APRIL 10, 1828.] Internal Improvements. [SENATE. ing under the delusive belief of having an interest in its defeat. Such circumstances put human nature to its severest trial-they put our form of government to its severest trial-to the trial at which every confederacy has heretofore failed-the trial which subjects the local interest of one part, and a weaker part of the confederacy, to the final award and decision of the other part, and the stronger part. Certainly it was inconsiderate, it was improvident, it was highly unwise in these seven States, to come into the confederacy before they had provided for their own ultimate independence, and for the certain extinction, within some reasonable time, of the Federal title to the land within their limits. Instead of binding themselves never to interfere with the primary disposition of the soil-never to tax the Federal lands-they ought to have made these restrictions upon their sovereignty temporary in duration, and contingent in application. They ought to have submitted to these restrictions for limited periods only, and to have reserved the right of taxing all the land that was not sold in a reasonable time, which times should have been fixed in the compacts. No one can doubt but that if these stipulations had been contended for, at the first admission of the new States, they would have been granted, and that the periods fixed for the full enjoyment of their sovereign rights would have been much shorter than have clapsed since the oldest of them was admitted. But the day for making stipulations has gone by; the time for supplicating is now come. The compacts are made, and so far as the sovereignty and independence of the new States is concerned, they are capitulations without termssubmissions without appeal-surrenders at discretion, to the will of Congress! They can only appeal to your justice, and that appeal is now made, not in my speech alone, but in the memorials of Legislatures, and in the Mr. KING thought it unnecessary to insert the bill petitions of individuals, and in the united voices of seven-proposed by the gentleman from Missouri, as the bill teen out of eighteen Senators, that you have upon this passed in the Senate, at an early period of the session, floor, from the valley of the Mississippi. May their ap- was now in the House of Representatives, and had not peal not be in vain. May it be such as to prevent them been acted upon there. By not inserting the bill now from ever thinking of applying to the Congress of the proposed, the objection would be got rid of, that this United States, the seventh clause in the Declaration of bill was encumbered with objects which ought not to be Independence against the King of Great Britain. inserted in an appropriation bill. as provisions for light-houses-yet he did not consider that it displayed, in any degree, the exercise of a power to originate bills on the part of the Executive. He should vote against striking out. Mr. McLANE dissented from the opinions of Mr. BENTON. He presumed the subject of the Cumber land Road had been reported upon by the Committee on Roads and Canals, and that this part of the bill had not originated with the Committee of Ways and Means. He thought there could not well be any difference between the views of the Department and those of the gentleman from Missouri, as they had the same object in view. Mr. BENTON expressed a doubt whether the Department and himself held, in all respects, the same views of the subject. He certainly agreed in an issue to extend the road to Zanesville. It had been proposed, he said, at a very early period, in a report made by Mr. Jefferson, to extend the road to the Seat of Government of Missouri; but he had reason to believe that, as the line of the road had not yet been indicated, it was intended to divert it from the course originally laid out. The people of Missouri and Illinois were very anxious to ascertain the route which the road was to take, in order to lay out their farms accordingly; and it was for that reason that he had framed the bill to which he had alluded, and which passed the Senate. The people of Kentucky and Alabama had no reason to doubt his friendly disposition. He was willing to advocate roads through their States, but he wished also to save his own. He, therefore, had proposed this amendment. THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1828. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. On motion of Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, the bill making appropriations for internal improvement was again taken up. Mr. RUGGLES made a few remarks in opposition to the amendment. The question on striking out being then taken, it was agreed to. Mr. RUGGLES said, that he should regret having voted in favor of striking out, if the motion to insert was abandoned. He, therefore, hoped the motion to insert would be agreed to. Mr. BARTON did not think this amendment would come under the general objection of mixing up incon gruous matters in an appropriation bill. It was not improper, in making an appropriation, to state for what it was made; and in this alone did the amendment, now proposed, differ from the provision in the bill before the Senate. Mr. BENTON moved to strike out the appropriation of 175,000 dollars for the completion of the Cumberland Road to Zanesville, observing that a bill for this purpose had passed the Senate at an early period of the session. His motion was to insert the bill alluded to, instead of the Mr. PARRIS thought the adoption of this motion provision in the present bill. Mr. B. went at considera. might possibly produce an awkward state of affairs. If ble length into an argument against the principle of al- the House were to take up the bill passed in the Senate, lowing the Executive to originate bills, taking, thereby, and pass it, there would be two appropriations made its legitimate powers from the legislative body. He for the same object. There were many portions of the thought, on such subjects as that now before the Senate, bill which he was in favor of; but he had been opposed in particular, the legislature ought to originate bills. He to that for the Cumberland Road from the commencethought the evil was gaining ground, and wished to stay ment. He, therefore, wished that it might be separated its course. The question, therefore, which his motion from this bill, because he wished to give his vote on it would propose, would be, whether the legislative or Ex- separately. He thought it ought to stand on its own ecutive discretion should be exercised in originating bills. ground; and, as it would be passed in the other House, On motion of Mr. PARRIS, the motion was divided, so he thought there was no necessity of inserting it in this a to take the question first on striking out. bill. Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, opposed the amendment. He did not look upon this as an Executive measure. The remarks of the gentleman from Missouri did not apply to this bill, as all the appropriations had been sanctioned by former acts of Congress. He did not see that censure could rest any where. It was true that many things had been put into the bill which did not belong there-such Mr. BENTON said, that it was to remove that em. barrassment of which the gentleman from Maine had spoken, that he introduced the bill which was now before the House of Representatives. As the season was now far advanced, he was anxious that this appropriation should be made at once; and if the road to the capi of Missouri could not be located, he was anxious that the road to Zanesville should be completed: and, although it was against his principles to vote for a bill composed of incongruous materials, in this case he was forced to do it. Mr. TAZEWELL asked whether this proposition was in order. He supposed that a bill that had been acted upon and disposed of, could not be acted upon again during the same session. If the bill had been rejected, it could not have been brought forward again. He thought a bill as much out of reach of the Senate, when it had been passed and gone to the other House, as though it had been rejected. He rose to ask the question, whether it was in order to propose this bill as an amendment. The CHAIR said that the proposition was in order; as there was a distinction between acting upon an original bill which had been disposed of, and an amendment proposed to another bill. The question was then taken on inserting the bill in relation to the Cumberland Road, alluded to by Mr. BENTON, as an amendment to the bill under considera tion, and the motion was rejected-ayes 18, noes 22. The bill was then reported to the Senate; and the amendment adopted yesterday in Committee of the Whole, to restrict the survey's of internal improvements to those objects already commenced, being proposed for confirm ation Mr. KANE opposed the amendment at considerable length, and replied to the arguments of Mr. McLANE, of yesterday. He inquired of the Committee of Finance, how long it would require to finish the works already commenced, and what amount would be required to defray the expenses of those objects? [APRIL 10, 1828 Noble, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Silsbee, Smith, of The VICE PRESIDENT rose, and said he hoped it would not be considered assumption in the Chair to offer an explanation to the Senate of the ground on which the casting vote had been given on this question yesterday. As the Chair understood his motives had been called in question, it seemed necessary to explain them, and to shew that the Chair had, in giving that casting vote, abandoned no opinions formerly entertained. From the beginning, the Chair had been of opinion that this system was subject to great difficulties, which might eventually run it down; that it might be diverted from national to local objects; and that it might be made subservient to political combinations. The Chair does not pretend to assert that the system has been misdirected, or that the powers delegated by the law have been abused. But it was always the opinion of the Chair, that such results should be guarded against. It was the fortune of the in dividual who now fills the Chair, at a former period to preside over the War Department when this subject was agitated, and, in pursuance of a resolution of the other House, he had drawn up a project, which was submitted to the President of the United States, and communicated by him to Congress in the year 1824. In that document, the opinions of the Chair upon the powers of Congress were fully stated. He had always acted upon the prin ciple tha: Congress ought to have the control over the whole subject; that the responsibility was too great to be reposed in one individual; and that specific appro priations ought to be made to carry on the various ob jects of the system. These were always the opinions of the humble individual who now fills the Chair. While a member of the other House, at an early period, he had contended for the specific appropriation of money to ob Mr. HENDRICKS followed, in opposition to the amend ment, which he looked upon as a step towards the abandonment of the whole system of internal improvement. Mr. HAYNE explained some of his remarks, made yes-jects of internal improvement. The casting vote given terday, which had been alluded to by Mr. HENDRICKS. Mr. JOHNSTON, of Louisiana, went into an examination, at great length, of the surveys already made under the act of 1824, and supported the opinion, formerly expressed by him, that they were all works of a national character. Mr. SMITI!, of Maryland, in reply to the inquiries of Mr. KANE, observed that the Committee on Finance had no information as to the amount of expense required to finish the surveys already commenced, or the time which their completion would take. From an examination of the documents, he should be led to the conclusion that a surplus would remain out of the 30,000 dollars, after the completion of those surveys. Mr. NOBLE spoke at great length in opposition to the amendment, and with great severity of persons who had changed their course on this subject, and maintained the partial and unjust influence which arresting the surveys at this period would have upon the Western States. Mr KANE made some further remarks, and observed that, if the supposition of the gentleman from Maryland was correct, he was still mere opposed to the amend ment, as it was not customary to make appropriations larger than the object to be effected by them required. Mr. BARTON explained the grounds on which he should vote against the amendment. Mr. BRANCH said a few words. NAYS.-Messrs. Barnard, Barton, Bateman, Bell, Benton, Bouligny, Chase, Harrison, Hendricks, Johnson, of Johnston, of Louisiana, Kane, Knight, Marks, The Senators from Il yesterday had been dictated by those principles. The Mr. NOBLE said that he understood the Chair to al lude to the remarks of certain of the enators who had taken part in the debate on this subject. For his own part, he should be willing that the Chair should designate the individuals. BIL 11, 1828.] Office of Major General.—Internal Improvements. Several voices here joined in a call to order.] Mr. NOBLE rose again, and several voices called to Mr. TAZEWELL called Mr. NOBLE to order. FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1828. OFFICE OF MAJOR GENERAL. Mr. HARRISON moved to take up the report on the lution formerly passed in the Senate, in relation to lishing the office of Major General of the Army; which agreed to. Ir. CHANDLER moved to amend the resolution, so o strike out the word "not"-in effect to support the lution, and to abolish the office. He also moved to ommit the resolution, with orders to bring in a bill to lish the office of Major General. Mr. C. supported motion by a few remarks, in which he repeated his viction that the office was unnecessary, and that its ition would be a saving to the country. . JOHNSON, of Kentucky, opposed the amend nt offered by Mr. CHANDLER, and argued at some gth on the necessity of a military head. Ir. HARRISON gave a history of the office in this atry, and supported its necessity for the safety and mplete organization of the Army. Messrs. SMITH, of Maryland, and EATON expressed Emselves at length in favor of Mr. CHANDLER'S ndment. Mr. BARNARD expressed himself at large against the endment, and maintaining that the office of Major Geal was absolutely necessary for the well-being of our tary establishment. Messrs. SMITH, of Maryland, and CHANDLER reed briefly to Mr. BARNARD. Mr. NOBLE supported the amendment, chiefly on the und that the office of Major General was a sinecure Mr. BARNARD replied to the remarks of Messrs. TH, of Maryland, and CHANDLER. Mr. VAN BUREN said that this question had been en which he had felt considerable doubt, not being ulary man. The gentleman from Maine, [Mr. CHAND deserved great credit for the vigilance with which detected, and the spirit with which he opposed, any penditure which was not required by the wants of the And if he [Mr. V. B.] thought the office unary, he would join him with pleasure. He had to the Senate with doubts as to the course which should take; but the view which the gentleman from [SENATE. Pennsylvania had taken, had convinced him that the of fice could not safely be abolished. Although his impression had been that he should vote for abolishing the office, his opinion had been so completely changed by the arguments of the Senator from Pennsylvania, that he should give his vote against the motion to recommit. The yeas and nays having been ordered, the question was then taken on the motion to recommit the report, and decided in the negative. The question being then taken on agreeing to the report of the Military Committee, that it is inexpedient to abolish the office of Major General of the Army, it was decided in the affirmative. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. The unfinished business of yesterday, being the bill making appropriations for internal improvement, was then taken up, and the question being on ordering the bill to a third reading 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 power 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 favor of it. This, to be sure, was not very flattering to his purpose. But he deemed it incorrect to yield up 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 this subject; since when he had given his adhesion to the polical 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 opinlons to be infallible, nor from a want of due respect to the opinions of others, but because 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 harbors. [Here Mr. S. quoted from the document the list of the surveys, 69 in number, to which he had referred.] 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 promi nent objects; among which was the "Survey of a route for connecting the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico." 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 five hundred miles, and must be constructed at an expense to this Government of not less than $5,000,000-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 neighboring nations if they should choose to make inroads upon our frontiers. In addition to the preceding sixty-nine plans and sur. veys, 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 harbors, for break-waters, for piers, for sea-walls, for artificial harbors, 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: [Here Mr. S. quoted from the reports. ] 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 appropriations 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 Washington to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. A road five hundred miles in length, to be eighty feet wide, trees grubbed out, and paved with metal, the style of all your roads, and to cost the Govern ment $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, four hundred miles long, and to be finished in national taste, and which will cost you another $5,000,000. Break-waters, sca-walls, and artificial harbors, are be coming fashionable. For the Delaware break-water you [APRIL 11, 1828 have just appropriated $2,326,627. 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 from the South. If the object is protection to southern mariners, why place it at the mouth of the De laware 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 two thousand 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 harbor for their special accommodation, although they have Boston almost in sight, on one side, and Martha's Vineyard on the other: two excellent harbors. 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 harbor, they frequently lose fa vorable periods for making the voyage round Cape Horn. Nantucket lies in about 42° North, and Cape Horn in 50° South, seven thousand miles distant, across the Tropics; where they meet every wind that blows, and are driven to every point of the compass. Where vessels are one while becalmed, and the next hour in a hurricane. An artificial harbor, however, at Nantucket is to overcome all these obstacles. Can any thing be more preposter. ous? Yet this is the opinion of an engineer of boasted science. Mr. S. 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 pur pose, on the happening of a certain event. One would be quite as just as the other, and equally constitutional. So yielding has Congress been to these applications, that the State of Illinois asks for thirty thousand acres of land, not only to clear out her small creeks, but to de fray the ordinary expense of building a penitentiary, the common jail for the use of the State. The Legislature of Indiana, not content with near one million of acres of public land, given to that 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 re quest of Indiana, that asks, at the same time, through ano ther 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 extrava gance 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 exorbitant bounty, to go to Indiana to increase her population, and thereby i crease her census, to give her more weight in this Go vernment, or it will be deemed illiberal and unjust! The General Government, in disposing of the public lands in the Western States, gave as an appendage each township, the central section for the use of schools to which the children of indigent parents could have a plan borrowed from the New England States, where easy access, without the expense of boarding abroad. has long manifested its beneficial effects upon the poore APRIL 11, 1828.] Internal Improvements. 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 two millions of acres which she now asks for roads, for canals, for harbors, for rivers, for creeks, for bridges, for colleges, and for squatters, that State unblushingly asks far large quantities of other lands for the use of common schools. [SENATE. ing, a distance of only 130 miles, $1,710,298 93, which gives an average of 13,156 dollars per mile, on the whole distance. The sum paid to Commissioners and a Super. intendent for that 130 miles, is 78,430 dollars 47 cents, which will average 604 dollars 31 cents per mile, for superintendence only—a sum sufficient itself to make a good road. Casper W. Wever, the Superintendent, in an official report of the 25th of May, 1827, to the Chief Engineer, gives his estimate of 328,983 dollars 68 cents, then indispensably necessary for the repairs of that 130 miles, which will average 2,522 dollars 95 cents per mile, for repairs only! Mr. Wever, in another official report, 16th November, 1827, to the Chief Engineer, says: It was of great moment that a system or plan for the regular repairs of that great monument of the wisdom and munificence of the General Government should be established by Congress. And then goes on to say, the road had become too bad to be mended, and must, in a great degree, be made anew. And then further adds, without constant repairs it could never be travelled! So incredible are the facts relative to the cost of this road that it had become necessary to prove to the Senate, by their own official documents, the truth of their own acts. And, indeed, so extravagant are the facts, that, without such proof, it would appear like an idle dream, that a road cost the Government 13,156 dollars per mile, to construct it, and 2,522 dollars per mile to repair it, in one year, and before that year had expired, had become impassable until it should be made anew. And to insure its future usefulness, the Government must set apart a separate fund, to be drawn upon forever, at the will and pleasure of a superintendent whose interest it was to be perpetually making and mending. Yet, true as this is, and with all its enormities, it is only a foretaste of what is to come, if we are to pursue this system; and more especially when the Government shall have fully embarked in constructing canals, of which there were as many as thirty in the plans and surveys now exhibited to the Senate, some of them 500 miles in length. Among them are the James River and Kenhawa Canal, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, concerning which, Mr. S. said, he would offer a few facts from the reports of the Engineers. Mr. S. said, a beautiful drawing of a road from the city of New York to the city of Albany, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, had made its appearance. It 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 other; and more than ten steamboats ply between the two every day, carrying from five hundred to one thousand passengers each. Besides, the whole river, from one city to the other, is constantly whitened with sail-boats. And if there be any one route, of the same distance, in the world, that excels all others for an easy, secure, certain, cheap, and speedy passage, it is to be found on that majestic river between New York and Albany. To execute this road in a suitable taste for that region, if compared with the cost of other roads constructed by the United States, will amount to $3,000,000. As a specimen of government economy, the Engineer had made eight separate surveys to ascertain the proper route for a road whereon to transport the mail from Baltimore to Philadelphia; the constructing of which, as regarded the transportation of the mail, would produce to the United States a considerable loss. This was demonstrable from existing facts, and a comparison with other roads. From Philadelphia to New York was 96 miles, on a good turnpike road. The mail is transported daily between the two for 13,400 dollars. From Baltimore to Philadelphia is also 96 miles, on a road constructed and kept up by the People, who understand their true interest better than Congress, with all its train of Engineers, and the mail is also transported daily between these two cities, and an additional mail transported daily from Baltimore to Washington, during the session of Congress, all for 13,735 dollars. So that the mail is transported from Baltimore to Philadelphia, on a country These two canals, very similar in character, taken toroad, for a less sum than from Philadelphia to New York, gether, give a distance of about 500 miles in length, and on a turnpike road. If we take into consideration the are entirely in the mountains, where nothing was to be character of this road, its bridges, and especially the one seen, from the beginning to the end, but craggy rocks, over the Susquehanna, more than a mile wide, its width, deep sunken valleys, cataracts, and awful precipices, its ornaments, and its fripperies, we cannot estimate the which were to be encountered at every step. These cacost at less than $1,500,000, the interest of which, at nals were to be made up of aqueducts, of dams, of culsix per cent. will amount to 90,000 dollars per annum. verts, of embankments, of bridges, of locks, and of tunThen, taking these plain facts together, they will give nels. A sample of which is given by the Engineer, in you this result: By adding 13,735 dollars, the sum now the eastern section of the Chesapeake and Ohio Cana', paid by the Government for the transportation of the a distance of only 186 miles, on the most favorable and mail, to 90,000 dollars, the interest on the money expend-least mountainous ground. There are 218 culverts, 9 ed, it will give you $103,735, the real sum the transportation of the mail will cost you for ever after. Mr. S. remarked, that, when the bill to make an appropriation for the repairs of the Cumberland Road was before the Senate, he stated the average cost of that road had exceeded 13,000 dollars. It was contradicted by one gentleman, who attempted to prove from documents that it did not exceed $6,000 per mile. In debence of what he had then stated, as well as to lay before the Senate an official statement of the cost of the roadBaking system, in which the United States had so largeembarked, he had collected certain documents of 1827. aqueducts, 160 bridges, and 635 locks; and yet the Engineer estimates the cost of this section to average only 23,985 dollars per mile, whereas, on the middle section, of 70 miles in length, he estimates the average cost at 143,258 dollars per mile. On this section, he estimates the cost of a single tunnel, only 5 miles in length, at 3,500,000 dollars, which will average 700,000 dollars per mile. From these estimates it would be a fair conclusion, that less than 50,000,000 dollars will not be adequate to complete this 500 miles of canal, as the James River and Kenhawa Canal would, according to the survey of the Engineer, require tunnels 10 miles in length, and dams 70 feet high. In times of old, they levelled the hills and filled up the valleys; but we, who are a wiser People, root up the mountains, and march through their centre. Nature had |