Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

532 ABRIDGMENT OF THE SENATE.] The President's Message. [DECEMBER, 1834. and that they will be ample enough to authorize carried to an alarming extent. The questions which such an enlargement and improvement in the plan have arisen upon this subject have relatedof the building as will more effectually accommodate 1st. To the power of making internal improvethe public officers, and secure the public documents ments within the limits of a State, with the right deposited in it from the casualties of fire. of territorial jurisdiction, sufficient at least for their I have not been able to satisfy myself that the preservation and use. bill entitled " An act to improve the navigation of 2d. To the right of appropriating money in aid the Wabash River," which was' sent to me at the of such works when carried on by a State, or by a close of your last session, ought to pass, and I have, company in virtue of State authority, surrendering therefore, withheld from it my approval, and now the claim of jurisdiction; and return it to the Senate, the body in which it origi- 3d. To the propriety of appropriations for imnated. provements of a particular class, viz.: for lightThere can be no question connected with the ad- houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and for the ministration of public affairs, more important or removal of sand-bars, sawyers, and other tempomore difficult to be satisfactorily dealt with, than rary and partial impediments in our navigable that which relates to the rightful authority and rivers and harbors. proper action of the Federal Government upon the The claims of power for the General Governsubject of internal improvements. To inherent ment upon each of these points certainly present embarrassments have been added others resulting matter of the deepest interest. The first is, howfrom the course of our legislation concerning it. ever, of much the greatest importance, inasmuch I have heretofore communicated freely with as, in addition to the dangers of unequal and imCongress upon this subject; and, in adverting to it provident expenditures of public moneys, common again, I cannot refrain from expressing my in- to all, there is superadded to that the conflicting creased conviction of its extreme importance, as jurisdictions of the respective Governments. Federwell in regard to its bearing upon the maintenance al jurisdiction, at least to the extent I have stated, of the constitution, and the prudent management has been justly regarded by its advocates as necesof the public revenue, as on account of its disturb- sarily appurtenant to the power in question, if that ing effect upon the harmony of the Union. exists by the constitution. That the most injurious We are in no danger from violations of the con- conflicts would unavoidably arise between the stitution by which encroachments are made upon respective jurisdictions of the State and Federal the personal rights of the citizen. The sentence Governments, in the absence of a constitutional of condemnation long since pronounced by the provision marking out the respective boundaries, American people upon acts of that character, will, cannot be doubted. The local advantages to be I doubt not, continue to prove as salutary in its obtained would induce the States to overlook, in effects as it is irreversible in its nature. But against the beginning, the dangers and difficulties to which the dangers of unconstitutional acts which, instead they might ultimately be exposed. The powers of menacing the vengeance of offended authority, exercised by the Federal Government would soon proffer local advantages, and bring in their train be regarded with jealousy by the State authorities, the patronage of the Government, we are, I fear, and, originating as they must from implication or not so safe. To suppose that because our Govern- assumption, it would be impossible to affix to them ment has been instituted for the benefit of the certain and safe limits. Opportunities and temptapeople, it must therefore have the power to do tions to the assumption of power incompatible with whatever may seem to conduce to the public good, State sovereignty would be increased, and those is an error, into which even honest minds are too barriers which resist the tendency of our system apt to fall. In yielding themselves to this fallacy, towards consolidation greatly weakened. The they overlook the great considerations in which officers and agents of the General Government the Federal Constitution wasfounded. They forget might not always have the discretion to abstain that, in consequence of the conceded diversities in from intermeddling with State concerns; and if the interest and condition of the different States, they did, they would not always escape the suspi. it was foreseen, at the period of its adoption, cion of having done so. Collisions and consequent that although a particular measure of the Govern- irritations would spring up; that harmony which ment might be beneficial and proper in one State, should ever exist between the General Government it might be the reverse in another-that it was for and each member of the confederacy, would be frethis reason the States would not consent to make a quently interrupted; a spirit of contention would grant to the Federal Government of the general be engendered, and the dangers of disunion greatly and usual powers of Government, but of such only multiplied. as were specifically enumerated, and the probable Yet we all know that, notwithstanding these grave effects of which they could, as they thought, safely objections, this dangerous doctrine was at one time anticipate; and they forget also the paramount apparently proceeding to its final establishment with obligation upon all to abide by the compact, then fearful rapidity. The desire to embark the Federal so solemnly, and, as it was hoped, so firmly estab- Government in works of internal improvement, prelished. In addition to the dangers to the consti- vailed, in the highest degree, during the first session tution, springing from the sources I have stated, of the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in there has been one which was perhaps greater than my present situation. When the bill authorizing a all. I allude to the materials which this subject subscription on the part of the United States for has afforded for sinister appeals to selfish feelings, stock in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Comand the opinion heretofore so extensively enter- pany, passed the two Houses, there had been reporttained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal ed, by the Committees on Internal Improvements ambition. With such stimulants it is not surprising bills containing appropriations for such objects, inthat the acts and pretensions of the Federal Govern- elusive of those for the Cumberland road, and for ment in this behalf should sometimes have been harbors and light-houses, to the amount of about one