rner 15).The Middle Region, which included New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, was a transition zone. It connected the north along with the south and the east with the west. “Geographically, they (the states) lay on the line of natural routes between the Atlantic on the one side, and the Ohio and the Great Lakes on the other”(Turner 10). Compared to New England, this section was rapidly growing region. By 1830, New York had already equaled the total population of entire New England combined. Eventually, New York and Pennsylvania would become the most populous states in the union.About a decade before 1820, Western New York had showed frontier like conditions. “The settlers (from New England) felled and burned the forest, built little towns, and erected mills, and now, with a surplus of agricultural products, they were suffering from the lack of a market and were demanding transportation facilities”(Leuehtenburg and Wishy 40). With the already existing routes being unreliable and expensive, “there was a growing demand for canals…”(Turner 32). The Erie and Champlain canals were the result of these demands.De Witt Clinton saw the economic revolution, which the Erie Canal would bring. He presented to the legislature the reason that made it practical and the financial plan that made it possible. He showed them the vision of the Hudson River, “not only reaching to the western confines of the state, but even, by its connection with Lake Erie, stretching through two thousand miles of navigable lakes and rivers to the very heart of the interior of the United States”(Turner 32). To him, the Erie Canal was a political as well as an economic undertaking:“As a bond of union between the Atlantic and western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American Empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes of the ...
