Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-04-06

shape of donations for purposes of eduoatlon deal and dumb asylums, roads, canals, &c The system of Internal Improvement, which has been pr0secu- ted by Congress with such reckless zeal at the ex- pense of the southern States, owes its existence to the unequal operation of our revenue laws-to the fact that while the south pays the tax these very taxes operate as bounes the labor of the tarifi States by increasing the price of their manufactured goods Hence, the tariff States are continually ask
 ing for increased taxes as blessings, and voting TOT every pronigate expenditure on roads and canals, ID order to keep apparent necessity Tor tnese taxes The western States although but little interested in manufacturers vote for a continuance of high duties, in order that out of an abundant revenue, collect ed from the foreign commerce of the country, to which they are conscious of contributing but htle' they may be enabedto construct their roads and ca nals. have said feow-ctizens, sn another occa- sion, that the tariff and internal improvements are indssolubly connected and dependant on each other that they are twin levers of oppression to the south and I do think l can prove, that neither one of the systems can live without the help of the other. Destroy the tariff byreducng the duties to the amount only which is required to pay the necessary expenses of the gorernment. and Congress has not the means of making roads and canals. The money required to effect these expensive objects IS i'll better hands
 in the packets of the people-and the State legis- latures becohe they of right ought to be- the guar
 dians Of State improvement. On the other hand,
 suspend the systeh of internal improvement by ap-
 plying the revenue t.he payment of the public debt
 so soon as that IS usc'arged--the government, in-
 stead of requiring an annal of twenty three
 millions of dollars, will reyuire only about ten mil.
 lions. The pretext for excess:,~ ta~-
 desroyed--tiie western States, having but little in
 terest in manufactures will find DO longer motive
 for continuing the taxes on articles unnecessary con
 sumption, and the northerH and middle States, hay ing no longer the meanS of buying support to the ta riff, will soon experience the modification of the death ofther fvorte system of moncnolv. The truth Of the position that the tariff and internal improye e. ment must sink or swim ogether, is SO well known that it is no longer concealed in Congress or else. where. It is rallying word with our opponents that the two systems must stand or fall together. Their advocatesi in Congress with but few exceptions are the same; together they constitute what is vaunt- ingly called the American System," and what is nothing more nor less than a system of punder on the south; and yet, some among us, who call them- selves southern men, and who profess to be opposed to the tariff the open advocates of internal i'm provement. Can he, who is in favor of internal improvement, be consistently opposed to the tariff when the tariff furnishes. by it's exactions, the very money by which roads and canals are to be establish ed The proposition is ridiculous and absurd.
 I have, fellow-ctzens, on a former occasion, in the presence of perhaps the largest portion of this audience, expressed my views freely and without serve, in relation to internal improvement. Inas- much however as the oubject is of vital importance to your rights and interests you will pardon for again bringing it more fully before you. The opn- ions have once expressed in relation to this ques- ton so far from being changed, strengthened by a more intimate acquaintance with the practical ope- rations of the government. still believe that the power of making roads and canals properly belongs to the State Governments, and that it will never be beneficaily exercised by any other agent. As mat ter of sheer justice believe that those whose inte rests are promoted by road or canal ought to be at all the expense of making such works. recognize no right in the government to tax the citizens of one State, to make roads and canals in another-to tax me or my constituents as much-yea, more-to make road in Ohio, as the man who lives within six feet of the road road too which, in all probabli- ty, am never to see, and which is of no more bene- fit to me. than if constructed in the Suppose the government were to order out detachment from this congregation to work this Ohio road-woud you submit to it Would you not in the spirit Of n- suited freemen, resist mandate SO tyIannical and unjust And yet would ask if the government does not exercise an outrage your rights, equal ly as fagrant--wben it takes your money, the honest proceeds of your labor, and expends it on such road I contend that if Congress has the power to take your money which isnothing more nor less than your labor, it has the right if considered more expedient, to make you work on it. If the ge- neral government has the same authority over the subjects of roads, and canals in any part of the Uni ted States, which belongs to the State of Alabama within it's limits-Congress has perfect a right in commanding your labor on road as the states exer- cses in repairing the common highways of the coun- try.
 We hear much fellow-ctizens. of national roads, military roads, and post roads. The Maysve road was called by all these names; but what is the real object of these roads? It is, at last the getting of produce to market. And one of these roads is more national than another, only because, as a means of transportation, 1t buys up larger number of people to it's support. A work to be national would appear to me to be which would be of advantage to the whole naton-and yet, none has been SO far discovered which would benefit one tenth part of the nation. The benefits of internal improvement are in their nature, local-and not so dfusiye as to he called national. Even the great Erie canal has been considered by the legislature of New-York, local in its benefits, regards that single State; and the people living at distance from the canal have com paned of being taxed to keep it in repair nasmuch us it serves them no purpose of transportation If then all improvements are local in their advantages
 and their real object is to get produce to market, willask, what right has Congress to tax the people in one section of the country to establish them in another? lfCOngress can tax me to make road in Kentucky in order that the people of that State may travel with more facility, or get their produce to market, would not the same principle authorize me to be taxed to buy them pleasure carriages wagons horses, any thing else necessary to effect the same objects Because the people of the Atlantic States enjoy the natural advantages not only of living near to market but of fine rivers, which furnish them an easy access to the ocean, the government feels au- thorized to counterva these natural advantages, by taxing them that the people of Ohio Indiana, Illi- nois. and other inaccessible portions of the western country, may get their produce to market. The Cop of Nature has given us, elow-citizens, the best ca- nal on earth, the Alabama river; and yet, we are to be taxed that other portions of the country may enjoy the same advantages in travelling and trans portation. There is no more justice in it than there would be in taxing us to clear tl.eir land and build their houses.
 But fellow-citizens as unjust and odious as this road and canal-making power must always be when quality is all that has sustained it. ir for instance.