Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1834-01-08

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liberty, were willing to pay for that union,
without which, they plainly saw, it could
not be preserved. II was not for territory
or state power that our revolutionary ia.
theirs took up arms Lit was for individual
liberty, and The right Of seifgovernment.
The expulsion from the continent of Brit
ish armies and British power was to them
a barren conquest, If, through the COLI
isions of the redeemed statee, the ndivid-
ual rights for which they fought should
become the prey Of petty military tyran-
|nes established at home. To avert such
and throw around liberty
the shield of union, states whose relative
Strength at the time gave them prepon-
derating power, magnanimously sacrificed
domains which would have made them the
rivals of empires, only STIMULATING that
they should be disposed Of for the com.
mon benefit OF themselves and the other
confederated states. This enlighted po-
licy produced union, and has secured lib
erty. II has made our waste lands to
swarm with IA busy people, and added ma
ny powerful states to our confederation.
As well for the fruits which these noble
works of our ancestors have produced, as
for the devotedness in which they origina-
ted, we should hesitate before we demol-
lsh them.
But there are other principles asserted
in the bill, which would have impelled me
to withhold my signature, had not seen
i'll it violation of the compacts by which
the United States acquired title to large
portion of the public lands. 1t rc-asserts
the principle contained in the bill author
izing a subscription to the stock of the
Washington, Paris, and Lex
ington turnpike road company, from which
was compelled to withhold my consent,
for reasons contained in my message of
the 9th May, 1880, TO the House of
The leading principle
then asserted was, that Congress posses~
ses no constitutional power to appropriate
any part of the moneys Of the Y. States
for objects OF local character within the
states. That principle, | cannot be mis-
taken in surprising, has received the I'M
equivocal sanction Of the American peo-
pie, and all subsequent reflection has but
satisfied me more thoroughly that the in
terests Of our people, and the purity of our
government, if not its eXistence, depend
on its observance. The public lands are
the common property of the United States,
and the moneys arising from their sales
are part of the public revenue. This
bill proposes to raise from, and appropr-
ate IA portion Of, the public revenue to
certain states, providing expressly that it
shall "bs applied to objects Of internal nm
propen,ent or educaiian zuuhin those staies,"
and then proceeds to appropriate the bal
ance TO all the states, with the declaration
that it shall be applied $50 such purposes as
The legislatures Of the sand respective states
shall deem proper" The former appro-
priation is expressly for internal improve
ments or education, without qualification
as 10 the kind Of improvements, and there
fore, in express violation of the principle
maintained in my objections to the turn
pike road bill above referred TO. The
latter appropriation is more broad, and
gives the money to be applied TO any 10
cal purpose whatsoever. 1t will not be
denied that, under the provisions of the
bill, portion of the money might have
been applied to making the very road TO
which the bill Of $50 had reference, and
must, of course, come within the scope Of
the same principle. If the money OF the
United States cannot be applied to local
purposes through ats o5on agents, as little
can it be permitted to be thus expended
through The agency ofthc state governments.
1t has been supposed that, with all the
reductions in our revenue which could be
speedily effected by congress, without in
Jury to the substantial interests of the
country, there might be, for some years
to come, surplus of moneys in the trea-
sury, and that there was, in principle, no
objection to returning them to the people
by whom they were paid. As the literal
Accomplishment of such an object is obvl'
ousIy impracticable, it was thought ad>
missible, as the nearest approximation TO
it, to hand them over to the state govern
) ments, the more immediate representa-
, tives of the people, to be by them applied
to the benefit of those to whom they pro-
Z perly belonged. The principle and the
Fl object was, TO return to the people an un-
. avoidable surplus Of revenue which might
/. have been paid by them under system
, which could not at once be abandoned