mercial Advertiser, the oldest paper of New York city, gave powerful aid. That paper, which had always been the organ of the Federalists, became, upon Colonel Stone's assuming its management, in 1820, a stanch advocate of the Clintonians. A strong personal friendship for Mr. Clinton on the part of its editor, together with a firm conviction of the necessity for a canal through the interior of New York State, led to the position thus assumed. The trials and rebuffs experienced by Governor Clinton and his supporters in pushing the canal project, and the energy 1825. SANDY HOOK, FROM THE SHIP CHANNEL. which fought it through to a triumphant end, are matters of history. The Erie Canal was completed in the fall of 1825. At ten o'clock on the morning of the 26th of October of the same year, the first canal-boat, the Seneca Chief, left Buffalo, having on board Governor ClinJoshua Foreman, Colonel Stone, Chancellor Livingston, Thurlow Weed, and General Stephen Van Rensselaer; and the booming of cannon, placed at intervals of a few miles. along the entire line of the canal from Buffalo to Albany, and thence along the banks of the Hudson to Sandy Hook, announced the successful termination of the enterprise ton, |