viewed as the route which can be travelled with most expedition, because of the advantages of steam power. Does not this speak volumes against the expenditure of public money upon roads, when it must be manifest that they never would be travelled for the purposes pretended here as the strong reasons for constructing them? It may be possible that, with regard to despatch and saving of time, a direct road from this place to the Mississippi river, thence by steamboats to New Orleans, would be the best. But, taking this as granted, it does not prove the necessity of our constructing a road for the purpose. Roads are already made. The mail is now transported from this to Nashville, Tennessee, seven times a week, in post coaches, at a cost of upwards of thirty-four thousand dollars per an num; and this line, sir, as we see from the report just read, is to be continued three times a week to Memphis, and from thence to New Orleans by steamboats. What more is wanting? or what more, in modesty, can be asked? I shall now turn my attention to the relative merits of the different routes; and, if this road is to be made, I think I can show the propriety of selecting the most direct, practicable route. For all purposes, connected with the transportation of the mail, the saving of time, cost of construction, distance, &c., the most "direct, practicable route," as proposed by the amendment, I had the honor to lay upon your table some days since, and which was printed by order of the House, and which I shall offer to the committee before I take my seat, is certainly the preferable one. I lay down, then, as incontrovertible facts, that the route I propose will be better, the cost of construction less, the distance less, and the number of inhabitants accommodated much greater. Now, if I establish these positions, what member can refuse to vote for the amendment, whether he be for or against the bill? South Carolina, [MARCH 25, 1830. do. 502,741 The States directly accommodated by the western Making This shows a difference in favor of the direct route, of one million fifty nine thousand seven hundred and forty-six of a population to be accommodated by this road. [Here Mr. BLAIR, of Tennessee, requested Mr. C. to read further from the report, with regard to the States that would be indirectly as well as directly accommodated.] Mr. C. resumed. I am requested by my honorable friend from Tennessee, [Mr. B.] I say my friend, sir, because I know him to be so, to read further from this report. I will do so, and I assure my friend that due deference shall be paid to his route, (western route.) "But (say the engineers) if we add Kentucky and Georgia, which will be indirectly accommodated by the western route, we shall have for the population accommodated, both directly and indirectly, by this route, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Total 1,065,336 422,813 127,901 564,317 340,989 2,521,386" The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. ISACKS] has Now, even with the addition of the population of the clearly established the correctness of my three first posi-State of Kentucky, which they say is to be indirectly actions, (as to the goodness, cost, and distance,) and the en-commodated, there is a balance still in favor of the direct gineers who made the reconnoissance of the different routes route, of a population directly accommodated, of one have proven the fourth, (the number of inhabitants to be hundred and fifty-four thousand four hundred and forty. accommodated.) The gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. But why does my friend from Tennessee [Mr. BLAIR] ISACKS] said (and I truly thank him for the argument) press this indirect consideration upon the House? Does that on the east of the mountains we had a fine level sur- he not know, sir, that Kentucky cannot be benefited, face; that nature, in her works, had been kind to us; we either directly or indirectly, by this road? And does he had nothing to do but throw up a little sand, and we had not further know that the State of Kentucky would never fine roads, &c. With him, [he said] and his constituents, have been mentioned, if it had not been to effect political and the people along the route selected, it was very dif-results, favorable to the men in power when this report ferent; they had mountains and limestone to contend with, was made? Does my friend recollect who was Secretary and natural obstructions, which required the hand of art of State at that time and the exertions made to continue to alter, and render them in a condition for the use and ad- his influence and control over the State of Kentucky? vantage of the country, &c. &c., and therefore the west- Was not every branch of the "American system" brought ern route was the proper one. In answer to this argu. to bear upon her, and particularly this branch of internal ment, I have nothing to offer; the gentleman has granted improvement? all I ask--nay, more, sir, I did not intend to disparage his Those were the causes which produced this report, or route, by portraying the lofty mountains and the quanti-the name of Kentucky would never have been mentionties of limestone, which it would cost millions to make a ed. But the times were dangerous, the "line of safe preroad over, but only meant to urge, what cannot be denied, cedent" was threatened, and every nerve was exerted to that the direct route is unquestionably the nearest; that arrest the blow; but all, all would not do; the line was the cast side of the mountains afforded abundant materials broken, and it is matter of deep surprise to see those who for the construction of a road; that the surface was better, gave their aid in producing the result, now using the same and the graduation more easy, than on the west side of flimsy, futile, and disingenuous arguments which were the mountains; and that the cost of construction would be resorted to by those persons, with a hope of continuing much less. The engineers support me in these positions; their power, merely to effect sectional objects, or with a and what they have failed to do, has been abundantly sup-view of producing benefits to themselves and their conplied by the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. ISACKS.] With regard to the population, sir, to be accommodated by this road, I beg leave to read from the report of the engi neers, (the same as before recited,) page 22: "Leaving out the States (say the engineers) of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the District of Columbia, the States accommodated directly by the eastern and middle (or direct, as I propose) route will be (census of 1820)- stituents. The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. BLAIR] also said that nothing had ever been done to advance the interests of his constituents, or his State, by this Government. The gentleman has surely forgotten that four hundred thousand acres of land in Alabama, equal to six hundred thousand dollars, were appropriated by this Government for the opening of a canal round the Muscle shoals, on the Ten MARCH 25, 1830.] Buffalo and New Orleans Road. [H. of R. nessee river; and that the completion of that work would ceeded in my feeble effort, I must leave to be decided by admit steam navigation into East Tennessee. One steam- those who have been so indulgent as to favor me with a boat has already been (as I am informed) so high up the hearing. Holston as a place called the Boat Yard, which is the district of my honorable friend, [Mr. BLAIR.] [Mr. B. here corrected Mr. C. and said the boat had only ascended as high as Knoxville.] But, above all the reasons which have been urged against the expenditure of public money at this time, is there not yet another, which should sink deep upon the minds of the friends and supporters of our present illustrious Chief Ma I thank the gentleman for the correction. I had mistak-gistrate? Does he not stand pledged to this nation to pay off en the point, but it does not weaken the argument; for the public debt, and to exhibit the proud and sublime specthe streams leading from the district represented by that tacle to the world, of a nation out of debt; which, indeed, gentleman to Knoxville are navigable, and boats are daily sir, would be "something new under the sun"--and was passing them. I heard a fact stated the other day, by a he not pledged by his friends, in anticipation, to effect this highly intelligent gentleman who resides near Abingdon, desirable, this important object? What said they, sir? Virginia, while conversing with the Vice President and Why, elect the plain, old republican, Andrew Jackson; some other gentlemen, "that he had started at one time he will bring "order out of chaos;" he will restore reforty boats, each containing one hundred barrels of salt, publican simplicity, will pay off the national debt, and refrom a point on the north fork of the Holston river, fifteen lieve us from the necessities of high tariffs, &c. And miles above Abingdon, which salt was probably to supply what are those very men doing, who were foremost in exNorth Alabama, and part of Tennessee. I mention this citing those expectations, and pledging him for those refact, as an answer to that part of the argument of the gen-sults? Why, sir, we now see them willing, nay, urgent, tleman from Tennessee, which related to the transporta- to squander millions of money, because perchance their tion of salt from the salt wells in Virginia. Certainly, if immediate districts may receive some little benefit. In my this road were made, no one would think of transporting opinion, if ever there was a man anxiously desirous to fulfil salt by wagons, incurring the expense of teams, &c. which the just expectations of his friends, and to advance the could not haul more than ten barrels at most, when they general interest of this nation, Andrew Jackson is that man. could send one hundred barrels by one boat. But why But, if we go on in the manner we have started, how can talk of those considerations which are merely sectional in he discharge those obligations, and meet the expectations their character? They should have no bearing in this case, of the American people? if, indeed, the work is national. But, who will say, after Is not every dollar which we appropriate beyond the witnessing the whole proceeding of the committee which current expenses of the year, so much of the money which introduced this bill, that national considerations were the would otherwise go to the payment of the debt of the causes which induced them to report this bill, and to make nation? If we appropriate these two millions and a quarthe selection they have done for the location of the road? ter, where will the surplus be, or where any money, exNational considerations have nothing to do with it; it is cept the sinking fund, to apply to the payment of our the offspring of a combination, based upon local consider- public debt? Nay, the sinking fund, also, is to be broken ations, for the accommodation of gentlemen who compose in upon; that sacred guaranty, pledged to the creditpart of the committee, and through whose districts this ors of the nation, must be taken also, and distributed road is to run; and the location fixed on was for their ac- among the States for purposes of education. [Here Mr. commodation, not for the nation. Yet we are called on ISACKS said he was not aware of any such intention on now to appropriate millions of the public money (two mil- the part of any one.] Mr. C. resumed: I allude to the lion two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars is the resolution passed by this House, instructing a committee sum wanted for the present) to promote the interests of to bring in a bill for the distribution of the nett proceeds certain sections of the country, and to subserve the views of the sale of public lands among the States for purposes of combined interests upon this floor. I say combined; of education; and those lands were solemnly pledged by and, if any have doubted the fact before, has not the intro- this Government to its creditors, and belong to the sinking duction of this bill, for a lateral route, leading from fund, and should not be touched till every farthing of the "Zanesville, Ohio, to pass through Lexington, Kentucky, obligation is discharged. Nashville, Tennessee, and to intersect this road at Florence, Alabama," put the seal upon the arrangement, and developed the matter, in bold relief, before every eye not blinded by interest or other motive? [Mr. ISACKS said he did not vote for the resolution.] Nor did I charge the gentleman. I only speak of what is going on, and the effect it will have upon the adminis tration; and I must further tell the gentlemen from TenBut look who compose the committee who produced nessee [Messrs. BLAIR and ISACKS] that if they desired these bills. See the States they are from, and the sections (which I know they do not) to ruin and blast forever the of States they represent; then couple the routes and cir-hard-earned fame of that best of men, who, upon all occumstances together, and tell me if there is room left to casions, has proven his disinterested devotion to his counentertain a doubt as to the causes which have produced try and to his friends, they could not have fallen upon the effect. I will push this subject of combination no fur- better plan than this, of appropriating money, leaving ther, lest the feelings of some personal friends might not him powerless, and without the means of doing that which escape unscathed. I desist, therefore, not that I fear the he stands pledged to do. contest, or doubt the results, but for the reason just mentioned. I have endeavored to show that the considerations urged by the supporters of this bill did not exist, or at least did not exist to that extent which required at our hands the application of the public money. How far I have suc The Committee on Internal Improvements is composed of Messrs. Hemphill, of Pennsylvania, chairman, Blair, of Tennessee, Haynes, of Georgia, Letcher, of Kentucky, Vinton, of Ohio, Craig, of Virginia, a Are they prepared to hear him exclaim, as did Cæsar, (when he was struck by, as he thought, his best friend,) and you, too, my son?" Will they bind him in fetters, and leave him, mangled and bleeding, to the mercy of his political enemies, who would glory in the spectacle? If I believed them prepared for this, the line of separation should be eternally drawn between them and me. I supported the election of General Jackson, because I believed him honest and meritorious, and I shall support his administration, because now I know him to be so; and he will This route passes directly through the districts represented by Craig, realize the expectations of his friends throughout the of Virginia, and Blair, of Tennessee. The lateral route from Zanesville, Ohio, and passing through Kentucky, is Messrs. Vinton and nation, if his friends here, by their misguided policy, Letcher's part of the system. The Buffalo end passes through Penn- do not prevent him. My strength has failed me; I am sylvania, the State which the honorable chairman, Mr. Hemphill, is from.-Note by Mr. C. done. I only ask leave to tender my thanks to the and Butman, of Maine. VOL. VI.-85 H. of R.] Buffalo and New Orleans Road. [MARCH 25, 1830. committee, and to offer the amendment which is on whatever. It is utterly impossible, after having collected your table. Mr. CRAIG said, he should play the hypocrite were he to attempt to disguise the interest he felt in the bill under consideration. Many of the people whom I represent [said Mr. C.] have a deep and direct interest in the road which it proposes to establish; and if, under existing circumstances, I did not give it my humble support, I should feel a conscious conviction of misrepresenting their interests, and of betraying the trust with which they have honored me. by taxation a sum of money from the people, ever to return it to them again individually, in the proportion in which it was taken from them. The nearest approach that can be made to such a distribution is to be effected by throwing it into general circulation, and leaving it to the influence of individual enterprise to control its particular destination. It seems to me, then, that we cannot adopt a better policy, at this time, than to put into general circulation a few hundred thousand dollars annually of the people's money, by constructing with it, for their accommoThe representative, according to my political creed, is dation, this great national road. You will then have the bound, in all cases, except where the constitution inter-pleasure of reflecting that you have returned to them poses barriers, in this or any other body, to reflect the not only their money, but, along with it, a great national wishes and interests of his constituents, and not his own improvement. And here, sir, the question is not unworindividual views. To do this is happily felt by me not to thy your most serious reflection, how far this capital, thus be less a duty than a pleasure. collected and thus expended, will have suffered diminution when it returns again to its legitimate channels of circulation among the people. Will it have suffered any diminution? As I view the subject, it will not. Then, if it will not have suffered any diminution, is it not a fair deduction that the road will be a clear gain to the people? Although I am one of those who construe the constitution as denying to Congress a general right to make roads, even though their extent invests them with the characteristics of nationality, yet the peculiar combination of circumstances which exists in relation to this subject, at this time, rids my mind of all scruples upon this point. The policy of a nation, in regard to its pecuniary funds, The constitutionality of the measure, as I conceive it, is very different, in some important particulars, from that is not now involved. The question is not whether Con- of an individual person. It is the policy of a nation to gress possesses, under the constitution, power to make have on hand no greater capital than is sufficient for the this road; but it is, more properly, has Congress a right emergencies of the time-it is the policy of individual perto re-distribute the surplus money in its treasury, be- sons to augment their funds as much as possible. The yond what may be necessary to defray the ordinary ex- wealth of an individual depends upon himself-the wealth penses of the Government, and what may be applied to of a nation depends upon the wealth of its citizens; and the extinguishment of the national debt, among the people whether capital be in the private pockets of the citizens, of the Union? or in the public treasury, it is alike the capital of the na tion. Now, if, without occasioning any sensible inconvenience or distress to the people composing the body politic, a sum of money can be drawn from them in the course of a few years, sufficient to produce a work of great national benefit, a work of the advantages of which thousands of your citizens will be highly sensible, what sound objection, upon the score of policy, can be urged against the execution of such a plan? A little reflection will satisfy you, sir, that the appropriation of money involved in this bill is an evil (if it be an evil, as some apprehend it to be) which has its root in the existing revenue system. So long as the present tariff of duties is maintained, it is manifest that we shall find in our treasury a large annual residuum, after all ordinary appropriations have been made. And who can doubt, after what has occurred here, in this session of Congress, that it is the fixed determination of a majority of this body, There have been, for many years past, large annual and, by inference, the determination of a majority of the balances in the treasury, which have been, to the nation people of the United States, to persist in the existing tariff and the people, dead capital. On the first day of Janusystem? The question, then, unavoidably occurs, what ary, 1828, there was in the treasury an unexpended badisposition ought to be made of this surplus money? Surely lance of six million six hundred and sixty-eight thousand no one will contend that it ought to lie rusting in our cof- two hundred and eighty-six dollars and ten cents; on the fers; none will contend that, after it has gotten there, first day of January, 1829, there was a balance of five the constitution will require it to remain there. And to million nine hundred and seventy-two thousand four hunwhat use shall we appropriate it? Can we appropriate it dred and thirty-five dollars and eighty-one cents; on the first to any more valuable use than to internal improvements? day of January, 1830, there was a balance of four million I would myself have preferred that this surplus of reve- four hundred and ten thousand and seventy-one dollars and nue should have been apportioned out amongst the several sixty-nine cents; and, on the first of January, 1831, accord. States, according to their population, for purposes of inter- ing to the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury, nal improvement; but in this we, who construe the consti- there will be a balance of four million four hundred and tution rigidly, are opposed by a majority. Congress now, ninety-four thousand five hundred and forty-five dollars as to all practical effects, possesses the power to appropriate the money of the public treasury to objects of internal improvement, as fully as if the constitution, in so many words, gave that power. Nor has this power been dormant. It has been exerted in a variety of instances. and two cents. Now, sir, it strikes my mind, if Congress had commenced this road four, five, or six years ago, it might, before now, have been finished; and yet no portion of the people would have been sensible of the least pecuniary loss or pressure. And now, sir, if you proceed to its construction, what pecuniary embarrassments can you expect to encounter? The whole sum estimated as neces sary to complete the road is considerably short of the balance which, it is believed, will be in the treasury on the first of January next, and which must be regarded as dead capital, if not employed. What mischief, lask, wiil you do? What injury to the people, or any portion of the people, will you do, by appropriating a part, or even the whole, of this balance to the construction of an improvement so valuable as that proposed by this bill will be? The money collected into the public treasury from imposts, &c. belongs to the people in the mass; and it becomes our duty to return it to them by that mode that will most equally distribute it among them, and, at the same time, effect for them the greatest general good. In no way, does it seem to me, can this end be more advantageously attained, than by expending it upon a work like that proposed in the bill under consideration. The road will extend from the northern to the southern extremity of the Union, and, as a road, will accommodate a vast proportion of its citizens; besides, the money expended in making it But, sir, I have not yet presented this subject in its most will be as generally scattered among the people as it could flattering point of view, in reference to the resources of be by being appropriated to any object or improvement the nation. It should not escape reflection, that in five or six years from this time at most, the annual balance in the treasury will rise from four, five, or six millions, to ten or twelve, or, if the tariff of duties should be reduced to such a standard as that no one could complain of it as oppressive, to a steady balance, as I believe, of from five to eight millions. When our revenue shall thus overflow, which will certainly be the case after the extinguishment of the national debt, what course of policy shall be pursued? Will it be constitutional or expedient that a portion of the people should sit still and obstinately refuse to participate in the excess of revenue, because it was collected in a manner they did not approve? [H. of R. by appropriating three, four, or six millions of dollars to this road; because, it cannot be denied, that, if the surplus money of the treasury be not appropriated to this object, it will be appropriated to some other, perhaps, of less national value; so that, at last, the whole effect of voting for this bill will but tend to decide the choice of Congress in favor of this over many objects, some of which are destined inevitably to absorb your surplus funds. If we, in the South, will not take your offered favor, others, less fastidious, in other sections, will. I am not disposed, because the world will not go on precisely as I could wish, to fall out with it, and turn cynic. But gentlemen say, let us prevent this unnecessary ac- On the contrary, I find it to be the easiest and the best cumulation of revenue, by a reduction of the tariff of im- policy, generally, to conform in some degree to that port duties, &c. Sir, it should be remembered that this uncontrollable state of things which I find around me. I tariff is suspended upon another interest, the manufactur-have no idea of denying myself a fair participation in the ing interest, which influences a majority of the people of blessings of this Government, because every thing is not the United States to continue it as a system of protection done according to my notions of sound policy and constito manufactures; and, I confess, I do not see any symptoms tutionality. It would be too much to expect that my to justify the opinion that it will be abandoned. This pro- opinions should rule in all things. I can estimate the retecting system may, from its over-tension and consequent spect which I owe to the opinions of other gentlemen, by inaptitude to an infant and agricultural community, break the respect which I would claim for my own. down; but I am persuaded, from what I have seen here this session, that it is the determination of a large majority of the people of the United States to adhere to it. Whenever a people become so dissatisfied with their Government as to refuse to accept its benefits when tendered to them, they or their Government must be in gross error. If the Government be in such error, (a condition which cannot be induced without corruption,) it should be reformed at all hazards. If the people, or a part of them, be thus in error, the cure is to be expected from their own sobered reflections. There is another reflection which intrudes itself here, and is not to be disregarded. It is this: However justly the people of the South may hope for an amelioration of the present tariff, it were too much to expect a total abandonment by the Government of those interests which were brought into existence and nurtured by its own patronage. It has been intimated here, and elsewhere, that the To abandon them suddenly to the storm of foreign compe- people are, in some sections of the country, in such a state tition, would be an act alike marked with cruelty and injus- of inquietude as to endanger the Union. In relation to tice, and might be justly reprobated as an act of bad faith this intimation, I can only speak for those whom I know, on the part of the Government. Do not understand me here as advocating the tariff system to the extent to which it has been carried. By no means; I mean only to say that the Government, having induced the citizen, by holding out protection to such investment, to invest his capital in manufacturing operations, is bound, in good faith, if it shall find it expedient to abandon the policy, to recede from it gradually, at least so gradually as to give the capital thus employed time to seek new and more advantageous channels. or think I know. I cannot believe that there is any portion of the Virginians, much as I have heard since I came here of the nullifying doctrine, who meditate a dissolution of the Union, or who would not deprecate it as the severest calamity. Sir, I think I know the temper of Virginia upon this subject. I have had many opportu nities to know it; and I may say, that, so far from harboring any wish adverse to the Union, her sons would be among the first, if danger threatened, to rally round its sacred standard. Nor can I do my fellow-citizens of South Carolina, to whom allusion has been made in this debate, the injustice to believe that her sons cherish any such design. It may be thought extravagant, after what we have witnessed in the other branch of Congress during the present session, but I do not hesitate to say it, as my opinion, that the approach of danger to the Union-the common palladium of their liberties--would again unite even old Massachusetts and South Carolina in those strong bonds of affection which held them together in the struggle for independence. For my own part, I have always thought that the constitution was never intended to confer upon Congress the right to protect manufactures by revenue regulations, further than that protection might be incidentally afforded by the operation of a tariff of duties intended to raise a revenue for the purposes specified in the constitution. But I find myself, in relation to the tariff and internal improvements, in the situation of a mariner who is borne away by a storm which he cannot resist. Although he may be driving with the speed of the wind in a direction exactly opposite to that to which he should go to gain his Go among the common people, who form the body and destined port; yet, if he be skilful, he will not be found strength of your community, and I shall be much deceived idly fighting against the wind and tide, but he will yield if you do not hear another than the language of disunion, to the power, and thus acquire a velocity greater than the even in the South. The hotheated politician is not at all current; by which means his bark is made obedient to her times to be regarded as affording fair indications of the helm, and he is enabled, in some measure, to direct her temper of even the people among whom he resides. His course. Here, sir, although I cannot control the circum-inflammation is very often personal, and therefore does stances and events which surround and pass me, yet, by not threaten imminent danger to the Union. Indeed, I falling into the current with them, and yielding myself in believe much less is meant, generally, in relation to this some degree to their control, I may, possibly, aided by others of similar views, give them another and better direction, in my opinion, than they would otherwise have taken. By voting for this bill, it may happen that an expenditure of money will be made, advantageous to the country, in the welfare of which I am more directly interested, and that an improvement will be effected, which will directly diffuse its benefits through it. And I know that, to the nation, nothing in the form of money will be lost, subject, than the language used would seem to import. It may be, and I think sometimes is, intended merely to deter from the prosecution of disagreeable measures. Permit me here to bespeak your reflections upon these questions. If the Government, at any time, shall have engaged in a system of measures which some of us may, perchance, think impolitic or unconstitutional, will we, who think thus of that system, be justified in thwarting all its operations, and in rendering it, as much as possible, productive of bad instead of good effects? or will it be H. of R.] Buffalo and New Orleans Road. [MARCH 25, 1830. come our duty, when we, being the minority, can no upon the policy of confiding to the General Government longer, with any hope of success, resist the establishment the power to construct works of national improvement. of that system, to give it such a direction and such an Although I cannot, as I have already said, see in the operation, as to make it productive of the greatest public language of the constitution any satisfactory authority for good? I do not, myself, hesitate about the answer which, the exercise of this power, yet I am unable to discover in my humble judgment, ought to be given to these ques-any good reason why this power, under well defined limittions. Certainly, if, as I believe to be true upon our ations, should not be confided to it. The mere power to principles of government, the majority have the right to make roads, canals, &c. has in it, as I conceive, no danrule, and, consequently, a right to settle the policy of the gerous tendency whatever. The probability that such a Government, the minority are bound to lend their aid in power would benefit the States is a thousand fold that of producing the best results from any system which the the probability that it would injure them. The danger majority may adopt. I do not mean to include extreme consists in the retention of jurisdiction over these works cases-such as can only exist under the influence of after they are made, not in making them. With this view corruption. It is, I admit, right enough that the opponent of the subject, it is my present impression, that, if I were of any system should, upon every occasion involving its now sitting in convention, for the purpose of amending propriety, directly vote to abandon it. But this, it seems the constitution, I would vote to confer this power, limitto me, does not imply that it is prudent or proper to op-ing it to the making of the work. I would do so, as at pose every incidental measure which may grow out of it. present persuaded, for another, and perhaps more pow To illustrate my idea by the very case under discus-erful reason. It consists in this: the States have, for obsion: if the internal improvement system is to be main-vious and imperious reasons, surrendered the entire regutained, it is proper that those who oppose it should aid in lation of their commerce to this Government; and thus selecting the most advantageous objects of its action, and, of course, keep back those less advantageous. I hold, sir, that the adoption of an error may make that right, which would otherwise have been wrong; or, to speak perhaps with more precision, that may be rightfully done, as resulting out of a previous error, which, if that error had not been committed, would never have arisen to be done. I have nothing to do, in this argument, with the ulterior and unalienable right of any people to resist oppression, when they may choose no longer to endure it. have surrendered the richest and by far the most convenient and least oppressive sources of revenue. I should not, therefore, think it at all unwise to require of the General Government, in times, like the present, of extraordinary prosperity, that a fair proportion of the means derived from these sources should be made available to the States in internal improvements, or in education, where the preference might be given to that object. The States, being dependant for their means upon direct taxation, can never effect great improvements but by producing uneasiness amongst their citizens. The United States, through their custom-houses, can collect from the people millions, by a process so magical, that the people will be wholly insensible of having paid them. And thus it would seem that, as the means of the United States are much more ample than those of the individual States, the United States ought to have the power of employing them for the good of the States. I have said that I gave such a construction to the constitution, as denies to Congress the right to make internal improvements; and have endeavored to justify myself for voting for this bill, upon the ground that that power exists in fact, (a large majority of this House, and, by inference, of the people, being for it,) and, as to all practical effects, as fully as if the constitution was without the shadow of a doubt upon the subject; and because, by so voting, I do Indirect taxation, as a mode of raising revenue, is prenothing more, and intend to do nothing more, than to give ferable to direct taxation, not only because all classes of a preference to this object over the many that are pro-citizens feel the operation of the former less than the latposed; not doubting, as there is no room to doubt, that ter, but because, under the former mode, the rich citizens whether this bill pass or not, internal improvements will are sure to pay their just proportion of the revenue. They, be carried on under this Government commensurate with having the ability to do so, will consume vastly more of its means. In this operation of my judgment, I assume to those articles which bear heavy duties than the poorer be my own casuist. My conscience is quiet. citizens. The policy of protecting manufactures by high duties on imports, begets the necessity of creating some system of policy for the consumption of the money arising from that source. I am not chargeable with the tariff system. I found it fully established when I came here; and have since lent the aid of my vote, at three different times, for a modification of its provisions. We all know the result. I, and those who voted with me, found ourselves in a minority. What, under such circumstances, ought we to do? We cannot, reasonably, expect the majority to sacrifice their opinions to ours. It would be the merest arrogance in me to assume infallibility for my opinions. I can see no just line of conduct but to acquiesce. I am, as I have said, opposed to the tariff of 1828; but I cannot see, in justice, in reason, in conscience, why the people whom I represent, as they bear their share of its burdens, should not have their share of its profits. I do not see the line between submission to the majority, and what tends to a dissolution of the Government. A disposition has been manifested, in this discussion, to waive the question of constitutionality, and to rest the claims of this bill upon the grounds of expediency. Such has been the course pursued by my intelligent and eloquent colleague, [Mr. P. P. BARBOUR. .] And here, sir, before I meet my colleague upon this ground, I request to be indulged in a few brief reflections Under a system of indirect taxation, a person may resort to his prudence-to abstinence-for an amelioration of its burdens. He may, if he choose, abstain wholly from the use of wine, cogniac, tea, and various other articles in which the rich may choose to indulge, without materially impairing his comforts, and thus avoid subjection to a large proportion of indirect tax. The proposition is generally true, that actual consumption is measured by the ability to consume; and as the ability is enlarged or diminished, actual consumption is increased or diminished. Having made these remarks, I will now endeavor to answer some of the arguments used by my colleague [Mr. P. P. BARBOUR] for the purpose of showing that it is inexpedient to make the proposed road. I am sorry that this gentleman, and that other gentlemen should, on account of their opposition to it, have thought it necessary to undervalue this road. Sir, if we are to give full credit to their arguments, we could not resist the conclusion, that, if this road would not be indeed a national evil, it would be, at least, useless. The warmth of opposition, I must think, has carried gentlemen too far. The utility of this road is not to be seriously denied by any whose situation enables them properly to estimate it. The honorable gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. CARSON] has advanced the opinion that it will not be |