Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1827-04-20


permanent fori6ea,ions. Those Notifications have
been designated in pursuance of the unobs,ructed
discretion of the Executive, aided by repeated ex.
limitations, surveys, and estimates, requiring the
employment OF tue Navy, and oil the corps OIL
Engineers, placed by the Constitution under The |
command of the President. Those designations
have been subsequently confirmed, and he sppro
pga,ions TO the structure of those Notifications
oow specific, AZ they will lie, and have cDAen to
hose roads and canals that aid or construct b}
the public resources. II false hopes have been
excited by the surveys already made, they are
unavoidable, by Legislative euac,men's. You
mus know your country before you can improve
L., or even resolve to do so. That knowledge
rs often necessary determine the character oil
public work as whether it be practicable or not;
If prac icabie, National. The canal OF the Dismal
Swamp is both prac' icable and National. AMI, As
| SUCH has received the necessary ard OF this Gov
e,xmen But ito national character rests, in a
great degree on the ascertaned practicablli'y OF
extending the line Of inland navigation, oil which
| il is but small part, to the North, by canals,
uniting the Delaware, the Chesapeake, and the
Rari,an; TO the South, by the Sound OF North
Carolina, or the junction OF the rivers emptying
l into il, with the harbors OF Beaufort anu Of
| Charleston Zach of those objects derives IRON
the rest, its relative import ance, as one link oil an
entire chain. Such, also. is the character oil the
contemplated canals of New England
4
of canal 10 be executed, will be founded on ample
information. A specification oil each prior sur
vey, must be founded on cobjectures, and rest on
unknown coming encies, sometimes incapable OF
being foreseen, and ruvided for. To say nothing
OF the waste of money, and OF time, more precious
on such topics, in so large an assembly as this;
reasoning, IT, the dark Ia fix, with any precision,
what an actual survey can alone disclose; who
can assign limits TO the number OF those surveys,
TO which spirit OF mutual concession, IN such
state OF uncertainty, as To material facts, might
give birth? Instead of contracting the range OF
illusory hopes among the interests to be grstited,
how greatly would they be multiplied, Instead of
counterba!ancing Executive patronage by Execu-
tive responsibility, the former would be eventually
augmented to an indefinite extent, and almost en-
reiy without restraint. For, such restraints, as a
rigorous prescription of the order and manner OF
hose surveys mis- impose, would lead TO the
most pernicous waste of the public money, and
OF the time of the Engineers in carrying them into
effect, or disseminating such as were found the
first examination, or in the early stage of sub
sequent survey, 10 lead 10 no rr;c,icsl useful
result. This power IL, III truth, IN its dis
cretonary; and the real question involved in this
debate, will be found in the compass of shell
Very little science, and less experience, will open
and conclusirely settle it, Every survey and pre-
paratory estimate for canal and the same re-
marks apply with equal force to railways, and
J with somewhat less, 10 roads supposes several
stages IN its progress to ma ury. The first con
sists OF a simple and general examination Of the
country over which a DAD or canal is to be con
Quoted. Next, it such examination warrant far
ther inquiry, the distances and levels are taken,
and the streams, gagged, which a reliance is
had for sufficient supply Of water 1t
these inquiries still promise a useful termination
TO this labor, the line OF the canal is exactly traced
. on The ground over which it passes the various
resources OF the roun ~ which it unite-
ascertaned; probable estimate of lis cost labori-
ously supplied by reference 10 its PLAN and 10 the
prices OF labor and materials in the country through
which the canal is to pass. Finally the legI.Is
ture is last, from all these considerations conbIn
ell with knowledge OF the present, and an antici
patton OF the future state of The public resources
to determine he extern, snd nature OF the pecu-
mary or other aid ~ hlch il viii De expedient TO
afford TO such work.
contend, sir. that all the 'fices, preceding the
last, are properly Executive, and not LegisIa
live. My colleague would hsvei it otherwise He
, would bind down the Executive discretion, by
prescribing each survey. He objects to the multi
tude of routes examined for each, to the influence
which their number diffuses his neighbors and
constituents. He proves, he imagines all This to
be unnecessary, and easily avoided by triumph
ant aliusion to the unanimty with which this
House sanctioned the survey requested by INV
friend from Florida, of the canal across the Pen
insula of that Territory. Without entering into
an examination OF the latent causes OF that una :
nimity, which 1 rejoiced witness, as much as
any Member of this House, except my friend from
Florida, to whose intelligence and zeal it was
partly attributable close in with the reference 10
this very canal, in order to illustrate the position
have hitherto maintained in this debate and 10
repel those assumed so confidently by my colleague
First, for bis main purpose, let Us see how this
unanimous decision has restrained the influence of
, the Executive power This subject. Florida
is but Territory. 1t has Delegate only, on
this floor, empowered TO speak, but not 10 VOTE
Suppose this Territory ere admitted into the Uni
on, were peopled in proportion to its great extent,
and divided, as Virginia, into many Congressional
, districts Will my Colleague inform me how
many of these districts might be affected, as he
tells us his has been. by the manner of executin q
This limited power, he deems it, of SURVEYING
The line of a canal across this peninsula having a
length of six degrees, and a breadth of two with
an extent in square miles exceeding that of New
York, and little short of that of the largest State of
this Union; ali of which, except a narrow strip Of
land between the river OF St Marks and Pensaco
IL, has been, and most wisel, too, left open TO this
survey, and to the very abuse of the much dreaded
power which it involves! Such is my colleague,
boast ed limit of Executive discretion. Would.
Sir, we may prove alike discreet in fixing cur ma
val station on part Of thai coast. The lives we
have lost, and the sums we have wasted, al Kew
West, cannot now be recalled. but, if report
speaks truly, and hold the Executive bound tn
investigate it's truth without any instruction or
request from us, the Bay of ST. Joseph's should
be thoroughly examined, before we expeDd ano-
ther dollar, either at Pensacola or on THOMPSON
Island. As the corps Of United States Engineers