Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1846-08-13


ment may be caused to the executive
department in its execution, by appro-
priations for remote and not well un-
cerstood OBJECTS" This restriction, it
was soon found, was subject to be eva
ded, and rendered comparatively use
less in checking the system Of improve
|ments which it was designed to arrest,
in consequence of the facility with
which ports Of entry and delivery may
be established by law upon the upper
waters, and in some instances, almost
at the head springs fsome of the most
unimportant of our rivers, and at points
on our coast possessing no commercial
importance, and not used as places of
refuge and safety by our navy and 9TH
er shipping. Many Of the ports Of
entry and delivery now authorized by
law, so far as foreign commerce is con-
cerned, exist only in the statute books.
No entry Of foreign goods is ever
made, and no duties are ever collected
at them. No export of American pro-
/ ducts bound for foreign countries ever
clear them. To assume that their ex
Iistence in the statute-book as ports OF
entry or delivery warrant expenditures
on the waters leading to them, which
would be otherwise unauthorized,
would be to assert the proposition, that
the law making power may engraft
new provisions on the constitution.
If the restriction be sound one, it can
only apply to the bays, inlets, and riv-
els connected with or leading to such
ports as actually have foreign com.
merce; ports at which foreign importa-
tons arrive in bulk, paying the duties
charged by law, and from which ex-
ports are made to foreign Countries
1t will be found by applying the re-
striction thus understood to the bill un.
der consideration, that it contains APP
preparations for more than twenty OBJ
jects of internal improvement, called in
the bill HARBoRs, at places which have
never been declared by law either ports
of entry or delivery, and at which, as
appears from the records of the treasu-
ry, there has never been an arrival of
foreign merchandise, and from which
there has never been a vesse! cleared
for foreign country. 1t will be found
that many of these works are new, and
at places for the improvement of which
appropriations are now for the first
time proposed. 1t will be found, al
so, that the bill contains appropriations
for rivers upon which there has not
been established even a paper port of
entry, and for the mouths of creeks,
| denominated harbors, which if improv-
ed can benefit only the particular neigh
borhood in which they are situated
1t will be found, too to contain appro-
priations the expenditure of which will
only have the effect of improving one
place at the expense of the local, natu-
raj advantages of another in its vicini-
ty. Should this bill become law the
same PRINCIPLE which authorizes the
appropriations which it proposes to
make, would also authorize similar
appropriations for the improvement Of
all the other bays, in'ets, and creeks,
which may with equal propriety be
called harbors, and of all rivers, impor-
tant or unimportant, in every part of
the Union. To sanction the bill with
such provisions, would be to concede
the PRINCIPLE that the federal govern
ment possesses The power 10 expend
the public money in general system
of internal Improvements, limited in its
extent only by the ever varying discre
ton of successive Congresses and sue
cessive Executives. 1t would be to
efface and remove the limitations and
restrictions of power, which the con-
stitulion has wisely provided to limit
the authority and action of the federal
government to few well defined and
specified objects. Besides these OBJ
jections, the practical evils which must
flow from the exercise, on the part of
the federal government, of the powers
asserted in this bill, impress my mind
with grave sense of my duty to avert
them from the country, as far as my
constitutional action may enable me to
do so. 49,
Ii not only leads to consolidation of
power in the federal government at the
expense of the rightfuI authority of the
States, but its inevitable tendency is,
to embrace objects for the expenditure
ofrhe public money, which are local
in their character, benefting but few
at the expense of the common treasury
of the whole. 1t will engender sec
tional feelings and prejudice calculated
to disturb the harmony of the Union.
L