Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1838-07-27
CONGRESS-.
SPEECH OF MIR. SIBLEY,

The Union, on The bill making appropriate
tons for continuing The improvement Of
certain harbors and riuers.
Mr.. Sibley addressed the committee as
follows
Mr.. Chairman: Much as desire the
passage of this bill, had resolved not to
consume one moment of the precious time
that remains TO us in advocating 1t. This
purpose would have been adhered TO but
for the extraordinary declarations and
avowals that have just fallen from the
chairman Of the Committee of Ways and
Means, (Mr. Cambreleng,) which l cannot
permit to pass without some notice.
An opportunity to discuss the general
merits of the bill would have been quite
acceptable to me: out it is now too late
for that. There is too much important
business on hand, and the anxious counte-
nances Of members, 10 whose vigilance it
is entrusted, admonlsh me that every
superfuous word should be spared.
| will. therefore, content myself. with
merely pointing the attention of the House
and the country to the position which my
colleague Mr.. Cambreleng,) has now
assumed, and answering his objections to
the passage of the bill. | will do this as
plainly and directly as l can.
That gentleman has openly proclaimed
his decided, unqualified hostility to oil
improvements upon our great chain OF
] of internal lakes or their tributary streams.
He not only denounces the policy which
set on foot such Improvements, but he
would arrest here, to-day and forever, in
their present unfinished condition, all those
important works which have been sanc-
toned by our predecessors and upon which
so much money has already been expended.
Give the gentleman his wish, and our long
range of lake coast, stretching 10 an extent
little short of the entire Atlantic sea.board,
would remain with only few practicable
and secure harbors that Nature has provl-
ded. He would leave the rivers Of our
wide interior-rivers which traverse re-
gons that are peopling hourly under the
influence of causes greater than ever
before threw human inundation over the
widerness-unnavigab for want of the
removal of few natural distractions,
which seem to have been placed in them as
so many stimuants to the industry and
enterprise of man. He would expose the
multitudes of men who navigate those
lakes, and the vast amount Of products
the fruits Of patient toll and successful
industry-whch float upon them, to the
perils of winds and waves without a refuge
from the rising storm. He would disap.
point all the Just expectations TO which the
past action of this Government has given
, birth, turn back the current Of human
improvement, and consign the whole region
that would send its productions over tho
lakes to the condition-so far as the faclll-
ties Of transportation are concerned-in
which the savage left, and the white man
found it.
Sir, the relation with my colleague holds
I to this administration las chairman OF the
committee of Ways aud Means, entrusted
: with the financial concerns of the country;
a set here to speak for the Executive branch
Of the Government, and in immediate and
S intimate intercourse with its head-gives
: to the sentiments he has now put forth an
+ interest and Importance which they would
g not otherwise deserve. The speech or
!, the honorable gentleman may be regulated
q as an official annuncia,ion of the policy Of
i the Administration. To me this annuncla-
u ton produces no surprise. II corresponds
e bnt too well with what have long be-
o Iieved were the secret and disguised sen'i-
ments Of those who now exercise the Ex-
y ecut!ve power Of the naton-sent nents Ut
q terly at war with the policy OF the admin
It list, atoms, and with all our efforts TO i'm.
}, prove the facilities of internal commerce,
q and give to our farmers safe and expedl-
IS tious way to market for the productions OF
@ the soil, but in entire harmony with that
u narrow, short sighted partisan policy which
d at the commencement of the Erie canal.
e was arrayed in open or disguised hostility
It to that great work. Yes, sir, | discern
l. in the doctrines this day promulgated by
e the honorable chairman the same spirit
e which visited that magnificent enterprise
"a the SPLENDID conception Of great mind,
lie and now the pride of our State-with OBJ
Y. oouy and reproach, and which sought to
e defeat or embarrass its execution by every
r weapon that argument or epithet could
IL supply.
!. Paradoxical as it may sound to the ears
ID of stranger, it is nevertheless true, that
J. the Erie and Champlains canals-whose
is object was, by uniting the waters of the
Hudson with those Of the great lakes, to
% open highway from the mountains to the
N sea, and from the rivers TO the ends of the
,, earth and the great results of which haye
n been, and will be, to pour tribute of con-
stanly accommodating and boundess wealth
= into our commercial emporium-found the
seat of their most virulent and determined
e opposition in the city of New York.
u 1t seems to have been, until recently, the
a strange and unnatural habit Of that city to
a send into the councils of the State and ma !,
D. ton those whose views Of policy lead them
II to war upon her dearest interests, who
g have opposed our system of internal inn
= provements from its very inception to the
s. present hour, who would, if they could,
: have strangled it at its birth, and are now
u ready to arrest its further prosecution for +.