Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-08-26


still wilder regions than those they once inhabited
The utility and the value of Internal Improve
menis surely need no demonstration. They ar
plain, papable, practical. The whole subject i:
indeed, one Of those which he who follows tn
plough or yields the hammer or the axe is quite a
capable of understanding those who handle tn
affairs of State. Ask, either of the farmer, or tn
tradesman, or the mechanic, whether he prefers
good road to bad one, and he will laugh in you
face at the simplicity of the question. What h
feels and realizes practically beneficial to him
self he cannot but believe TO be beneficial TO Others
also, and of course general good. The states
man and the politician, taking larger views OF thu
matter, cannot but perceive also that no possible
exercise of power by the Government can 81
efectually contribute to unite the interests and af
feclions of the different parts of the country, t
perpetuate the Union, and TO advance the genera
prosperity Of the nation, as that which connects
and brings another its various parts Ii
the more extended import of the term including thu
facitation of the already vast and daily frightening
chain Of internal commerce Of these States-anc
especially that of our yet hardly explored inlanc
from foreign Landslide exercise by Congress of the
power which we are considering must be allowed by
every one to be of inappreciable consequence, il
not OF Indispensable necessity.
| If this power be one so benign in its influence
strengthening the Government both morally and
physically it showers blessings on all parts
of our country, whether within or without the i'm
mediate range Of its operations-the reasons must
be unanswerable upon whchits exercise is refused
or interdicted
The main objection, set up by the champions of
the Veto, to the exercise of this power by the &C.
neral Government is, that il is not granted to Con-
gress by the Constitution.
The Constitution it is true, does not, in so many
words, say that Congress shall have power to make
or improve great highways by land or water, TO
deepen harbors, 10 remove snags and shoals from
rivers, or TO construct breakwaters. Neither does
it say that Congress shall have power to place
buoys and piers or TO erect lighthouses. But it
does say that Congress shall have power "to esta-
blish post offices and post roads, "to regulate
commerce among The several States and F." TO ex-
ercise exclusive jurisdiction over all places pur
chased for the erection Of FORTS magazines, arsenals
dockyards, and other aeedfut buildings
The power to make great National Roads, though
there is less occasion for the Government TO exer-
else it, because it is generally susceptible OF execu
ton by associations Of individuals, necessarily re-
suits from the first Of the foregoing powers. Against
this construction it has been argued that the word
establish" as here used, means only to desig-
nate existing roads. This construction is demon
strably wrong, or our Government has been going
wrong from the beginning. If il be right as to one
member of the sentence, it must hold good as to the
whole Of it. Have Congress no power, under the
clause in regard TO post offices, but TO designate
them Do they not, on the contrary, create them.
wear after year, by hundreds at time Ii the word
" establish" means TO create, in reference to post
offices, it certainly means the same TO post roads.
Suppose great highway on which the mail ira
wells TO become impossible, have not Congress the
power 10 make il passabe, SO as TO let the post
pass I! This will not be denied. What difference
in principle is there, then, ask, between repair
ing road and making one None whatever; the
operation is in both cases the same, and must ever
be conducted with the same implements and the
same materials. Ii the word establish meant
only to designate, how could the powers be inferred
from it which have been exercised by Congress
without dispute from the beginning Of the Govern.
ment' Congress has passed laws for furnishing
any one who should interrupt the passage Of the
mail. Under the same power laws have been
passed to punish robberies of the mail Of every de-
gree, and several persons have been put to death
under them. For lesser offences many persons
have been imprisoned at hard labor for years at
time. Do all these powers, SO deeply affecting
liberty and life, fairly result from the general terms
employed in this clause of the Constitution, and
yet cannot the Government alter the course of a
road or shorten or level il! We put il to the COM
mon sense of every one who reads this whether
the power is not clearly given to make roads for
the transportation Of the mail whenever the exist
ing roads are not properly adapted to the want I!
Government will of course not make such roads
where il finds them ready made. But, if Congress
has not power to make or improve road TO allow
of the proper transportation of the mail, it has not
the power 10 protect its transportation to punish
those who impede its passage. To deny hes'
powers would be absurd; and they are never
denied.
| There are other clauses of the Constitution from