Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-08-22

|" distractions in Cape Fear river and many such
are within State s \.
But. besides that each case has circumstances
found in other and that Imaginary considerations
hopes neverto be realized, enter into many cases,
the elements Of the question may in the same case
vary, from year to year, and make that national
which was once only local. An Improvement at This
point may legtmize, as of national benefit to-day,
that which was yesterday Of only local interest
With advancing art and accommodating wealth, whole
system of such improvements may spread net
work OF canals and railroads all over the land
Whether created by Federal or Stale or private re-
sources, these win just as much nationalize works
at new points as would the sudden admission to
them Of an arm of the great deep--of that sacred
salt water, the flow of which alone can, according
to the President, consecrate an improvement as
national. "a. 4sls4.4s s8t. l4
The second proposition of the President Isl that
:" the constitution has not conferred upon the Fede
raj Government the power to construct works Of
internal improvement Wifhin the States.' This
proposition he evidently states as identical with his
FIRST and if things could not be national because
wifhin Stale. Is it the being ,piflonf that would
render thing national ? According to him, then,
Internal Improvement, to be constitutional, must be
external
& His third proposition is reason why his first
and second must be true that the "approved
course of the Government and the deliberately -ex-
pressed judgment of the people have denied the ex-
istence of such power" (of improving within a
State.) Now, if whatever the Government does
!. .ll,t
prescription is constitutional, the spos-system is
constitutional; for these have reigned eighteen
years-longer and much more invariably than any
such "course" and Judgment as he speaks Of.
But before that "course" began-from 1915 10
lS33-a directly contrary one prevailed, with the
same popular sanction; and was then, of. course,
the only constitutional one Such is the force of
this Presidential reasoning The course and the
approval Of which he speaks were those of General
JACKSON in his second term and of people who in
his first just as much approved an opposite one
it was the course of President all whose acts and
doctrines, however arbitrary and contradictory the
popular judgment must be said almost equally to
have approved, from pure State rights to high Con-
soidation--from One term to the successful Nomi-
Bank to Hard-M oney--from the ARREST distractions
of llimitable liberty to the arbitrary seizure upon
the Public Dsposites.
The Presidents next reason against the power
is, that several of his predecessors have solemny
denied its existence" If the solemnity' was not
Mr.. VAN BuREN's, land he voted for erecting toll
gates the Cumberland road,) we are at loss to
conceive whose it was for, as General JAcKsoN's
acts show, his solemnity affirmed, oftener than it
denied, the power. So did Mr.. ADAMs's and Mr..
MoNRoE's. Mr.. JEFFERSON had, to be sure, (see
one of his letters to Mr.. GALLATIN, Works, vol. 3d.
some very queer doubts about building piers at
Port Penn and some other little places in Delaware
but as queerly showed how they might be gotten
over, by saying that the works were for shelter
to public vessels And, in Short if the power is to
stand or fall as constitutional, according as the
frequency of Executive opinions is for or against
it. President Polk should undoubtedly have gone
the other way. But there again starts up diff
Guilty, making all such authorities vicious for Gen.
JACKSON pronounced that the President is bound by
his oath only to observe his o,cn understanding of
the Constitution.
The Veto Message proceeds to the doctrine that
the Federal Constitution is one Of limited DO wers,"
which powers are such, and such only, as are
expressly granted in the Constitution, or are pro-
pery incident to the expressly powers, and
necessary to their execution =; whence it argues of
course, the want of the power Of internal improve
ment, because neither expressly-granted one, nor
necessary incident to such. This may be perfect
ly sound doctrine but, if ii be- what becomes of
the annexation of foreign territory What of Mr.
Folks acts for the last twelve months beyond the
Nueces! What OF his appointing militia colonies
and majors and captains in some instances, and
leaving them to State appointment in others What
of enlisting men to coionize foreign country {!
What of striking bargain with a religious demo-
mnation (the Mormons) for FIVE hundred soldiers
What of his furnishing the rest of the sect with
Indian lands" to remain upon, when the laws for
bid all intrusion upon Indian lands What of
blockading the town Of Vera Cruz when we were
at peace with Mexico What of stopping the
mouth Of the Rio Grande, if it was Mexico's
What of stopping it. if it was our own! There was
no Presidential power certainly, express or incl
dental, for any of these acts or for many Others
which the President is committing dangerous and
high as they are) without one of those scruples
which have made him, in matter so authorized
by precedent so comparatively inexpensive and
so purely beneficent, strike dead law passed by
one of the most antiretv C,noro..,.