Petition for Completing James River Canal at Richmond.

• imprint_number: 1804.064
• title: To the honorable the speaker and members of the House of Delegates. The petition of sundry inhabitants of the counties of [blank] humbly represents--That the law incorporating a company for the purpose of clearing and improving the navigation of James River ...
• sequence_number: 64
• year: 1804
• place_issued: Virginia
• issuing_press: Uncertain
• author: Sundry Inhabitants of Upper James River Valley.
• notes: Petition asking the Assembly to compel the James River Company to complete a mandated canal around the falls of the James at Richmond. Copy filmed by the Early American Imprints Series has manuscript completions in name of Chesterfield County with forty-one signatures appended; other similar petitions (most likely copies of this imprint) were committed to a special committee on December 6, 1804, along with this imprint, so the date assigned.
  The Assembly took heed of complaints that the James River Company was more interested in paying dividends to its investors than in improving navigation through the capital; it enacted two measures (Chaps. XXX & XXXI of Acts of December 1804 Assembly) to address the issues raised: the first to limit the percentage of profits that the company's directors could pay out to investors, the second to induce the company to complete a canal from Rocketts Landing below Richmond to Rock Ledge near Westham by allowing it raise tolls once those locks were completed; the company asked for and received an extension for finishing the work in 1806.
  Sheet lacks colophon; Shaw & Shoemaker suggested Petersburg as the place of publication for this item; However, the petitioners are from the upper James River Valley, and not that of the Appomattox, so most likely a Richmond or Lynchburg imprint.
  
  
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