Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-03-12

ty wherever the puDtlG interests h"o"'"
require il: and here he paid to Mr.. Clay
the tribute of concurrence in what that
gentle ian had said on Saturday decIa'
ring that the ground that gentleman had
taken, was 50 secure thar he would net
pretend to add any thing to fortIfy it.
I, was impo sibIe, Mr.. l.. continued
that any man could imagine that all the
various, unforeseen medicinal necessities
e war could be made matter of constl-
tutonal detail, but must await the pro-
Cess of the war itself, and be provided
for as they should arise. Yet gentlemen
would seem to argue that these prepaFa-
tory steps for war were actually forbid
den, because they were not specified IN
the enumerated powers of congress, unit!
the war should be brought into the coun'
try-that we were not to make roads or
canals for the transportation of our mu-
nItions OF var, or the march of our ar
mics, till we wele 10 the face Of the enc
my. The power was allowed by those
gentlemen to be vested in congress to
raise armies; but Was that power limited
by the constitution to time of war p
Not was given generally for peace as
we'll as in war; and the supply and trans
portatiOn of munitions, and all the othei
necessary ingredients and accessory ciI-
cumstances of war, must of course follow
as Of inevitable inference, il not from the
letter, certainly from the reasoning and
spirit of the constitution. War cannot
be made without the munitions; mum.
tons, therefore, are included in the very
idea Of war, and in the use of armies,
and no possible provision can be sup.
posed TO exist against them, or against
the procuring of them, or the means Of
transporting them, when the right to
make war is granted. As to PROPOSE
ton which bad fallen from Mr.. Barbour,
that instead of having roads made to sup.
ply the armies when ordered to the firm
tiers, there ough; to be depots formed on
the frontiers for the purpose, NJ
Lowndes thought it scarcely necessary
TO do more than state it in order to show
its fu'ility. Making dep Is III such ,i:u
atoms. and on such an extended line Of
defence, would cost infintel, more than
making the roads; and after all, be es-
tablishIng them perhaps OIL! for the use
of the enemy. And Mr.. l.. appealed to
the membe' present, among whom were
certainly some who were gu LIED to de-
eide the fact, whether there were not ma
ny positions on the coast where an engi-
neer would say that iortS were necessary,
and where the first object OF that engl-
neer would be to have roads first made
10 communicatc with and to supply them.
U,on the subject of the power OF Ia
king possession If property, en- which So
much had been said. as if its not being !
specially enumerated among the consti-
tutional powers amounted 10 an exclu-
sion from it, Mr.. Lowndes pointed out in
the constitution a provision that private
properly shonld not he taken by govern
ment without making compensation Tor
t; md this negative, he insisted, was an |
undeniabIe proof of the afh native. The
allowed its being taken BY
sa wing tina, it must be paid for.
When u state pc .sessed, from the law
Of nature and nations, rights prior to the
establishment OF its government, the con.
stitmtion, as Mr.. j.. maintained, was un-
derstood to give that government all the
means Of enforcing them. Some OF those
rights, he said, could not, from their IA
ture, lie enforced BY the judiciary-they
must, therefore, be enforced BY the iegls-
the government Itself Eve
~ body allowed that frOm all parts OF the
Of country there must ever ex
ist right Of ,cay to the OCEAN, and that
right it was competent to cong'ess alone
to maintain. Such had cen our right o!
IT H.