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S66

14-48

SPEECH.

IN THE SENATE, April 11th, 1828.

THE BILL making appropriation for INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, having been taken up as the unfinished business of yesterday,

Mr. SMITH, of South-Carolina, addressed the Senate:

He said, as the amendments were now disposed of, his intention was to offer his objections to the passage of the bill; as he had yet to learn, by what delegated powers this Senate could sustain the principles upon which it was founded.

He was aware of the disadvantages under which he should have to approach this important question. He had been warned, and perhaps correctly, that his opposition to the bill would avail nothing, because, it was said, a majority of the Senate were in favour of it. This, to be sure, was not very flattering to his purpose. But he deemed it incorrect to yield up his principles, implicitly and silently, to majorities. It would, however, by no means, be unfair or disrespectful, to inquire upon what ground this majority arrived at their conclusion. Nor was this the first time he had ventured to oppose his humble opinion to that of a supposed majority. And as his cause was that of the constitution and of his country, he would not shrink from his duty, although it should prove unavailing. In doing so, he had the consolation to know, he had no confessions to make, nor retractions to offer. He had long since formed his opinions upon the subject; since when he had given his adhesion to the political creed of no man, who maintained this ruinous doctrine, but had invariably pursued the even tenor of his own way. Not because he conceived his own opinions to be infallible, nor from a want of due respect to the opinions of others, but be cause their arguments were unfounded.

He intended to confine his remarks to a few prominent points. To the extravagant length to which this system already had, and must continue to lead us; to the great inequality and injustice of its practical operations in the different sections of the Union; and to the flagrant outrage it offered to the constitution, by violating its fundamental principles.

For the first thirty years after the adoption of the constitution, economy, and a sacred observance of that instrument, were regarded as cardinal virtues in a statesman. One administration had been pulled down, and another erected upon its ruins, because it was supposed economy had been overlooked, and the constitution violated by the former. Those times have passed away. Economy is now parsimony, and a regard for the constitution is a want of patriotism.

As an evidence of the extravagance to which we were running, the document No. 172, would exhibit a specimen of no ordinary character. It contained an official report of sixty-nine distinct surveys of roads, of canals, of rivers, of creeks, and of harbours. They are:

1 Examination and survey of a route for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and a continuation of the same to Lake Erie. 2 Examination of the several routes for a National Road from Washington to New-Orleans.

3 Examination of a canal route from Alleghany river to the Susquehannah and Schuylkill, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Canal Commissioners.

4 Examination of a canal route to connect the Delaware and Raritan rivers, in conjunction with the New Jersey Canal Commissioners.

5 Examination and survey of a route for a canal to connect Barnstable Bay and Buzzard's Bay.

6 Examination of a route for a canal from the Mississippi river to lake Pontchartrain.

7 Examination of the condition of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal.

8 Examination and survey of Connecticut river from Barnet, Vermont, to lake Connecticut; and also a canal route from Mumphrey magog to Connecticut river.

9 Examination of the Dismal Swamp Canal, under the act of Congress of the 18th May, 1826.

10 Examination of the route for a mail road from Baltimore to Philadelphia.

11 Survey and soundings of the Kennebec river, from Bath to

Augusta, Maine.

12 Survey and level of the Kennebec river, from Augusta to Scowhogan.

13 Examination and level of the Androscoggin river.

14 Survey of the different routes for the Brunswick canal.

15 Survey of the Gardner canal route.

16 Survey of the Ammonusuck canal route.

17 Survey of the Sunepee canal route.

18 Survey of the Oliverian canal route, to the Winnipiscogee.

19 Survey of the Dover canal route.

20 Survey of the Passumsic route for a canal.

21 Survey of the Rutland route for a canal.

22 Examination of the several routes for a road from Washington to Buffalo.

23 Surveying and making a road from a point opposite to Memphis, in Tennessee, to Little Rock, in Arkansas.

24 Examination and survey of a canal route between Baltimore and the Potomac; and from the line of said route to Annapolis. 25 Examination of a route to connect the Pennsylvania with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

26 Examination of the several routes for extending the Cumberland Road to the District of Columbia.

27 Examination and survey to ascertain the practicability of uniting the head waters of the Kenhawa with James and Roanoke rivers, by canals or railways.

28 Examination with a view to determine upon a route for a road from the Black Swamp road to Cadiz, in Ohio, and thence to Wheeling, and another to Washington, Pennsylvania; and also of determining upon a route for a road from the Black Swamp road, through Wooster, Canton, New Lisbon, and Beaver Town, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

29 Surveys with a view to the connexion, by canals, of the waters of lake Michigan, with those of the Wabash, by the St. Joseph's of the lake, Kankakee, and Tippecanoe rivers, and by the St. Joseph, and Little river.

30 Surveys with a view to connecting, by canals, the Wabash with White river, by Mississineewa river, and by Ponceaupecheaux river.

31 Surveys with a view of uniting, by canals, the St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, and Wabash rivers, with the Ohio river.

32 Survey with a view to overcoming the obstructions presented by

the Falls of Ohio, by a canal on the Indian side of the river. 33 Surveys of the mouth of Black river and Conneaut creek, on Lake Erie.

34 Examination of the Muscle Shoals, in Tennessee river, and the connexion of the Tennessee with the Coosa.

35 Improvement of the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi

rivers.

36 Deepening the Channel leading into the harbor of Presque Isle. 37 REPAIRING PLYMOUTH BEACH, Massachusetts.

38 Surveying and making a Road from a point in the N.W. boundary of Ohio, near the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, to Detroit.

39 Construction of the Cumberland Road, continued from Canton to Zanesville, Ohio, and surveying and locating the said road, from Zanesville to the permanent seat of Government of the State of Missouri.

40. Surveying and opening a road from Chicago, Illinois, to Detroit, Michigan Territory.

41 Surveying and making a road from Little Rock to Cantonment

Gibson, Arkansas Territory.

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