to regulate and dispose of its own territory, according to the suggestions of the wisdom of Congress; the second embraces a similar power over all other national property, and consequently over the surplus revenue to be found at any time within the public Treasury.

The obligation, as well as the power, of rendering productive such portion of the revenue as the public exigencies do not require, and as cannot without considerable loss be applied to the redemption of the public debts before they are due, is clearly deducible from this clause of the Constitution.

This surplus must otherwise lie idle in the public Treasury; a Treasury which, in fact, exists in contemplation of law. It must remain in the hands of collectors and the public officers, or be deposited in the vaults of some bank, and, in both cases, be exposed to all the hazard, without retaining the profit, of a loan.

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pose to constitute a fund for internal improvement.

My colleague cannot deny the possibility of forming a system which shall combine individual sagacity, enterprise, and skill, with the national wealth, for the attainment of the far greater part, if not all the objects, upon which this power of appropriation would be exerted. He has not only beheld, but recently co-operated in the execution of such a system, in the State which we both represent. The characteristic feature of that system is, that to every public work, deemed by the legislature worthy of their patronage, and to which three-fifths of the stock necessary to complete it shall have been previously subscribed by private individuals, the State subscribes the remaining two-fifths, with a proviso that the total profit of the stock shall exclusively belong to the individual subscribers, until they shall have received legal interest upon all the sums which they may have advanced; after which the State participates with them in the dividends of the common stock. The subscription of the State operates as a moderate insurance against loss to private adventurers, who are expected to be attracted to all such enterprises, principally by the I do not contend, in virtue of this clause, for hope of gain; and is thus calculated to elicit the the power to establish a banking or any other subscription of individual wealth to public use. chartered company; but for the simple author- While the State regards herself as amply remu. ity to invest, by exchange, or sale, one species of nerated for a temporary suspension of the inproperty into another, for the public benefit. terest on her share of the common stock, by the If the imposition or continuance of public tax-accomplishment of a public work, calculated to es, with a view to such an object, be deemed a replace this interest at some future period, and measure of doubtful right or expediency, no to augment, in the interim, her wealth and popsuch doubt can arise, as to such an application ulation. of the sum now proposed to be appropriated, or of the proceeds of the sales of public land, to which this section of the Constitution directly applies.

Can it be questioned that such portion of the public money may be constitutionally applied to the purchase of the stock of a canal or turnpike company, as it had already been to the stock of a bank, under such rules and regulations as Congress may prescribe?

This system is not more susceptible of appli cation to the circumstances of a single State, than of the United States. It would only be necessary, in order to extend the scale, to extend also the means of its application.

Although, under no Constitutional obligation to look beyond the profit which might attend I would reluctantly appropriate any part of any such application of the public money, Con- the public revenue to roads or canals, without gress might, and undoubtedly would, blend with that security for their judicious, faithful, and that consideration other objects of general ad- economical completion, which would be afforded vantage. As individual subscribers to the stock by associating, in their original structure and sub. of all canal and turnpike companies usually ex- sequent preservation and repair, the cautious satend their views, even in pursuit of profit, beyond gacity, persevering industry, and unceasing vigithe expected dividends upon their stock, to the lance, of private interest; although I am not beneficial end of its application; so the Govern- prepared to say that there are no works of this dement may often confidently anticipate a benefit, scription to which I would not subscribe, from far surpassing in value any pecuniary profit on its the public Treasury, a larger proportion than stocks, from the success of a public work of gen-two-fifths of the stock necessary for their comeral utility. In all such acquisitions of stock, it pletion; or that there may not be some connected will regard the convenience and safety of the with the common defence, which would be cheapnation, and if the former has a price, the latterly provided for, at the sole cost of the Union. unquestionably has none.

This mode of applying the public money, to the structure of roads and canals, is liable to none of the objections urged by one of my colleagues (Mr. SMYTH) to the expediency of passing the resolutions before the Committee.

Two of my honorable colleagues, (Messrs. SMYTH and BARBOUR,) to whose arguments I have so often referred, sought to discourage the smaller States from yielding their support to the resolutions before us, by suggesting that, under any equitable distribution of the fund, which it is Indeed, when the general purport of the resolu- proposed to set apart for internal improvement, tions is considered, these objections must appear but a very inconsiderable allotment would fall to to himself premature, since they apply rather to their share; while the other significantly asked, the details of a system anticipated by him, than "if Massachusetts would give five millions of to the resolutions themselves, which merely pro-dollars to New York or Virginia ?”

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Although all the States, or even a majority of them, might not combine in devoting their respective shares of such a fund to one common object, yet some of them occasionally would, so as to obviate, in part, the chief inconvenience resulting from distribution.

Sir, the question whether Congress have the Constitutional power so to apply the public money, ought not to be decided by such considerations. Its decision may, indeed, but its truth cannot be affected, in the remotest degree, by the manner in which the power that we seek to sustain, may be hereafter exercised. If the smaller States will receive but little, they require less than those of larger dimensions; and it should satisfy their justice, that what they receive will be in the exact proportion of what they contribute to the common fund. The first suggestion of my colleague reduces the fund to the least sum propos-portant, though much less expensive connexion ed; the last swells it to millions.

I acknowledge that I most earnestly wish to see it augmented to an extent, much beyond the appropriation contemplated by the resolutions on our table. And when a proper occasion shall offer, I will submit a resolution which I hold in my hand, to enlarge it by adding the proceeds of sale of all the lands ceded to the Government of the United States by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The propriety of thus enlarging the proposed fund has been suggested to me, as well by the general policy of such an augmentation, as by the express terms of the Virginia act of cession, to which the United States were a party. There is, in this compact, a reservation of "all the ceded territory, as a common fund for the use and benefit of the several States, including Virginia, according to their respective propor'tions in the general charge and expenditures set 'forth in the Articles of Confederation," which would be found, on comparison, to orrespond very nearly with that ratio of distribution, provided by the act of the last Congress creating a fund for internal improvement, to which the late President refused his assent.

The compact solemnly subjoins to this reservation, that "this fund shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for the purpose set forth, and for no other purpose whatever." The maxims of good faith, and a positive provision of the Federal Constitution, enjoin upon Congress the fulfilment of this stipulation; and no mode of giving effect to it would better accord with its letter and spirit, than a distribution of the fund among the several States, for the purposes proposed by the resolutions.

The sentiment, I know, Mr. Chairman, exists, and I regret that it does, that, if a fund be provided for internal improvement, it will be misapplied, to gratify local and sectional interests. An effectual security against such an abuse of power, would be created by a distribution of its annual revenue, in conformity with the proviso of the Virginia compact; and if the fund should be augmented to the extent which I have just proposed, such a division of it would not destroy its efficacy. It cannot be believed that there exists a single State in this Union, in which such a fund would not be required, or could not be judiciously applied. No part of America has yet reached a degree of improvement, which leaves its internal intercourse without a demand for an additional read or canal.

Is it too much to suppose, that there exists throughout the United States a patriotism which would exult at the accomplishment of a connexion of the Lakes with the Hudson, by the means of the useful and noble work which New York has just commenced, or of that scarcely less imbetween the waters of the Ohio and the Chesapeake, which Virginia has so long contemplated?

To the smaller States, who are said to have least concern in the decision of this question, every new cement of an Union, essential, indeed, to the future prosperity and happiness of all its members, must be peculiarly interesting, since in any calamity, which might destroy this great bulwark of our common safety, they would be the greatest sufferers.

With regard to the general character of that power which we are now, I trust, about to exert, it must be universally acknowledged, that whatever tends to facilitate the necessary intercourse between the remote extremities and the common centre of so vast an empire, has the same propitious effect, as would result, were it otherwise practicable, from contracting the extent of its territory, without reducing its population, impairing its wealth, or narrowing its resources.

To the friends of American liberty, who justly regard the State governments as essential parts of a Republican system erected on a scale so extended as to constitute a cause of alarm, or who, with equal truth, consider our union as the bond alike of our independence and freedom, every measure which has the effect of diminishing the extent of the one, or of multiplying and strengthning the ties of the other, must be viewed with anxious solicitude.

For Virginia, so unhappily divided on this question, it should be enough to silence her objections, that, situated midway between the colonies of England and Spain, she constitutes the key of that expanded arch, which, stretching from North to South, binds the whole East in union, and sustains, upon its broad and lofty summit, our Western Empire.

Representing a district adjacent to the seat of the Government, I have personally, or in behalf of my immediate constituents, less interest in the decision of this question, than those gentlemen who come from the remote sections of the Union; but who can be insensible to the great purpose which should constantly animate all our labors; the preservation and improvement of that noble fabric of Government, under which it is alike our happiness and our glory to live?

Mr. BALDWIN followed on the same side, and spoke about three quarters of an hour in support of the resolutions.

Mr. TUCKER, of Virginia, said, that he felt himself imperiously called upon to submit to the

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ability, in this great cause, can give to him so enviable a title, it must be awarded to the gentleman. He never "bore himself better" in his days. I always hear him with pleasure-I always confess his powers-but, on this occasion he has surpassed any former exertion. How unfortunate that this zeal was not as uniform as it was warm; and that, on former occasions, the same heroic prowess had not been manifested in defence of the rights of the States!

Committee his views on the Constitutional ques- of a triumvirate. If impassioned zeal and great tion involved in the resolutions under consideration. In opening this subject to the Committee, he had purposely avoided the discussion of the Constitutional point, as the report had submitted the views of the select committee, and a farther disquisition from him would have only led to uninteresting recapitulations of what had already been advanced. He had, therefore, determined patiently to wait till the opponents of the resolutions had developed their arguments, and then to ask the indulgence of the Committee. He did The gentleman told us the other day, that the not wish to shrink from the duty which had fallen nation would be in sackcloth and ashes, if this to his lot. He did not wish to be chargeable proposition should be successful. To-day he tells with (what could not fail to grate upon the feel- us, that he retracts the remark. He now hopes ings of any honorable man) quietly standing by, that the nation will arise in its strength, and put and permitting others to fight his battles. Yet, down those who advocate these resolutions. He so powerful and overwhelming had been the re- no longer wishes the groans of the nation to be marks of the honorable gentleman from South heard; he hopes for their reprobation. For these Carolina, (Mr. LOWNDES,) that he had been dis- groans I presume he would substitute their hisses. posed to leave the question to the decision of the Sir, there is no man who can feel more sensibly Committee, upon the unanswerable argument of than myself the disapprobation of those who have that gentleman. His friend from Virginia, (Mr. favored me with their confidence. The distinH. NELSON,) had, however, by the character of guished honor I have twice received from them, his observations, compelled him to relinquish this without solicitation, cannot fail to render me desirable retirement from the contest. In the peculiarly solicitous to merit a continuance of conclusion of his remarks, he had said, that he their good opinion. But as, on this occasion, I felt himself called on to pay some attention "to am not only left (from the absence of all instructhis report from the pen of his colleague." Whilst tions) to follow the dictates of my conscience, I tender to the gentleman my thanks for his at- but am bound by my oath to construe this Contentions, I cannot but regret the unfortunate pre-stitution according to my judgment, I cannot apeminence which has, on this occasion, entitled me to receive them. I have before said, and still feel, that the duty imposed upon me is too weighty for my feeble strength, but, however nerveless my arm, I shall not hesitate to defend myself from the attack which has been made upon me.

prehend their censure in following my convictions. They know well, that the first and most important requisite in a Representative is independence of mind; and I trust I shall never cease to evince to them that I am not destitute of this qualification.

Sir, the gentleman from Virginia has done me But, sir, whilst I cannot be insensible to the too much honor in associating me with those two disapprobation of the wise and good, I beg leave able men, (the gentleman from South Carolina to assure that gentleman, that retirement has no and the honorable Speaker,) in the modern tri-terrors for me. A seat in this House is not so umvirate of which he has spoken. He has called highly prized, as to induce me to surrender the us the triumvers of the times, and thus seems to honest convictions of my judgment to preserve compare us with the detested triumvirate of the it. Nor am I more alarmed at the intimation of Roman people. We are, doubtless, under great the gentleman, that the report of the committee obligations to the gentleman for those high hon- conveys a censure of the Executive. I appeal to ors, which he so liberally bestows. It remains the candor of any man, who will peruse that for us only to divide among ourselves this glori- paper, whether any of its pages contain an exous spoil to appropriate to each the character pression that can be tortured into such a conwhich belongs to him. In this partition, the great struction. None such was intended. But why, and commanding talents of my friends leaves to he asks, this discrimination? Why has no simime the best title to the least obnoxious character.lar objection been made to former messages? I The fool Lepidus is not as detestable as the knavish Anthony, or the ambitious Cæsar.

But, sir, while the gentleman is so profuse in his compliments to us, he tells us of himself, that he is battling for the rights of the States, in this last struggle with the Federal Government. It is in this last of their fields that the liberties of the States are to be cloven down, and the Federal Government is to triumph over them. It is in this last field, that the gentleman represents himself as fighting their battles, with an almost desperate resolution. He is to be entitled, doubtless, to the distinguished appellation of the last of the Greeks, whilst he yields to us the bad eminence

am not responsible as to them-but the reason for a discrimination seems manifest. A former Congress has actually passed a bill imbodying the principles of these resolutions. A former Executive rejected this bill. When, therefore, there existed a fair presumption, that the popular branch might again act upon the subject, when the Executive intimates the futility of such an attempt-and when the committee were desirous of pressing upon the consideration of the House the importance and propriety of renewing the effort, it became unavoidable to meet and remove the objection then intimated by the President In doing this, the course which has been pursued

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is believed to have been respectful and decorous-did not regard its provisions as expedient and whilst it did not compromit the dignity of this House.

The gentleman, sir, has accused his adversaries of inconsistency. He complains, that we are deserting the great principles of the Republicans in 1798, and subverting the acknowledged rights of the States, by a construction too latitudinous. Not content with a single intimation of this charge, he has made it the commencement and the conclusion of his address. He speaks of the "great battle fought" in the early times of the Constitution, when the champions of the States were Mr. Madison, the late President of the United States, and Mr. Gallatin" not the Lord Chatham of the ministry, but the Mr. Pitt of the Commons House." And on what great occasion did this celebrated conflict take place? It was on the bank bill! On the question of the establishment of the first bank of the United States, which was vehemently opposed by those two great men, arose, as he tells us, the great division of parties in relation to the rights of the States and the Federal Government. It was then that the strict construction of the Constitution was contended for, and those principles established, in relation to its interpretation, the correctness of which is not now contested, though their application is the subject of litigation. Bearing, then, in our minds this fact, that the bank question was that to which the gentleman refers, as having tried the rights of the States, let us see how far the gentleman himself is entitled to the applause of consistency, in the uniform defence of his beloved State rights. Sir, I shall press this matter upon the gentleman with no unfriendly feeling. I shall put it to him in the same good-humored spirit which animated him in his attempt to furnish evidence of inconsistency against my friend from South Carolina. I know the gentleman's constitutional good humor too well, and have too long experienced his friendly dispositions towards myself, to suppose, that his remarks, in relation to me, were intended, even in the warmth of his zeal, to injure my feelings. I shall, therefore, maintain the same dispositions towards himself. But, before I come down to the period in which the gentleman was a conspicuous actor, I beg leave to advert to a few facts in relation to the bank.

A few years before the expiration of its charter, its renewal was proposed; and Mr. Gallatin, then at the head of the Treasury, who had opposed its passage, recommended its continuance. But the gentleman tells us he was no more Mr. Gallatin of 1791, than "the Lord Chatham of the ministry was the Mr. Pitt of the Parliament House." But he was not destined long to remain alone in this change of his opinions. In a few years, the old bank charter having expired, the subject was again revived. The hostile cloud that had lowered in the horizon so long, broke upon us at length, and during the war a new bank bill was proposed and passed both Houses of Congress. When submitted to Mr. Madison, who has been justly styled the Champion of State Rights, he rejected it, not because it was unconstitutional, but because he

salutary. The Constitutional question he declared to be settled, by the acquiescence and approbation of the nation, and with a magnanimity and modesty peculiar to great minds, he yielded to the precedent which had been so decisively sanctioned.

And where was the gentleman then? In this second assault upon State rights, where was the great defender of the States? He was then in Congress. Where then was his zeal which has, on this occasion, blazed forth with such conspicuous brightness? Unfortunately for the States, it was in dim eclipse. He, too, voted for this bank bill-for the very principle on which "the first great battle, in relation to State rights, had been fought."

I know that the gentleman considers that vote as justified by the situation of the country. We better to break this "sacred Constitution" than were at war-in danger of subjugation-it was to be reduced again to colonial servitude. But will not the same principle justify the appointment of a dictator? And does the gentleman seriously believe, that it is better to construe this to tear it in pieces during war, than to give it Constitution with so much rigor as to compel us that fair and practical construction which will fit the necessities and wants of the nation at all times? Is it better to compel the Government, in time of war, to resort to the necessity which is above all right, or, by rational interpretation, to acknowledge a Constitutional necessity which can give right?

But this bank bill was rejected. The cloud of war was dispersed; the halcyon days of peace returned, and the tyrannous necessity of war was at an end. Another bank bill, in a time of profound peace, was proposed and passed by Congress, and received the signature of Mr. Madison. Where was the gentleman then? He was in Congress! Where then was his zeal? On the passage of the bill to a third reading he was unfortunately absent. He had no opportunity of distinguishing himself by his chivalry on that occasion. But, his good stars prevailed, and, on a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, he was fortunately in the House. Here was a fair opportunity, in time of profound peace, and on the great question which had agitated parties in 1791, to recur to his principles, and put an end to the bill-and how then did he vote? He was not content even to be silent. He voted against the postponement, which was a vote decisively in favor of the bill. The gentleman now admits he was in favor of it.

Sir, I have heard an old statesman laughingly observe, that no man, who had been in public life five years, ought to be held to show, that he had been entirely consistent in his opinions. Five years, it seems, is a good bar to a charge of inconsistency. Perhaps it is under this novel statute of limitations, that the gentleman, who has long been in public life, may be considered as protected, while I, unfortunately, cannot repel his charge by