Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1848-01-11


be enriched, by the large expenditures
which they, were promised by the advo-
Gates Of the system should be made from
the federal treasury in their neiighborhood.
Whole sectionssof the country were thus
sought to be influenced, and the system
was fast becoming one not only of profuse
and wasteful expenditure, but a potent DO.
litical engine. ;as ~ ,4,.,sf -
If the power TO improve harbor be ad.
mitted, it is not easy to perceive how the
power to deepen every inlet or the ocean
or the lakes, and make harbors. where
there are none, can be denied. !. If the
power to clear out or deepen the channel
Of rivers near their mouths be admitted, it
lis not easy to perceive how the power to
improve them to their fountain head and
make them navigable to their sources, can
be denied. Where shall the exercise OF
the power, if it DE assumed. stop? Has
Congress the power, when an inlet is
deep enough to admit schooner, to deep
enait still more, so that it will admit ships
of heavy burden? and has it not the pow.
er, when an inlet will admit boat, to
make it deep enough to admit schooner?
May it improve rivers deep enough al
ready to float ships and steamboats,, and
has, it no power improve those which are
navigable only for fiat. boats and barges
May the general government exercise
power and jurisdiction over the soil of a
State, consisting of rocks and sand. bars
in the beds Of its rivers, and may it not
excavate canal around its waterfalls or
across its lands for precisely the same ob-
ject 8. - ' 4' .' .
Giving to the subject the most serious
and candid consideration of which my
mind is capable. cannot perceive any
intermediate grounds. The power to i'm.
prove harbors and rivers for purposes of
navigation, by deepening or clearing out,
ny dams and sluices, by locking or canal
ing, must be admitted without any other
limitation than the discretion OF Congress,
or it must be denied altogether. If il be
! admitted, how broad and how susceptible
Of enormous abuses is the power thus
vested in the general government? There
is not an inlet Of the ocean or the lakes
not river, creek, or streamlet within the
States-which is not brought for this pur-
pose within the power and jurisdiction of
the general government. " i
! Speculation, disguised under the cloak
Of public good, will call on Congress to
! deepen shallow inlets, that it may build
up new cities on their shores, or to make
streams navigable which nature has clos
ed by bars and rapids, that it may sell at
profit its lands upon their banks. To
enrich neighborhood by spending with
in. it the moneys of the nation, will be the
aim and boast of those who prize their
local interests above the good ofithe ma
ton; and millions upon millions will be
distracted by tariffs and taxes from the
earnings of the, whole people, to foster
speculation and subserve the objects of
private ambition. 800 OF 5.6 E.a
Such system could not be admins
tered with aay approach to equality among
the several States and sections of the I'm.
ion. There is no equality among them in
the objects ofexpenditure, and, ifthe funds
were distributed according to the merits
Of those objects, some would be enriched
at the expense Of their neighbors. But a
greater practical evil would be found in
the art and industry by which appropria.
tons would be sought and obtained. The
most artfnl and industrious would be the
most successful; the true interests of the
country would be lost sight of in an annu.
al scramble for the contents of the treasu-
ry; and the member of Congress who
could procure the largess appropriations
to be expended in his district would claim
the rewards of victory from his enriched
constituents. The necessary consequen.
ces would be, sectional discontents and
heartburnings, increased taxation. and a
national debt, never to be extinguished.
In view ofthese portentious consequen.
ces, cannot but think that this course of
Legislation should be arrested, even were
there nothing to forbid it in the fundamen-
tal laws of our Union. This conclusion
lstortified by the fact that the constitution
itself indicates process by which bar
bors and rivers within the States may be
ImProved-a process no! susceptible of
the abuses necessarily to flow from the
assumption1of the power to improve them
by the general government just in its
operation, and actually practised upon,
without complaint or interruption, during
more than thirty years from the organiza-
ton of the present government. ,aa5t za
/ The constitution provides that mo State
shall. without the consent of Congress,
lay any duty of tonnage" With the
''conseht" of Congress. such duties may
! be levied, collected. and expended oy the
States.l We are not left in the dark as to
the objects ofthis reservation of power to
the States The subject was fully con-
sidered by the convention that framed the
! constitution. 1t appears, in Mr.. Madi.
sons report of the proceedings Of that