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The Paths Of Inland Commerce, A Chronicle Of Trail, Road, And Waterway

Preface

If the great American novel is ever written, I hazard the guess that its plot will be woven around the theme of American transportation, for that has been the vital factor in the national development of the United States. Every problem in the building of the Republic has been, in the last analysis, a problem in transportation. The author of such a novel will find a rich fund of material in the perpetual rivalries of pack-horseman and wagoner, of river-man and canal boatman, of steamboat promoter and railway capitalist. He will find at every point the old jostling and challenging; the new pack-horsemen demolishing wagons in the early days of the Allegheny traffic; wagoners deriding Clinton's Ditch; angry boatmen anxious to ram the paddle wheels of Fulton's Clermont, which threatened their monopoly. Such opposition has always been an incident of progress; and even in this new country, receptive as it was to new ideas, the Washingtons, the Fitches, the Fultons, the Coopers, and the Whitneys, who saw visions and dreamed dreams, all had to face scepticism and hostility from those whom they would serve.

A. B. H.

Worcester, Mass., June, 1919.

image By John Mitchell; digital version, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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List of articles in category The Paths Of Inland Commerce, A Chronicle Of Trail, Road, And Waterway
Title Published Date Author Hits
Chapter I: The Man Who Caught The Vision 08 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3667
CHAPTER II The Red Man's Trail 10 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3826
CHAPTER III The Mastery Of The Rivers 12 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3162
CHAPTER IV: A Nation On Wheels 15 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 2897
Chapter V: The Flatboat Age 17 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3848
Chapter VI: The Passing Show Of 1800 18 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3033
Chapter VII: The Birth Of The Steamboat 19 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 4276
Chapter VIII: The Conquest Of The Alleghanies 19 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3097
Chapter IX: The Dawn Of The Iron Age 20 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 2858
Chapter X: The Pathway Of The Lakes 20 September 2014 Written by Archer B. Hulbert Hits: 3106

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This Article on the 18th Century History website by Rick Brainard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at 18th Century History. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 18th Century History Copyright Page Exceptions: The works by our Guest Authors, and those articles that are in the Public Domain.  

 

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