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18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION.

On the Public Debt.-On the Slave Trade.

not be regularly included in the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury at the close of the last year; but must, nevertheless, be considered as part of the debt, with a view to future years.

This sum of $88,545,003 38, is redeemable as follows:

In 1825, $7,654,570 93 of six per cent.

1826, 19,002,356 62 six per cent. of 1813.
1827, 13,001,437 63 six per cent of 1814.
1828, 9,490,099 10 six per cents.
1831, 00,018,901 59

1832, 6,673,900 72 of which $1,018,000 72 are
at 5 per cent. and $5,000,000 at 4 pr. ct.
1833, 6,673,055 31 all at 4 per cent. except
$18,901 59 at 5 per cent.

1834, 1,654,153 73 at 4 per cent. 1835, 4,735,296 30 at 5 per cent.

7,000,000 00 at pleasure, being the sub scription to the capital of the Bank of the United States, at 5 per cent. 13,296,231 45 at pleasure, being the 3 per

cents.

$88,545,003 38

By this statement it appears, that, in the years 1829 and 1830, no part of the public debt will be reimburseable, excepting the seven millions to the Bank, and the three per cents.; but, as these bear a less interest than that portion of the 6 per cents. of 1813, redeemable on the 1st of January, 1826, and which cannot, for the want of means, be reimbursed before the years 1829 and 1830, it is believed to be advisable to provide for that portion, by a new stock, at a reduced rate of interest, and payable at those periods.

The committee, therefore, recommend a new loan, or an exchange, to the amount of $12,000,000, at a rate of interest not exceeding 44 per cent. reimburseable in equal portions, in the years 1829 and 1830; and for that purpose report a bill.

REPORT

[H. of R.

The convention was approved by the Senate, with certain qualifications, to all of which, except one, Great Britain sub modo, acceded; her Government having instructed its Minister in Washington to tender to the acceptance of the United States a treaty agreeing, in every particular, except one, with the terms approved, by the Senate. This exception, the message of the Presi dent to the House of Representatives, presumes" not to be of sufficient magnitude to defeat an object so near to the heart of both nations," as the abolition of the African slave trade, "and so desirable to the friends of humanity throughout the world." But the President further adds, "that, as objections to the principle recom. mended by the House of Representatives, or, at least, to the consequences inseparable from it, and which are un derstood to apply to the law, have been raised, which may deserve a reconsideration of the whole subject, he has thought proper to suspend the conclusion of a new convention, until the definitive sentiments of Congress can be ascertained."

Your committee are therefore required to review the grounds of the law of 1820, and the resolution of 1823, to which the rejected, or, as they rather hope, the suspended convention, referred. The former was the joint act of both branches of Congress, approved by the President; the latter, although adopted with extraordinary unanimity, was the single act of the House of Represen. tatives.

Upon the principle or intention of the act of Congress of 1820, making the slave trade punishable as piracy, the history of the act may reflect some light.

Of the Committee to whom was referred so much
of the President's Message, of the 7th of De-a
cember last, as relates to the Suppression o the
Slave Trade.-Feb. 16, 1825.

A bill from the Senate, entitled "An act to continue in force the act to protect the commerce of the United States, and punish the crime of piracy, and, also, to make further provision to punish the crime of piracy," came to the House of Representatives on the 27th of April, 1820, and was, on the same day, referred to a committee of the whole, to which had been referred a bill of similar purport and title, that had originated in the House of Representatives.

Upon the 8th of May following, the Committee on the Suppression of the Slave Trade reported an amendment of two additional sections to the Senate's bill; also, bill to incorporate the American Society for Colonizing joint resolutions, two of which related to the objects of the free People of Color of the United States, and three

that Society; but the first of which, in behalf of both The Committee on the Suppression of the Slave Trade, Houses of Congress, requested the President "to conto whom was referred so much of the President's messult and negotiate with all the governments where minissage, of the 7th December last, as relates to that sub-ters of the United States are, or shall be accredited, on ject, have, according to order, had the same under consideration, and respectfully REPORT:

That, pursuant to the almost unanimous request of the House of Representatives, expressed by their resolution of the 28th February, 1823, the President of the United States concluded a convention with Great Bri. tain, on the 13th March, in the following year, by which the African slave trade was denounced to be piracy under the laws of both countries; the United States having so declared it, by their antecedent act of the 15th of May, 1820, and it being understood between the contracting parties, as a preliminary to the ratification of the convention by the United States, that Great Britain should, by an act of Parliament, concur in a similar declaration.

With great promptitude, and in accordance with this agreement, such an act was passed, declaring the African slave trade to be piracy, and annexing to it the penalty denounced against this crime by the common law of nations. A copy of this act was transmitted, by the British Government, to the Executive of the United States, and the convention submitted, by the President, to the Senate, for their advice and consent.

Vol. I.--10.

the means of effecting an entire and immediate abolition of the African Slave Trade." The amendatory sections denounced the guilt and penalty of piracy against any citizen of the United States, of the crew or company of any foreign vessel, and any person whatever of the crew or company of any American vessel, who shall be engag ed in this traffic.

The amendments, bill, and resolutions, along with the explanatory report, which accompanied them, were referred to the committee of the whole abovementioned; and on the 11th of the same month, the House proceeded to consider them. After a discussion in the committee, the piracy bill, and its amendments having been adopted, were reported, and both were concurred in by the House. The following day, the bill, as amended, being then on its passage, a motion was debated and negatived, to recommit the bill to a select committee, with an instruction to strike out the last section of the amend ment. The bill then passed, and was ordered to be returned, as amended, to the Senate.

On the same day, a motion prevailed to discharge the committee of the whole from the further consideration of the bill, and the resolutions which accompanied the report; and the particular resolution, already recited, being under consideration, to try the sense of the House

18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION.

On the Slave Trade.

[H. of R. on its merits, it was moved to lay it on the table. The pal maritime powers of Europe, in relation to the same yeas and nays having been ordered on this motion, it topic, the committee referred to the decision of Sir Wil was rejected by a majority of 78 to 35 members. It hav-liam Scott, in the case of the French ship Le Louis, to ing been again proposed to postpone the resolution, till demonstrate that Great Britain claimed no right of search, the ensuing or second session of the same Congress, and in peace, but such as the consent of other nations should this proposal being also determined in the negative, the accord to her by treaty; and sought it by a fair exresolution was engrossed, read the third time, passed, change, in this tranquil mode, only for the beneficent and ordered to be transmitted to the Senate on the same purpose of a more enlarged humanity. day with the piracy bill.

The amendments of this bill underwent like scrutiny, and debate, in the Senate, and were finally concurred in, the day after they were received from the House of Representatives, without any division apparent on the journal of that House.

Certain facts, disclosed by the diplomatic correspond. ence of France and England, during the pendency of that case, in the British Court of Admiralty, were calcu lated to guard the sympathies of America from being misguided by the language of the former power. The painful truth was elicited, that France had evad. and mankind. That she had, long after the date of that promise, tolerated, if she had not cherished, several branches of a traffic, which she had concurred in de nouncing to be the opprobrium of Christendom, and which she had subsequently bound herself, by the higher obligations of a solemn treaty, to abolish, as inconsist ent with the laws of God and Nature.

The resolution which had been received by the Sened the execution of her promise at Vienna, to Europe ate, at a different hour of the same day, was read a second time on the 15th of May, was further taken up and considered, as in committee of the whole, reported to the House without amendment, and ordered, without debate, to pass to a third reading. But this being the last day of the session of Congress, and a single member objecting" that it was against one of the rules of the Senate to read it a third time on the same day, withcut unanimous consent," it remained on the table of that body, on its final adjournment, after an ineffectual effort to suspend one of their rules, against which many of the friends of the resolution felt themselves compelled, by their invariable usage, to vote in union with its

enemies.

Succeeding events in the councils of the French na tion have not impaired the force of this testimony. of a Government which insults the humanity of a gene What authority can be accorded to the moral influence rous and gallant people, by pleading, in apology for the breach of its plighted faith, that its subjects required the indulgence of this guilty traffic!

One of the objections to the resolution, in the Senate, was founded upon the peculiar relation of that branch of The Emperor Napoleon, who re-established this com the National Legislature to the Executive, in the ratifi-merce on the ruins of the French Republic, also abolish cation of treaties; which seemed, in the opinion of those who urged this argument, to interdict their concurrence in a request of the President to institute any negotiations whatever.

A cotemporary exposition of the object of the amendments of the piracy bill, and the resolution, which the House of Representatives adopted, by so large a majority, will be found in the report, which accompanied them, from the committee on the suppression of the slave trade, on the 8th May, 1822. Those objects, it will be seen, were in perfect accordance with each other. They were designed to introduce, by treaty, into the code of international law, a principle, deemed by the committee essential to the abolition of the African slave trade, that it should be denounced and treated as piracy by the civilized world.

The resolution being joint, and having failed in the Senate, for the reason already stated, the subject of it was revived in the House of Representatives, at a very early period of the succeeding session of Congress, by a call for information from the Executive, which, being received, was referred to a committee of the same title with the last. Their report, after reviewing all the an. tecedent measures of the United States for the suppression of the slave trade, urgently recommended the cooperation of the American and British navy against this traffic, under the guarded provisions of a common treaty, authorizing the practice of a qualified and reciprocal right of search.

ed it again, when he sought to conciliate the people of France, during that transient reign, which immediately preceded his final overthrow.

Congress adjourned without acting on this report.

By an instruction to the Committee on the Suppres sion of the Slave Trade, of the 15th of January, 1822, the same subject was a third time brought directly be The instruction fore the House of Representatives. called the attention of the committee to the present con dition of the African slave traile; to the defects of any of the existing laws for its suppression, and to their ap propriate remedies. In the report made in obedience to this instruction, on the 12th of April. 1822, the com mittee state, that, after having consulted all the evidence within their reach, they are brought to the mournful conclusion, that the traffic prevailed to a greater extent than ever, and with increased malignity; that its tota! suppression, or even sensible diminution, cannot be er pected from the separate and disunited efforts of one of more states, so long as a single flag remains to cover it from detection and punishment. They renew, therefore, as the only practicable and efficient remedy, the com currence of the United States with the maritime powers of Europe, in a modified and reciprocal exercise of the right of search.

In closing their report, the committee add, in effect, that they cannot doubt that the people of America "have the intelligence to distinguish between the right "of searching a neutral on the high seas, in time of war, This report closed with a resolution, requesting "the" claimed by some belligerants, and that mutual, re President of the United States to enter into such ar- "stricted, and peaceful concession, by treaty, suggested rangements as he might deem suitable and proper, with " by your committee, and which is demanded in the one or more of the maritime powers of Europe, for the" name of suffering humanity." The committee had effectual abolition of the African slave trade." before intimated, that the remedy which they recom The United States had, by the treaty of Ghent, enter-mended to the Ilouse of Representatives, presupposed ed into a formal stipulation with Great Britain, "that the exercise of the authority of another department of both the contracting parties shall use their best endea the Government, and that objections to the exercise c vors to accomplish the entire abolition of this traffic" this authority, in the mode which they had presumed t The failure of the only joint attempt which had been suggest, had hitherto existed in that department. Ther made by England and America, at the date of this re- report closed with a resolution differing in no other re port, to give effect to this provision, being ascribed, inspect from that of the preceding session, than that it di part, to a jealousy of the views of the former, corrobo- not require the concurrence of the Senate, for the res rated by the language and conduct of one of the princi- son already suggested.

18th CONGRESS,

2d SESSION.

On the Slave Trade.

The report and resolution were referred to a committee of the whole, and never further considered.

[H. of R.

It was not misconceived by the House of Representatives, when ratified with almost unprecedented unanimity.

After a delay till the 20th of the succeeding February, a resolution was submitted to the House, which was An unfounded suggestion has been heard, that the evidently a part of the same system of measures, for the abortive attempt to amend the resolution, indicated that suppression of the slave trade, which had been begun it was not considered as involving the right of search. by the act of the 3d of March, 1819, and followed up by The opposite conclusion is the more rational, if not, inthe connected series of reports and resolutions which deed, irresistible; that, having, by the denomination of the committee have reviewed, and which breathe the the crime, provided for the detection, trial, and punishsame spirit. ment of the criminal, an amendment, designing to add This resolution, in proposing to make the slave trade what was already included in the main proposition, piracy, by the consent of mankind, sought to supplant, would be superfluous, if not absurd. But no such amend by a measure of greater rigor, the qualified international ment was rejected. The House of Representatives, exchange of the right of search for the apprehension of very near the constitutional close of the session of 1823, the African slave dealer, and the British system of mix- desirous of economizing time, threatened to be consumed tribunals created for his trial and punishment; a sys-ed by a protracted debate, entertained the previous questem of which experience and the recent extension of tion, while an amendment, the only one offered to the the traffic, which it sought to limit, had disclosed the en-resolution, was depending. The effect of the previous tire inefficacy. question was to bring on an immediate decision upon the resolution itself, which was adopted by a vote of 131 members to nine.

The United States had already established the true denomination and grade of this offence, by a municipal law. The resolution contemplated, as did the report which accompanied and expounded that law, the extension of its principle, by negotiation, to the code of all

nations.

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Such a measure, to succeed to its fullest extent, must have a beginning somewhere. Commencing with the consent of any two states, to regard it as binding on themselves only, it would, by the gradual accession of others, enlarge the sphere of its operation, until it embraced, as the resolution contemplated, all the maritime powers of the civilized world.

While it involved of necessity the visit and search of piratical vessels, as belligerant rights against the common enemies of man, it avoided all complexity, difficulty, and delay, in the seizure, condemnation, and punishment of the pirate himself. It made no distinction in favor of those pirates who prey upon the property, against those who seize, torture, and kill, or consign to interminable and hereditary slavery, the persons of their enemies.

Your committee are at a loss for the foundation of any such discrimination. It is believed, that the most an cient piracies consisted in converting innocent captives into slaves; and those were not attended with the destruction of one third of their victims, by loathsome confinement and mortal disease.

While the modern, therefore, accords with the ancient denomination of this crime, its punishment is not disproportionate to its guilt. It has robbery and murder for its mere accessories, and moistens one continent with blood and tears, in order to curse another, by slow consuming ruin, physical and moral.

One high consolation attends upon the new remedy for this frightful and prolific evil. If once successful, it will forever remain so, until, being unexerted, its very application will be found in history alone.

Can it be doubted, that, if ever legitimate commerce shall supplant the source of this evil in Africa, and a reliance on other supplies of labor its use elsewhere, a revival of the slave trade will be as impracticable, as a reversion to barbarism?-that, after the lapse of a century from its extinction, except where the consequences of the crime shall survive, the stories of the African slave trade will become as improbable among the unlearned, as the expeditions of the heroes of Homer?

The principle of the law of 1820, making the slave trade a statutory piracy, and of the resolution of the House of Representatives of May, 1823, which sought to render this denunciation of that offence universal, annot, therefore, be misunderstood.

It is alike untrue, that the resolution was regarded with indifference. The House had been prepared to pass it without debate, by a series of measures, having their origin in 1819, and steadily advancing to maturity,

Before the resolution did pass, motions had been sub. mitted to lay it on the table, and to postpone it to a future day. The former was resisted by an ascertained majority of 104 to 25; the latter without a division. Is the House now ready to retrace its steps?

The Committee believe not. Neither the people of America, nor their representatives, will sully the glory they have earned by their early labor, and steady perseverance, in sustaining, by their federal and state governments, the cause of humanity at home and abroad.

The calamity inflicted upon them, by the introduction of slavery, in a form, and to an extent forbidding its hasty alleviation by intemperate zeal, is imputable to a foreign cause, for which the past is responsible to the present age. They will not deny to themselves, and to mankind, a generous co-operation in the only efficient measure of retributive justice, to an insulted and afflicted continent, and to an injured and degraded race.

In the independence of Spanish and Portuguese America, the Committee behold a speedy termination of the few remaining obstacles to the extention of the policy of the resolution of May, 1823.

Brazil cannot intend to resist the voice of the residue of the continent of America: and Portugal, deprived of her great market for slaves, will no longer have a motive to resist the common feelings of Europe. And yet, while, from the Rio de la Plata, to the Amazon, and through the American Archipelago, the importation of slaves covertly continues, if it be not openly countenanced, the impolicy is obvious, of denying to the American shore the protective vigilance of the only adequate check upon this traffic.

Your committee forbear to enter upon an investigation of the particular provisions of a depending negotiation, nor do they consider the message referred to them as inviting any such inquiry.

They will not regard a negotiation to be dissolved, which has approached so near consummation, nor a convention, as absolutely void, which has been executed by one party, and which the United States, having first tendered, should be the last to reject.

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On Internal Improvements.

[H. of R.

nies incorporated in the respective states, for internal improvements.

18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION. ments." This bill proposes to authorize the President of the United States to borrow, on the best terms he can, any sums of money, not exceeding, in the whole, ten millions of dollars; which sums are to be borrowed at such times as may be necessary for the purposes contained in the second section of the bill, and to be re-its operation, will not interfere with objects of the fin deemable at the end of- years.

The second section authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to make subscriptions, on the part of the United States, in such companies for internal improve ments, as may be incorporated by the respective states, and as Congress may approve from time to time.

The third section contains a provision, that each state may, under certain restrictions, purchase the stock subscribed in such state, and take a transfer of the same from the ecretary of the Treasury.

The fourth section directs the Secretary of the Treasury, as long as any stock belongs to the United States, to receive the dividends on the same, and to vote for the officers of each company, according to the shares subscribed.

The committee have directed their attention, mainly, to such considerations of the subject as may lead to the actual execution of internal improvements.

The construction of the Federal Government, as a general head, and the existence of many states as separate parts of the whole, create obstacles against the execution of many important works, but none, it is believed, which may not be overcome, and, in a manner, that will be reconcileable to the pretensions of the different governments.

As to the objects of improvements, whether they belong to the General Government or to a state, the execution of them will be, in a degree, beneficial to the whole. An object of improvement may be entirely within a state, and still be of a Federal character, as a road to a fortification. The object may embrace parts of two states, as a bridge over å river, that divides the two states; yet the states may erect the bridge, if Congress gives its consent, otherwise, any agreement or compact between the states will not be binding; in such a case, Congress could either give consent, or cause the bridge to be erected by the United States, if it was necessary to answer any national purpose; or it might be erected by a company incorporated by the two states. If the object of imprøvement has a wide range, and is to pass through many states, there the General Government can act alone, as in the case of the improvements of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. These improvements cannot be distinguished from any other of the same importance, that passes through a number of states.

The plan proposed by the bill, after much reflection, has been deemed to be the most judicious of any that can be devised. It is a plan of encouragement, and m

class. It will excite the states to incorporate companies for such objects as will be, in a degree, national, and sufficiently so as to induce Congress to countenance them; it leaves Congress to decide in each case, which presented upon its own circumstances and merits.

Congress, on all occasions, is to act for the good of the whole; and there must be many instances where the public interest of the Union will require large expenditures in one portion of the country than in an other.

States, which have important natural advantages for improvements, will not be willing to yield them to the General Government, although they may stand in need of its aid in the beginning-for instance, Pennsylvans, from her interest and pride, never could be disposed to permit the contemplated canal from the Susquehanna to Pittsburg, to go into any other hands than her ow This plan contains the advantage of receiving aid from the General Government, while it retains to the states the right of purchasing the interest of the United States at pleasure.

Congress can act, in any case, after receiving the ne cessary information, without waiting for information from other places.

The object of introducing the bill this session, is to lay the subject generally before the public; it is not de signed to act on it until the next session of Congress when its details, if the principles of the bill are sa tioned, can be revised and improved.

The committee cannot conceive how the General Go verument can aid in the internal improvements of the country, in most cases, with greater propriety than by subscriptions to companies incorporated by the respec tive states. Congress will have the opinion of the Can ed States' Engineers, who will make the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates; and it will have the opia of a state in each case, and of intelligent stockholders to the importance and probable profits of each work and, finally, Congress will exercise its own judgments the utility and national character of the work. Th prosecution of the works, besides, will be conducted by interested individuals, with less expense and delay tus perhaps it could be done by the public.

As Congress will probably make other expenditures in specific cases, from time to time, the sum is bere mited to ten millions of dollars; yet, Congress can acop the principle that no subscription shall be made to a incorporated company, until a certain proportion of the estimated expense shall have been subscribed for, either by the state or individuals; and this may augment the actual expenditures for public improvements to mor than double the sum mentioned in the bill. Several the states have executed many important works, and, with a judicious management from the General Gover ment, a great deal more may be anticipated on their parts

It is unnecessary, at the present, to make any effort to ascertain where the true line on this subject lies, between the General and State Governments; Congress must decide on each case as it arises, and it is believed that there never can be any collision. Congress will never be disposed to act without the co-operation of the states, except in a national work, passing through different states, and where the states through which it passes are not interested in a degree sufficient to induce them to undertake the perfection of the work, or any con- The aid of the General Government will seldom be siderable part of it; such cases, in the opinion of the required in the construction of roads. The roads which committee, may be considered as of the first national will be necessary for the accommodation of the states, class, and cannot be included in any general and speci- will, in most cases, answer the purposes of the Gencra fic systems; for, although the mountains, streams, and Government. Attention will, perhaps, have to be pa the variety of our climate and soil will not change, still to parts of leading mail routes where the interest of the it would be rash to adopt a system designating where states is not sufficient to induce them to keep such parts roads, canals, and bridges, should be located, ten or in good repair. In the late report of the Secretary twenty years hence; each case must depend on the War, the extension of the Cumberland road from Whee course of trade, and the circumstances that may exist, ating to St. Louis, and the construction of a durable road

the moment it is to be carried into execution.

The committee, however, are of opinon, that there is a secondary class of cases, on which the General Govern

nt and the states can act conjointly by the subscripf stock on the part of the United States, in compa

from the seat of Government to New Orleans, are co sidered as objects of national importance.

By the report of the Postmaster General, of the 15th December, 1824, it appears that the route on which the mail is carried from the Seat of Government to New

18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION.

On Internal Improvements.

[H. of R.

buryport, Portsmouth, Portland, &c. and are saved the difficulty and risk of doubling Cape Ann.

No improvements of which the country is capable, would conduce more to internal commerce and military defence, than this chain of inland water communication along the Atlantic, and its extension to the Mississippi. As to commerce, the communication by this canal route, is from North to South about fifteen degrees, and the produce of the South, cotton, rice, tobacco, sugars, and the fruits of the climate, could be taken to the landings and towns, as far as the extreme point of the North, in a short time, and the boats could return with the manufactures of the North and Middle states. This canal route, in its course, would connect itself with all the valuable streams from the Mississippi to the North, and would save from wrecks large amounts of property. It is estimated that, on the Keys and Shoals of the Florida coast alone, 500,000 dollars worth of property is wrecked annually.

Orleans, is estimated at 1,380 miles, and requires a tra-cester, by Squam, into Ipswich Bay, and thence to Newvel of 24 days in the winter and spring seasons of the year. The mail on this route is sometimes entirely obstructed by high waters; and, when this is not the case, it is frequently much injured by the mail horses swimming creeks and through swamps, by which newspapers are frequently destroyed, and letters obliterated. In the report, it is further remarked, that the route, by the way of Warrenton, Abington, and Knoxville, affords great facilities for the construction of a mail road. Through Virginia and Tennessee, the materials are abundant for the formation of a Turnpike, and through the states of Alabama and Mississippi, it is believed, from information which has been obtained, that, in no part of the Union, can an artificial road, of the same length, be constructed at less expense. On this part of the route, the face of the country is level, and the soil well adapted for the formation of a solid road. If a substantial road were made in this direction to New Or leans, the mail could be transported to that place from this city, in eleven days. If the road were to pass through the capitals of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, it could be conveyed in less than twelve days. The Department now pays at the rate of $52 76 a mile for the transportation of the mail three times in each week to New Orleans; when, on a good turnpike road, it could be conveyed in a stage as often, and in less than half the time, at the same expense, with the utmost security, and with a considerable increase to the receipts of the Department.

The committee are of opinion, that it would result to the public benefit to make experiments, in this District, of a rail road, and of a road, constructed on M'Adam's plan, for short distances, and in places where they would be useful, as well as for inspection.

On the subject of the inland navigation of the country, a mass of information is contained in the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the 4th of April, 1808; of the Secretary of War, on the 3d of December, 1824; of the United States' Board of Engineers; and of Canal Commissioners in the States.

As to military defence, these improvements would be equally valuable: as the extent of our coast gives to an enemy possessing a powerful naval force, the advantage of selecting the place of attack; but, by means of such a water conveyance, one army could defend a great distance of the seaboard, as it could be transported to any point in a short period.

With such a line of defence, no discreet General would venture far into the interior of the country, when his retreat would be so easily cut off, and his defeat rendered almost certain.

In the other extreme of the country, the Lakes can be connected with the St Lawrence and the Mississippi rivers. The falls of Niagara, it is believed, can be avoided by a canal of about ten miles, and on such a scale as to admit vessels which navigate both Lakes; and at an expense not exceeding a million of dollars. Lake Michigan can be connected by a canal with the waters of the Illinois river, which empties into the Mississippi. And to effect this communication, a law was passed in 1820, by Congress, authorizing the state of Illinois to open a canal through the public lands.

Is is believed to be practicable, and by no means at an unreasonable expense, compared with the high import- Already, steam boats of 450 tons, with full cargoes, ance of the subject, to make an inland water communi- have passed from Buffalo to the Southern extremities of cation from Boston to St. Mary's, and to connect the Lake Michigan, a distance of 800 or 900 miles. The waters of the Atlantic with those of the Gulf of Mexico. whole of this navigation is on the Lakes, except the In 1808, the Secretary of the Treasury indicated a canal passage through the strait between Lakes Michigan and to be opened 550 miles in length, at an expense of Huron, of ten miles; the strait between Huron and St. $50,000,000, and ten year's labor; and as great as the Clair, of thirty-five miles; and the strait between St. expense would be, he thought the advantages of dis- Clair and Lake Erie, of twenty-eight miles: making, in charging the Mississippi into the Atlantic ocean, through the whole, seventy-three miles; but through each of these the territory of the state of Georgia, worth it all. But, straits there is sufficient depth of water for sloops and since the acquisition of Florida, a new route presents it- steam boats of the burthen just mentioned. With imself, to commence on the Mississippi, at the mouth of provements of no extraordinary magnitude, there can be the river Iberville, and terminate at the mouth of St. a water communication from New Orleans to Quebec; John's river, on the coast of Florida. The whole dis- and inland navigations from the Atlantic, across to this tance is 700 miles; but the distance to be canalled, extensive line, may be effected from various points. In would not exceed 120 miles, and would save a distance New England. the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Connectiof navigation of 1,500 miles. The cost of this undertak-cut rivers, approach the waters of the St. Lawrence; and ing, from the information received, would be about six

millions of dollars.

By virtue of an appropriation, made in March, 1825, the obstruction between the harbor of Gloucester, and the harbor of Squam, in the state of Massachusetts, has been removed. It consisted of a narrow isthmus of sand, which had been thrown into a passage that formerly existed there, and, by the constant action of the waves, in heavy gales of wind, had been filled up for, perhaps, a hundred years, and bad completely connected the island of Cape Ann with the main land. By this improvement, perfected under the auspices of the General Government, the coasting trade, from all parts of Boston Bay, enjoys the great advantage, in particular seasons of the year, and circumstances of weather, but especially in winter, of passing through, from the harbor of Glou

which was

a

project is said to be in contemplation to connect the waters of Lake Memphramagog with the Connecticut river, through the Barton and Willoughby rivers, Willoughby Lake and Pasamsick river, to the Connecticut river, opposite the town of Lyman, in the state of New Hampshire. It is also expected, that the Government of Canada will undertake to open a water communication for boats, from Memphramagog Lake, through Rio St. Francois, to Lake St. Peter's, in the river St. Lawrence, and thence to Quebec: And thus, to give an inland water communication from Quebec to Portsmouth, Boston, Hartford, and New York. And it is believed that a direct water communication may be opened from the state of Vermont, through the interior of the state of New Hampshire, to Dover, Portsmouth and Boston Navy Yards, which will facilitate the transportation of

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