operations. The funds of the nation will be exhausted, its resources drained, to gratify the visionary speculations of every projector. Does this conclusion appear extravagant? How, we would ask, can these measures be now controlled? How can their multiplication be restrained?-Is there, besides, no danger that intrigue may be made to bear upon them? That combinations may be formed to force those along that cannot pass by their own intrinsic merit? Is it not to be apprehended that in certain states of parties grants may be made, precedents be established, which all may regret when the excitement has passed away, but when it may be too late to recall them? Is it not probable that at every doubtful Presidential election, claims may be urged which no one can successfully oppose; which,however unreasonable, many will be unwilling to controvert?

How can these measures, we repeat, be restrained or limited? To national objects? What are they? Who shall define them? Every man believes the projects that will benefit his quarter of the Union, his State, his county, his town, his village, his farm, his occupation, his manufacture, a national object; each one believes, because he wishes himself to be the centre of important interests. And why not? Every individual is an integral portion of the whole community, his welfare and prosperity is a portion of the general welfare and prosperity; the nation is composed of individuals, and the well-being of every individual is, and must be, a national object. The door is wide enough to admit all applicants-the construction liberal enough to cover all claims. National objects! Is that which interests ten States a national object? If so, will it cease to be national if it concerns only nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one? Where shall be drawn the line of separation? Must we go to one-half, one-third, one-fourth, one-tenth part of a State, until again we reach the individual! This is the irresistible course of the argument. Many objects of a single individual may be truly national-may public works, in a single State, may be of more real importance to the nation than others that traverse a dozen. Must the soil of more than one State be broken or trodden, in order to render a public work national? If the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is a national object, is it more so because it touches a skirt of Maryland, than it would be if Delaware extended across the isthmus? If the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal is to be a national object, would it be less so if the engineers, on making their survey, had found it expedient from local causes to locate it altogether within the State of Virginia? No limitation, in fact and in practice, can be affixed to this phrase; it will be wise, therefore, before we enter on this inter

minable career, before we approach this absorbing whirlpool, to establish some laudmarks to regulate our progress, some system to guide our conduct.

This subject is daily becoming more important. The debt of the United States is rapidly decreasing, the revenue, unless destroyed by the manufacturing mania, must, from the multiplication of our numbers, and the accumulation of our wealth, continue to increase, and will soon be found greatly to exceed the necessary expendituresof the government. It is and will be the wish of a great part of the citizens of the United States, that the surplus revenue of the nation shall be employed on works for the internal improvement of the country; this, we believe, will be the desire of a large majority of the people, if it can and shall be done on equitable and constitutional principles. We speak not here of the constitutional right to engage in such enterprizes-this we have already and may again consider—but of that constitutional principle which has been established for the apportionment of our burthens, and which ought, therefore, to be the standard for the distribution of benefits. The Constitution has provided that representation and direct taxation shall be apportioned among the States on certain specified principles; it is not only equitable but just that all expenditures of the government, not required for the absolute safety of the country, or the necessary maintenance of the government itself, should be made on the same basis and distributed in the same proportion.

The objections to this doctrine which arise to our minds, are so few and so insignificant compared to the numerous and weighty reasons which may be urged in its favour, that we have always been astonished, that this proportional distribution of the surplus funds of the government, had not been established as a measure of practical expedience, even if it were not incorporated into our system as an unalterable rule of conduct. If it should be supposed that some objects of great magnitude and great apparent importance would be retarded or paralyzed by this division and apportionment of our funds; that some would not be undertaken, from the time which must pass away before they could be accomplished; that others would be abandoned in disgust, from the slow and noiseless step with which they would approach to their completion, and that on this important subject, discouragement and dissatisfaction would pervade the country; we can only reply, that these results ought not to be apprehended, they certainly would not necessarily follow from the admission of so wise and equitable a principle. They could VOL. II.-No. 4.

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only result, when private speculations were permitted too much to mingle with and influence public undertakings. To nations, years are but as days, and the great works of a mighty people, as they ought to be constructed for an unlimited duration, must require, and must be expected to require, a long series of years for their completion. The works that should be undertaken, as they would be supplied with funds from an unfailing source, would advance steadily, if slowly, and the people would look forward to their termination with unabated confidence. The road or the canal, of which even eight or ten miles were constructed in one year, would, in eight or ten years, begin to accommodate a large extent of country and many people. And if many of these improvements were going on, some in every part of our extended union, more people and a far greater surface of country would be benefited in a given term of years, than if the whole expenditure had been lavished on any one project what

soever.

It is true, that under such an arrangement, so many splendid projects might not arise nor be patronized near the seat of government, nor in the centre of the country, but the extremities would receive their due attention. No efforts could then be made to awaken the cupidity or ambition of particular States, by prospects or promises of local or partial advantages, no lure could at any time be thrown out by an artful or ambitious administration to ensnare the unwary or the mercenary, in States or districts, which they might, at particular moments, wish to influence or govern. But all parts of the country would partake of the national munificence-all would flourish under the uniform distribution and expenditure of the national wealth.

We know not whether we can give a better exemplification of the nature, management and probable results of these great operations, than is presented in the following passages from the speech of Mr. Smith:

"Breakwaters, 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, seven thousand miles distant across the tropics, where they may 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.

“Mr. Smith_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. It was contradicted by one gentleman, who attempted to prove, from documents, that it did not exceed $6000 per mile. In defence of what he had then stated, as well as to lay before the Senate an official statement of the cost of the road-making system, in which the United States had so largely embarked, he had collected certain documents of 1827.

"In a Report from the Treasury Department, 6th January, 1827, relative to the cost of that road, it appeared it had cost, up to that period, from Cumberland to Wheeling, a distance of only 130 miles, $1,710,298 93, which gives an average of $13,156 per mile, on the whole distance. The sum paid to commissioners and a superintendent for that 130 miles, is $78,430 47, which will average $604 31 per mile, for superintendence only-a sum sufficient itself, to make a good road.

"Caspar W. Weaver, the superintendent, in an official report of the 25th of May, 1827, to the chief engineer, gives his estimate of $328,983 68, then indispensably necessary for the repairs of that 130 miles, which will average $2,522 95 per mile, for repairs only!

"Mr. Weaver, 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 a proof, it would appear like an idle dream, that a road had cost the government $13,156 per mile, to construct it, and $2,522 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 ensure 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 five hundred miles in length."

Without giving undue weight to personal or party considerations, he must know little of man, who is not aware how much local circumstances, how much the associations of time and place act upon our senses, our understanding, and even on our best intentions. The objects that surround us appear to be of greater magnitude and of more importance than those that are afar off. Those that we can inspect and examine, acquire in our feelings a value, an interest, that we can never give to those that approach us only by report. The delegates of Maine, or Missouri, or Georgia, will feel a deep interest in the improvements of their own State; they may acquire even a factitious interest in the projected ameliorations around the seat of government, because these schemes are made to pass under their personal observation and inspection, and they are constantly associating with persons to whom these objects are, or appear to be, of great and immediate and almost exclusive value; but what deep concern will the representatives from Georgia feel in the projected improvements in Maine, or in Missouri, or how will the delegates from those States listen to the propositions for the benefit of Georgia. It is from the operation of this principle that the circumference of the Union has been comparatively neglected, while the central districts have received so many marks of public favour and bounty. Whereas, under a fair and equitable distribution of the fund for internal improvement, each delegation will be sure of receiving for its own State its due allotment, and need only be solicitous to have that portion well applied; each delegation will attend particularly to the expenditure in its own State, and we shall then have the strongest assurance that the whole expenditure will be beneficially directed.

One strong and remarkable instance may be cited of the influence which present objects acquire even upon the strongest and most enlightened minds. In the elaborate report made on the 7th December, 1826, on the subject of the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal, so deeply did the corps of Engineers become absorbed in the magnificence and grandeur of the enterprize, that they appear anxious to give effect to every collateral circumstance that might aid its progress, and among the reasons advanced to the government for embarking in the project, the first which