The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-12 00:00:00

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become so decided against the pretension as effectually to die"
eourage its re-assertion. So thinking, I derive the greatest
satisfaction from the conviction that thus much at least bat
been secured upon this important and embarrassing subject.
From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects
which are confessedly of a local character, we cannot, I trots
have any thing further to apprehend. My views in regard CO
the expediency of making appropriations for works which are
claimed 'to be of a national character, and prosecuted under
State authority, assuming that Congress have a right to dose'
were stated in my annual message to Congress in 1830, Oil
also in that containing my objections to the Maysville Road Bill.,
So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations
ought to be made by Congress until a suitable constitutional
provision is made upon the subject ; and so essential do I re-
gard the point to the highest interests in our country, that I
could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my op'
stituents in giving the Executive, sanction to any Bill con-
taining such an appropriation. If the people of the United
States desire that the public Treasury shall be resorted to for
the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in ~
amendment of the Constitution, prescribing a rule by wine'
the national character of the works is to be tested, and 14
which the greatest practical equality of benefits may be,
secured to each member of the confederacy. The effects 01
such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing unprn"
fitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the per'
nicious consequences of a scramble for the favours of Govern-
ment, and in repressing the spirit of discontent which inns!
inevitat;:;
arise from an unequal distribution of treasures whit'
.belong alike to
There is another clasp
of appropriations for what may.'
called, without impropriety, „;:ernal improvements, %Ole._
have always been regarded as standing upon different ground
from those to which I have referred. taiii.tde to such as hill
for their object the improvement of our harbours, the remora'
of partial and temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers,
for the facility and security of our foreign commerce. The
grounds upon which I distinguish appropriations of this ebri
racter from others have already been stated to Congress.
will now only add, that at the first Session of Congress uncle
the new Constitution, it was provided by law that all expertse%
which should accrue from and after the 15th day of August
1789, in the necessary support and maintenance and repaio7l,
all lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, erect
placed, or sunk before the passage of the Act, within any ISt'
inlet, harbour, or port of the United States, for rendering ~.`
navigation thereof easy and safe, should be defrayed out of s,"
Treasury of the United States ; and further, that it should P"
the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide by con'
tracts, with the approbation of the President, for rebuilding
when necessary and keeping in good repair the lighthouses'
beacons, buoys, and public piers in the several States, and Of
furnishing them with supplies. Appropriations for similar olr.
jects have been continued from that time to the present widow •
interruption or dispute.
As a natural consequence of the increase and extension ef
our foreign commerce ports of entry and delivery have VI
multiplied and established, not only upon our sea-board, b,ll,
in the interior of the country, upon our lakes and navigab;s
rivers The convenience and safety of this commerce JIL
led to the gradual extension of these expenditures, to 1(7
erection of lighthouses, the placing, planting, and sinking
buoys, beacons, and piers, and to the removal of partial en
temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers, and in the Vii,
bours upon our great lakes, as well as on the sea-board. "$$
though I have expressed to Congress my apprehension
dth
these expenditures have sometimes been extravagant and isi
proportionate to the advantages to be derived, from thelnt
have not felt it to be my duty to refuse my assent to Bills coy' •
taining them, and have contented myself to follow in this Or
poet in the footsteps of all my predecessors. Sensible, W;
ever, from experience and observation, of the great abuses '0
which the unrestricted exercise of this authority by Congreeot
was exposed, I have prescribed a limitation for the goverroll
of my own conduct, by which expenditures of this characte,
are confined to places below the ports of entry and deliver:
established by law.
I am very sensible that this restriction is not as satisfaeOryl
as could be desired, and that much embarrassment anal
caused to the executive department in its execution, by,
propriations for remote and not well-understood objects.
as neither my own reflections nor the lights which I °,6',
properly derive from other sources have supplied me within,
better, I shall continue to apply my best exertions to a fa 'o'
ful application of the rule upon which it is founded. 19,
cerely regret that I could not give my assent to the Bill en,
titled, " An Act to improve the Navigation of the Wet,b,,,a-ni
River ;" but I could not have done so without receding
the ground which I have, upon the fullest consideration, tsv:,
upon this subject, and of which Congress has been heretefe`t;
apprised, and without throwing the subject again open
abuse, which no good citizen entertaining my opinions e("..

desire.
I rely upon the intelligence and candour of my fellovt-cit
zees, in whose liberal indulgence I have already so larg;r,
participated, for a correct appreciation of my motives in in to
posing, as I have done on this and other occasions, checks
a course of legislation which, without in the slightest deC,
calling in question the motives of others, I consider as Sid
tioning improper and unconstitutional expenditures of
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public treasure.
I am not hostile to internal improvements, and wish to ry
them extended to every part of the country. But lam Ner,
persuaded if they are not commenced in a proper WO'
_ luthorl

confined to proper objects, and conducted under an a.
generally conceded to be rightful, that a successful p
tion of them cannot be reasonably expected. The atte
will meet with resistance where it might otherwise rece_.'
support, and instead of strengthening the bonds of our 0,71
federacy, it will only multiply and aggravate the causes of
union. ANDREW JACKSOI44
Dec. 1, 1834.