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When Phelps and Gorham defaulted on
their 1790 installment, the preemptive right to lands of the Phelps and Gorham
Purchase west of the Genesee River, comprising some 3,750,000 acres, reverted
back to Massachusetts on March 10, 1791. On March 12, Massachusetts agreed to
sell these rights to Robert Morris for $333,333.33. The land was conveyed to
Morris in five deeds on May 11, 1791. At the time, Morris was the richest man
in America, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a financier of the
American Revolution.
Morris sold most of these lands in December 1792 and in February
and July 1793 to the Holland Land Company in a transaction known as the Holland
Purchase. Morris kept 500,000 acres in a 12-mile-wide strip along the east side
of the lands acquired from Massachusetts, from the Pennsylvania border to Lake
Ontario, known as the Morris Reserve. At the north end of the Morris Reserve,
an 87,000-acre triangular-shaped tract ("the Triangle Tract") was
sold by Morris to Herman Leroy, William Bayard, and John McEvers, while a
100,000-acre tract due west of the Triangle Tract was sold to the State of
Connecticut. In September 1797 Morris extinguished the remaining aboriginal
title for all the lands west of the Genesee at the Treaty of Big Tree held at
Geneseo, New York.

 

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it became clear to coastal
residents that the city or state that succeeded in developing a cheap, reliable
route to the West would enjoy economic success, and that the port at the
seaward end of such a route would see business increase greatly. In time,
projects were devised in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.


The Erie Canal started construction in 1817 and was completed 8
years later. It was the first commercial link between New York East and the
West. The Erie Canal cost $7 million to construct and was acclaimed as one the
greatest engineering marvels in the world. It united the country and helped NYC
become the financial state it is. In 1809 New York delegation went to
Washington DC to propose a funding for the Canal. Thomas Jefferson said to come
back in a 100 years because the project would bankrupt the nation let alone the
state. Yet, Dewitt who was head of the committee who later became governor did
not listen. There was a lot of political opposition, but in 1817 the canal bill
was passed.

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