The Arkansas advocate., 1830-07-07

] port of that improvement, with the ap-s probation Of every President of the Uni ted States, including my predecessor, since its commencement.
 Independently of the sanction given to appropriations for the Cumberland and other roads and objects, under this power, the administration of Mir. Madi- son was characterized by an act which furnishes the strongest evidence of his opinion of its extent. 4 bill was passed through both Houses of Congress, and presented for bis approval, ''settlng a- 1 part and pledging certain funds fer con structing roads and canals, and improy- ing the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among tho several States, aflda to io render more easy, and less expensive, the means and provisions for the common defence. - Regarding the bill as asserting power in the Federal Government to construct roads and canals within the limits of tile States in which they were made, he ob- iected to it's passage, on the ground oi. it's unconstitutionality declaring that the assent of the ttiae respective States, iin the mode provided by the bill, could not confer the power in question; that the only cases in which the consent and cession of particular States can extend the power of Congress, are those speci- fed and provided for in the Constitu- tion; and superadding to these avowals, his opinion, that l" restriction of the pow CT to provide for the common defence and general welfare to cases which are to be provided forby the expenditure of money, would still leave within the le. gislatiye power of Congress, all the great and most important measures of Government, money being the ordinary and and necessary means Of carving them into execution.n have not been able to consider these declarations in any oth- CT point of view, than as concession that the right ofappropriationis not linl- tied by the power to carry into effectthe measure for which the money is asked, i as was IofmefIY c6ntendeQs
 The views 7of Mir. Monroe, upon this subject were not left to inference. Dur ing his administration bill was passed through both Houses of Congress, con- ferriag the jurisdiction and prescribing the mode bv which the Federal Govern ment should exercise 1t, in the case Of the Cumberland road. He returned 1t, with objections toits passage, and in as- signing them, took occasion to say, that in the early stages of the Government, 1 he had inclined to the construction that lit had no right to expend money except lin the performance ofacts authorized by the other specific grants of power, ac- cording to strict construction of them; l but that, on further reflection and obser- Vation, his mind had undergonea change -that his opinion then was, $ that Con- gress have an unlimited power to raise money and that, in it's appropriation, they have a discretionary power, res ftrictcd only by the duty to appropriate lit to purposes of common defence, and Of general, ,notlocal-national, not State benefit" and this was ayowed to be the governing principle through the residue oi his administration. The views of the last administration are of such recent date as to render particular reference to them unnecessary. It is we'll known that the appropriating power, to the utmost extent which had been claimed for it, in relation to internal improve ments, was fully recognized and exer- cised by it.
 This brief reference to known facts, will be sufficient to show the difficulty, if not impractieability, of bringing back the operations oi the Government to the construction of the Constitution set up ih l999S, assuming assuming that that to be its true reading, in relation to the power under consideration; thus giving all admonito- " proof of the force of implication, and the necessity of guarding the Constitu- ton with sleepless vigilance, against the authority of precedents which have not the sanction of its most plainly defined powers. For, although itis the duty off all to look to that sacred instrument ii- iii stead ofthe statute books; to repudiate at all times, encroachments upon its spi- Tit, which are too apt to be effected by the conjecture of peculiar and faciiita- ting circumstances; it is not less true, that the public good and the nature of our political institutions require, that individual differences should yield to well settled acquiescence of the peo-
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