and on the continent of Europe, though not conneeted with it. All the islands in the Mediterranean are positions on the coast of the Mediterranean, exactly as a fleet anchored in our waters has taken a position on our coast and on our waters. [FFB. 14, 1826. the country for improvement. He thought this canal was important to all the States bordering on the Mississippi, and the tributary streams. At present, there is only one market for the sale of their produce; but, if this canal was found to be practicable, they would have a choice of markets; and there would be another advantage to be derived from it-in case an epidemic raged in one place, they might proceed to another. He was, therefore, in favor of the amendment. Mr. HARRISON, of Ohio, offered a few remarks in support of the bill and the amendment, both of which he considered of great importance. The gentleman from Maine thought the new States were not remarkable for their nodesty, and that, on all occasions, where they could get any thing by asking, they never failed to demand it. Mr. H. said he had never known that the portion of country which the gentleman came from, was remarkable for its modesty and, if it was, the gentleman himself was in a fair way to get rid of it. for he had told them, he was about to ask for something for his Ultima Thule. Mr. H. said he should not have noticed the remark that fell from the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. RANDOLPH,) on his own account: for it was a matter of indifference to him, what that gentleman thought of the persons who had the good or bad fortune to exercise the appointments of Governors of Territories; but it was necessary to defend his constituents. He represented a State, the inhabitants of which understood all the duties, and were alive to all the feelings of freemen, as well as that State which the gentleman himself represented, and for which he (Mr. H.) had the greatest respect. Mr. H. said he had, for twelve years, exercised the power of Satrap, and, he trusted, during that period, he had never forgotten that he was an American citizen; and that they were citizens for whose benefit the power was conferred upon him. There was evidence now in this City to shew, that one, at least, of the very respectable States that composed the Territory that he had the honor to govern, had very different feelings on this subject, from those which were entertained by the gentleman who had alluded to the subject. Mr. HOLMES was in favor of the bill and against the amendment. He had no doubt that Congress has the power to survey this ground forthe purpose of making a canal in the Territory, or a right to make it. He believed, however, his friend from Louisiana had defined that power by a figure a little too broad; but he was well satisfied of his meaning, even before he had made the explanation. Congress, Mr. H. said, possessed the same power of legislating over the Territory as it had over the District of Columbia; and it was a legislation over these Territories, subject to the stipulations of the Constitution of the United States. No one would contend that they could regulate the religion of the Territories, nor that they could quarter troops on the inhabitants in time of peace, because it was prohibited by the Constitution. They might legislate, subject to the rights of the People of the Territories, but they could not take the property of these individuals, and convert it into this canal, without giving them an equivalent. Whether the attempt to make the Florida canal succeeded, or not, Mr. H. said he was will ing to incur almost any expense, if there was a prospect of success. He would do almost any thing to avoid the navigation round the capes, the keys, and reefs of Florida. It is the bane of sailors; it is a Golgotha-a grave yard. He should not think it much of a loss to the United States were the whole Peninsula of Florida sunk into the Gulf of Mexico. He believed it would be a blessing to this country if they could dig it down with shovels and sink into the deepest place in the Gulf. He thought that, within the last half century, it had been the grave of more persons than now inhabit the whole of both Floridas. He considered the present subject as most important in every point of view, whether as regarded the United States, or the mariners; and he would venture almost any thing to avoid this dangerous navigation. Mr. H. said the Western and South Western States were usually very modest in Mr. HAYNE, of S. C. thought a few moments reflection their claims; but they seemed to have adopted the maxim, would satisfy the gentleman who had offered the amend never to lose any thing for want of asking, and perhaps ment, that it involved a principle different from that which it was a very good one; but he thought the better maxim was involved in the bill. When questions agreed in the same was the one they were accustomed to teach their children principle-if, for instance, it was proposed to act on a sin-(though he did not look on them in that light,) if they gle case, there was no reason why you should not emwanted to get much, to ask for a little at a time. On their brace others of the same class: but, when it could be tables there was an appropriation bill, which appropriates shewn that an object, which every one agreed was a proa small sum for the purpose of surveys. If this doctrine per one, would be jeopardized by being connected with was to be established, first, that they had a right to sur- another of a different character, then they certainly ought vey routes for roads and canals, and afterwards that they not to be placed together. In the present case, the orihad a right to make them-a doctrine which he had al-ginal proposition was to make a survey through a Terriways combatted-yet, if he was to be beaten in that, he tory of the United States, for the purpose of ascertaining agreed with the gentleman from Virginia, that, if they whether an object was practicable, which all admitted broke open the chest and took out the money-though, to be very desirable; and it was now proposed, as an Mr. H. said, he protested either against breaking open the amendment, to make another survey through a Sovereign chest or giving up the keys-give him his share. A little State, without a provision for the consent of that State, money is to be applied for this purpose of surveys, and when gentlemen well knew, that there were sevesurveys have been made in almost every State and Terri-ral individuals on this floor who believed that the power tory, except in Maine, the Ultima Thule a place which of the General Government extended to the one case and had been quite disregarded. Mr. H. concluded by saying, not to the other. Without entering into the argument on if the amendment prevailed he should be constrained to the subject, Mr. H. said, it appeared to him that the tw vote against the bill. subjects ought not to be connected together, because they involve, in the declared opinion of many gentlemen, a different exercise of power. The gentlemen from Tennessee, and from Maine, had both stated this to be their opinion. It would, he therefore thought, be best to finish one subject first. Let us ascertain, by a survey, whether the ship channel could or could not be cut across the Florida Peninsula, over our own Territory, and then it would be time enough to proceed further and inquire whether this additional survey, from the Chattahouchie to the Mississippi, would be necessary, and was Mr. FINDLAY of Pa. said, this bill contemplated nothing more than to make a survey to ascertain the capacity of the country for improvement a thing which they had been in the practice of doing for several years. Mr. F. was against the proposition, that the United States had the power to make roads and canals through the sovereign States, without their consent; but he did not think they were warranted in drawing the inference that they possessed this power from the circumstance of employing the United States' engineers, to ascertain the capacity of fairly within our constitutional powers. He would intreat the friends of this measure not to embarrass it by a proposition differing somewhat in principle, and also in its details. Before he sat down, Mr. H. said, he would notice a remark that the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. RANDOLPH,) had made, in speaking of the State he (Mr. H.) had the honor to represent, though not in any terms of which he complained. He had asked, whether South Carolina had received any portions of the favors of the Federal Government, in this respect, and whether some of her roads did not need it? It so happened, Mr. H. said, that he never had, like the gentleman from Virginia, travelled the road to which he alluded; he, therefore, could not say what was its present condition; but he would inform the gentleman that the State of South Carolina, within a few years, had expended nearly two millions of dollars in cutting its own canals, and making its own roads; and if that gentleman should ever honor that State with another visit, and accept of the hospitality of its citizens, he would find the ways open, and in good order, and he would, he hoped, have a pleasant journey. As regarded the favors of the General Government, Mr. H. said, it was true they had received none. Though their harbors had been surveyed with a view to fortify them, the works had not yet been begun. They had never asked for favors, and were not much in the habit of complaining; but, when they did ask, he hoped they would not be refused. [SENATE. step in this, as in some other cases, constituted the chief Mr. R. was very sorry, that, in the use of ridicule as an argument on this floor, he had fallen under the censure of any member, but he should be permitted to take shelter under a high authority-one of the strong positions on the continent of Literature. As this very high authority had asserted that ridicule was the best weapon by which to cut up great things, a fortiori, it must apply to little ones. He could not agree, with the gentleman from Maine, that Congress possesses the same power over their other Territories that they possess over the District of Columbia; and why so? Because it was not necessary for him to tell the gentleman from Maine that nullum simile est idem. The Territory of Florida or Arkansaw is a Territory, and the Territory or District of Columbia is a Territory; and so far they are alike-as like as Macedon and Monmouth; there is a river in Macedon, and there is a river Monmouth-so says Fluellen; and there are salmons in both: this was to prove the parallel between Alexander the Mr. RANDOLPH said, the gentleman from South Ca- Great and Harry the Fifth; but in no other respects, but rolina had misapprehended him; and it was probable it that they are called Territories, is there any similitude, arose from the clumsiness of his (Mr. R's.) own expres- much less identity. Indeed there is not even a similarityWhat are the words of the Constitusion-a fault to which he was afraid, from the consequen- not even in name. ces that had followed his addressing this body, he was too tion? Mr. R. said he was very sorry that this book [holdmuch addicted. He did but mean to state that there was ing up the Constitution] was so seldom resorted to. It a distinction between these questions, taken upon political was like the Bible, in which we kept receipts, deeds, &c: metaphysics-between the power of Congress within a and never looked into it except when we happen to want State, and over a Territory, taken upon political metaphy- them; and even then we are so little in the habit of using sics but he was almost sick of political metaphysics. He it, that we forget where they are mislaid. The words of did not believe that Congress had all the powers within a the Constitution are these: "Congress shall have power State, that they had within a Territory; but he did not see to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, the difference between Congress putting their hand into over such district, (not exceeding ten miles square,) as his pocket, for the purpose of cutting a canal in the State may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Alabama, which was a Territory yesterday; or in the of Congress, become the seat of Government of the UnitTerritory of Florida, which will be a State to-morrow. ed States, and to exercise like authority over all places Some of the earliest lessons he received in politics, Mr. R. purchased, by the consent of the Legislature of the State said, were under that great teacher, old Roger Sherman; in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, maand another great teacher, the most sagacious man, per- gazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildhaps, that Virginia ever bred, old George Mason. They ings." Here, said Mr. R. was their authority over the always went for the substance of the thing, and not for District of Columbia; which, adopting the nomenclature the shadow. Sherman's rule was, give me the vote, and of the Constitution, was not even a Territory-and now "The Congress take the argument. He was for the practice; as the gen- for the authority over the Territories. tleman from Maine said, he was for the money-keeping shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules it within the Treasury of the United States, or in the and regulations respecting, the Territory or other propockets of his constituents, where it was more safe to perty belonging to the United States." If Congress poslodge it than in any Government under the Sun, and from sesses the same power over the other Territories, Michiwhich it was Mr. R's belief, it ought to be, by no Go-gan for instance, that it possesses over the District of ten vernment that consults the interest and happiness of the People, ever taken, without real and obvious necessity. In regard to this necessity, in regard to this Scylla and Charybdis, it has been about as much exaggerated, as in the old story that we have read of in our youth, in the blind old man of Scio's Rocky Isle. Go to the Insurance Offices and ask what is the insurance against the sea risk, pirates and all? Was it ten per cent.? It was long, Mr. R. said, since he had any thing to do with the Treasury; it was long since he had devoted his mind to statistics to such minutiæ; but he was convinced, that insurance of the United States, to no part of the world, even doubling Cape Horn, amounted to ten per cent. A gentleman near me, of commercial experience, says it is from one and a half to two per cent. Mr. R. said, he did expect that, when the gentleman from South Carolina gave him so warm an invitation to his native State, he would have reminded him that the first miles square, then Michigan could never become a State- SENATE.] Florida Canal. [FEB. 14, 1826. Mr. M. thought gentlemen in an error when they spoke of ten per cent. being charged for insurance to Cuba; he was under the impression it was never so high as that, and now, he understood, it was from one to one and a half per cent., and this includes the dangers of the coast, particu larly the two Capes of North Carolina, &c. Mr. M. did not agree with Mr. HOLMES, about sinking this Territory in the Gulf of Mexico; he had rather have the land than so much more water. This Territory of Florida was, by the way, a strange country; sometimes it is very good-no country like it—then, again, it is so worthless it is not worth having, and to be sunk in the sea. hathit, in the future in rus-about to become a State. And the work. As for himself, he did not now, and never did, is it possible? I cannot believe that the authors of this instru- like these Territorial Governments; and, by this course of ment, who were very sagacious men, though their sagacity making improvements in them, it only retards their bedid not, because it could not-it was not in the nature of coming States: for, when they acquire the requisite pothings-it is not in the nature of man-that it should ex-pulation, they will still put it off, until all the improvetend to the point of seeing how this political machine, when ments they desire are made. One wants a canal, anothey put it into operation, would work. I cannot believe that ther a road, and when they get all they want, they they intended, by "needful rules and regulations re- come into the Union flourishing States, with nothing more specting the Territory," any such monstrous grant as this to ask. that is now claimed for "The Congress." We have had to cobble several parts of it, and we are now tinkering the very same part of it again. Such is political foresight. I hope to be permitted to speak as a plain and unlettered man. I never shall enter into a dispute on the subject of philology as long as I live. I speak in the plain vernacular tongue, level not only to the comprehension of this august assembly, but to that of my constituents, the People, the State of Virginia. Men commence with the control of thingsthey put events in motion-but after a very little while, events hurry themaway,and they are borne along with a swift fatality, that no human sagacity or power can foresee or control. All Governments have worked so, and none more than ours-no man ever supposed that the British Constitution, taken theoretically, was to produce the present result; no man ever supposed that the different French Constitutions, with their councils of ancients and their councils of youngsters, were to turn out as they had done. A government on paper is one thing-it is such a government as we find here in this book-and a government of practice is another thing-it is such a government as we find here in this body I mean. The authors of the Constitution would never have used separate sets of words to convey one and the same thing. If they had been scriveners from the Inns of Court, and wanted to draw out their parchment to the greatest professional length, though they might have used the set of words applied to the District, they would have used the same set of words applied to the Territory-but you see there are two distinct, and in some regards, discrepant grants of power. Mr. M. said, he did not like to go on in this way-the Government was constantly gaining power by little bits. A wagon road was made under a treaty with an Indian tribe, twenty odd years ago; and now it becomes a great national object, to be kept up by large appropriations. We thus go on by degrees, step by step, until we get almost unlimited power. Little things were often of great importance in their consequences. The Revolution in this country was produced by a trifling tax on tea. There were five or six different ways found out of getting power-by construction, by treaty, by implication, &c. He was not willing to take any of them. He was willing to execute the Constitution just as it was understood by those who made it, and no other. Mr. M. concluded by saying, there were constant applications before Congress for these objects; yet nothing was more clear to him than that, if they could be executed with profit, they would be done by private enterprise, and that it was only when the case was different that Congress was appealed to. I have learned a lesson to-day, (said Mr. R.) which I hope will not be thrown away upon me; that is, hereafter, when I want to record my vote on a question that I con- Mr. BRANCH, of N. C. did not wish to detain the Senate ceive to be of consequence in its principles, however re- any further than to assign the reason for giving the vote garded by others, not to be betrayed into a discussion, which he should give. He considered the Territory of even of that principle, where I know discussion will do Florida as the property of the United States; it was an inno good, or into details, when the details are quite fant State, and he considered it as the bounden duty of foreign to the matter in hand. I accord my thanks to Congress to foster and cherish this property, and to lead the Senate for the patience with which they have heard it to a state of maturity as speedily as possible. They me, and I promise them not very soon to trouble them again. must nurse the Territories; they were constrained to do Mr. HOLMES offered, in reply to Mr. R. a few reasons for this as regarded their natural offspring, and they were unthe difference between the phraseology of the two clauses, der the same necessity as regarded the Territories, which and then said, in reply to the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. would hereafter become States. The unappropriated HARRISON,) he did not, when he observed that, from the lands in the Territory of Florida belong to the United modesty of his Western brethren, they never lost any States, and whatever was bestowed for the work in conthing for want of asking-he did not intend any disrespect templation would be amply repaid, at a period not very to their very respectable Representative. If the People remote, by the enhanced value of the lands which would required him, he was obliged to urge their claims. He there be brought into market. Mr. B. perfectly coinciddid not wish to enter into any discussion with the gentle-ed with the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. WHITE,)— man as to which of the two possessed the most modesty. doubting of the constitutional right of the United States If they were to agree to renounce their modesty, they to cut roads and canals through the States, he had hitherwould have no difficulty in doing it, and their intimate to abstained from exercising it; but as regarded the terfriends would probably not observe the loss. ritory, the objection did not seem to exist. Mr. B. said he should, on all grand questions, feel himself at liberty to vote for every measure that had a tendency to advance the general weal, and should feel himself bound to support the interest of the State he represented, so far as he could do it consistently with a conscientious discharge of his duties. This was the course he should pursue, and he knew the People at home too well to believe that they would not sustain him in it. Mr. MACON, of N. C. said, the opinion had been expressed that, while the Territories remain such, it was competent for the Government to make improvements in them; but, suppose improvements begun, and before they are finished, the Territory becomes a State-what is to be the consequence? The moment a Territory becomes a State, the General Government must cease to act, and, if it cannot go on, all the money and labor expended may be thrown away. In the work now proposed, Mr. M. said, they ought to have proceeded as in all other similar objects they ought to have estimates of the cost before they begin Mr. HENDRICKS offered some further remarks in support of the amendment. It only proposed to do that which was doing every day, and which the Engineers were even now employed in doing, between this place and New Orleans. It had been suggested to him, since this discussion had commenced, to withdraw the amendment, and that the Secretary of War would have power to order this survey. This, Mr. H. contended, was a strange circumstance; that the Secretary of War should have the power to do that which this House doubted its constitutional power to authorize. Amongst the several maps and charts with which the committee had been furnished, there was one which tended to show that, of the survey alluded to, the greater part had already been made, under the authority of the War Department, probably for ascertaining suitable sites for fortifications. He thought that they had so far progressed, and had so often adopted this principle, that he could not have expected that any objection would have been made on constitutional grounds, to the section before them; but these objections having been made, if they were to meet them on every proposition that was made, they might as well meet them on this question as on any other. He should, therefore, be disinclined to accede to the wish of those who wished the amendment to be withdrawn, even if he had the power. [SENATE. fluenced by the opinions of another. He was very sorry that his colleague had misunderstood him. Mr. ROWAN, of Kentucky, said, that, so far as related to the disbursement of money, he was one of the liberals. He was not one of those who thought it a blessing to have an overflowing Treasury. Whenever there was more money in the Treasury than sufficed to meet the current expenses of the Government, it belonged to the People, and it ought to be distributed amongst them to swell the tide of industry. The survey proposed by the bill, as related to the Territory, he conceived to be a very important measure; and he had no doubt as to the powers of the United States to expend the money within the Territory; but, so far as he was at present informed, he was of opinion, with those who contend that the Government has not the power, without the consent of the States, to expend their money on the soil of the State. The territory of the State belongs to the State as a sovereign State; and was a sovereign State to talk about being the object of a favor? Was a sovereign State to demand a favor, and receive it in the shape of a favor? Was it consistent with the sovereign character so to do? The very term implied component power, wealth, and every thing that was necessary for the existence of a State. The wealth of a State, whether of the United States or of an individual State, in his opinion, did not depend on the surplus millions in the Treasury, but exists always in the muscles, and enterprize, and hardihood of its citizens; and this is a source that could be drawn on for every reasonable purpose, and at all times when the wisdom of the State chose to make the draft. He considered an appeal to the United States, by a State, in the shape of a favor, as a renunciation of its sovereign character. He was one of those who believed not only that things influence terms, but that terms influence things; and when they used the language of dependence, they would prepare the temper of the People for the reception of the thing; and in this discussion, and all such discussions, he wished terms to be excluded that were incompatible with the intrinsic meaning of the substance to which they are applied. In inquiring into the Mr. MACON said that, whether he voted liberally or not liberally, he would willingly leave it to his constituents to decide on his votes. The fact was, in regard to the anticipated augmentation of the value of lands, in consequence of making the canal in the Territory, that the highest lands ever sold by the Government were sold where there was no improvement, not even a road-he meant (so he was understood) Madison county, in Alabama. As to voting the public money liberally, Mr. M. said he wished to see every thing saved that could be saved, to meet those sixteen millions of the public debt which fell due this year. The Secretary of the Treasury had said we must borrow to meet it. Mr. M. thought it best to husband our resources, and pay off as much as we could, and satisfy every body that there is a prospect of paying the debt off. He repeated, he did not think it was necessary to expend money in the Territory in this way, to advance the value of the lands. He had no doubt the land would sell as fast as the Indian title was extinguish-power of the State, he did not look into the Constitution ed. It was the country where sugar and other valuable articles would be produced, and the bounty on sugar would make the lands sell fast enough. to find what powers were conferred; he looked into it to see what powers were denied-what the People have denied to themselves. Every thing is subject to their will, and the Constitution is but the delineation of the manner in which this will is to be exercised, in what we call the Government: and what is not fairly denied to the State, exists by the social compact. Mr. BRANCH said he had ever yielded to the force of the arguments of his worthy colleague, and to his long tried experience, and he should examine well the ground on which he stood, before he ventured to differ from him. He took it a little unkind in his colleague to put the con- In the General Government, they were, Mr. R. said, to struction he had done on the remarks he had made to the look into the Constitution for all the power they possessed Senate. He should have considered the different grounds-there was no such power given in the Constitution; and on which they stood; a patriotic devotion of thirty years he believed, with deference to the opinion entertained, to his country had placed him (Mr. M.) firmly in the con- that, to convey the exercise of such a power, was incomfidence of his friends at home. Mr. B. said no man ever patible with what was the acknowledged power of the paid more respect to his talents and real worth than he States. There was no power given to expend money in did, and he did not wish to contrast any course he should roads and canals in the States; there was no such power deem it his duty to pursue, with the course of his honora- specifically given to the United States; and when once it ble colleague. He appreciated his motives; he venerated was settled in this House that power could be derived to the man; but his conscience told him he must pursue a this Government by construction, you have discovered the course, on this occasion, which differed from that of his means by which the whole power of a State might be frithonorable colleague. His friend, in the course of the re-tered down and annihilated. Construction is a thing of marks he had made to the Senate, had alluded to the vote givea yesterday in relation to authorizing the opening a road from Tennessee to Mississippi; and he did vote for that appropriation: for, not only had Congress the right to make this appropriation for a road through the Indian country, acquired by treaty, before it came into the Union, but it was an obligation on the General Government to complete the work it had commenced, and he had thereFare voted for it. Mr. MACON protested that he meant no improper reference to his colleague, in the few remarks he had made. He never entertained a thought that any one was to be in inconceivable dilation. But without going into political metaphysics, there was one aspect of the case which should present itself on all such questions. We are apt to say, this Government has power, and that Government has power; and the general phraseology seems to import, that this Government has a double sovereignty-the sovereignty of the United States, and the sovereignty of the State. Mr. R. thought there was but one sovereign in America, and that is the People; the public will is the sovereign power; and there are two sovereign machines-one for external purposes, and one for internal purposes. The People within a State are sovereign, and that State is li SENATE.] Florida Canal.-Bankruptcy. [FEB. 14-21, 1826. mited by the restraints imposed in their own Constitu- Mr. KING, of Alabama, did not intend to have said a tion, and by the power conceded to the General Govern-word in the discussion of this subject, if he were not placment. Imposed by themselves, in their own Constitution, ed in a situation that required him to explain his reasons or in the Constitution of the General Government, their will is the power, where these restrictions are not found. When we hold any communion with Foreign Powers, we put on this armour-we use the machinery of the United States' Government for this purpose; and with that machine is connected the different State agents. The governing power is not inherent in the Legislature of a State or Nation; but they are machines through which the real governing power, the will of the People, operates. They are their agents. As to the Territory, then, they must either govern themselves, or they must look to some other quarter for government, or they must have none. They do not govern themselves, and the Constitution has provided they shall be governed by the sovereign will of the People, as displayed in the national machinery, by this General Government. As regarded this improvement in the Territory, Mr. R. said it must always be a question of expediency; and believing it to be so, he was prepared to vote, and not only prepared, but he was eager to vote, to further the objects of that part of the bill which relates to the Territory of Florida. But he could not, consistently with his present impressions, vote for that part which relates to the States of Mississippi, &c. If the amendment prevailed, he should vote against the bill; and he thought it would have been most expedient, in many points of view, not to have brought forward this question, so far as it relates to the States in connection with the question, so far as it relates to the Territory. for the vote he should give. He was as much opposed to the violation of the principles of the Constitution, as any man on this floor; and, in regard to those constructive powers, so dangerous to the liberties of the country, and to the rights of the People of the sovereign States, he should be the last man to attempt to exercise the power under such construction. But he thought the Constitution had nothing to do with the subject now under discussion. Where was there any violation of State rights in authorizing the Government to make this survey? Did they not do it every day, under an express appropriation, year after year, without any of those fears about the Constitution? If the Government of the United States had not the power of employing the Engineer Corps, to examine the state of the coast, with a view to fortify the harbors, rivers, &c. to facilitate the commerce of the country, what, he asked, were the powers of the General Government? He should vote in favor of this amendment, under the impression that it was right and proper that the Government should be informed of the advantages which would result from making this communication, by the examination of enlightened men; and when the proposition was brought forward to make an appropriation to open any canal, within the limits of a State, the assent of that State not being obtained, he should vote against it. The debate continued until four o'clock, when the question being taken on the amendment, it was rejected by the following vote: For the Amendment-Messrs. Barton, Bouligny, Chase, Findlay, Harrison, Hendricks, Johnston, of Lou. Kane, King, Marks, Noble, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Thomas, Williams-16. Against it-Messrs. Bell, Berrien, Branch, Chandler, Clayton, Cobb, Dickerson, Eaton, Edwards, Ellis, Hayne, Holmes, Johnson, of Ken., Knight, Lloyd, Macon, Mills, Randolph, Rowan, Sanford, Smith, Van Buren, VanDyke, White, Willey, Woodbury-26. The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, without a division. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1826. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1826. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1826. Mr. KANE, of Illinois, said this was a question he never had an opportunity of hearing discussed in Congress before; and he should not now rise to say one word, but for the intimation that there was no doubt but this question could be carried by a sufficient number of votes, connected with the further intimation, that most of the speaking on this subject had been made by those who expressed doubts on the constitutional question. He did not see that the constitutional question raised here, was essentially connected with the object of the bill. There was nothing in the word road or canal, which, ex vi termini, imported an object of internal improvement. Was a canal, proposed to be cut across the Isthmus of Florida, an object of internal improvement? Did not all the reasoning that had been employed on this subject, go to show, that its object was to protect commerce? And the bill, as proposed to be amended, had in view the further object of the further protection of commerce, by opening a communication to the Mississippi river. The amendment proposed to appropriate a certain sum to make an examination; and when that examination shall have been made, if the report should go to show that the object of this canal was only for the purpose of internal improvement, then would be the time to raise this objection. But, if the report went to show that the further object was to accomplish the protection of the commerce of the United States, then this question could not arise. If it went to show that it would be an immense saving to the Treasury of the Nation, and, moreover, afford protection to a greater degree than would be afforded to the commerce of the United States by cutting a canal, than by building a fort, he would ask why the constitutional question should, in that case, necessarily arise? He merely wished to give his reason why he should vote for the amendment proposed by the Mr. HAYNE, in reporting this bill, said that the comcommittee. He viewed the object of the bill as no more mittee to whom the subject had been referred, had beunconstitutional than those laws which provide for the sur-stowed on it the attention due to its importance; and vey of our own coast. Suppose the Engineers had re- though they deeply regretted the delay which had taken ported, that the best way of protecting the commerce of place in submitting the bill to the consideration of the North Carolina, was by cutting a canal along the coast, Senate, yet he could assure them that this had arisen unwould gentlemen say, this canal was not to be cut, because avoidably, from the great difficulty of arranging the decanals are used as the means of facilitating internal com-tails of a system so extremely complicated, and of such merce only? He thought not. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1826. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1826. Mr. IIAYNE, of South Carolina, from the Committee to whom was referred a resolution to inquire into the expediency of establishing a uniform system of Bankruptcy, reported a bill to establish a uniform system of Bankruptcy throughout the United States;" which 'was read, and ordered to be printed. |