Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-09-14
The Chicago Convention,
NUMBER III.
THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM.

man is to oppose great sectional interests,
coming in conflict with his creed of con-
stitutional authority. So vast is the in.
fiuence of such interests, when dashed,
onward, as they usually are, by every ele-
ment ofexcitement, that they sweep into
one common tide of importunaie demand
the whole population concerned-com.
prising all the minor currents and count
er currents of political feeling. In stand
ing up sternly between them and The
constitution, he runs the risk or rather
incurs the certainty Of becoming TO the
last degree unpopular; and is driven to
seek his consultations in sense of sacred
though unwelcome duty--his rewards in
the calmer judgments of posterity. He is
to expect the desertion of political friends
the aggravated hostility of his political
enemies-the most furious attacks upon
his character and motives, and the angry
rejection of every plea either OF ius,ifca.
ton or mitigation. 1t matters not how
consistent the opposition, which he felt
himself constrainedAto make, with his
previously expressed opinions, or how
harmonious, in its spirits, with the estab-
lished doctrine of the political school to
which he belongs. 1t matters not how
really doubtful and fairly eontestible the
claims presented to him; nor how ilustri.
Gus the array of precedento under which
he can shield himself. Local interests,
after they have broken their she'll and ia.
ken wing together, soon become too ca
ger to discriminate, too selfish to Judge
with justice and too furious to be stayed
by rational admonition. Happy, indeed.
will it be for our political bark, if in all fu.
ture time, it can be blessed with pilots.
who, with steady eye and firm hand will
ever keep it on constitutional courses, even
when most tempted to drift off with the
tides of expediency, or when most thwa
ed by the storms of sectional excitement!
have heretofore expressed my dissent
to the reasoning of Mr.. Polk in reference
to the River and Harbor interests of the
West. But cannot impeach his motives:
| cannot impute to aught, but deep in
flexible sentiment of allegiance to the
constitution, his dsapproval OF bill,upon
which the local interests and anxieties of
so vast section of the country appeared
to be embarked, and in defeating which,
he was threatened with prospect Of un-
popularity, as formidable. surely, as ever
gloomed before an American statesman.
| must even respect his predjudices upon
question, which has not uniformly been
argued onits right ground; but has been
seized upon as convenient nucleus for
re. embedding n our national policy some
of the worst notions of the Clay and
Adams school. And I cannot forget, that
those principles, on which our cause is to
be justified, abut so closely on the bounda-
ries of that obnoxious school, that the
first political geniuses OF the nation may
without surprise be found widely differing
in reference to them.
A definite constitution like that of the U.
s. will often, in the nature of human af-
fairs, prove to be Procrustean rule of
legislation. 1t must, of course, be general
in its terms; and these, however compre-
hensive, music OCCASIONALLY be found too
narrow for the exigencies of the Case
Thus, after the Union was formed, time
and experience disclosed to our statesmen
many objects, for which the new general
government seemed quite the most suita-
Bile agent; but which, alas did not seem
to be be very clearly provided tor in the
express charter of its powers. From this
awkward state of things, then quickly
sprung up, what might have been ex-
pected. The ldtitudinary or stretching and
strainingprocese reconstruction. To sup
ply the defect by amendment was at best
tedious way; and after the People had
fairly got ranged into hostile parties, next
to impossible. The easiest if not the only
modus operandi then left, was to find some
how the required power somewhere in some
sly corner of the instrument itselfTo this
end, the clause most german to the pur-
pose is taken in hand, turned over and
over and inside out, set in every desirable
point of view, squeezed Enthusiastically,
and if it comes to pinch, decomposed
chemically, to torture out of it, nolens 20.
Tens, some little latent, nfnetessim0l spark
of authority, which, by close nursing be.
tween the Preamble on the one hand, and
the last clause Of the 9Th section, THAT
bottomless pit ofauxilliarY and contingent
powers) on the other, might, with a little
further help from the zeal of party spirit
and selfish interest, be worked up into
toll cradle sort of Jack-o' lantern to delude
the country. BY this sharp process, was
begat the U. 8. Bank, the Protective sys-
item, the Bankrupt law, and various other
'chimeras dire of same kind; false lights
which false priests have set up in the
temple Of the constitution. BY a like pro-
cess, also, was engendered the Internal