Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Wayne County, Ind.) 1831-1837, 1836-01-16

commerce and communication might
not have been opened? What indus
try stimulated, what labor rewarded!
How many youthful minds might
have received the blessings of educa-
ton and knowledge. and been rescu-
ed from ignorance. vice, and ruin1'
How many descendants OF Africa
might have been transported from a
country where they never can enjoy
political or social equality. to the ma
/ tive land of their fathers. where no
)impediment exists to their attainment
jof the highest degree Of elevation, in
tellectual, social and political! Where
they might have been successful IN
struments. in the hands of God. to
spread the religion of his Son. and to
Law the foundation of civil liberty!
:, And, Sir. when we institute a com
parison between what might have
been effected, and what has been in
fact done, with that large amount Of
national treasure. our sensations OF
regret. on account of the fate of the
bill of 1888, are still keener. Instead
of its being dedicated to the beneficent
uses of the whole people, and our en-
tire country, it has been an object of
scrambling amongst local corpora
tons, and locked up in the vaults, or
loaned out by the directors of few
of them, who are not under the slight
est responsibility to the Government
or people of the United States. In
stead of liberal, enlightened. and ma
tional purposes, it has been partially
applied to local. limited, and selfish
uses. Applied to increase the semi
annual dividends Of favorite stock
holders in favorite banks! Twenty
I, millions of the national treasure are
] scattered in parcels among petty cor
porations; and whilst they are growl-
ing over the fragments and greedy
for more, the Secretaries are brood
!! ing on schemes to squander the
whole.
/ But, although we have lost three
: precious years, the Secretary OF the
Treasury tells us that the principal is
vet safe, and much good may be still
achieved with it. The General Gov
ernment, by an extraordinary exer-
else of Executive power, no longer
,, affords aid to any new works OF inter.
!. nal improvement. Although it sprung
from the Union. and cannot survive
the Union, it no longer engages in
any public Improvement to perpetuate
the existence Of the Union. 1t is but
Justice to it to acknowledge that
with the cooperation of the public.
spirited State of Maryland, it effected
one national road having that tenden
: cy. But the spirit of improvement
t pervades the land. in every variety
of form, active, vigorous and enter:
!, prising, wanting pecuniary aid as
we'll as intellectual direction. The
States have undertaken what the Gen.
eral Government is prevented from
accomplishing. They are strength.
, ening the Union by various lines OF
communication thrown across and
through the mountains. New York
has completed one great chain
Pennsylvania another. holder in con-
:. ception and far more arduous in the
execution. Virginia has similar
:! work in progress. worthy of all her
! enterprise and energy. A fourth.
farther South, where the parts of the
Union are too loosely connected, has
been projected. and it can certainly
be executed with the supplies which
this bill affords, and perhaps not
without them.
This bill passed, and these and 9th
er similar undertakings completed,
we may indulge the patriotic hope
that our Union will be bound By ties
and interests that will render it indisso-
lube. As the General Government
withholds all direct agency from these
truly national works, and from all new
i objects of internal improvement, OF
it not to yield to the States, what is
their own, the amount received from
the public landsl 1t would thus but
execute faithfully trust expressly
created by the original deeds of ces-
sion, or resulting from the treaties of
acquisition. With this ample re-
/ source, every desirable object Of inn
provement, in every part of our ex-
;! tensive country. may, In due time, be
accomplished. Placing this exhaust
less fund in the hands of the several
members Of the Con-ederacy, their