Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-12-15

our fathers left us, and 10 make q stern
effort 70 conform our action TO it. Il
would seem that the fact Of principle
having been resisted from the first by
many Of the wisest and most patriotic
men Of the republic, and policy
having provoked constant strife without
arriving at a conclusion which can be
regarded as satisfactory t1 its most
earnest advocates, should suggest the
inquiry whether there may not be a
plan likely to be crowned by happier
results. Without perceiving any sound
distinction, or intending to assert any
principle as opposed to Improvements
needed for the protection Of internal
commerce, which does not equally ap-
ply to Improvements upon the seaboard
for the protection of foreign commerce,
l submit to you, whether it may not be
safely anticipated that, if the policy
were once settled against appropriations
by the general government for local i'm
provements for the benefit Of commerce,
localities requiring expenditures would
not, by modes and means clearly legiti-
mate and proper, raise the fund neces-
sary for such constructions as the safety
or other interests of their commerce
might require.
If that can be regarded as system,
which, in the experience Of more than
thirty years, has at no time so comman-
ded the public Judgment as to give it
the character Of settled policy-which,
Though it has produced some works of
conceded Importance, has been attended
with an expenditure quite disproportion-
ate to their value-and has resulted in
squandering large sums upon objects
which have answered no valuable pur-
pose,-the interests Of all the States re-
quire it to be abandoned, unless hopes
may be indulged for the future which
find no warrant in the past.
With an anxious desire for the COM
pletion of the works which are regarded
BY all good citizens with sincere interest,
have deemed it my duty to ask at
your hands deliberate consideration of
the question, with hope that, animated
by desire to promote the permanent
and substantial interests of the country,
your wisdom may prove equal to the
task of devising and maturing a plan,
which. applied to this subject, may pro-
mise something better than constant
strife, the suspension of the powers of
local enterprise, the exciting of vain
hopes, and the disappointment of cher
ished expectations.
In expending the appropriations made
by the last Congress, several cases have
arisen in relation to work for the i'm
provement of harbors, which involve
questions as to the right of soil and ju-
risdiction, and have threatened conflict
between the authority of the State and
general governments. The right to con-
struct breakwater, jetty, or dam,
would seem, necessarily, to carry with
it the power to protect and preserve
such constructions. This can only be
efectually done by having jurisdiction
over the soil. But no clause of the
constitution is found, on which TO rest
the claim of the United States to exer-
else jurisdiction over the soil of State,
except that conferred by the eighth Sec
ton of the first article of the constitu-
ton. 1t is, then, submitted, whether,
in all cases where constructions are to
be erected by the general government,
the right of soil should not first be OBJ
tanned, and legislative provision be made
to cover all such cases.
For the progress made in the con-
struction of roads within the territories,
as provided for in the appropriations Of
the last Congress, l refer you to the re-
port Of the Secretary of War.
There is one subject of domestic ma
ture, which, from its intrinsic impor-
tance, and the many interesting ques-
tons of future policy which it involves,
cannot fail to receive your early atten-
ton. / allude to the means of commu-
nication, by which different parts of the
wide expanse of our country are to be
placed in closer connexion for purposes
both of defence and commercial inter-
course, and more especially such as ap-
pertain to the communication Of those
great divisions of the Union, which lie
] on the opposite sides of the Rocky
Mountains.
That the government has not been un-
mindful of this heretofore, is apparent
from the aid it has afforded, through ap-
preparations for mail facilities and other
purposes. But the general subject will
now present itself under aspects more
imposing and more purely national, by
reason of the surveys ordered by Con-
gress, and now in the process of COM
pletiop, for communication by railway
across the continent, and wholly within
the limits of the United States.
The power to declare war, to raise
and support armies, to provide and
maintain navy, and to call forth the
militia to execute the laws, suppress in
surrections, and repel invasions, was
conferred upon Congress, as means to
provide for the common defence, and to
protect a territory and population now
widespread and vastly multiplied. AS
incidental to and indispensable for the
exercise of this power, it must some
times be necessary to construct military
roads and protect harbors of refuge
To appropriations by Congress for such
objects, no sound objection can be rais-
al Hor,;I- g. - -