se
of these rights led to vigorous opposition in the case of this
Pennsylvania road. A public meeting was held at the Prince of Wales
Tavern in Philadelphia in 1793 to protest in round terms against the
monopolistic character of the Lancaster Turnpike. Blackstone and Edward
III were hurled at the heads of the "venal" legislators who had made
this "monstrosity" possible. The opposition died down, however, in the
face of the success which the new road instantly achieved. The Turnpike
was, indeed, admirably situated. Converging at the quaint old "borough
of Lancaster," the various routes--northeast from Virginia, east from
the Carlisle and Chambersburg region and the Alleghanies, and southeast
from the upper Susquehanna country--poured upon the Quaker City a
trade that profited every merchant, landholder, and laborer. The nine
tollgates, on the average a little less than seven miles apart, turned
in a revenue that allowed the "President and Managers" to declare
dividends to stockholders running, it is said, as high as fifteen per
cent.

The Lancaster Turnpike is interesting from three points of view: it
began a new period of American transportation; it ushered in an era of
speculation unheard of in the previous history of the country; and it
introduced American lawmakers to the great problem of controlling public
corporations.

Along this thirty-seven-foot road, of which twenty-four feet were laid
with stone, the new era of American inland travel progressed. The
array of two-wheeled private equipages and other family carriages,
the stagecoaches of bright color, and the carts, Dutch wagons, and
Conestogas, gave token of what was soon to be witnessed on the great
roads of a dozen States in the next generation. Here, probably, the
first distinction began to be drawn between the taverns for passengers
and those patronized by the drivers of freight. The colonial taverns,
comparatively few and far between, had up to this time served the
traveling public, high and low, rich and poor, alike. But in this new
era members of Congress and the elite of Philadelphia and neighboring
towns were not to be jostled at the table by burly hostlers, drivers,
wagoners, and hucksters. Two types of inns thus came quickly into
existence: the tavern entertained the stagecoach traffic, while the
democratic roadhouse served the established lines of Conestogas,
freighters, and all other vehicles which poured from every town,
village, and hamlet upon