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regiments here are therefore without suitable arms and must remain small in numbers until the furnishing of arms, uniforms and equipments shall enable them to make a respectable appearance and offer proper inducements to those who are willing to join an efficient military organization. To these we desire to add a battery of light and another [of] heavy artillery with army uniforms and equipments, complete, and if the State will furnish the arms, uniforms and equipments for this force we are confident the ranks may be speedily filled with the best class of recruits.

In the defense of the frontier the State has a peculiar and special interest. The commerce of the lakes and the business of the Erie canal which depends upon that commerce have given the State much of its business, wealth and population, and the revenues of the canals, reaching nearly four millions the past season afford an income which the State should not allow to be put at hazard. The canal draws from the Niagara river in this city its principal supply of water to Rochester and sometimes further east, and an enterprising enemy might in a few hours destroy enough of Black Rock Dam and harbor to render the canal useless for months.

The combined locks at Lockport and the aqueducts at Rochester are believed to be equally open to attack and destruction by a hostile force.

We beg leave therefore respectfully to ask that two full regiments of infantry in this city and one at Lockport and one or two at Rochester may be armed, uniformed and equipped, and that such provision be made for a small artillery and cavalry force as may be deemed expedient by your Exc'y. Also that your Exy should recommend to the Legislature such measures as will enable you to provide such means of defense to this and other portions of the State as their condition and importance may require.

For defensive works and heavy ordnance, including ship guns, and for depots at Oswego, Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland and Detroit, we intend to apply to the General Government,

and respectfully ask that you should aid us in that application generally to procure its appropriate action.1 We have the honor to be with great respect

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MY DEAR SIR: Our citizens are exceeding anxious that something should be done immediately for the fortification of the frontier and the defense of our city, and the commit

1. To this communication Governor Morgan replied with the following letter (here printed from the original, owned by the Buffalo Historical Society): ALBANY, January 11, 1862.

GENTLEMEN: I received this morning your communication of the 8th instant in relation to the adoption of measures necessary for the defence of the City of Buffalo, and of the public property of that point; and also specially referring to the defenceless condition of the Niagara frontier and the dangers to the public works in Western New York, which a war with Great Britain would involve.

I fully appreciate the magnitude of the interest you represent, and the importance of prosecuting the most vigorous policy in regard to our defences. I am resolved to use every exertion within my power to strengthen these as well at Buffalo, as on the entire line of our Lake and Sea coast; at the same time to reorganize the Militia at the earliest moment so as to secure effectiveness, and to provide, so far as possible, the necessary arms and munitions. As the General Government controls, both in this country and abroad, the supply of arms for infantry service, it is of the first importance to secure through the President or the War Department, sufficient for our purpose. The State has a limited supply of imported muskets of good quality which will have to be distributed to different portions of the State, according to a fixed rule. I would therefore recommend you to embrace in your application to the General Government a reasonable quantity of approved modern arms, and I assure you of my cordial co-operation to the extent of my ability, in carrying out the plan you have adopted.

On Tuesday next, it is expected that the presiding officers of the two branches of the Legislature will announce the Standing Committees. I intend at once to invite the respective Military Committees to a conference and shall ask their prompt action in respect to providing means and authorizing the authorities to proceed at once to the work which it is the plain dictate of prudence to enter upon. I will submit to them your communication, which cannot but have much weight, but I deem it unadvisable to give it any greater publicity, in view of the peculiar nature of the facts it presents. I have the honor to be with high regard,

To the Honorables

Your most obdt. servant

MILLARD FILLMORE, Chairman [and others].

E. D. MORGAN.

tee on that subject have addressed a memorial to the President through the War Department, which I herewith enclose, with a request that you will do us the favor to present it in person and urge its immediate consideration of it, lest that in the pressure of business it be overlooked or neglected. Your attention to the matter will not only confer a great favor upon your constituents in Buffalo, but will be indirectly beneficial to the whole State.

I am Truly and Respectfully Yours.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

Ira Harris was elected United States Senator by the New York Legislature in 1861, succeeding William H. Seward.

BUFFALO'S MEMORIAL TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

BUFFALO, N. Y., Jan. 10, 1862.

The Hon. S[IMON] CAMERON,

Sec'y War &c &c

SIR: The undersigned having been appointed by the citizens of Buffalo, in public meeting assembled, a Committee upon the defense of the City, beg leave most respectfully to address you, and through you, His Excellency, the President of the United States, upon the subject committed to their charge. The mere possibility of a war with Great Britain and our present defenseless condition considered in connection with the acknowledged importance of this city, of the Erie Canal, the railroads and other public works directly and immediately therewith, the rapid concentration and the movement of our military forces, and their supply and maintenance in the field, would seem to require that the National and State authorities should make early and adequate provision for the protection and security of this city and this neighborhood, and of the great national interests which would be placed at hazard in the event of war upon this frontier. The safety of this city is absolutely essential to the security of the commerce of the Great Northwestern Lakes, and to protect that commerce and to maintain the

command of those lakes in the event of war would be objects of paramount importance.

In the event of the invasion of Canada, this city would almost necessarily become the base of the most important operations against the Upper Province in connection with a simultaneous movement against Montreal and the Lower Province.

The great national importance of the interests to which we have invited your attention is too obvious to require argument and yet it may be useful to state some facts to show the magnitude of the commerce centering here.

Buffalo and Oswego are the great ports of delivery for the commerce of the Great Lakes, and through these lakes and ports (and in the event of war through the port of Buffalo alone) nearly all the bread stuffs and provisions, sent from the fertile fields of the Great West, for the supply of our armies, and to meet the demand for domestic consumption and foreign export, in the large cities of the seaboard must necessarily pass.

During the year just closed more than 58,000,000 bushels of grain (reducing flour to wheat and meal to corn) were delivered in Buffalo alone. For the carriage of this grain and the general commerce of the Lakes and their connecting rivers (with over five thousand miles of continuous lake and river coast) there were employed during the past year (according to the Register of the Board of Lake Underwriters of American shipping) seventy-three steamers, one hundred and eighty-seven steam propellers, forty-five barks, seventy-one brigs, seven hundred and ninety-seven schooners and five sloops, with an aggregate tonnage of three hundred and fourteen thousand, seven hundred & twenty-three tons (314,723), valued (at a low rate for insurance purposes) at nine million, five hundred and fifty-three thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars (9,553,350), and employing 16,800 seamen; and of British shipping, 76 steamers, 21 propellors, 18 barks, 16 brigs, 200 schooners and five sloops, having an aggregate tonnage of 71,505 tons; valued at $2,414,600 and employing more than 2,700 seamen.

Many, and it is believed that most, of the American vessels might in a short time, if proper armaments could be supplied, be converted into serviceable war vessels; and our seamen who in intelligence, activity and skill are at least equal to the seamen of the seaboard, could under the drill of competent officers be readily fitted for service at the guns and as first-class seamen on vessels of war. The value of the property transported upon these lakes the past year, is believed to exceed 450 millions of dollars, and to exceed the whole foreign commerce of all the Atlantic ports, and if this commerce should be interrupted whilst the Mississippi is closed, the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota would not be able to reach a market for their surplus products, or obtain their accustomed supplies of manufactured goods from the Eastern States.

The railroads now in operation in this State, have an aggregate length of about 3500 miles and their construction and equipment have cost more than 135,000,000 dollars.

They extend to almost every county in the State and the four railroads operating here are so connected with the railroads of this State, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and New England that troops from every part of the state could be rapidly concentrated and sent from this or the northern frontier, or from the interior southern frontier of the State to the capital or to the different states of the Union. The Erie canal which at this point receives the water of Lake Erie, and the commerce of the Great Lakes, is frequently dependent for its supply of water to Rochester and even to Montezuma, from the Niagara river at Buffalo, and within this city and at Lockport and Rochester important and expensive permanent erections vitally essential to the navigation of the canal, might by a hostile force, in a few hours, be destroyed, or so injured as to wholly interrupt the navigation of the canal for months, and subject the people of this State and of the Western States to the loss of many millions.

For the defense and maintenance of the Union, it is

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