The receipts for the year ending October 1, 1801, were only $320,000, of which Philadelphia contributed $55,000. The mails moved very slowly on the seaboard, and still more so in the interior. The trip from Philadelphia to Nashville, Tennessee, occupied twenty-two days.

Foreigners travelling in the United States have recorded some interesting descriptions of the methods of transportation. Robert Sutcliffe, an Englishman, who travelled in

this country in 1804-1806, says, in speaking of his experience in the South: "We sometimes met a ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting of a lean cow and mule; sometimes a lean bull or an ox and a mule; and I have seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each miserable in its appearance, composing one team, with a half-naked black slave or two riding or driving, as occasion suited." Again he records the fact that he met elegant coaches with footmen gayly dressed.

The condition of manufactures in the United States in 1800 is well indicated by Hamilton's famous report to Congress of December 5, 1791, for in the last decade of the eighteenth century the annual manufacturing output made little appreciable increase. After speaking of the satisfactory progress made, Hamilton enumerates some of the "most considerable" as follows:

"1. Of Skins.-Tanned and towed leather, dressed skins, shoes, boots and slippers, harness and saddlery of all kinds, portmanteaux and trunks, leather breeches, gloves, muffs, and tippets, parchment and glue.

"2. Of Iron.-Bar and sheet iron, steel, nail rods and nails, implements of husbandry, stoves, pots, and other household utensils, the steel and iron work of carriages, and for shipbuilding, anchors, scale beams and weights, and various tools of artificers, arms of different kinds; though the manufacture of these last has of late diminished for want of demand.

"3. Of Wood. Ships, cabinet wares, and turnery, wool and cotton cards, and other machinery for manufactures and husbandry, mathematical instruments, coopers' wares of every kind.

"4. Of Flax and Hemp.-Cables, sail cloth, cordage, twine, and pack thread.

"5. Bricks and coarse tiles, and potters' wares.

"6. Ardent spirits and malt liquors.

"7. Writing and printing paper, sheathing and wrapping paper, paste boards, fullers' or press papers, paper hangings.