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SPEECH

OF

HON. LEWIS CASS, OF MICHIGAN,

ON THE

PRESIDENT'S VETO MESSAGES

ON

THE RIVER AND HARBOR APPROPRIATION BILLS.

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY 7, 1856.

WASHINGTON:

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE.

1856.

RIVER AND
AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS.

The Senate having under reconsideration, agreeably to the Constitution, the bill to remove obstructions to naviga

tion in the mouth of the Mississippi river at the Southwest Pass and Pass à l'Outre, which had been returned by the President of the United States, with his objections

the immense basin, drained by the great artery of the North American continent, which, drawing its supplies from the fountains of the North, pours them into the ocean under a tropical sun, of its powers of production, the impediments to its navigable streams, and its claim, not upon the liberality, but upon the justice of Congress. It is a magnificent region; and its settlement and progress are among the proudest monuments of human enterprise and industry, which the world has ever seen since man was banished from his first residence, and went out with the primeval curse upon him. The enduring blessing has it proved in the dispensation of a kind Providence—

It is but yesterday, as it were, that the upper portion of this world of forest and prairie came within the domain of civilization. I have descended its mighty river two thousand miles in a birch canoe, when there was hardly a white man above St. Louis, and already it is becoming the highway of an empire.

Mr. CASS said: Mr. President, the principles involved in the bill under consideration, and which has been returned to us with the veto of the Presi- || dent, are the same as those involved in the bills || for the removal of obstructions in the St. Clair and St. Mary's rivers, each of which has been marked by similar executive disapprobation.|| Remarks applicable to the former apply equally to the latter, excepting the local differences, which,In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." however, do not touch the general subject of constitutional power. Under these circumstances, as the people of Michigan feel peculiar interest in the contemplated improvement of the two rivers straits rather-connecting the great northwestern lakes, and forming the line of demarkation between the United States and Canada, and also in the question of the removal of river and harbor obstructions, I shall trespass upon the indulgence of the Senate, by offering for its consideration|| some observations upon the power of appropriation for these objects; a subject of importance to the whole country, but vitally so to certain portions of it. I leave to others, to whom it more appropriately belongs, to portray the condition and the wants of the vast Mississippi region interested in this subject, confining any local views I may present to the country where I have long lived, and with which I am more intimately acquainted.

||

The man yet lives, who was living when the first tree fell before the pioneer's stroke in all that vast region of power and productiveness; and the man now lives, who will live to see it contain one hundred millions of people. It seems to be a dream, rather than a reality-the fantasy of an eastern imagination, instead of the stern performance and promise of actual life. I have seen it grow up to its present gigantic proportions, but it will continue to grow and grow, long after I shall have become indifferent to that scene of youthful enterprise and exertion-that object of national pride and hope. I say hope, sir, because The Senator from Louisiana, who has just the destinies of this Republic, in the event of taken his seat, [Mr. SLIDELL,] has clearly and internal dissensions, will be found in the hearts forcibly explained the claims, which the obstruc- || and heads and hands of the people of the West, tions at the mouth of the Mississippi have upon and there they will, I trust, be safe. That mighty attention of the Government, and, in my community will hold this Union together with opinion, has shown conclusively, that the views bands of iron, softened by affection and patriotism of the President in relation to this subject are to bands of silk. They cannot leave you, and erroneous, and cannot be maintained; and some with their permission you will never leave them. days since we heard from his colleague [Mr. And should the time come when a dissolution of BENJAMIN] a powerful and graphic description of this Confederation shall be seriously attempted,

the

it will be wise to remember, that beyond the Atlantic border there is an empire of freemen— by instinct, and education, and feeling-lovers of equal rights and free government-Americans by principle and patriotism-strong in numbers and in all the elements of power, and holding on to the great political work of their fathers with a grasp of force and a tenacity of purpose, which no threats can enfeeble, no promises can relax. Before the evil day has done its work, they will do theirs. They will strive to preserve, and God grant they may be able to preserve, the ark of our freedom from danger, and carry it safely through the troubled waters, though these may overflow

all their banks

far to destroy its principle of confederation, and to substitute that of consolidation. But I think, sir, that a very cursory examination of the subject will be enough to show, that this association of objects has no legitimate bond, and that the President's apprehensions are as groundless, as the assumption itself is erroneous. Sir, seriously to assail such a system is to attack a phantom. No man advocates it now. I am not aware that any man ever did advocate it as within the power of Congress. As a matter of speculation extensive crudities connected with this power may have been advanced, but they are not worthy of serious consideration. And I must confess my surprise that the PresiWe have now, sir, five messages from the dent has so tenaciously adhered to the idea, and President, communicating his views upon the sub- so repeatedly dwelt upon it, that the removal of ject of harbor and river improvements, or, in other any obstruction to navigation is a part of a great words, upon the removal of obstructions from system of internal improvements, with all its the navigable waters of our country. Though I || objections and dangers. A bad designation is do not find them identical, yet I prefer no charge sometimes an overmatch for a sound argument; of inconsistency against that high Magistrate, and the power to render a harbor accessible may and in that respect I agree with the Senator from perhaps be defeated by putting it into obnoxVirginia, [Mr. MASON,] and not with the Sena- ious company, and associating it with a gigantic tor from Louisiana, [Mr. BENJAMIN.] I have lived scheme of public works, and as making part of long enough to know, that rigid tenacity of opin-it, when it would survive the attack and gain ion is not a proof of wisdom, any more than habit-strength by a true constitutional analysis. Unual vacillation; and that we live to little purpose, if we do not learn, that the experience of yesterday may produce a change in our convictions of to-morrow. That the President's ideas upon this subject have gradually become more unfavorable to the exercise of the power is perfectly obvious, and that the alteration has been the result of mature reflection no one has the right to question. So far as this change bears necessarily upon the course of the discussion, I shall examine it, but I shall not travel out of my way to seek it.

The President, in each of these documents, speaks of a general system of internal improvements, and connects the removal of every obstruction with a gigantic scheme of artificial works; and, in the most elaborate of these veto messages, he quotes the remarks of Mr. Adams upon the subject, who described the plan as one to checker over the whole Union with "railroads and canals," and to which the President adds, as a necessary consequence of the establishment of the power, turnpike and ordinary carriage roads, the draining of marshes, the construction of bridges, the creation of levees, the construction of canals for irrigation, and "all the possible means of the material improvement of the earth, by developing its natural resources, anywhere and everywhere, even within the proper jurisdiction of the several States;" and he adds, also, objects of public instruction, hospitals, establishments of science and art, libraries, and works of public utility. And, if Í understand the President, he maintains that "the admission of the power in either of its senses implies its existence in the other;" or, in different words, that if Congress have the constitutional power to remove an obstruction in the Mississippi river, it has also the power to provide for the various objects above enumerated. If such be his opinion, he might well withhold his assent from a measure, which would work such a fundamental change in the structure of our Government, going

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doubtedly, at one time, there was a tendency to push a plan of material improvements to a dangerous extent, when the term "internal improvements" was almost a party watchword, and was cherished with fond hope by those, who sought to make our Government what was called a MAGNIFICENT ONE. But General Jackson, by his Maysville veto, dealt a fatal stroke to this project, and since then a system of internal improvements has disappeared from the political arena. He denied the right of Congress to make roads and canals, and declared that the Constitution must be changed before such a power could be exercised. It is a well known fact that, at the time he took this decisive measure in defense of the Constitution, there were applications pending before Congress for objects of this nature to the amount of $106,000,000, which would have been but the inauguration of an era of splendid works, had it not been for this act of wisdom and firmness. But, while doing so, he admitted the authority to render navigation more "safe and easy" by the removal of impediments, and thereafter approved many bills for that purpose. And the Senator from Georgia [Mr. TooмBS] is under an entire misapprehension, when he supposes that General Jackson denied the power of Congress to remove obstructions from rivers and harbors. At the very session when he sent in the Maysville veto, and after he took that step, he approved of appropriations for these very objects, to the amount of $672,566. And, during his Administration, a larger sum was appropriated by Congress for these purposes, and approved by him, than during any other equal period of our legislation. Mr. Calhoun, also, while denouncing "works belonging to internal improvements" as unconstitutional, maintains the power of Congress to make "appropriations and expenditures for the improvement of the navigation of the Mississippi and its waters.'

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