Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress Page: 291
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291
GALES & SEATON'S REGISTER
292
H. of R.]
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
[Jan. 20, 1825.
the prejudices, and not the reason, of gentlemen. They
are unyielding in their character, and acquire force by
every partial success.
The gentleman says it is not time to begin; we have
ordered surveys, we must not act till we have the whole
system before us, and can accomplish the whole. Sir,
said Mr. m'laSe, it is no longer a question whether we
shall begin, but whether we shall be arrested in our pro-
gress, and stand still. We have already begun, we have
made great and useful progress—we could not stop if
we would. It is our policy to pursue our way gradually
and with a sure step, having a proper regard to the im-
portance of the object, and the means at our command.
If we refuse to act till we have before us the whole of
any scheme or system, which the imagination of gentle-
men may devise, we shall never do any thing; for such a
system never can be matured, so long as the country it-
self is in a progressive state. The notions of the gentle-
man from South Carolina, in relation to this great sys-
tem, are fanciful and impracticable. We meet the wants
of the country as they arise. If the interests of the na-
tion require our interference in a particular work, and
we have full information as to that work, we should em-
ploy our power, without looking for other objects. If
we wait for the general survey, it may never come.—
When it arrives, it may not be complete—it cannot be.
The objects of internal improvement are as diversified
as the interests of the country, and constantly increasing
and changing. We order a survey of certain objects in
one year in the West; and in another in the Atlantic
States. A year afterwards, new objects spring up and
are suggested, and new surveys follow. The information
developed by the surveys themselves, present new and
more important objects, and we find them constantly
multiplying upon our hands. How long is this to con-
tinue, and what period are we to fix, before we shall
begin to select some one or more on which to commence
practical operations ? Mr. M'Lani-. said, whenever this
great system should be made up, if it ever could be, it
■would be folly to expect the whole to be entered upon,
at once, as a whole. It would be too great for the re-
sources of the nation, it would be too unwieldly for
any body to encounter; it would fall by its own weight,
if attempted as a whole. Tt would have necessarily to
be a work of ages, and centuries would be required for
its completion. But the government would have to go
on progressively, selecting from the scheme those ob-
jects, which the exigencies of the country immediately
required, and to which the national means would be
adequate. This doctrine, he said, was not new. It had
always been acted upon. In relation to the system of
defence by fortifications, it was the known and approved
policy of the government, and had been always defend-
ed by the gentleman from South Carolina himself.
Ever since the termination of the last war, we had
been making surveys, with a view to the military defence
of the country. A regular corps of engineers had been
constantly employed in developing the most eligible
sites for these works. Numerous reports had been made,
and the surveys were yet in progress. Was it ever pre-
tended that we should not begin to fortify until we
could know all that it would become necessary to do in
this way f Should we have refused to fortify New York,
or Boston, or the Delaware, or the Chesapeake, till the
whole country could be explored, to see how much more
might be done ? To protect no part of the country, un-
til we could see how many others might be protected ?
On the contrary, said Mr. M'L. determining upon the
expediency of defence by fortifications, we have pro-
ceeded with all reasonable despatch ; we have consulted
the particular exigencies of the country, acted upon in-
formation as to particular places, whenever it was com-
plete, leaving others for future operations. With this
view, we have classified our system of defence in refer-
ence to their necessity. One class to be executed im-
mediately, another at a longer period, and a third still {
more remote. If this work, of the Delaware and Chesa-
peake Canal, be important in a military point of view,
and he hoped to shew it was not less so than some of
those fortifications, why not act in relation to it upon
the same principle ? If it be intimately connected with
the military defence of the Atlantic frontier, and he be-
lieved it was—the gentleman himself had placed it on
this ground—why not begin it at once, with the other
great works now in progress for the same object ?
Mr. M'L. said, in every point of view in which he had
considered the subject, the measure proposed by this
bill was recommended by the wisest considerations.—■
He had always entertained the opinion, that the best
mode of applying the resources of the government to
great national works, would be to come in aid of indivi-
dual skill and enterprise, where practicable,rather than
to execute the work by the government. Such works,
when undertaken exclusively by the government, were
always more expensive, and sources of constant burden
and expense, in making repairs and keeping them up.
This was a reasonable objection urged to the appropria-
tion for the Cumberland road. But, where individual
enterprise, always careful of its own interest, and not
likely to embark in ruinous projects, had been led to the
projection of a work of this description, the Government
might safely embark its capital in aid of the enterprize.
This would be to cherish, encourage, and sustain, the
spirit and industry of the citizens, and, without the abso-
lute gift of the funds, conduct it to the mutual improve-
ment of the country, and the attainment of great nation-
al objects. There could be little danger of loss in such
a policy, since it rarely happens that a body of intelli-
gent men would embark their individual means without
a reasonable prospect of profitable employment; and,
the work once being accomplished, the same funds own-
ed by the government could b etransferred to other ob-
jects of similar importance, and ultimately attain the most
extensive benefits, without any sensible effect upon the
means of the revenue.
The bill before the House conforms to this policy. It
proposes a subscription for 1500 shares of stock in the
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal Company, to be paid
at the same periods, and in similar proportions, as the
other stockholders, and to give the government a con-
trol over the company in proportion to its interests.
The work itself is of the utmost importance, not only
in a commercial point of view, but as it regards all the
great interests of the nation. Consider it as you will, it
is exceeded by no other work of the kind which has
been projected in this country. It is not a work of ex-
periment, suddenly suggested, and hastily adopted, by
the magnificence of its consequences. It is a project of
half a century; has grown up under the auspices of the
most enlightened, scientific, and practical men for that
period of time. A company has been incorporated by
the authority of three states, authorized to make the
work. Individual subscriptions, to the amount of
dollars, have been obtained; and, in aid of these, and in
common with so many others, the government is now
asked to subscribe for 1500 shares, which, if done, the
work will be completed.
In embarking in this enterprise, we violate no state
rights—they, at least, are, in this instance, secure. We
encroach upon no municipal authority, because we are
acting under its immediate and express sanction. Of the
entire and absolute practicability of the work, with the
present aid, no one who has attended to the subject,
and to the lucid exposition of the honorable chairman of
the committee who reported the bill, can doubt. The
route has been established under the direction of the
most skilful engineers, civil and military, in the United
States. The estimates have been judiciously made—
contracts for the whole work already entered into with
responsible persons, at a sum within the estimates, and
the work is in a rapid and prosperous advancement. The
gentleman from South Carolina calls for a survey. Sir,
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress, book, 1825; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30752/m1/150/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.