Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1853-12-17

JdCheol, VI the z1tn OF Mays 1861, winch met
the system ofinternal Improvements in its compar-
alive infancy; but so rapid had been its growth,
that the projected appropriations in that year for
works ofthis character had risen to the alarming
amount of more than one hundred millions of dol
lars.
In that message the President admitted the diff
hculty OF bringing back the operations of the gov
eminent to the construction of the constitution set
up IN 1898, and marked it as an admonitory proof
OF the necessity of guarding that instrument with
Sleepiess vigilance against the authority of prece
dents which had not the sanction ofits most plain
Iiy defined powers
Our government exits under written compact
between sovereign States, uniting for specific OBJ
Jects, and with specific grants to their general
gent. 1t, then, in the progress of its administra-
ton, there have been departures from the terms
ana intent OF the compact it is and will ever be,
proper to refer back to the fixed standard which
our fathers left us, and to make stern effort to
conform our action to it. 1t would seem that the
TACT ola principle having been resisted from the
hrst by many of the wisest and most patriotic
of the republic, and policy having provoked con
slant strife, without arriving at conclusion which
can be regarded as satisfactory to its most earnest
advocates, should suggest the inquiry whether
there may not be plan likely to be crowned by
happier results. Without perceiving any sound
distinction, or intending to assert any principle
opposed to Improvements needed for the protection
of internal commerce, which does not equally APP
ply to improvements upon the seaboard for the pro-
lection of foreign commerce, / submit to YOU,
whether it may not be safely anticipated that. if
the policy were once settled against appropriations
by the general governmentfor local Improvements
for the benefit of commerce. localities requiring ex
pendtures would not by modes and means clearly
legitimate and proper, raise the und necessary
Ior such constructions the safety other interests
of their commerce might require.
Ii that can be regarded as system, which, in
the experience of more than thirty years, has at
no time commanded the public Judgment as to giAe
it the character of a settled policy, which though
it has produced some works of conceded impor-
lance, has been attended with an expenditure quite
diSproportionate to their value,-and has resulted
in squanderng large upon objects which
have answered no valuable purpoSe-the interests
of all the States require it to be abandoned unless
hopes may be INDUCED for the future ich find
no warrantin the past.
With an anxious desire for the complexion of
the works which are regarded BY all good citizens
with sincere interest, | hove deemed it my duty to
ask at your hands deliberate reconsideration of
the question, with hope that animated by de
sire TO promote the permanct and substantial in
tereSts OF the country, your wisdom may prove e.
quail to the task Of divsing and maturing a plan,
which, applies to this subject may promise
something better than constant strife the suspen-
sion of the powers OF local enterprise the exciting
of vain hopes, and the disappointment of cherish
ed expections.
In expanding the aspirations made by the last
Congress, several cases have arisen in relation to
works for the improvement of the harbors, which
involve question as to the ght of soil and iurisdc-
ton, and have threatened conflict between the au-
thorty OF the State and genel al governments. The