The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-19 00:00:00

constant strife, the suspension of the powers of local enter-
prise, and excitingeof vain hopes, and the disappointment of
cherished expectations.
In expending the appropriations made by the last Con-
gress, several cases have arisen in relation to works for im-
provement of harbors, which involve question as to the right
of soil and jurisdicton, and have threatened conflict between
the authority of State and General Government. The right
to construct a breakwater, jetty, or dam, would seem, neces-
sarily, to carry with it the power to protect and preserve such
constructions. This can only be effectiially done by having
jurisdiction over the soil. But no clause of the Constitution
is found on which to rest the claim of the United States to
exercise jurisdiction over the soil of a State, except that con-
ferred by the eighth section of the first article of the Con-
stitution. It is then submitted whether, in all cases where
constructions are to be erected by the General Government,
the right of soil should not first be obtained, and legislative
provision be made to cover all such cases.
There is one subject of a domestic nature, which, from
its intrinsic importance, and the many interesting questions
of future policy which it involves, cannot fail to receive
your early attention. I allude to the means of communication
by which different parts of the wide expanse of our country
are to be placed in closer conzection, for the purposes both
of defence and commercial intercourse. But the general
subject will now present itself under aspects more imposing
and more purely national, by reason of the surveys ordered
by Congress, and now in the process of completion, for
communication by railway across the Continent, and wholly
within the limits of the United States.

The power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to
provide and maintain a navy, and to call forth the militia to
execute the law, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions,
was coa►erred upon Congress, as a means to provide for the
common defence, and to protect a territory and a population
now with-spread and vastly multiplied. As incidental to,
and indispensible for, the exercise of this power, it must
sometimes be necessary to construct military roads and pro-
tect harbours of refuge. To appropriations by Congress for
such objects, no sound objection can be raised. Happily for
our country, its peaceful policy and rapidly-increasing popu-
lation, impose upon us no urgent necessity for preparation,
and leave but few trackless deserts between assailable points
and a patriotic people everready andigenerally able to protect
them. These necessary links, the enterprise and energy of
our people are steadily and boldly struggling to supply.
All experience affirms that wherever private enterprise will
avail, it is most wise for the General Government to leave to
that and individual watchfulness the location and execution
of all means of communication.

The surveys before alluded to were designed to ascertain
the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from
the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The magnitude of the
enterprise contemplated has aroused, and will doubtles con-
tinue to excite, a very general interest throughout the
country. In its political, its commercial, aud its military
bearings, it has varied, great and increasing claims to con-
sideration. The heavy expense, the great delay, and at
times fatality attending travel by either of the Isthmus
routes, hare demonstrated the advantage which would re-
sult from international communication by such safe and
rapid means as a railroad would supply.
These difficulties, which have been encountered in a
period of peace, would be magnified and still further in-
creased in the time of war. But whilst the embarrassments
already encountered, and others under new contingencies to
be anticipated may serve strikingly to exhibit the importance
of such a work, neither these nor all considerations
combined can have an appreciable value, when
weighed against the obligation strictly to adhere to the Con-
stitution, and faithfully to execute the powers it confers.
Within this limit and to the extent of the interest of the
Government involved, it would seem both expedient and
proper, if an economical and practicable route shall be found,
to aid, by all constitutional means, in the construction of a
road which will unite, by speedy transit, the populations of
the Pacific and Atlantic States. To guard against miscon-
ception, it should be remarked that, although the power to
construct or aid in the construction of a road within the
limits of a territory is not embarrassed by that question of
jurisdiction which would arise within the limits of a State,
it is, nevertheless, held to be of doubtful character, and more
than doubtful propriety, even within the limits of a terri-
tory, for the general Government to undertake to administer
the affairs of a railroad, a canal, or other similar construc-
tion, and therefore that its connection with a work
of this character should be incidental rather than primary.
I will only add at present that, fully appreciating the mag-
nitude of the subject, and solicitous that the Atlantic and.
Pacific shores of the Republic may be bound together by in-
separable ties of common interest, as well as of common
fealty aud attachment to the Union, I shall be disposed, so
far as my action is concerned to follow the light of the Con-
stitution, as expounded and illustrated by th .se whose opi-
nions and expositions constitute the standard of my political
faith in regard to the powers of the Government. It is, I
trust, not necessary to say that no grandeur of enterprise
and no present urgent inducement promising popular favor,
will lead me to disregard those lights, or to depart from that
path which experience has proved to be safe, and which is
now radiant with the glow of prosperity and legitimate con-
stitutional progress. We can afford to wait, but we cannot
afford to overlook the ark of our security.
When the grave shall have closed over all who are now
oncleavouring to meet the nhligatinng of rinty, the your 1 RAA
—.al 1.. 4- r .
hension, A successful war has just terminated. Peace
brought with it a vast augmentation of territory. Disturbing
questions arose, bearing upon the domestic institutions of
one portion of the confederacy, and involving the Constitu-
tional rights of the States. But, notwithstanding differences
of opinion andisentiment, which then existed in relation to
details and specific provisions, the acquiescence of distin-
guished citizens, whose devotion to the Union can never be
doubted, has given renewed vigor to our institutions, and
restored a sense of repose and security to the public mind
throughout the confederacy. That this repose is to suffer
no shock during my official term if I have power to avert it,
those who have placed me here may be assured. The
wisdom of men who knew what independence cost—
who had put all at stake upon the issue of the Revolutionary
struggle—disposed of the subject to which I refer, in the
only way consistent with the union of these States, and
with the march of power and prosperity which has made us
what we are. It is a significant fact that, from the
adoption of the Constitution until the officers and soldiers of
the Revolution had passed to their graves, or through the
infirmities of ages and wounds had ceased. to participate
actively in public affairs, there was not merely a quiet acqui-
essence in, but a prompt vindication of, the constitutional
rights of the State. The reserved powers were scrupulously
respected. No statesman put forth the narrow view of
casuists to justify interference and agitation, but the spirit
of compact was regarded as sacred in the eye of honor, and
indispensable for the great experiment of civil liberty,
which, environed with inherent difficulties, was yet borne
forward in apparent weakness by a power superior to all
obstacles. There is no condemnation which the voice
of Freedom will not pronounce upon us should we prove
faithless to this great trust. While men inhabiting different
parts of this great continent can no more be expected to
hold the same opinions, or entertain the same sentiments,
than every variety of climate or soil can be expected to
furnish the same agricultural products, they can unite in a
common object and sustain common principles essential to
the maintenance of that object. The gallant men of the
South and the North could stand together during the
struggle of the Revolution • they could stand together in
the more trying period which succeeded the clangor of arms.
As their united valor was adequate to all the trials of the
camp and dangers of the field, so their united wisdom proved
equal to the greater task of founding, upon a deep and
broad basis, institutions waich it his been oar privilege to
enjoy, and will ever be our most sacred duty to sustain. 1t
is but the feeble bxpression of a faith strong and universal,
to say that their sons, whose blood mingled so often
upon the same field, during the war of 1812, and who have
more recently borne in triumph the flag of the country upon
a foreign soil, will never permit alienation of feeling to
weaken the power of their united efforts, nor internal dis-
sentious to paralyse the great arm of freedom, uplifted for
the vindication of self-government.
The successive decennial returns of the census since the
adoption of the Constitution have revealed a law of steady
progressive development, which may be stated, in general
terms, as a duplication every quarter century. Carried for-
ward, from the point already reached, for only a short period
of time as applicable to the existence of a nation, this law
of progress, if unchecked, will bring us to almost incredible
results. A large allowance for a diminished proportional effect
of emigration would not very materially reduce the estimate,
while the increased average duration of Iriman life, known
to have already resulted from the scientiic and hygienic
improvements for the past fifty years, will tend to keep up
through the next fifty, or perhaps hundred, the same ratio
of growth which has been thus revealed in our past pro-
gress ; and to the influence of these causes may be added the
influx of laboring masses from Eastern Asia to the Pacific
side of our p iniossions, tavtuer with the probable accesions
of the populations already existing in other parts of our
hemisphere, which, within the period in question, will feel,
with yearly increasing force, the natural attraction of so
vast, powerful and prosperous a confederation of self-go-
verning Republics, and seek the privilege of being admitted
within its s ife and h ippy bosom, transferring with them-
selves, by a peaceful and healthy process of incorporation,
spacious regions of virgin and exuberant soil, which are des-
tined to swarm with the fast-spreading millions of our
race.

These considerations seem fully to justify the presumption
that the law above stated will continue to act with undi-
minished effect, through at least the next half century : and
that thousands of persons who have already arrived at ma-
turity, and are now exercising the rights of freemen, will
close their eyes on the spectacle of more than one hundred
millions of population embraced within the majestic pro-
portions of the American Union. It is not merely as an
interesting topic of speculation that I present these views
for your crnsideration. They have important practical
bearings upon all the political duties we are called upon to
perfo-m. Heretofore, our system of government has work-
ed on what may be termed 'a
miniature scale, in comparison
with the development, which it must thus assume, within a
future so near at hand, as scarcely to be beyond the present
of the existing generation.
It is evident that a confederation so vast and so varied, both
in nnmbers, and in territorial extent, in habits and in interests,
could only be kept in national cohesion by the strictest fidelity