Proceedings.

The bill from the House of Representatives, improvement, may require and deserve the aid of Goventitled "An act respecting claims to land in the ernment: Territories of Orleans and Louisiana," was, by unanimous consent, read the second time, and referred to Messrs. WORTHINGTON, GILES, and MITCHILL, to consider and report thereon.

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reservation, reported that a bill had passed embracing this subject. Whereupon,

Ordered, That this committee be discharged from the further consideration thereof.

The bill from the House of Representatives, entitled "An act supplementary to the act, entitled 'An act regulating the grants of land appropriated for the refugees from the British provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia," was read the second time and referred to Messrs. TRACY, BRADLEY, and ADAMS, to consider and report thereon.

The bill from the House of Representatives, entitled "An act for the relief of Daniel S. Dexter," was read the second time, and referred to Messrs. MITCHILL, TURNER, and BRADLEY, to consider and report thereon.

The bill from the House of Representatives, entitled "An act for repealing the acts laying duties on salt, and continuing in force, for a further time, the first section of the act, entitled 'An act further to protect the commerce and seamen of the United States against the Barbary Powers," was read the third time; and on motion, its further consideration postponed until 12 o'clock to-morrow. The bill from the House of Representatives, entitled "An act allowing an additional compensation to the judges of the Mississippi Territory, and extending the right of suffrage therein," was read the third time as amended.

FEBRUARY, 1807.

Mr. WHITE addressed the Chair as follows: Mr. President: I had hoped this question would have been decided last evening, and the discussion closed in that stage of it. I am sure the Senate must be fatigued with the subject; it is therefore with extreme reluctance that I rise at this late period of the debate to reply to the observations of the gentleman from Massachusetts before me, (Mr. ADAMS,) who has just sat down, especially after the field of argument has been so attentively and closely gleaned by my colleague. The gentleman was pleased to commence by charging us with precipitating this measure through the Senate. But is this the fact, sir? On the contrary, it was before Congress during the greater part of the last session; a very detailed and lucid memorial accompanied by numerous documents was then presented in relation to it; upon which a committee of this House, after full investigation, reported a resolution favorable to the measure, supported by their reasons, and a strong statement of facts. These documents were all printed and laid upon the table of every gentleman, and then it will be remembered that in order to give further time for consideration, so as to avoid the very cause of complaint now made, the friends of the project themselves moved its postponement to the present session. A second memorial from the Managers has been received this session on the same subject, followed by a second favorable report from another committee of the Senate; the printed bill itself, now under consideration, has been before us near four weeks, and yet the gentleman from Massachusetts, with all these facts staring him in the face, talks of our precipitating this measure. I may safely trust the force and correctness of this argument to the recollection of the Senate alone. But the gentleman has referred us to a similar project before the Senate for a canal at the Falls of Ohio, and tells us that three States are immediately interested in that, three likewise in this, and that consequently twelve members on this floor feel the same particular influence. The gentleman certainly did not mean to intimate that any private understanding had taken place among the supporters of these respective measures, in relation to them, or that they were capable of any such conduct. That gentlemen from different States should be found supporting similar measures of public utilMr. BRADLEY, from the managers at the confer-ity, is not surely wonderful; and although the ence on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, on the bill, entitled "An act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1808," made report; which was read, and ordered to lie for consideration.

Resolved, That this bill pass with amendments. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House have passed a bill, entitled "An act making further appropriations for fortifying the ports and harbors of the United States, and for building gunboats; also, a bill, entitled "An act in addition to the act, entitled 'An act supplementary to the act, entitled' An act making provision for the redemption of the whole of the public debt of the United States;" in which bills they request the concurrence of the Senate.

The two bills last brought up for concurrence were read, and ordered to the second reading.

Mr. CLAY, from the committee to whom was referred, on the 14th of January last, the motion to appropriate a quantity of land, at a fair cash valuation, towards the opening of the canal proposed to be cut at the Rapids of the Ohio, on the Kentucky shore, made report; which was read, and, ordered to lie for consideration.

CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE CANAL. The Senate again resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the second reading of the bill authorizing the sale and grant of a certain quantity of public land to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company; and the President having reported the bill to the House amended

States they particularly represent may happen to be most immediately interested in their success, yet no man of honor himself, could on this account suspect them of improper motives, or attribute their coincidence of opinion to any other cause than the honest, unbiassed convictions of their own minds, and a view to the public good. The extreme case stated by the gentleman, of the nine States that have now a majority in Congress, combining to divide the public lands, and public treasures among them, could probably never have suggested itself to the mind of any member. Sir, if the oaths and political responsibility imposed by the Constitution were not sufficient the integrity, the virtue, and the honor of

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the Representatives of the nation, should forever preclude, even the idea of such a possibility. If you suppose all men treacherous and corrupt, what barriers, I ask, can you oppose to them, that they may not trample under foot? Such arguments are calculated only to sap and destroy that faith and confidence among men, so essential in all the relative situations of life; to inspire universal distrust and jealousy, and to sever the strongest bonds of political and civil society. We are willing, sir, that the measure we now propose, let it stand or fall, should be judged by its own merits. Every gentleman, who will cast his eye over our map, must see, more distinctly than argument can illustrate, the magnitude and importance of the project, and a moment's attention to the plan will be sufficient to convince them of the heavy expense necessarily attendant upon such an undertaking.

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peake, and enter the Delaware at points safely navigable at all times for such craft. It forms however, sir, no part of this plan to force this commerce, as has been intimated, to Philadelphia, or by any unfair means to divert it from Baltimore, or in any manner to injure Baltimore; but merely to give to those people an opportunity of choosing for themselves, between these two markets, the one most convenient and profitable to them. And in this aspect it is to be observed, that the present question turns not between Baltimore and Philadelphia, but between Baltimore and the whole extent of country upon the Susquehannah and; other waters of the Chesapeake; whether that country shall be confined exclusively to the market of Baltimore, or have an opportunity of choosing between that and Philadelphia. And admitting, Mr. President, that the canal was now completed, yet the situation of Baltimore being still more convenient to this produce than that of Philadelphia, she might still command it with the same prices current, and this is what those who resort to her market have a right to demand. Her capital may possibly be equal to such a competition; the industry and enterprise of her citizens, I know are not surpassed by any on the continent. There is no city in the Union I should be more unwilling to see retarded in her progress to wealth and greatness than Baltimore; but surely, sir, the interests of half a million of people are not to be delayed, or sacrificed to hasten the premature

Again, Mr. President, it is well known that many extensive manufactories, in metals_especially, have been established in and about Philadelphia, Wilmington, Trenton, and other towns upon the Delaware; coal is the very basis of those manufactures; none has yet been discovered in that country, and although Virginia could of herself furnish a sufficiency for the continent, yet, owing to the difficulties and expense of transporting it around by sea in coasting vessels, the Liverpool coal now holds a successful competition with it in those markets. In these respects, and as an article of common fuel, if it could be had upon the reasonable terms this inland navigation must produce, the demand for it would be infinitely increased, and the most important manufactures of our country be greatly encouraged and improved.

The canal is contemplated to be of depth and capacity sufficient for the navigation of vessels suitably constructed, of from 70 to 100 tons burden and more, so as to afford a safe and expeditious inland water transportation to all of what now composes the coasting trade between Philadelphia and Baltimore, free from the danger and expense of a circuitous and coastwise voyage of more than 300 miles. To the whole extent of fertile and populous country upon the Chesapeake and the Delaware, and their tributary streams, including part of North Carolina, the States of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jer-growth of any particular city. sey, it will give a choice of the markets of these two great rival cities, by rendering them each easily accessible to the commerce of either bay; which must unavoidably excite a competition between them infinitely desirable, especially to the agricultural interest: for to those who have any acquaintance with the business of these two places, must be well known the immense and unaccountable difference frequently experienced in their respective markets between the prices of the same articles of produce at the same time. And another grievance, more particularly complained of by those upon the waters of the Chesapeake, is the frequent, the sudden, and arbitrary fluctuations of the Baltimore market; to which the farmer is obliged to submit for want of an alternative, and which probably the opportunity of a choice alone might be sufficient to correct. The chief opera- Sir, it is now proposed to you to extend the tion, as it appears to me, that the canal could have patronage of Government, in a manner that can upon Baltimore, would be to keep her up to the never be felt by the public, to aid in the execution standard of the Philadelphia market, and it would of the most important national improvement ever have the further effect of keeping them both up to attempted in our country-an improvement conthe standard justified by the market abroad. All necting two of our most extensive and commerthe heavy produce of the immense and fertile cial waters, opening of itself a commodious inland country watered by the Susquehannah, that must navigation to vessels of considerable burden for otherwise remain almost exclusively at the com- an extent of more than four hundred miles through mand of Baltimore, and nearly upon her own the centre of the Middle States, from Norfolk, or terms, over a canal might find a cheap and safe rather from Cape Henry, to Trenton, an improvewater transportation to Philadelphia. The very ment that, although consisting only in opening a boats that now descend that river from the Painted passage of about twenty miles across the isthmus, Post, in the State of New York, more than three must save to all the commerce of the Susquehanhundred miles up, with the produce of the coun- nah and the Delaware, inclined to seek the martry, could unlade their cargoes at the wharves of ket of the other bay, near five hundred miles perPhiladelphia, because they would leave the Chesa-ilous navigation. And admitting that Virginia,

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FEBRUARY, 1807.

himself and his country upon the power he now holds, upon the means and opportunity now offered him, of facilitating the execution of a great public work, from which the most important national advantages could not fail to arise? You, sir, who, so usefully to your country, and so honorably to yourself, acquired your long and arduous experience in the active and turbulent scenes of the Revolution, must feel how incompetent I am to do justice to this part of the subject. You know well, Mr. President, the promptitude and force with which an army of observation posted upon the banks of the proposed canal, by means of that canal, could strike at any point within the whole extent of the navigable waters of the Chesapeake and the Delaware; and it could not have escaped your attention, sir, that on its very shore nature has placed, and bound with iron, a mountain, commanding the course of the canal for miles, and capable of being rendered as impregnable to an enemy as any inland situation on the Atlantic part of the Middle States. This convenient and commanding position requires only the aid of the proposed canal to force itself irresistibly upon the mind of every gentleman who will cast his eye over the map, as the very spot of all others in the Middle States best calculated to become a grand depot of arms, provisions, and military stores, in time of war. The whole peninsula presents to its front, on one extended fertile plain, an inexhaustible granary of provision; on every other side it is surrounded by a difficult, irregular country, and almost inaccessible heights, all of which it commands, and all of which, by suitable improvements, might be rendered subservient to its support. My colleague stated, I think, the facility and safety to be derived from such an inland navigation in time of

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, composed the only portion of the Union that could ever be expected to derive the least possible advantage from the work, surely considering the millions that have been expended in the defence of our frontiers, in the extinguishment of Indian titles, and in the acquirement of unsettled countries, part of which they have cheerfully borne, the accommodation now asked, to every reasonable man-I beg pardon, except the gentleman from Massachusetts before me (Mr. ADAMS)-must appear most just and reasonable indeed. I will here, sir, take leave to express my pleasure, and to congratulate the cis-montain friends of the present measure, upon the prompt, the frank, and liberal conduct evinced in favor of this great public improvement in the Atlantic States, by those gentlemen who so ably represent here the interests of the western country. But, Mr. President, these private advantages, if they may be so called, that I have thus hastily and desultorily enumerated, are small, indeed, when compared to the great public utility to be expected to the Union, from the proposed work. This canal, as has been well observed by my colleague, is the first and most important link in the chain of internal navigation by which nature has designed this great confederacy of States to be cemented; the second, in point of importance, is that through Jersey from the Delaware to Amboy, or the waters of the Raritan. Then I ask you, sir, to look at the geography of your country, when the canals from the Mohawk to the waters of Oneida lake-where one is, I believe, now nearly, if not quite, completed, from the Hudson to the waters falling into lake Champlain, for which an act of the Legislature has been obtained-from Buzzard's to Boston bay, long since in contemplation, shall be carried into execution in the northern and east-war, in the transportation of troops, arms, provisern extremities of the Union; and that from Eliza- ions, and other military stores, and the advantabeth river, in Virginia, through the Dismal Swamp, ges especially such a mode of conveyance would to Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, aided by the have been to the American army on their march various inlets and very little more work in the to Yorktown; when the length of time unavoid. southern extremity-we shall have a complete in-ably occupied in passing with their heavy ordland navigation from the Savannah river to the nance, provisions, and baggage, this very groundLakes, even to Quebec; embracing the whole of the in preparing a second fleet of transports upon the Atlantic States, and passing an extent of more than Chesapeake-in debarking upon one water, and a thousand miles through our own country. Is this embarking upon another-might have disappointed a subject of small consideration? I answer, confi- the most glorious enterprise in the annals of the dently, no-at least to no other gentleman than Revolution, and protracted for years the war, with the member from Massachusetts; and the case of all its vices, its calamities, and its expense. Sir, any internal local State improvement of this kind, one of the principal modes of national defence such as the one in Massachusetts, cited by the upon which we now chiefly rely, and are provigentleman, in order to mar and destroy this, how-ding at great expense, renders of itself this measever entitled to the wishes and patronage of the public, cannot compare, in points of national importance, with the one we now propose.

In case of war, and God knows if we attend to the recent occurrences of our country, and contemplate the portentous events passing in the old world, we have little reason to suppose that we, even for our own short day, can be permitted to fold our arms in peace, and to indulge in slumbers of ease and safety; in the prospect of such an hour of calamity, I ask, what gentleman that hears does not anticipate me, and congratulate

ure almost indispensable. Your gunboats might then become doubly useful in case of a foreign attack directed against the Chesapeake or the Delaware, as probable points as any other; the same squadron, by means of the canal, could operate with equal facility upon either bay, without encountering the dangers of the sea, or an enemy upon the coast. This measure must, in fact, be considered a part, and a most important part, of the same system of internal national defence; it belongs as much to the defence of the country as any fortification, battery, frigate, or gunboat, in it.

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