Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress Page: 103
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108
GALES & 'SEATON'S REGISTER
104
SENATE.]
Florida Canal.
[FeU. 14, 1826.
hath it, in the future in rue—about to Tsecome a St ate. And
is it possible? I cannot believe thattheauthorsofthisinstru-
ment, who were very sagacious men, though their sagacity
did not, because it could not—it was not in the nature of
things—it is not in the nature of man—that it should ex-
tend to the point of seeing how this political machine, when
they put it into operation, would work. I cannot believe that
they intended, by " needful rules and regulations re-
specting the Territory," any such monstrous grant as this—
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 permittee! to speak as a plain and unletteredman.
I never shall enter into a dispute on the subject of philolo-
gy as long as I live. I speak in the plain vernacular tongue,
level not only to the comprehension of this august assem-
bly, but to that of my constituents, the People, the State
of Virginia. Men commence with the control of things—
they 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 lrave worked so, and none more
than ours—no man ever supposed that the British Consti-
tution, taken theoretically, was to produce the present re-
sult; no man ever supposed that the different French Con-
stitutions, with their councils of ancients and their councils
ofyoungsters, were to turn out as they had done. Agovern-
ment on paper is one thing—it is such a governmeht as
we find here in this book—and a government of practice
is another tiling—it issuch agovernmentaswefindhere—
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.
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-
ceive to be of consequence in its principles, however re-
garded by others, not to be betrayed into a discussion,
even of tliat principle, where I know discussion will do
no good, or into details, when the details are quite
foreign to the matter in hand. I accord my thanks to
the Senate for the patience with which they have heard
me, and! promise them notvery soon to trouble themagain.
Mr. HOLMES offered, in reply to Mr. R. a few reasons for
the difference between the phraseology of the two clauses,
and then said, in reply to the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr.
Hiwusos,) he did not, when he observed that, from the
modesty of his Western brethren, they never lost any
thing for want'of asking—he did not intend any disrespect
to their very respectable Representative. If the People
required him, he was obliged to urge their claims. He
did not wish to enter into any discussion with the gentle-
man as to which of the two possessed the most modesty.
If they were to agree to renounce their modesty, they
would have no difficulty in doing it, and their intimate
friends would probably not observe the loss.
Mr, MACON, ofN, C.said, the opinion had been express-
ed 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 conse-
quence? The moment a Territory becomes a. State, the.
General Government must cease to act, and, if it cannot
go on, all the nioney 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
the work. As for himself, he did not now, and never did,
like these Territorial Governments; and, by this course of
making improvements in them, it only retards their be-'
coming States: for, when they acquire the requisite po-
pulation, they will still put, it off, until all the improve-
ments they desire are made. One wants a canal, ano-
ther a road, and when they get all they want, tliey
come into the Union flourishing States, with nothing more
to ask.
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.
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 al-
most unlimited power, little tilings 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 pow-
er—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 appli-
cations 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.
Mr. BRANCH, ofN. C. did not wish to detain the Senate
any further than to assign the reason for giving the vote
which he should give. He considered the Territory of
Florida as the property of the United States; it was an in-
fant State, and he considered it as the bounden duty of
Congress to foster and cherish this property, and to lead
it to a state of maturity as speedily as possible. They
must nurse the Territories; they were constrained to do
this as regarded their natural offspring, and they were un-
der the same necessity as regarded the Territories, which
would hereafter become States. The unappropriated
lands in the Territory of Florida belong to the United
States, and whatever was bestowed for the work in con-
templation would be amply repaid, at a period not very
remote, by the enhanced value of the lands which would
there be brought into market. Mr. B. perfectly coincid-
ed with the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. White,)—
doubting of the constitutional right of the United States
to cut roads and canals through the States, he had hither-
to abstained from exercising it; but as regarded the ter-
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 sup-
port the interest of the State he represented, so tar as he
could do it consistently with a conscientious discharge of
his duties. This was the course lie should pursue, and he
knew the People at home too well to believe that they
would not sustain him in it.
Mr. HENDRICKS offered some further remarks in sup-
port of the amendment. It only proposed to do that
which was doing every day, and which the Engineers
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress, book, 1826; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30753/m1/56/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.