The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-12-06


must be ports and harbors, as well as wharves
and custom-houses. If ships, laden with val.
liable cargoes, approach the shore, or sail along
the coast, lighthouses are necessary at suita.
BILE points for the protection of life and proper
ty. Other facilities ard securities for COM
merce and navigation are hardly less important;
and those clauses of the Constitution, there.
fore, to which have referred. have received
from the origin of the Government liberal
and beneficial construction. Not only have
lighthouses, buoys, and beacons been estab-.
shed, and floating lights maintained, but har.
bors have been cleared and improved, piers
constructed, and even break waters for the
safety of shipping; and sea walls to protect
harbors from being filled up, and rendered use
less, By the action of the ocean, have been
erected at very great expense. And this con-.
struction of the Constitution appears the more
reasonable from the consideration, that il these
works, of such evident importance and utility.
are not to be accomplished at all. BY the a.
doption of the Constitution the several States:
voluntarily parted with the power ofcollecting:
duties of impost in their own ports; and it is.
not to be expected that they should raise money,
by internal taxation, direct or indirect, for the
benefit that commerce, the revenues derived
from which do not, either in whole or in part,
90 into their own treasures. Nor do per-
ceive any difference between the power of Con-
gress to make appropriations for objects OF this
kind on the ocean aud the power to make ap.
preparations for similar objects on lakes and
rivers, wherever they are large enough to bear
on their waters an extensive traffic
The magnificent Mississippi and its tributa.
ries, and the vast lakes OF the north and the
northwest appear to me to fall Within the ex.
ercise of the power, as justly and as clearly
as the Ocean and the Gulf OF Mexico. 1t is
mistake toregard expenditures judiciously made
for these objects rs expenditures for local pur.
poses. The position, or site of the work, is
necessarily local; but its utility is general.
ship canal around the falls of St Mary of less !
than mile in length, though local in its con-
struction, would be national in its purpose and
ITS benefits, as it would remove the only oh.
struction to navigation Of more than thou
sand miles, affecting several States, as well as
our commercial relations with Canada.
So, too, the Breakwater at the mouth of the
Delaware is erected, not for the exclusive bene-
fit of the States bordering on the bay and river
Of that name, bnt for that of the whole coast.
wise navigation of the United States, and to
considerable extent also, of foreign commerce.
If ship be lost on the bar at the entrance Of
southern port for want of sufficient depth Of
water it is very likely to be northern ship;
and ifa steamboat be sunk in any part of the
Mississippi, on account of. its channel not hav.
ing been properly cleared Of Instructions, it
may be a boat belonging to either eight or ten
States, | may add as somewhat remarkable,
that among all the thirty.one States, there is
none that is not, to a greater or less extent,
bounded on the ocean, or'the Gulf of Mexico,
or one ofthe great lakes, or some navigable ri.
yer.
In fulfilling our constitution duties, fellow
citizens, on this subject as in carrying into eff
feet all other powers conferred by the Consti.
lL,ion, we should consider ourselves as delibe.
rating and acting for one and the same coun.
try, and bear constantly in mind, that our regard
and our duty are due, not to particular part
only, but to the whole.
therefore recommend that appropriations
be made for completing such works as have been
| already begun, and for commencing such others
as may seem to the wisdom Of Congress to be
of public and general Importance. sss
1t was hardyto have been expected the series
of measures passed at your last session, with view
of healing the sectional difference which had
sprung from the slavery and territorial question.
should once have realized their beneficial pur ose.
| All mutual concession in the nature of compro-
mise must necessarily he unwelcome to men Ct ex-
| trene onininn. And though without such conces-
s;ons our Constitution could not have been formed
| and cannot be permanently sustained. yet we have
| seen them made the subject OF bitter controversy
in both sections of the the Republic. 1t required
many months of discussion and delberation to Sc
cure the concurrence of a majority of Congress in
their favor 1t would be strange if they had been
received with immediate appreciation by people
and States, prejudced and heated by the exciting
controversies of their representatives. believe
those measures to have been required by the cir
cum ance and condition Of the country. believe
they were necessary to allay aspertes and ami
mosites that were rapidly alternating one section o
the country from another, and destroying lose
fraternal sentiments which are the strongest sup
| ports of the Constitution. They were adopted in
the spirit of concation and for the purpose OF con-
| ciliation. believe that great majority oil our
fellowcitzen: sympathze in that spirit, and That
purpose, and in the main appore, and are pre-
pared i'm all respects, to sustain these ena:tmens.
cannot doubt that the An,rcan people, hound
torethcr by kindred blood and common traditions,
still cherish a paramount regard FOR the Union OF
their fathers; and that they ready to rcbuke anv
attempt to violate its integrity to disturb the COM
nromses on which il is based, or to resis the laws