American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-08-05


port, by appropriations from the treasury, of
light houses, beacons, buoys, piers, and other
improvements within the bays, nlets, and har-
bors on our ocean and lake coasts Immediate
y connected with our foreign commerce, and
attempt to make improvements in the interior
at points unconnected with foreign commerce,
and where they are not needed for the pro-
lection and security of our navy and CONNER
ciai marine, the difficulty arises in drawing a
line beyond which appropriations may not be
made by the federal government.
One of my predecessoE, who saw the evil
consequences of the system proposed to be re-
vived by this bill, attempted to define this line
by declaring that, expenditures of this char
acter" should be "confned beLolU the ports of
entry or delivery established by law ~ Act
ing on this restriction, he withheld his sane
ton from bill which had passed Congress
"to improve the navigation of the Wabash
river" He was at the same time sensible
that this restriction was not as satisfactory as
could be desired, and that much embarrass-
ment may be caused to the executive depart
ment in its execution, by appropriations for
remote and not we'll understood objects. y
This restriction, ii was soon found was sub
ject to be evaded, and rendered comparative
Iy useless in checking the system of improve
ments which it was designed 10 arrest, in con-
sequence of the facility with which ports Of
entry and delivery may be established by law
upon the upper waters, and in some instances,
almost al the head springs of some of the
most unimportant of our rivers, and at Joints
on our coast possessing no commercial I'M
portanCe, and not used as places OF refuge and
safety by our navy, and other shipping Many
of the ports of entry and delivery now au-
thorized by law, so far as foreign commerce
is concerned, exist only in the statute books.
No entry of foreign goods is ever made, and
no duties are ever collected at them. No
exports of American products, bound for
foreign countries, ever clear from them
TO assume that their existence in the sta
tute-book as ports of entry or delivery war
rant expenditures on the waters leading 10
them, which would be otherwise unauthoriz-
ed, would be to assert the proposition, that
the law-making power may engraft new pro-
visions on the constitution. If the restriction
be sound one, it can only apply to the bays,
inlets, and rivers, and rivers connected with
or leading to such ports as actually have for
eign commerce; ports at which foreign inn
portations arrive in bulk, paying the duties.
charged by law, and from which exports are
made to foreign countries. II will be found
to the bill under consideration, that it contains
appropriations for more than twenty objects
of internal improvement, called in the bill
har5ors, at places which have never been de.
clared by law either ports of entry or deliv-
ery,and at which, as appears from the records
of the treasury, there has never been an arri-
val of foreign merchandise, and from which
there has never been vessel 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, also, that the bill contains appropria-
tons for rivers upon which there not only ex-
lists no foreign commerce, but upon which
there has not been established even paper
port of entry, and for the mouths OF creeks,
denomina,ed harbors, which if improved can
benefit only the particular neighborhood in
which they are situated. 1t will be found,
too, to contain appropriations the expenditure
of which will only have the effect OF impiov.
ing one place at the expense of the local, ma
tural advantages Of another in its vicinity -
Should this bill become a law the same prin.
ciple which authorizes the appropriations
which it proposes to make, would also author
iZe similar appropriations for the improve
ment of all the other bays, inlets, and creeks,
which may with equal proprty be called
harbors, and of all the rivers, important or IN
important, in every part of the Union. To
sanction the bill with such provisions would
be to concede the principle that the federal
government possesses the power to expend
the public money in general system of inter-
nal Improvements, limited in its extent only
by the ever varying discretion of successive
Congresses and successive Executives. 1t
would be 10 eiface and remove the limitations
and restrictions of power, which the constitu-
ton has wisely provided to limit the authori-
ty and action of the federal government to
few well-defned and specified objects. Be-
sides these objections, 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 &C.
ton may enable me to do so.
1t only leads to consolidation of power in
tho federal government at the expense of the
rightful authority of the States, but its inevi
table tendency is, to embrace objects for the
expenditure of the public money, which are
local in their character, benehtting but few at
the expense of the common treasury of the
whole. 1t will engender sectional feelings and
preiudices calculated TO disturb the harmony
of The Union. 1t will destroy the harmony
which should prevail in our legislative coun-
sells.
1t will produce combinations of local and
sectional interests, strong enough, when uni
ted, to carry propositions for appTo rlatlons OF
public MONEY which could not of themselves,
and standing alone succeed, and cannot fail to
lead TO waseful and extravaganza Expenditures.
1t must produce disreputabe scramble for
the public money, by the conflict which is in
separable from such a system between local
and individual interests and the general inte-
rests of the whole. 1t is unjust to those States
which have with their own means constructed
their own internal improvements, to make from
the common treasury appropriations for SINH
lar Improvements in other States.