42 Making a road from the Western boundary of Missouri, to the confines of New Mexico. 43 Survey of a rout for uniting, by a canal, the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico, across the Peninsula of Florida. 44 Building a Pier at Steel's Lodge, near the harbour of Belfast, Maine. 45 Preservation of the point of land forming Province Town Har bour, Massachusetts. 46 Survey to ascertain the practicability and utility of removing obstructions to the navigation in Pisquataque river, and expense of removing the same, Maine. 47 Survey of the harbour of Edgar Town, to ascertain the practicability of building a light-house thereon, and preventing the said harbour from being filled up with sand, and the expense of effecting it. 48 Survey of the Bar at the mouth of Merrimack river, and the practicability of deepening the channel over the same, and the expense. 49 Survey of the harbour of Hyannis, Vineyard Sound, to ascertain what improvements can be made in the same, for the safe anchorage of the vessels, and the expense of effecting the object. 50 Building a Pier, and repairing the old one, at the mouth of Buffalo creek, New-York. 51 Cleaning out and deepening the harbour of Sackett's Harbour, New-York. 52 Survey of Oswego Bay and Harbour, to ascertain the expediency and expense of constructing Piers to improve the navigation thereof, New-York. 53 Building Piers at proper sites in the river Delaware, at NewCastle, Delaware. 54 Repairing the old Piers, and deepening the water around them, New-Castle, Delaware. 55 Survey of the public Piers at Chester, in the river Delaware, to determine the expediency of accepting the cession thereof from Pennsylvania. 56 Removing obstructions at the mouth of Grand River, Ohio. 57 Removing obstructions at the mouth of Ashtabula Creek, Ohio. 58 Removing obstructions at the mouth of Cunningham Creek, Ohio. 59 Removing obstructions in Huron river, Ohio. 60 Survey of La Plaisance Bay, to ascertain the expediency of improving the navigation thereof, and the expense of effecting the same, Michigan. 61 Survey of Sandusky Bay, to ascertain the expediency and expense of constructing Piers to improve the navigation thereof, and placing buoys therein. 62 Survey of the Saugatuck river and harbour, to ascertain the expediency and expense of removing the obstructions to the navigation thereof, and of facilitating the commercial intercourse between Saugatuck and New-York. 63 Survey of the Swash in Pamlico Sound, near Ocracock inlet, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the channel through the same can be deepened; and also a survey of Cape Fear river, below the town of Wilmington, for the same purpose; and also a survey of Roanoke Inlet and Sound, with a view of ascertaining the practicability of making a permanent ship channel between Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, at Roanoke Inlet, or elsewhere; and a statement of the cost of effecting, severally, these objects. 64 Removing obstructions, and deepening the harbour of Mobile, Alabama. 65 Survey of Marblehead and Holmes' Hole. 66 Examination of the country between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, to ascertain the practicability of uniting their waters by a canal. 67 Examination of a rout for a canal from the Mahoning river, at Warren, to the portage summit of the Ohio Canal. 68 Examination of the Amite river, (Louisiana,) with a view to connect the Mississippi with Lake Pontchartrain. 69 Examination of the country between the Mississppi and Lake Borgne, with a view to connect the Mississippi with Lake Borgne. He could not ask the Senate to hear his remarks on all these surveys, however important they might be, but would invite their attention to some of the most prominent objects; among which, was the Survey of a route for connecting the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico." 66 This canal would probably be one of the most unprofitable and expensive works contemplated in that Report. If executed in a style to render it efficient for ship navigation, for which it was intended, it would cost the United States $50,000,000, and when completed, would not last a fortnight. The same current and counter current that formed Cape Florida, originally, would overwhelm it the first gale that blew. Besides, the most experienced mariners that frequent that coast, have pronounced it utterly impracticable to approach it, surrounded as it is with sand banks, that shift with every tide. The road from the western boundary of Missouri to the confines of Mexico, a distance of 500 miles, and must be constructed at an expense to this Government, of not less than $5,000,600, may be useful to a few wandering traders; but it is impossible to suppose it to be a governmental object, as regards the policy and safety of the United States. Border wars are always more destructive, and more bloody, and excite more hostility and vengeance, from the facilities afforded by the proximity of the parties, than any other wars among nations. All other bordering nations guard against such consequences. But it seems to be the policy of our Government to pave the way to our neighbouring nations, if they should choose to make inroads upon our frontiers. In addition to the sixty-nine plans and surveys, Mr. S. said he had collected from the documents, recently laid on the tables of the Members, thirty-eight other Reports, and Bills making appropriations for roads, for private turnpike companies, for canals, for harbours, for break-waters, for piers, for sea-walls, for artificial harbours, for removing obstructions from rivers, for removing obstructions from creeks, for charitable institutions, for colleges, for schools, and for the public bounty, to as many private citizens of the West as choose to ask for it. All of which are disclosed in the following table: For the preservation of the Cumberland road. For the continuation of the Cumberland road. For a road from Detroit to Lake Michigan. For a road from La Plaisance Bay towards Chicago. For Milesburg and Smith Port turnpike road, (Pennsylvania.) For a road from Natchez to New-Orleans. For a road from Detroit to Maumee. For a road from Detroit to Chicago. For deepening Presque Isle harbour, New-York. For Piers in Dunkirk harbour, New-York. For Piers in Oswego harbour, New-York. For removing obstructions in Kennebeck river, Maine. For a road from Mattawamkeag to Mars Hill, Maine. For Delaware Break-water, at the mouth of Delaware Bay. For a Break-water or artificial harbour at Nantucket, (Mass.) For a Sea-wall at Stonington, (Connecticut.) For a Break-water at Church's Cove, (Rhode-Island.) For half of five sections on each side for a canal from Dayton to Auglaize, (Ohio.) For 500,000 acres of land, to aid Ohio Canal, (Ohio.) For North-Carolina to open an inlet to the sea, (North-Carolina.) For a road from Louisville, Kentucky, through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. For clearing the Mississippi of obstructions for 1200 miles, and clearing away the forest trees from its banks 400 feet back. For Alabama to improve the navigation of her rivers, 400,000 acres of land. For Illinois to build a Penitentiary, to clear out a Creek, and for other purposes. For continuation of Cumberland road, (a second Bill.) To North-Carolina for Deaf and Dumb Institution. To Pennsylvania, for Deaf and Dumb Institution. To certain citizens of Ohio, eighty acres of land each. To certain citizens of Illinois, same. To certain citizens of Natchitoches, same. To settlers at St. Helena, Alabama, same. To settlers in Missouri, same. To certain inhabitants of Perry county, Missouri, for a Seminary To state of Ohio, (asked by its Legislature,) for Schools. To survey Rail-Road from Baltimore to Ohio. What, he would ask, has Congress to do with the Milesburg and Smith Port Turnpike road? Or with the Washington and Frederick Turnpike Company? Or with the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road? Do not the reports and surveys before us, display an ample field for governmental patronage, without taking charge of the concerns of every corporation? These are the property of private adventurers, who call upon you for appropriation from the public treasury, to assist in advancing their private fortunes. $10,000 of the last year's appropriation was expended in surveying the route for the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road, and more is asked for in the Bill before the Senate, for the same purpose. And its first fruits were an inordinate speculation in selling out the shares; some of which were sold as high as seventeen hundred per cent. upon the amount paid in. You are to survey this road, and become identified with the Company; and should that fail, or find it a losing business, the road can be turned over to the Government to finish. There was another road in which the United States had as little interest as they had in the Baltimore Rail-Road. It was a magnificent road from the city of Washinton to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. A road 500 miles in length, to be 80 feet wide, trees grubbed out and paved with metal, the style of all your roads, and to cost the Government $6,000,000 at the least calculation. And, when done, can only accommodate a few Members of Congress, and other persons visiting Washington. There is a road from Zanesville, in Ohio, to Florence, in Alabama, another magnificent work, 400 miles long, and to be finished in national taste; and which will cost you another $5,000,000. Break-waters, sea-walls, and artificial harbours, are becoming fashionable. For the Delaware Break-water, you have just appropriated $2,325,627. The commerce of Philadelphia, broken down by the manufacturing mania, must be revived, and this is an effort, at the expense of the public treasury to do so; and which, according to every experience upon public works, will cost you $5,000,000 before it is finished. It is said this will be a place of protection to distressed mariners, and especially to those of the south. If the object is protection to southern mariners, why place it at the mouth of the Delaware Bay? There was no plan or estimate for any thing of this character, for the protection of distressed mariners from the Capes of Delaware in the north, to the mouth of the Sabine in the south, a dangerous coast of more than 2000 miles long There the distressed mariners are left to buffet the waves. You are also asked, by a few fishermen, who had settled on Nantucket Island, to construct an artificial harbour for their especial accommodation, although they have Boston almost in sight, on one side, and Martha's Vineyard on the other;-two excellent harbours. Among the reasons assigned for this very expensive work, is a cogent one by the distinguished engineer who made the survey. He says, for want of such an harbour, they frequently lose favourable periods for making the voyage round Cape Horn. Nantucket lies in about 42° north, and Cape Horn in 50° south, 2 7000 miles distant across the tropics, where they meet every wind that blows, and are driven to every point of the compass Where the vessels are one while becalmed, and the next hour a hurricane. An artificial harbour, however, at Nantucket, is to overcome all these obstacles. Can any thing be more preposterous ? Yet this is the opinion of an engineer of boasted science. Mr Smith observed, were he of the break-water school, he should deem it equally justifiable to construct artificial islands on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, for our fishermen to dry their fish on; as, by the treaty of 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, they must abandon the native islands they use for that purpose, on the happening of a certain event. One would be quite as good as the other, and equally constitutional. So yielding has Congress been to these applications, that the State of Illinois, asks for 30,000 acres of land, not only to clear out her small creeks, but to defray the ordinary expense of building a Penitentiary, the common jail, for the use of the State. The Legislature of Indiana, not content with near 1,000,000 of acres of public land, given to the State during the last session, for her own roads and canals, now asks for lands enough to make a permanent road, bridges, causeways, &c. through the States of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. A road through four different States, to cost this Government $8,000,000 at the request of Indiana, that asks, at the same time, through another Legislative memorial, for the speedy extension of the great Cumberland road through that State also, for the purpose of encouraging emigration, that the population of the State may be increased! We should think this conclusive evidence of the unlimited and gross extravagance to which this system is approximating with rapidity. What motive can the Government of the United States have for increasing the population of Indiana, more than that of any other State? You are called upon to beat up for volunteers at a most exhorbitant bounty, to go to Indiana to increase her population, and thereby increase her census, to give her more weight in this Government, or it will be deemed illiberal and unjust! The general Government, in disposing of the public lands in the Western States, gave us an appendage to each township, the central section for the use of schools, to which the children of indigent parents could have an easy access, without the expense of boarding abroad. A plan borrowed from the New England States, where it has long manifested its beneficial effects upon the poorer classes of the community. Two years ago. the State of Ohio, with great difficulty, obtained a law of Congress to enable that State to sell these central sections, and place the proceeds in their banks; by which the generous bounty of this Government has been prostituted to the vile purposes of fraud and speculation, in propping up their tottering and insolvent banks. And, in addition to 2,000,000 of acres which she now asks, for roads, for canals, for harbours, for rivers, for creeks, for bridges, for colleges, and for squatters, that the State unblushingly asks for large quantities of other lands, for the use of common schools. Mr. Smith said, a beautiful drawing of a road from the city of NewYork to the city of Albany, a distance of 160 miles, had made its appearIt was difficult to devise what was the object of this road, because one of the finest rivers in the world leads directly from one city to the ance. |