Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

dependent People, entirely free from the action of our legislation and laws, or whether they are to be considered as independent sub modo only, are questions which have not yet been decided. How far their rights to the soil are plenary or imperfect, or under what modifications they hold the right of occupancy, is still a question on which no determinate opinions have yet been formed. On one question, Mr. R. said his opinion, from an observation of fifteen years, was settled beyond possible change-it was, that the prospect of civilizing these People by the actions of surrounding communities, is illusive. It is a dream, which never can be realized. He was entirely persuaded that, so long as the tribes of Indians, within any State of the Union, were exempted from the action of our laws, they never would consent to remove from the territory they occupy. He thought it was a fair and correct policy, instead of making vain and illusive efforts to civilize them, and include them in our political institutions, to remove them to the borders of our territories, where the real character of the savage man can be benefitted. If this policy cannot be pursued, the tribes of Indians in the State of Mississippi will not last for twenty years longer. The seeds of national dissolution are sown; they are operating with extraordinary rapidity, and the period is not far distant when these nations must undergo an entire dissolution. But, until our legislation can, in some form or other, be brought to act on these People, or those resident amongst them, they never will consent to abandon their lands. So soon as our laws can reach those abandoned citizens, who settle amongst them and become as savage as the Indians themselves, a powerful motive for their continuance will be removed. It is the first step in a system of removal; it is the first step in any system tending to a change of residence.

Mr. REED concluded by submitting the following reso

lution:

"Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing by law the Courts of the United States to issue process, both civil and criminal, and to cause the same to be executed against persons resident upon land, occupied by the Indians, within the territorial limits of any State. And that the same committee be further instructed to inquire, whether there is any mode by which the United States can yield their assent, that any State may exercise the power of issuing civil and criminal process against persons so resident upon lands, occupied by Indians, within its limits; and whether such assent, on the part of the United States, be necessary to the exercise of this power, on the part of any individual State."

CUMBERLAND ROAD.

The Senate then again proceeded to the consideration of the bill "making appropriations for the military service for the current year," Mr. COBB's motion to strike out the following item, being the pending question-viz: "For the continuation of the Cumberland Road, one hun"dred and ten thousand dollars, which shall be replaced "out of the fund reserved for laying out, and making "roads under the direction of Congress, by the several "acts passed for the admission of the States of Ohio, In"diana, Illinois, and Missouri, into the Union, on a footing "with the original States."

[SENATE:

appropriation bill; but, since then, a new system, and perhaps a much better one, had been adopted. The business of roads and canals has been transferred to the War Department, because they have there the aid of the Engineer Corps. An act was passed in the year 1820, direct ing the survey of a route to be made from the right bank of the Ohio, opposite to Wheeling, to the Mississippi. The route was run and surveyed, and a report was made on it. Some objections were made to the report, that the route did not strike the metropolis of any of the States, and by the act of last session, another survey was directed. The fourth section of that act has been considered, in some measure, as pledging the Government to the continuance of the road. Mr. S. said it would be proper for him to state, that the act of 1820 stipulated, specifically, that nothing therein should be construed as pledging the United States to make such a road. The sum appropri ated by the act was simply for running the route on which the road was to pass. The act of 1825, appropriated $150,000 for the road, to commence at Canton, in Ohio, and to go to Zanesville. The fourth section of that act appeared something like a pledge of the Government of the United States to continue the road, and, under that idea, the House of Representatives had passed this appropriation of $110,000. Mr. S. said he was disposed to continue the road, if it could be done conformably to the Constitution of the United States. This Cumberland Road has proceeded as far as the Ohio, and is to be continued on to Missouri; the object of which is, that there shall be a short course from the seat of Government to St. Louis, in Missouri, by which many days would be saved to the United States in the transportation of the mail, and facillties would be afforded for travelling. He did not look on the old beaten argument of its raising the value of the land, as of any weight: experience had proved that it was illusive. But he looked to the general convenience of the country. Mr. S. concluded by observing, that, having carried the road as far as the Ohio, he should give his vote for its continuation.

Mr. COBB said, when he made the motion to strike out, he did not do it with the design of going into the discussion of the constitutional power. When the subject was under discussion last year, he had delivered his ideas on it, and he had no desire to repeat them; nor should he do so; the effect they had on the Senate was not such as to encourage him at all to embark in the discussion again. He would, however, still insist that the reasons which he had assigned for making this motion were sufficient to induce the Senate to adopt it. The appropriation here called for, is, at least, a thing contested on principle, and on constitutional principles, too; and it ought not to be inserted in a bill, the general objects of which are clearly constitutional and proper, viz: making annual appropriations for the military service. In favor of these appropria tions he wished to vote-they are all legitimate and constitutional; but when, in this bill, making appropriations for the military service, is inserted an appropriation having no connection whatever with it, and for a different and distinct object, which he believed to be unconstitutional, he must vote against the whole bill, if it was retained. The appropriations for fortifications, Mr. C. said, have been distinguished from the military appropriation bill, and separately passed upon; and there was ten thousand times more reason for distinguishing the appropriations for what was called a system of internal improvement, than there was for distinguishing the appropriations for fortifications from the military service.

Mr. SMITH said, if he understood the objection of the gentleman from Georgia, it was, that such a proposition had never before been introduced into a military appropriation bill. In that, Mr. S. said, he was quite right: when the Cumberland Road was commenced, it was put under The gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. JOHNSON,) Mr. C. the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, then Mr. said, seemed to think it was rather hard that he should GALLATIN, and it was completed entirely under the direc- oppose this appropriation, when he insinuated that he, tion of the Treasury Department. All the appropriations | (Mr. C.) was in favor of another appropriation, which has which were passed after the first act, for the continuation not yet been acted on, for removal of obstructions in the of the Cumberland Road, were inserted in the general | River Savannah. In the first place, Mr. C. said, he had

SENATE.]

Cumberland Road.

[МАНСИ 20, 1826.

as he found it was to be applied altogether beyond Zanesville, he should vote against it.

Mr. BARTON made a few remarks, too indistinctly heard to be reported.

Mr. FINDLAY then moved to amend the bill, so as to confine the appropriation to the road as far as Zanesville; which motion was negatived without a division.

not yet voted on that bill, but he considered it as a distinct object, depending on a distinct principle from the other consideration. During the Revolutionary war, the United States, for the defence of the place, directed certain obstructions to be placed in the River Savannah. At the end of the war they were not removed, and they have remained ever since, to the manifest injury of the harbor; and the question here to be considered was, not Mr. COBB said, the inquiry made by the gentleman whether they would adopt a system of internal improve- from Maine had not been answered, because it could ment, but whether they would remove the obstructions not be. He would, he said, make another inquiry-whefrom the harbor, where they had themselves placed them. ther the appropriations made for the Cumberland and Mr. RUGGLES hoped the gentleman would not persist other roads, had not already exceeded the actually receiv. in his motion to strike out the appropriation. The reasoned proportion of the two per cent. fund which is to be why it was inserted in this bill had been satisfactorily ex-devoted to roads, which had been received from the sale plained by the gentleman from Maryland. The subject of public lands in those States? If such was the fact, they was transferred from the Secretary of the Treasury to the were now loaning the money of the United States to the Secretary of War. The money is expended in the same object of this road, without knowing whether it was ever way that the other items in the bill are expended. Hence to be repaid. By calculation, it was possible to make the necessity of uniting these items in one bill. This almost any thing appear; but they were not to calculate question, Mr. R. said, had been settled-the principle that this land would sell for a dollar and a half an acre-a was discussed last session; a law was passed, which pro- very large portion of the land in the several States would vided for making the road, and officers are now in com- never bring that-it was doubtful whether a great portion mission, and under pay, for superintending it; and it cer- would ever be sold at all. Even if Congress should astainly was the intention of Congress that this road should sume the power, he could call it nothing but assumption go on, otherwise, they would not have passed the law cre--of continuing this road from this fund-they certainly ating those offices. Mr. R. said he had listened, with great ought not to anticipate it-they ought to wait till it is reattention, last session, to the eloquent argument of the ceived into the Treasury before they appropriate it. Congentleman from Georgia on the subject. A majority of gress had, Mr. C. said, long since, exceeded the proportwenty-eight to sixteen, decided then in favor of the prin- tion of the two per cent. fund that has been received from ciple. The law was passed, and he thought it was now the sales of the public land, in its expenditures on this too late to make these constitutional objections. The road. proper course for the gentlemen to pursue, would be to strike at the law passed at the last session, if they wished to arrive at their object-to repeal it. Mr. R. then contended that the fund arising from the sale of the lands would be sufficient, not only to make the road, but a large surplus would be left, and argued that the road could be made cheaper than had been estimated. It was now in the hands of the laboring classes, instead of speculators or monopolists, and the system was altogether improved. As this item in the bill had passed the House of Representatives in that shape, he trusted it would pass this body likewise, and he repeated that he hoped the gentleman would not persist in his motion.

Mr. NOBLE said, he had hoped that the principles in relation to this road had long since been settled. Appropriations on the subject had been passed for years, with little or no interruption or opposition, on constitutional grounds. The gentleman from Georgia might determine for himself; but, when it is evident that appropriations have been made in almost every State in this Union, as well as Territories, for roads, he should like to be informed, and hear nice discriminations, and the provision in the Constitution pointed out, that forbids the appropriation now under consideration; and that too against solemn stipulations, entered into by the United States with the People of the Northwestern States, while they were TerritoMr. CHANDLER inquired of the Chairman of the Com-ries. Sir, said Mr. N. the construction given to the Conmittee that reported this bill, as this sum was to be repla-stitution, by those most scrupulous as to the powers of ced out of the fund reserved for laying out and making roads, under the direction of Congress, whether he knew how much this fund would amount to. He should like to know, also, what proportion had been laid out of this sum already. When they took into consideration the bill introduced by the gentleman from Missouri, to graduate the price of public lands, by which, after a continual reduction of price, on the lands not being sold, they were to be given away, he wanted to know how much the fund would amount to then. He thought the expenditures for the road would overrun the amount provided for by the fund, out of which it was to be paid.

Mr. FINDLAY said, he had voted against an appropriation similar to this last year, but not upon constitutional grounds. He could not perceive how the proposed appropriation involved any constitutional question. It was only carrying into effect the compact made with these new States. It was not now necessary to inquire whether the compact between the United States and the States already formed, would confer any additional power on Congress or not. Congress may admit new States into the Union, and there is nothing unconstitutional in forming the particular terms on which the State shall be admitted. This was part of the compact, that certain funds should be set apart for making roads. If this appropriation was intended to be applied between Wheeling and Zanesville, and would complete the road, he would have voted for it; but,

Congress on the subject of making roads, have not denied that Congress has not the power to make roads in the Territories. The Constitution declares that Congress shall have the power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territories, and Congress had, in making rules and regulations, by law appropriated millions of dollars for the construction of roads, not only in the Territories, but in the States.

The gentleman from Georgia wishes to know the extent of the two per cent. fund for making roads leading to the Northwestern States. Sir, the inquiry comes too late; it is unimportant as to the amount, be it great or small. Congress being the strong arm, actually, in 1818 or 19, pledged the whole of this fund to reimburse the United States for money they had expended in making the Cumberland Road, within the jurisdiction of three States, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, without regarding their contract with the States through which this road is to pass.

The compact was binding, Mr. N. said, between the Government and the States. If it was not binding, what a fraud had been practised on the States. The Territories bound themselves by ordinances, and were admitted into the Union in full faith. They had complied with their stipulations, but the General Government had not per formed theirs. It was true, there was no time specified, but were they, therefore, to wait till the day of judgment?

[blocks in formation]

It was obligatory on the General Government the moment the compact was entered into, to fulfil it. If you are one of the contracting parties, said Mr. N. and we are the other, and we are to wait your will and pleasure, I would rather have no compact at all. I would rather not come into the Union. I would rather remain a Territorial Government, than to have yielded what we have yielded. I hope this road will go on as it has commenced. The whole interest of the Western Country is to be destroyed if this road is to be discontinued. It was advocated by Jefferson, by Madison, and Monroe, and now seems to be the time that this road is not to be made an inch further. You receive the money, you put it into the Treasury, and your stipulation remains yet unfulfilled. Mr. N. concluded by hoping the Senate would vote for this road, and bind the interests of the Western States and Missouri with the Eastern. He had more faith in this road than in digging a canal through the Alleghany mountains.

[SENATE.

imputation of any "bad faith" in respect to the State of Ohio-I disclaim it-I declare, before God and man, that I neyer did-though the record will speak to the contrary-yet the record don't tell the truth-I never did vote for the admission of any one new State into the Union from the time that I took my seat in Congress-and, so help me God, I never will. Ohio was the first State which was admitted after I took my seat in Congress-in the Journal you will find my name, but you will find it as one of the Committee on Ways and Means to whom the subject was in the first instance referred. You will not find it on the Committee, to which, the Committee on Ways and Means being discharged from the subject, it was referred, because the Committee on Ways and Means were not sufficiently practicable to the views of this-(whether a territorial delegate or lobby member, it don't value that!) this diplomatic agent on the part of Ohio. I did not vote against the admission of the State of Ohio into Mr. RANDOLPH then rose, and said, I do not rise to the Union, not only because there was no occasion for me detain the Senate, or to give a history of this very extraor- to throw myself into the ranks of opposition against my dinary road, or of the compact between the State of Ohio, best friends, with whom I was united in the closest bonds or rather Territory, and the United States, out of which of intimacy, when that opposition could not avail, but bethis appropriation for roads grew. I will only say, that cause I was unable to attend on the final question. If I that subject, when before Congress, now about twenty- had been in the House, I should have voted against the four years ago, if I don't forget-was referred to the Com- State of Ohio being admitted into the Union, but I could mittee of Ways and Means, of which I was a member. not get to the House from indisposition, when the quesThere was a gentleman from the State of Ohio attending tion was taken on the passage of the bill. From that day here in behalf of that State-I no not now recollect whe- to this (and I recollect that I was once in a minority of ther he was a Territorial Delegate-I think he was not- two with an old sedition-law and black-cockade Federalist he has since been Governor of Ohio. The Committee did on some of them) I voted against the admission of any new not choose to come into the views of that gentleman in State into the Union-I won't be positive, for I have not many respects, and, among others, in reference to the hunted the Journal-my last vote I think was in reference boundaries of the State of Ohio-extending them beyond to the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union, the Miami of the Lake-they did not give him carte which seems to excite the risibility of my friend from that blanche, to make the bill what he pleased. The Commit- State (Mr. BENTON) and the facts are these: As Ohio tec of Ways and Means were so extremely-what shall I was the first State admitted, so was Missouri the last-the say so extremely impracticable by this Agent, that they facts are these-I don't see any one here who can corrowere discharged from the further consideration of the sub- borate them, but my then colleague, W. S. ARCHER can, ject, and the question was referred to another Committee. so can twenty, thirty, fifty, gentlemen in the House of ReThat Committee brought in a bill under which Ohio came presentatives. The facts were these: On the night that into the Union, and that bill was the work almost exclu- that bill had its last vote in the other House, my colsively of the Representative of what is now the State of league was a new member-I declared publicly and openOhio, with some little modifications on the part of the ly that in case that bill should pass, with the amendthen Secretary of the Treasury, who had this road a good ment then proposed, unless another amendment should deal at heart, and through whose interest, instead of going succeed, which did not succeed-I declared conditionally, through Clarksburg, as was contended for by the Repre- that I should move for a reconsideration of the vote-mysentative from that district of country, it was carried self and my colleague, who, with another gentleman whom through Pennsylvania, to Wheeling, only going through I shall not refer to, though near me, (Mr. MACON,) were a small portion of Virginia, called the county of Brooke, the only persons whom I have heard of, belonging to the hardly as wide as the Eastern Shore of Virginia-extend- Southern interest, who determined to have no comproing between the Western Boundary of Pennsylvania and mise at all on this subject. They determined to cavil on the River Ohio, which, in that particular reach of its the nineteenth part of a hair in a matter of sheer rightcourse, is nearly due South, and almost parallel to the line touching the dearest interests-the life-blood of the that separates Pennsylvania on the West from Virginia. Southern States. The House was exhausted-a gentleThe bill passed as modified by the Agent of Ohio, giving man fainted in front of the Chair and tumbled on the to her a greater disposable area of arable land, than any ground-in this state of things, my colleague asked me other State in this Union possesses-giving her a super- whether it would not do as well to put off the motion till ficies of land fit for cultivation, surpassing the other two to-morrow, (for he was in ill health and much fatigued.) States of Indiana and Illinois, and cutting off from the Ter- I said I could not agree to that till I had taken the opinion ritory of Michigan all that fine country which lies beyond of the Court in the last resort. After that question had the Miami of the Lake, to suit the designs of this Agent, eventuated, as I foresaw it might, I rose in my place and and those of another gentleman, then at the head of the asked of the Speaker whether it was in order to move Post Office Department, [Gideon Granger,] who I heard a reconsideration of the vote-he said that it was. declare with his own lips, that he would make a State I am stating facts of more importance to the civil histhere, which should countervail "the great State of Vir- tory of this country than the battle which took place ginia," and he has done it. I did not rise to give this histo- not far from this-he said it was. I then asked himry, but to vindicate my consistency-it is by that consis- (to relieve my colleague, who had just taken his seat tency, for although the truth may be blamed, she never the first time that session) whether it would be in orcan be shamed-it is to that consistency that I owe my place here that it is that consistency, which, according as the several parties of this country have vibrated one way or another, has brought me into collision with, or in support of them. I hope the Senate will pardon this egotism-it is due to myself to release me from the VOL. II.-24.

Sir,

der to move the re-consideration of the vote on the next day. He said something to this effect: Surely the gentleman knows the rules of the House too well not to know that it will be in order at any time during the sitting tomorrow, the next day-I replied I thought I did; but I wanted to make assurance doubly sure-to have the

SENATE.]

Cumberland Road.

[MARCH 20, 1826.

opinion of the tribunal in the last resort. I then agreed-ther they would reconsider it at my motion or not, which to accommodate my colleague, in the state of exhaustion motion nailed the bill to the table until it should have m which the House then was-I agreed to suspend my been disposed of. I mention this fact to show what unmotion for re-consideration, and we adjourned. The next principled men, "feeling power and forgetting right," are morning, before either House met, I learned-no matter capable of doing even in the presiding Chair of a delibehow-no matter from whom or for what consideration-rative Assembly-yet, notorious as these facts are, so that it was in contemplation that this clock, which is anxious was one side of that House to cover up their dehardly ever in order, and the clock in the other House, fection; such was the anxiety of the other to get Missouri which is not in a better condition-should somehow disain on any conditions, that this thing was hushed up, just gree that the Speaker should not take his seat in the as the suspension of the HABEAS CORPUS was hushed up. House till the President had taken his seat here, and then, The bill was passed through the forms of law-Missouri that when I went into the House to make my motion, I was was admitted into the Union contrary to the Constitution, to be told that the Chair regretted very much that the as much so as if I had voted the other way in the first inClerk had gone off with the bill-that it was not in their stance, and the Speaker had ordered the Clerk to put my possession, and the case was irreparable-and yet I re-name with the AYES in the Journal when I had voted Nocollect very well when we applied to the Secretary of because, sir, agreeably to the Constitution of the United State for a parchment roll of an act which had not been States, every member has a right to his vote under the duly enrolled-two sections were left out by the careless-forms of the House, whether these forms are wise or foolish, less of the clerks and of the Committee of Enrolment and my colleague and myself were ousted out of our right that act was, by the House of Representatives, in which it to re-consider, for which I would not have taken all the originated, procured from the archives of the Department land within the State of Missouri. of State, and put on the statute books, as it passed, not as Having given this account of this transaction, permit it was on the roll-and enrolled anew. It was the act for me to say that, without voting upon any principle, as it is the relief of the captors of the Mirboha and Missouda. As called, upon the subject of internal inprovement at all, soon as I understood this, sir, I went to the Speaker my-without calling that matter into question-without calling self, and told him that I must have my vote for reconsider-into question any "plighted faith," real or imaginaryation that day-I can only say that I inferred-not from unless I allowed myself to vote inconsistently with the manwhat he told me that my information was correct-Iner in which I have voted from 1802-3-I remember the came off immediately to this House-it wanted about time, because it was the only session that I lived next door twenty minutes of the time when the Senate was to meet-I to the Secretary of the Navy; and I was a fellow lodger saw that most respectable man whom we have just lost, with a gentleman whom I now see in his place-I may be and begged to speak with him in private. We retired to mistaken, but, (whether mistaken or not in the date,) I a Committee Room, and to prevent intrusion we locked know that few men in Congress stood higher than I did the door-I told him of the conspiracy laid to defeat me of at the time with the then administration; but I could not my Constitutional right to move a reconsideration stomach this thing-I would not vote for it. I saw the old (though I think it a dangerous rule, and always voted States playing what I thought a most ruinous and perniagainst its being put on the rules at all-believing that, cious game, and what, in the end, it has proved to beto prevent tampering and collusion, the vote to reconsider giving away to the States, North of the Ohio, immunities ought to be taken instantly-yet, sir, as it was there, I had and privileges, and making concessions, which they must a right to make the motion)-I told this gentleman that sooner or later rue-which they rue at this time, which I he might, by taking the Chair of the Senate sooner than then rued, and shall forever rue-even till "the day of the true time, lend himself unconsciously to this conspira-judgment," which some of us may wish to be with a stay cy against my constitutional rights as a member of the other House from the State of Virginia. I spoke, sir, to a man of honor and a gentleman, and it is unnecessary to say that he did not take the Chair till the proper hour arrived. As soon as that hour arrived, we left the Committee room together: I went on to the House of Representatives, and found them in session, and the Clerk reading the Journal-meanwhile, there had been runners through the long passage, which was then made of plank, I think, between the two Houses, hunting for Mr. Gaillard-where is he? he is not to be found. The House of Representatives having organized itself-when I came in from the door of the Senate I found the Clerk reading the Journal-the moment after he had finished it I made the motion, and was seconded by my colleague, Mr. ARCHER, to whom I could appeal-not that my testimony wants evidence-I should like to see the man who would question it on a matter of fact-this fact is well remembered a lady would as soon forget her wedding day as I forget this. The motion to reconsider was opposed-it was a debatable question, and the Speakcr stated something this way-" that it was not for him to give any orders-the Clerk knew his duty"-The Clerk went more than once-my impression is, that he went more than twice-I could take my oath, and so I believe could Mr. ARCHER, that he made two efforts, and came back under my eye, like a Mouse under the eye of a Cat, with the engrossed bil in his hand-his bread was at stake-at last he, with that pace, and countenance, and manner, which only conscious guilt can inspire, went off, his poverty, not his will, consenting, and, before the debate was finished, back he comes with the bill from the Senate which had then become a law, before it was decided whe

of execution. I have no design, as you may perceive, sir, on the Presidency, nor on any other office which is in the Presidential gift, or in that of "the Nation," whose power has increased, is increasing, and never will, I fear-although it ought to be, and I wish it could be-diminished. I have persevered in this course, ab ovo usque ad mala

from the beginning of the feast-I fear I must say, to the beginning of the famine. I shall continue to do so, whether I commit a breach of faith or not. I shall vote on this as on any other question-if you can find an instance in which I have nodded, then will I agree that, with abler and better men, I too have slumbered on my post-aliquando optimus dormitat.

Having said thus much on this bill, there is one more subject on which I will touch, and sit down. In the National Intelligencer, last Friday, I saw a piece signed ImPRANSUS; that is, if I have not forgotten my Latin, a man that wants his dinner. This dinnerless gentleman is doing what the printers of the public laws in Kentucky and elsewhere are doing every day-lauding to the skies certain gentlemen, and libelling others; you, in particular, sir. This hungry man, who stands so much in need of a dinner-there is no man's appetite so sharp as his who is to eat at another's expense-who was the cynic, sir? I think it was Diogenes-who, being asked what wine he liked best, answered, that which he drank at another's expense. I am not of that opinion at all. I like no dinners but such as I pay for out of my own pocket. De gus tibus non est disputandum, even between cynics, sir. So there are none so sharp set as those who mean to eat out of the public larder. I should like to know how long it is. since that respectable journal, (for so I have always con

MARCH 20, 1826.]

Cumberland Road.

[SENATE.

sidered it to be,) has lent itself-this is the first instance of the States which it was intended immediately to benefit. that I have seen-and to an insinuation of the grossest kind What is it, Mr. H. asked, that binds and connects this and degree to the honor of this body, and of its presiding great Union together? Is it a string of words and senofficer. I am not at all surprised to see it in the "KEN-tences, called the Constitution? or was it mutual interest? TUCKY REPORTER," or other papers of that stamp; but I It would be an insult to this body to say, such was the am astonished to see that respectable journal lend itself to fact. When had interest ever produced the continuation an insinuation derogatory to the body whose public ser- of an alliance, when that alliance was not secured by the vant it is. Nor, when I say this, do I mean to hold out any affection and attachment of the parties to that alliance? thing like a rod in terrorem—a threat. They who wish to Whenever the time shall come that these United States stand well need not deprecate my opposition, as was proved are connected together by no other bond than interest, in the case of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. they will then have tottered to their foundation. What is And now, sir, with regard to those gentlemen who feed it then that connects them together? It is the affection their horses out of the public crib, who never plant any that exists between the individual citizens of the different corn, there is no country under the sun where they dine States; it is the attachment that the People of Ohio feel so sumptuously at the public cost as in this. There is no for those of Georgia and Maine; that attachment which country under the sun where the inferior officers are paid was manifested, and which led the People of Ohio to step so largely, whether absolutely or relatively, or with such forward at once, in support of what? Not their immediate punctuality as here; where even the superintendence of rights, but the rights of their sea-faring fellow citizens in the Cumberland Road is a better office under the General Massachusetts. Were they deficient in their duty on that Government, and has annexed to it a larger salary, than is occasion? He trusted no gentleman would say so. Mr. II. allowed to the Governor of Ohio. I have said thus much, then proceeded to consider the question, of how this ap though I should have consulted my own ease and health propriation would tend to increase this principle of affec by keeping silence. There is one member in this body tion, which he contended and insisted was the bond of this who ought to be obliged to me, if no one else is, for the Union; and argued that, by facilitating the means of interpart that I have taken of late: for, sir, from father to son, course, it would bring the long absent daughter to the I have proved the best conductor, the best imaginable embraces of her mother, and the son to receive the blessconductor, of the inimical properties of that dynasty, and ing of his father. Mr. H. said, he had seen a great deal of if the gentleman to whom I allude enjoys a temporary human misery, but he had never seen it in any shape respite, he will have been indebted to me-not that he which touched his heart in a greater degree, than in the owes me any thanks-not that I have done what I have emigrants to the Western country before the Cumberland done with a view to relieve him-if he enjoys a tempo- Road was constructed. A farmer, with a fine family of rary respite from the abuse of the satellites of the admi- children, finding a difficulty of procuring subsistence in nistration, from the abuse of those who are paid with the some of the old States, and looking forward to their future People's money to abuse us their Representatives, who welfare, determines to go to the Western country, where are paid with our money, (the money of the States,) for land is cheap; and he sets out with a little cart, and two abusing us—I say, sir, if that gentleman enjoys. any re-poor horses, to carry his wife and half a dozen children; spite, he will have been indebted to me for it; but he and, not knowing the distance, or the road accurately, his owes me no thanks, I can assure him-it was from no such slender means are soon exhausted; the horses are unable motive that I have endeavored to take the bull by the to carry any farther all that is dear to him; he is broken horns-bull by the horns, did I say? No, sir: another, and down by sickness, and his children cry around him for very different animal, by the tail. that relief which he is unable to afford them; and, when he arrives at the place of his destination, he is separated forever from all those relations whom he may have left behind. But now, by the means Congress has given to level the mountains, and causeway the swamps, this poor man turns his eyes once more to the place of his nativity-he recollects once more the mother whom he has left; he returns, and is once more blessed by her embrace. This is no story, sir; it may be daily realized. By travelling along this same Cumberland Road, you may see persons in the situation I have described, who are offering their prayers to Heaven, and calling for blessings on the heads of those who have again enabled an affectionate daughter to be restored to a tender mother. Such are the facilities which this road gives, has given, and will give, that, aided by the genius of Fulton, the most imbecile man in St. Louis may hope to travel comfortably once more to behold those who gave him birth. It is on the confidence, reverence, and attachment, with which the People of the United States look on Congress, that the prosperity of this Union depends. The word Congress-not the Congress of Panama-is an important word with the People of the United States. This very road is called by the People, not the Cumberland Road, but the Congress Road; and they remember with gratitude and veneration, the venerable body of men who first assumed that appellation; and the men, women, and children, that travel along that road, offer their prayers to Heaven for that body who afforded them this facility.

Mr. HARRISON said, he could not at this moment, from indisposition, go into the discussion of the subject, in relation to the Cumberland Road; he regretted this the less, as he found those who had spoken on the subject, had avoided bringing into the discussion any thing relating to the Constitutional power of Congress on this subject. Mr. H. said, if he understood the gentleman from Virginia rightly, he had alluded to the gift of great immunities and advantages to the State of Ohio. If this was the fact of the case, that State had greatly misunderstood the subject. It was a matter of complaint against those who formed that compact; the People of that country all conceive the immunities to have been on the side of the General Government. The single concession by the State, that it would not tax the lands of the United States, was worth ten-fold all those advantages that any of the States Northwest of the Ohio ever received from the General Government.

The Legislatures of the States, through which this road is to pass, have, Mr. H. said, given up the right to the United States to make it; not only that, they have requested it. One of the objections which had been urged against internal improvements is, the right of the United States to make a road without the consent of the States. Another objection is, that, to appropriate the money of the United States to internal improvement, is not one of the enumerated powers of Congress. The respectable Western States had come before Congress; those sovereigns came as suppliants, and asked Congress to lend on this two per cent. fund, which they considered as sufficient security, a sufficient sum of money to accomplish this purpose. The question is, is it an important purpose? Mr. H. said he considered the United States would be more benefitted by the construction of this road than any

Mr. H. thought it unnecessary to detain the Senate longer on the subject, and would say no more.

Mr. RANDOLPH again rose, and said, the gentleman is mistaken if he supposes that I begrudge the People of Ohio the lands within the body of Ohio. I wish that every new

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »