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Domestic News
February 2, 1827
The National Republican And Ohio Political Register
Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio
What is this article about?
Mr. Wheeler's Senate committee report on January 18, 1827, examines canal commissioners' reporting, payment methods on Ohio and Miami Canals, fraud prevention, and Canal Fund accounts up to December 1826, showing an unexpended balance of about $685,479 after expenditures.
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MR. WHEELER, from the Committee on Canals, made the following Report to the Senate, on the 18th January:
The Committee upon Canals, to whom was referred the reports of the Canal Commissioners, and the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, with instructions in relation to the receipts and expenditures of the Canal Fund, and other subjects therewith connected, have given to the several subjects submitted to their consideration, all the examination which their high importance demands; and have come to the conclusion, in relation to the time fixed by law for the Canal Commissioners to make their annual report, that the benefits arising from their report being made at an earlier period than is now required, would not be equivalent to the inconveniences and embarrassments which would result from a change of the mode of accounting now established by the Board of Canal Commissioners, in connection with the Fund Commissioners, which must necessarily be more or less affected by the time at which they are required to report. The committee have also inquired into the manner in which payments have been made upon contracts for labour and materials, and the frauds which are said to have been practised by contractors upon the persons under their employ.
On the Miami Canal, and at the Licking Summit, on the Ohio Canal, the payments for labor and materials, have principally been made by the Acting Canal Commissioner, in checks drawn upon the Lancaster Bank; and those on the northern section of the Ohio Canal, in checks drawn upon the Western Reserve Bank, in pursuance of arrangements made with those Banks, by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund. No inconvenience has been experienced by the contractors or laborers employed upon the northern section of the Ohio Canal, in consequence of a depreciation in the currency in which payments on that section have been made: the paper of the Western Reserve Bank, has, as far as the committee have been able to ascertain, uniformly sustained its par value, in that section of country where it has been expended for Canal purposes; and when specie or other funds have been required by the holders of checks upon that Bank, or upon the Bank of Lancaster, they have in no instance been withheld. On the Miami Canal, there has been some complaint, in consequence of the paper of the Bank of Lancaster, in which payments on that line have principally been made, having been subject to a discount of from one to two and a half per cent. This evil seems to have originated in part, from the remote location of that Bank from the canal line, but principally from the intimate connection of the commercial and banking interests of the city of Cincinnati, with all monied transactions in its vicinity.— The great amount of capital in that city under the immediate direction of its bankers and brokers gives a controlling influence to the interests of that capital which is not within the reach of Legislative provision. The evil is not, in the opinion of the committee, of sufficient importance to justify a transfer of the funds applicable to the payment of contracts upon that line of Canal, from the Bank of Lancaster to any other institution, especially when it is a fact admitted, that that Bank, in common with the Western Reserve Bank and others through which the Canal Funds have been transmitted, has hitherto been and is still willing to afford every possible facility, to the accomplishment of the grand object of internal improvement, which could be expected or wished by the state.
The Acting Canal Commissioners, in the last contracts which have been entered into, have required of the immediate contractors under the state, their personal superintendence of those parts of the line included in their contracts, and retain the power of withholding payment in all cases, until the completion of the work contracted for; and also in most cases of making payments to the sub contractors and laborers, when their claims shall have been substantiated, and of applying the payments so made upon the original contracts. It is also contemplated by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, to provide, through the agency of the Banks which now transact the business, for the payment of the contracts upon the Canal lines, and in such funds as will pass at par value, as far as that object can be effected without an unreasonable sacrifice of the interests of the state to individual convenience. The first of these arrangements will place it in the power of the Acting Commissioners, to control the payments to contractors in all cases where an intention to defraud is suspected, or can fairly be inferred from the conduct of the contractor; and the second will render it extremely difficult for contractors to abscond after payments have been made to them, without having first satisfied the claims of the laborers employed by them, and if carried fully into effect, will relieve the contractors and laborers from the difficulties and embarrassments consequent upon the receipt of the several amounts due them, in depreciated paper. These provisions, in the opinion of the committee, are abundantly sufficient to secure a prompt and faithful discharge of all engagements between contractors and laborers, and that no additional security can well be given by the interposition of Legislative authority.
The committee have also in obedience to the instructions of the Senate, examined the accounts and vouchers in relation to the receipts and expenditures of the Canal Fund, up to the first of December last, and find the Fund to consist of the following items, viz:
Two appropriations from the Treasury in 1825, $43,000 00
An appropriation of the revenue of 1825, 30,000 00
Nett amount of the five per cent. loan, of 1825, 390,000 00
Temporary loan from the Banks of Lancaster and Marietta, in 1826, 40,000 00
Permanent loan of 1826, 1,000,000 00
Premium on the loan of 1826, 8,474 76
Interest on the deposit in the Manhattan Bank, up to January 1st, 1826, 6,608 20
Making the aggregate am't. of $1,518,082 96
To which amount should be added the probable amount of interest on deposits in the Manhattan Bank, up to Jan. 1, 1827, say 14,000
And the estimated am't of the Canal tax of 1826, which will have been received during the present month, 26,000
Making the sum of 1,558,082 96
Which constitutes the whole amount of the Canal Fund, up to January 1, 1827—from which the following payments have been made:
On contracts in 1825, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 59,718 00
On contracts in 1825, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 53,834 00
On contracts in 1826, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 340,737 46
On contracts in 1826, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 348,215 01
For contingencies in 1825, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 2,920 00
For contingencies in 1825, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 4,800 00
For contingencies in 1825, by Isaac Minor, President of the Canal Board, M. T. Williams, and A. Kelley, 3,000 00
For contingencies in 1826, by A. Kelley, 10,544 10
For contingencies in 1826, by M. T. Williams, 12,821 63
Expenses of the Board of Canal Commissioners in 1825, 331 92
Expenses of the Fund Commissioners in 1825, 591 30
Drawn for expenses of Fund Commissioners in 1826, 1,302 06
Amount paid the Western Reserve Bank, for collecting a draft in 1825, 20 00
Temporary loan from the Bank of Marietta, repaid, 10,000 00
Amount of interest paid on the above loan, 225 00
Amount paid Lewis Cass, interest on temporary loan, 123 75
Amount paid E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co. interest on temporary loan, 32 34
Am't. of interest paid on the 5 per cent. loan, up to Jan. 1. 1826. 7,511 45
Amount of payments up to Dec. 1, 1826, 856,727 90
Deducted from the amount of the Canal Fund as above stated, leaves an unexpended balance of 702,355 00
The following sums have been drawn for upon the general Canal Fund, up to December 1, 1826, viz:
Amount drawn for on contracts by A. Kelley, in 1825, as reported last session, 63,279 00
By M. T. Williams, on contracts same period, 55,577 00
For contingencies, as reported last session, 11,832 87
Amount on contracts by A. Kelley, in 1826, 348,023 49
Amount on contracts by M. T. Williams, in 1826. 349,304 66
For contingencies by A. Kelley, in 1826, viz:
Salaries and wages, 7,296 00
Subsistence, 3,438 91
Incidental expenses, 857 99
11,592 90
For contingencies, by M. T. Williams, in 1826, viz:
Salaries and wages 8,481 69
Subsistence, 3,279 29
Incidental expenses, 1,226 05
11,987 03
Expenses of the Board of Canal Commissioners in 1825: the expenses of the Fund Commissioners in 1825 and 1826, amount paid the Western Reserve Bank; and the account of the temporary loans and interests, as stated in the amount of payments, 20,137 76
Amount drawn for upon the Fund, 872,734 71
— From which deduct the amount actually paid out as stated above : 856,727 96
And there remains a balance of unredeemed checks, of. 16,006 75
Which deducted from the above unexpended balance, leaves the sum of 685,348 25
To which add the unexpended balance drawn by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund for expenses, 131 46
: Making the aggregate amount expended, 685,479 71
This balance is chargeable with the payment of the temporary loan of thirty thousand dollars made by the Lancaster Bank to the Canal Fund, and the interest which shall have accrued upon it, and the interest upon the five and six per cent. loans of 1825 'and '26, which became due on the 1st of July last, and on the first of January, 1827; the balance after the payment of those sums, will be applicable to future operations upon the Canals. It will be observed that the amount of the temporary loans from Lewis Cass and E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co. is not contained in the above statement. no data having been furnished by the Fund Commissioners, by which the committee were enabled to give the precise amount; the general results will not, however, be affected by the omission, as it is well understood that those loans have been repaid.
In the examination of the above expenditures, the committee have with much care and labor, compared the vouchers for each item contained in the account, and have no doubt of the accuracy of the statement above made: they are also well satisfied with the manner in which the accounts of the Acting Canal Commissioners and the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, have hitherto been kept; all of which is respectfully submitted.
The Committee upon Canals, to whom was referred the reports of the Canal Commissioners, and the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, with instructions in relation to the receipts and expenditures of the Canal Fund, and other subjects therewith connected, have given to the several subjects submitted to their consideration, all the examination which their high importance demands; and have come to the conclusion, in relation to the time fixed by law for the Canal Commissioners to make their annual report, that the benefits arising from their report being made at an earlier period than is now required, would not be equivalent to the inconveniences and embarrassments which would result from a change of the mode of accounting now established by the Board of Canal Commissioners, in connection with the Fund Commissioners, which must necessarily be more or less affected by the time at which they are required to report. The committee have also inquired into the manner in which payments have been made upon contracts for labour and materials, and the frauds which are said to have been practised by contractors upon the persons under their employ.
On the Miami Canal, and at the Licking Summit, on the Ohio Canal, the payments for labor and materials, have principally been made by the Acting Canal Commissioner, in checks drawn upon the Lancaster Bank; and those on the northern section of the Ohio Canal, in checks drawn upon the Western Reserve Bank, in pursuance of arrangements made with those Banks, by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund. No inconvenience has been experienced by the contractors or laborers employed upon the northern section of the Ohio Canal, in consequence of a depreciation in the currency in which payments on that section have been made: the paper of the Western Reserve Bank, has, as far as the committee have been able to ascertain, uniformly sustained its par value, in that section of country where it has been expended for Canal purposes; and when specie or other funds have been required by the holders of checks upon that Bank, or upon the Bank of Lancaster, they have in no instance been withheld. On the Miami Canal, there has been some complaint, in consequence of the paper of the Bank of Lancaster, in which payments on that line have principally been made, having been subject to a discount of from one to two and a half per cent. This evil seems to have originated in part, from the remote location of that Bank from the canal line, but principally from the intimate connection of the commercial and banking interests of the city of Cincinnati, with all monied transactions in its vicinity.— The great amount of capital in that city under the immediate direction of its bankers and brokers gives a controlling influence to the interests of that capital which is not within the reach of Legislative provision. The evil is not, in the opinion of the committee, of sufficient importance to justify a transfer of the funds applicable to the payment of contracts upon that line of Canal, from the Bank of Lancaster to any other institution, especially when it is a fact admitted, that that Bank, in common with the Western Reserve Bank and others through which the Canal Funds have been transmitted, has hitherto been and is still willing to afford every possible facility, to the accomplishment of the grand object of internal improvement, which could be expected or wished by the state.
The Acting Canal Commissioners, in the last contracts which have been entered into, have required of the immediate contractors under the state, their personal superintendence of those parts of the line included in their contracts, and retain the power of withholding payment in all cases, until the completion of the work contracted for; and also in most cases of making payments to the sub contractors and laborers, when their claims shall have been substantiated, and of applying the payments so made upon the original contracts. It is also contemplated by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, to provide, through the agency of the Banks which now transact the business, for the payment of the contracts upon the Canal lines, and in such funds as will pass at par value, as far as that object can be effected without an unreasonable sacrifice of the interests of the state to individual convenience. The first of these arrangements will place it in the power of the Acting Commissioners, to control the payments to contractors in all cases where an intention to defraud is suspected, or can fairly be inferred from the conduct of the contractor; and the second will render it extremely difficult for contractors to abscond after payments have been made to them, without having first satisfied the claims of the laborers employed by them, and if carried fully into effect, will relieve the contractors and laborers from the difficulties and embarrassments consequent upon the receipt of the several amounts due them, in depreciated paper. These provisions, in the opinion of the committee, are abundantly sufficient to secure a prompt and faithful discharge of all engagements between contractors and laborers, and that no additional security can well be given by the interposition of Legislative authority.
The committee have also in obedience to the instructions of the Senate, examined the accounts and vouchers in relation to the receipts and expenditures of the Canal Fund, up to the first of December last, and find the Fund to consist of the following items, viz:
Two appropriations from the Treasury in 1825, $43,000 00
An appropriation of the revenue of 1825, 30,000 00
Nett amount of the five per cent. loan, of 1825, 390,000 00
Temporary loan from the Banks of Lancaster and Marietta, in 1826, 40,000 00
Permanent loan of 1826, 1,000,000 00
Premium on the loan of 1826, 8,474 76
Interest on the deposit in the Manhattan Bank, up to January 1st, 1826, 6,608 20
Making the aggregate am't. of $1,518,082 96
To which amount should be added the probable amount of interest on deposits in the Manhattan Bank, up to Jan. 1, 1827, say 14,000
And the estimated am't of the Canal tax of 1826, which will have been received during the present month, 26,000
Making the sum of 1,558,082 96
Which constitutes the whole amount of the Canal Fund, up to January 1, 1827—from which the following payments have been made:
On contracts in 1825, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 59,718 00
On contracts in 1825, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 53,834 00
On contracts in 1826, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 340,737 46
On contracts in 1826, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 348,215 01
For contingencies in 1825, by A. Kelley, Acting Commissioner, 2,920 00
For contingencies in 1825, by M. T. Williams, Acting Canal Commissioner, 4,800 00
For contingencies in 1825, by Isaac Minor, President of the Canal Board, M. T. Williams, and A. Kelley, 3,000 00
For contingencies in 1826, by A. Kelley, 10,544 10
For contingencies in 1826, by M. T. Williams, 12,821 63
Expenses of the Board of Canal Commissioners in 1825, 331 92
Expenses of the Fund Commissioners in 1825, 591 30
Drawn for expenses of Fund Commissioners in 1826, 1,302 06
Amount paid the Western Reserve Bank, for collecting a draft in 1825, 20 00
Temporary loan from the Bank of Marietta, repaid, 10,000 00
Amount of interest paid on the above loan, 225 00
Amount paid Lewis Cass, interest on temporary loan, 123 75
Amount paid E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co. interest on temporary loan, 32 34
Am't. of interest paid on the 5 per cent. loan, up to Jan. 1. 1826. 7,511 45
Amount of payments up to Dec. 1, 1826, 856,727 90
Deducted from the amount of the Canal Fund as above stated, leaves an unexpended balance of 702,355 00
The following sums have been drawn for upon the general Canal Fund, up to December 1, 1826, viz:
Amount drawn for on contracts by A. Kelley, in 1825, as reported last session, 63,279 00
By M. T. Williams, on contracts same period, 55,577 00
For contingencies, as reported last session, 11,832 87
Amount on contracts by A. Kelley, in 1826, 348,023 49
Amount on contracts by M. T. Williams, in 1826. 349,304 66
For contingencies by A. Kelley, in 1826, viz:
Salaries and wages, 7,296 00
Subsistence, 3,438 91
Incidental expenses, 857 99
11,592 90
For contingencies, by M. T. Williams, in 1826, viz:
Salaries and wages 8,481 69
Subsistence, 3,279 29
Incidental expenses, 1,226 05
11,987 03
Expenses of the Board of Canal Commissioners in 1825: the expenses of the Fund Commissioners in 1825 and 1826, amount paid the Western Reserve Bank; and the account of the temporary loans and interests, as stated in the amount of payments, 20,137 76
Amount drawn for upon the Fund, 872,734 71
— From which deduct the amount actually paid out as stated above : 856,727 96
And there remains a balance of unredeemed checks, of. 16,006 75
Which deducted from the above unexpended balance, leaves the sum of 685,348 25
To which add the unexpended balance drawn by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund for expenses, 131 46
: Making the aggregate amount expended, 685,479 71
This balance is chargeable with the payment of the temporary loan of thirty thousand dollars made by the Lancaster Bank to the Canal Fund, and the interest which shall have accrued upon it, and the interest upon the five and six per cent. loans of 1825 'and '26, which became due on the 1st of July last, and on the first of January, 1827; the balance after the payment of those sums, will be applicable to future operations upon the Canals. It will be observed that the amount of the temporary loans from Lewis Cass and E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co. is not contained in the above statement. no data having been furnished by the Fund Commissioners, by which the committee were enabled to give the precise amount; the general results will not, however, be affected by the omission, as it is well understood that those loans have been repaid.
In the examination of the above expenditures, the committee have with much care and labor, compared the vouchers for each item contained in the account, and have no doubt of the accuracy of the statement above made: they are also well satisfied with the manner in which the accounts of the Acting Canal Commissioners and the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, have hitherto been kept; all of which is respectfully submitted.
What sub-type of article is it?
Infrastructure
Economic
What keywords are associated?
Canal Fund
Ohio Canal
Miami Canal
Committee Report
Expenditures
Loans
Payments
Fraud Prevention
What entities or persons were involved?
Mr. Wheeler
A. Kelley
M. T. Williams
Isaac Minor
Lewis Cass
E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co.
Where did it happen?
Ohio
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Ohio
Event Date
18th January 1827
Key Persons
Mr. Wheeler
A. Kelley
M. T. Williams
Isaac Minor
Lewis Cass
E. Buckingham, Jr. & Co.
Outcome
unexpended balance of canal fund approximately $685,479 as of december 1, 1826, after payments on contracts, contingencies, and loans; recommendations to maintain current reporting and payment practices to prevent fraud.
Event Details
Committee report to Senate on Canal Commissioners' reporting timing, payment methods via banks on Miami and Ohio Canals, measures against contractor fraud, and detailed receipts and expenditures of Canal Fund up to January 1, 1827.