eriff, p. 98). The construction of the Erie Canal did, as earlier noted, bring about progress in a number of important ways. Among the many positive benefits the canal brought, it not only significantly reduced the distance and time to move goods, mail, and travelers from one place to another, but it also formed a merchant class, and linked communities to one another that had never been connected before. Of course these signs all point to progress, but what must be considered here is that all of these examples of benefits made the people who used the canal regularly dependent on it. Therefore, when winter came and the canal iced over as it often did for several months out of the year, or one of the locks failed, people grew impatient, and ultimately dissatisfied with the canal. The majority of the complaints about the canal stemmed from the irregularity of the compression of distance, from the failures to triumph over nature (Sheriff, p. 77). This growing dissatisfaction with the canal became one of the many reasons more and more people switched to using the railroad. By the 1850s the New York Central was steadily draining the canal of business (Sheriff, p. 173).After looking at different events that seemingly should be indicative of American progress during the 18th and 19th century, it is understandable why such progress has been referred to as ambiguous. On the surface, an event such as the building of the Erie Canal looked like it was for the good of all, but by looking through the obvious, it is clear that what started out with intentions of being for the good of all quickly developed into a means of the middle and upper class to gain something for themselves at the expense of others. This suddenly resembles the slavery in the south in that everyone wanted something for themselves, but few were looking out for the public good (the supposed Republican ideal). However, the big question that should be answered by all this i...
