Fulton, Robert (1765-1815) to Thomas Law

Robert Fulton, writing to economist Thomas Law, discusses steamboats, Benjamin Latrobe, and a "western Canal," and attacks John Armstrong for his criticism of Joel Barlow, Fulton, the Smiths, the Clintons, and Fulwar Skipwith. With integral address leaf.

Fulton begins by lamenting the difficulty in hiring captains, presumably for his growing steamboat business: "I have taken much pains to find a captain with the qualifications you mention Honesty, activity, intelligence and capital, all such and whom we call smart fellows appear to be already engaged in some established trade." He goes on to commend Benjamin Latrobe (1764-1820), the architect of the U.S. capitol and at the time of the letter, the chief engineer for the Washington Canal (completed in 1815), of which Law was an incorporator: "Any one might calculate on Mr. Latrobe doing justice to your canal his genius is for works of a higher order, but he has the happy faculty of accommodating it to anything useful." Fulton states that he and Thomas Eddy (1758-1827) hope to involve Latrobe in the construction of "the great western Canal" and notes "I am happy to hear that your canal presents the fair prospect of returning ample interest for Interest is the real spur to similar undertakings." Fulton and Eddy were on the board of canal commissioners, headed by DeWitt Clinton, which was exploring the possibility of a canal from Albany to Buffalo, eventually known as the Erie Canal. To inspire support for this project, Fulton published "Advantages of the Proposed Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River" in 1811, based on his "Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation" published in 1796. Latrobe would later partner with Fulton in his western steamship ventures, with less than happy results.

Finally, Fulton rails against John Armstrong, Jr. (1758-1843), the former N.Y. senator who had recently returned from serving as U.S. minister to France. Armstrong, Fulton believed, had tried to impugn his patriotism by publishing a private letter from the inventor to the French foreign minister regarding torpedoes. (Armstrong is generally acknowledged as the author of the anonymous letters that formed part of the so-called "Newburgh Conspiracy" of 1783.) Armstrong would later become a brigadier general and secretary of war under Madison during the War of 1812. Fulton complains that Armstrong has been attacking Fulton and his close friend the writer and diplomat Joel Barlow (1754-1812), with whom Fulton had lived in Paris and who served as U.S. minister to France from 1811-1812. Fulton also contends that Armstrong had attacked "the Smiths," Fulwar Skipwith (1765-1839), an American diplomat who had served as U.S. commercial agent in Paris, and the Clintons, presumably referring to DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), mayor of New York City and lieutenant governor of New York, former U.S. senator, and future governor of New York. Clinton would run unsuccessfully for president against Madison in 1812. Anticipating the political tensions of the upcoming election, Fulton vows to silence Armstrong.

Partial Transcript:
"You have I presume see[n] Armstrong's Abuse of Barlow and commencement on me, in the evening post so soon as I could fix him with the calumnies. I muzzled him. There is not a more envious or malicious being in the United States. not one more Vain, weak even in his intriagues or more generally despised than he is in this state in fact John with all the bustle made about him lived 5 years in france.
Unamiable and Ill humored insulting the government with his private feelings, collecting anecdotes and writing against Skipwith, without gaining one point for his country; came home, got puffed up with the pudding of three public dinners, fixed his ambitions on the presidency begin to Chuckle about it; commenced writing Squibs and Calumnies against Barlow, the Smiths, and Clintons expecting to get them all made unpopular that he alone might stand conspicuous model of Virtue at the next presidential election, I have proof of all these his tricks, And if he is not already laid bye quiet for life, he shall be."