SENATE.] Pension Agency in North Alabama--Cumberland Road. to present to the Senate, memorials of sundry citizens of the State of Ohio, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. It is but justice to say of these memorials that they are dictated by a spirit of pure philanthropy and Christian piety, and that they are entitled to the most respectful consideration of the Senate. I shall move their reference to the Committee on the District of Columbia; and I hope that committee will not be satisfied with merely passing them over in silence, but that they will give the Senate and the nation their views upon the subject; that if any obstacles stand in the way of the measure solicited by the memorialists, they may be made known, and, being known, their true merits can be appreciated. No one is better qualified than the honorable chairman of that committee to examine and elucidate this subject, and I have no doubt he will do it in the spirit of candor and justice, and respect for the opinions of every portion of our country, becoming an American statesman; and I move the ref erence. The memorials were then referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. PENSION AGENCY IN NORTH ALABAMA. Mr. TOMLINSON, from the Committee on Pensions, to which had been referred the resolution of the Senate directing them to inquire into the expediency of estab lishing a pension agency in North Alabama, reported that it was inexpedient at this time to legislate on the subject, there being already two pension agencies in the State. Mr. KING, of Alabama, asked the honorable Senator to explain why the committee asked to be discharged from the further consideration of the memorial. It seemed to him that such an agency was much wanted, and it would be a great convenience to several old and decrepid pensioners to have an agent near at hand. The money for the payment of these pensions was placed in the bank of the State, which was a deposite bank of the Government, and therefore the agency could be established without inconvenience. He hoped the commit tee might not be discharged from the further considera tion of the memorial. Mr. TOMLINSON wished to afford every reasonable accommodation to the invalid pensioners in the State of Alabama; but the Senator forgot that there had been a pension agency established there lately. Mr. KING observed that that agency was confined to a certain district. [FEB. 11, 1835. ed. The bill of last year, as it passed the Senate, appropriated $652,000, and it was then stated that, if the whole amount was appropriated, there would be no further application to Congress. But the House of Rep resentatives reduced the appropriation to $300,000, and the present bill appropriated $340,000, being rather less than the estimate of last year. The passage of the bill, in this form, would be sufficient to put the road in that state of repair which would render it unnecessary for any future appropriation by Congress. Mr. BUCHANAN said that reasons both of a public and personal character would induce him to make some remarks on this bill. The Cumberland road had been a constant subject before Congress, ever since he had first taken his seat in the House of Representatives, in the session of 1821-'2. A bill had passed at that session to keep it in repair, by erecting toll-gates upon it, under the authority of the general Government, on which Mr. Monroe, then the President of the United States, had placed his veto, because, in his opinion, Congress did not possess the power, under the constitution, to enact such a law. He (Mr. B.) had then carefully examined the message of Mr. Monroe on returning this bill, and had been convinced that we had no power to pass any such act. From that moment he had steadily and uniformly, in every shape and form, opposed the erection of toll-gates upon this road, under the authority of the general Government. If Congress do possess the power to enter the territory of a State, to interfere in their domestic concerns, to erect toll-gates upon their roads, to establish a system of police over them, and inflict penalties for its violations, and of consequence to create tribunals before which these offences may be tried, then every barrier between federal and State authority is at once prostrated. Indeed, this principle would lead to perfect consolidation, so far as an entire jurisdiction over the post roads of the country, for the purpose of levying tolls to keep them in repair, could extend. In this state of things, there was one party in Congress who, although anxious for the preservation of the road, felt themselves bound to vote against all appropriations for its repair, on the principle of thus compelling its levied under the authority of the States through which friends to consent that tolls for this purpose should be it passes. Another party desired that it might be for ever kept in repair by appropriations from the national treasury, without the collection of tolls either under State or national authority. And a third class of politi cians were determined to push the doctrine of internal After some further observations from Mr. TOMLIN-improvements to the dangerous extent of establishing SON, Mr. KING moved that it be laid on the table, for the purpose of being taken up again when he should have obtained certain information from the Secretary of the Treasury relative to the subject. CUMBERLAND ROAD. On motion of Mr. HENDRICKS, the Senate proceed. ed to consider the bill for the continuation and repair of the Cumberland road, in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. The bill having been read, Mr. HENDRICKS moved to amend the first section by adding a provision that the officer of the army to whom the charge of the disbursements was given, should receive a per centage above his regular pay. This proposition was opposed by Mr. CLAY and Mr. HILL. the principle that Congress not only possessed the power to appropriate money for the construction of roads and diction over them, by erecting gates upon them, and decanals, but that they were also bound to assume a jurismanding toll from the passengers. In regard to myself, said Mr. B., I have been more misrepresented upon this question than I have ever been on any other. I have been constantly denounced as an enemy to the road, although I have never entertained a single hostile feeling towards it. Jealousy towards this great national work, because it might injure the Pennsylvania turnpike, has always been imputed to me, when, if I know myself, I am incapable of such a feeling towards such an improvement, so beneficial to the citizens of the country generally. For several years I voted for appropriations to repair the road, and I did not cease to do so until I discovered that, if this course were continued, the peculiar friends of the road never would consent to the erection of toll-gates under State authority. Mr. HENDRICKS then said that he was very indifferent as to this proposition. He made some explana tions on the subject of the bill, generally, giving a stateIn this conflict of jarring opinions, the necessary apment of the appropriation made last year, and of the propriations could not be obtained for the repairs of the manner in which that sum ($300,000) had been expend-road. It got into a ruinous state, and became so dilapi FEB. 11, 1835.] Cumberland Road. [SENATE. dated that its entire destruction was threatened. Its But it is said that the sum of $300,000 was approfriends at length consented that it should be placed un-priated at the last session for the entire completion of der the protection of the States through which it passes. To carry their wishes into effect, Pennsylvania, in April, 1831, and Maryland, in January, 1832, passed acts authorizing the erection of toll-gates upon it, and agreed to take it under their care, provided, it should be put in a good and complete state of repair" by Congress. Virginia, some time afterwards, passed a similar act. On the 3d July, 1832, Congress approved of these legislative acts, and appropriated $150,000 towards the repair of the road. the repairs of the road, and that no more ought now to be demanded. Is there any force in this argument? In adjusting an account with individuals, where the claimant is an opposing party, it is very proper for Congress to declare that the sum granted shall be in full of all demands. Unless under very extraordinary circumstances, I should not vote to reopen such an account, and grant an additional sum. But what are the facts upon the present occasion? Does not this road belong to the United States? Are we not bound by the strongHere, then, was a contract expressly and solemnly est sense of public duty to keep it in repair? Here made, first, that the road should be put in good and there is no opposite party with whom we can drive a complete repair by Congress, and then that it should be bargain. It is our own road, and if we have not appro surrendered to the States for the purpose of its preser-priated a sufficient sum for its repair, shall we suffer it vation. to go to ruin because we have made a mistake in regard to the amount necessary for that purpose? If the simple declaration of Congress that $300,000 was sufficient could have rendered it so, then there might be justice in the reasoning; otherwise it is a mere fallacy. After having granted a certain sum, which was found by experience to be wholly insufficient to complete one of our fortifications, what should we say to a gentleman who would gravely contend that, as we had declared this sum should accomplish the object, we would rather permit it to go to ruin than appropriate another dollar? The cases are precisely parallel. But this is not all. How can Congress acquit themselves from their obligations to Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, by such an argument? They have a right to declare that this was not the bargain; that you agreed to repair the road; and, cost what it may, this object must be accomplished, or they will not accept its surrender. In pursuance of this arrangement the Engineer department adopted plan for its repair. The road was to be Macadamized. There were to be three strata of stone placed upon it, each of three inches in depth. The repairs proceeded upon this principle. On the 2d March, 1833, the sum of $125,000 more was appropriated to continue these repairs. At the last session an estimate was presented to Congress by the Engineer department, stating that the sum of $652,100 would be required to complete the road; but Congress only appropriated $300,000 for this purpose, less than half the necessary sum. The act granting this money also declared that it was given for the "entire completion of the repairs of the Cumberland road east of the Ohio." What have been the consequences? Just such as might have been forescen by every reflecting man. The Engineer department has adopted a fixed plan for repairing the road. This plan they had steadily pursued for two years. It was known or ought to have been known by Congress. They were progressing gradually to complete the road, when, all of a sudden, without any previous notice, Congress changed the plan, by granting less than half the money necessary for its execution. What was then to be done? It became necessary for the engineer to abandon his system, and spread the appropriation over the whole road. He has acted thus; and the result has been, that about sixty-three miles of the road, nearly half its whole length, has but one stratum of three inches of stone in depth, instead of three. Is there any gentleman upon this floor who does not know not only that this is insufficient for a permanent road, but that as soon as the spring opens it will be cut to pieces by the heavy wagons and carriages? The metal, as it is technically called, will then be all in the mud. If the money now asked be not granted, the fatality which has always attended this road will continue to exist, and the last appropriation of $300,000 will be rendered nearly useless. Does any But, sir, the States through which the road passes have only agreed to take it off your hands, on the condition that you shall first put it in good and complete repair, and you have accepted these terms. gentleman suppose for a single moment that the State of Pennsylvania will accept this road in its present condition? Is it in good and complete repair, according to the terms of the contract? Your own engineer answers no, and informs you that it will require the sum of $346,186 58 to complete the repairs, according to the plan adopted, and which is considered indispensable. This sum you will be obliged to grant, or you must keep the road in repair by annual appropriations-a course of policy which I presume no Senator intends to adopt as a permanent system. There is no other alternative, unless you devote the road itself to destruction. This idea no gentleman can for a moment entertain. Tollgates to be erected by Congress are now out of the question. VOL. XI.-26 The commissioners appointed under the act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania have pledged themselves to us in the most solemn manner to accept the road, and erect toll-gates upon it, as soon as Congress shall ap propriate the sum deemed necessary by the Engineer department to place it in a state of good repair. That sum is granted by this bill. Pass it, and I will undertake to say for Pennsylvania that this perplexing question, which has so often and for so many years agitated Congress, will be for ever at rest. You will never more hear of this road, unless it be that it has been protected and preserved with the fostering care which that State exercises over all interests in which the welfare of her own citizens or those of the United States is concerned. Mr. PRESTON said he recognised in this bill an old acquaintance. No less than three appropriations had already been made for the repair and completion of the road in question, and now a fourth was asked; Congress not yet being one jot the nearer, than at any former period, of getting rid of the road. At the last session, the Senate, for the purpose of purchasing its own peace and quiet, of ridding itself of the matter, made an appropriation of $652,000. The bill being then sent to the House, it made a different estimate from what had been made in the Senate, supposing that the road could be finished, on the plan proposed, for $300,000. That sum was accordingly appropriated. Thus, the measure having passed both branches of the Legislature in that form, it was undoubtedly deemed sufficient to carry the project into effect; and the Senate, at least, was under the impression that that was the last occasion on which they would be called upon to make an appropriation. Yet, notwithstanding, here was another demand for an equal sum to that which was granted last year. There was a time, according to what had been said by the Senator from Pennsylvania, when some hopes might have been entertained that an end would have been put to further legislation in regard to this road. There was a period when Congress proposed, [FEB. 11, 1835. At present, Congress were left entirely in the dark. It was desirable to get rid of it in some way or other. They were placed in an inexplicable difficulty; for, turn which way they would, the objections were almost insuperable. Millions had been expended on that road, and it was not to the interest of these States that they should go on and appropriate money,'year after year, as had heretofore been done. Mr. P., in conclusion, observed that he wished the honorable gentleman [Mr. EWING] to say, on his responsibility as a Senator, that that should be last time he would advocate any appropriation on account of the Cumberland road. as was intimated by the honorable Senator, to erect tollgates on this great road, for it was contended then that they had the constitutional power to do so. He (Mr. P.) believed, though he could not speak for the honorable Senator, that those gentlemen who at that time were in Congress, and who were now bright and shining lights, believed very differently, though they had voted for that measure: they thought them unconstitutional. Gentlemen now could hardly be brought to entertain such a notion. Your real Simon Pures of the republican democratic old school believed that Congress had no such power. If Congress possessed the right to establish internal improvements, it had also the power to take out of the treasury funds for the purpose of carrying them into effect. It must give the improvements to the States, in the end, for it could not keep them. For himself, he avowed he should feel most happy if they could give this road away, and so get rid of it. But, unfortunately, they found themselves in the situation of the man to whom the Senator from Tennes-serted in it a clause appropriating two per cent. of the see the other day had alluded, who took a quantity of coon skins to market, but could not sell them. He then tried to give them away, and not succeeding, he then endeavored to lose them by dropping them as he despondingly sauntered along the road; but, as ill luck would have it, some kind man saw them lying on the ground, and immediately called out to him; so that in fact he could neither sell, give away, nor lose them. And this was pretty much the case with the Senate in regard to this road. They were now, however, about to make an appropriation in order to shake it off their hands. What was the situation in which Congress stood? Why, it had been compelled to pass appropriations amounting to the enormous sum of $700,000 within a few years past, for the purpose of buying its riddance of the burden, and, after all, an additional sum was now demanded at their hands. He would be glad to know under what guarantee Pennsylvania would accept the road; whether on their voting an appropriation of $350,000? Had the officers acting under the orders of Government, and who were to see this road put in a state of repair, decided or given any opinion as to the actual state of the road? Not the party appropriating the money, not the party under whose superintendence the money was invested in the road; they had no right to decide on it; but the parties who were now to receive the road when perfected, or in such a state that they would take it. They cared nought about the quantity of money that might be expended in their own jurisdiction! No, not they. Most Now, he should like to know whether these enlightened States, who were parties to the transaction, and who must feel some interest on account of the money that was now expended among them, did not desire to have as much money as possible in circulation? unquestionably they did. The honorable Senator next adverted to the acts of the commissioners on the part of the Government, who some time ago had been appointed to examine the road, and stated that dissatisfaction was expressed by the parties interested in it, because those officers did not choose to incur what they deemed unnecessary expenses in the orders which they gave for the proper repair of the same. They had recommended wooden bridges to be erected, and fault was found because stone was not preferred, (thus incurring a very great additional expense.) He (Mr. P.) could have sincerely wished that, instead of asking for the appropriation which was then made, they had come boldly forward and requested a larger sum; for he would have then proposed to give them $350,000, and have said, "here, take this money and the road off our hands." Mr. EWING rose and said that the Senator from South Carolina seemed to have forgotten the origin of the appropriation, and had overlooked what was in justice due to one of the States of the Union. It must be recollected, that when Ohio was admitted into the Union, and her constitution was formed, there was inproduce of the sales of the public lands within her limits, for the making of roads leading to the State; and Ohio, in consideration of this provision, agreed not to tax the lands belonging to the United States for five years. Was that contract fulfilled by expending money on a road, without either maintaining it, or putting it in such condition as would enable the State of Ohio to maintain it? By making a road which was almost impassable, the promise of the United States was kept to the ear, but broken to the hope. That was the state of things at this time, and the reason for asking the appropriation was this: The State of Ohio was originally separated from the Eastern States by roads which were almost impassable. The transportation of goods over the mountains by wagons was exceedingly expensive. The roads were almost impassable, and it became necessary for the Western States to adopt some means of passing the mountains. The States of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, being sufferers in a less degree, were less interested in this provision of means. At the time when the compact was made by the United States with the State of Ohio, it had become absolutely necessary, for the purpose of securing an intercourse with the States on this side the mountains. The first step to effect this was taken by an administration which had never been charged by any one with a disposition to violate the rights of the States. It was taken in 1802, when Mr. Jefferson was the President. What, then, was due to the State which formed the compact with the United States? It was due not only that the road should be constructed, but that, by the power of Congress, it should be maintained, guarded, and kept in sufficient repair: otherwise all the expenditures which had been made in the construction of the road would be a mere waste of money. The State of Ohio could not maintain this road; and, unless it was maintained by Congress, it would become of no value, and the compact would not be complied with. The road would be dilapidated and destroyed, as well by the people of the other States of the Union as by the State of Ohio, as there was great travel upon it by people from all parts of the Union. This national road had been made under such circumstances, and had proceeded under the circumstances he had named. The gentleman from South Carolina said that there had been much money expended upon it. Well, and so there had been. It was not to be supposed that a road over the mountains could be kept up without expense. Was it expected that the people of the country through which it passed should maintain it' If it was a thickly peopled country, thriving in commercial pursuits, and cultivating a rich soil, it might be so. It contained merely a gore of the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland. But neither of the States should be required to maintain this road themselves. It should be kept up in another manner. It ought to be maintained by tolls in the States where they are to be required to keep it up. The States were willing to take the road when it was in a state of repair, and it was right that the United States should put it in that perfect state of repair. The States would not be willing to take it, after it had been dilapidated and destroyed by the travel of the citizens from every quarter. It must be a road. It had been said that the States might cavil about different parts of the road, and might not be in favor of the road running to other States. A great part of this road had been given to and accepted by the State of Ohio; and so far from laying heavy tolls, she had expended annually a considerable amount to keep down the tolls. The road was a favorite with the people of that State. Last year, according to an account of the auditor of the State, there had been an expenditure of $20,000 on the road. It could not be doubted, then, that the State of Ohio would keep the road in repair, if she accepted the surrender of it. In reference to the estimate made for the repair of the road, the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. PRESTON] would recollect that the estimate, and the sum asked for the last year, was $650,000. The advocates of the road had then said that this sum would be sufficient, and that they should ask no more if that sum were given. The question now stood precisely in the same light. If the money were appropriated and expended on the road, every assurance had been given that the road would be taken by the States, and that Congress would be called on no further. Such as surance had been given in every form, and he should think it his duty to rise, day after day, and assert the rights of the State of Ohio, until the road should be made perfect, and the State should have accepted its surrender. Mr. BUCHANAN said that he had but a few words to say. He did not know to whom the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. PRESTON] alluded in the first part of his remarks; certainly it could not be to him, (Mr. B.) Whether the Senator had, since the year 1821, seen any new lights himself, he did not know. But for himself, since the session of 1822-23, he (Mr. B.) had been uniformly consistent, in season, and almost out of season, in endeavoring to destroy, and, so far as his humble influence went, to explode for ever the dangerous doctrine in regard to the establishment of toll-gates throughout the Union, under the authority of Congress. [Here Mr. PRESTON made a remark in an under tone, the purport of which did not reach the reporter.] Mr. B. continued. He had, with others, opposed appropriations for the repair of this very road, in order that the friends of it might be compelled to go to the States for the purpose of having toll-gates erected under their authority. But he did not think the honorable Senator had read the documents with his accustomed care. What was asked now? He put it to that gentleman whether the State of South Carolina, occupying the high station she had always done, and which he trusted Pennsylvania always had done, and ever would do, whether, under similar circumstances, she would take the road under her charge, and undertake for ever to keep it in repair, when it was now in such a condition that it must go to ruin in the course of a year, unless an appropriation were made. That was the opinion of all the engineers on the subject. The fact was, and if the gentleman had examined the documents he would have discovered it, that on more than sixty miles of the road there were but three inches of metal in depth. Now, it did not require {SENATE. much sagacity to perceive that, upon the opening of the spring, when heavy wagons and other vehicles passed over this part of the road, they must get into the mud; and the stones and other ingredients of which it was composed must become so mixed up together as to render it almost impassable. In less than six months this would be the case, should no appropriation be made at this session to complete the repairs. But Pennsylvania had relied on the estimate of the Engineer department; she did so still. And could she be asked to take the road, when the officers of this Government had declared that it was not in repair, and could not be put in repair without an additional appropriation? Would the gentleman ask Pennsylvania to do so? Did he not always do unto others as he would wish to be done by? Would he ask her to incur an obligation of that kind, when she could not discharge the duties arising out of the obligation? Why, six hundred and odd thousand dollars were asked for at the last session. If that sum had been granted then, the Senate would never more have heard of the road. The mere balance of the sum contained in the bill that had passed the Senate at the last session, and which was reduced by the House of Representatives to $300,000, was all that was now asked for. And, so far as he could give the gentleman a pledge, in his place on that floor, he would promise that the sum which the engineers had demanded as necessary to put the road in repair, if granted, should be the last he would ever ask for, being determined never to vote again for another dollar on that account. [Here Mr. B. read an extract from the memorial of the commissioners appointed under an act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania to accept a surrender of the Cumberland road, and erect toll-gates upon it, in which they pledge themselves that so soon as Congress shall make the appropriation for the completion of the road, (not after the appropriation shall be expended, said Mr. B.,) according to the estimate of the Department, toll-gates shall be erected without delay.] Mr. B. resumed. That road would be accepted immediately on the passage of this act, because it provided for the sum estimated by the department, and the commissioners deemed it sufficient, and were willing to act on that belief. Supposing the gentleman had given his agent $1,000, to repair his house, and it was afterwards found insufficient, and that unless more money were expended on the building, it must fall into ruins, would he be willing to suffer the loss, rather than lay out more money in repairs? And that was precisely the case here. Well, then, they must repair the road now, or let it go to ruin, which he supposed no one contemplated, or they must be prepared to grant more money at the next session. It ap Mr. PRESTON rose to say a single word. It had been said that, because Congress had considered it a duty to make this road, there was an obligation involved to keep it up; and gentlemen thought they had a right to stand up in open daylight and assert that the general Government owed the duty to the States to maintain the road which they had thought it right to make. peared as if all the rules of private life were to be reversed in the affairs of Government. He was astounded at the course which gentlemen seemed disposed to take. Because we had expended seven or eight millions on this road, were we therefore bound to keep it up? If we made a present of this road to the States, were we to be still bound to keep it in repair? If you gave a horse to the State of Ohio, was it due to your reputation that you must feed him, and saddle and bridle him for the use of the State? As he understood the matter, the contract made with the States was to make the road, not to keep it up. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, in illustrating his own views, had put the question-if I employ an agent to build a house, and, after he has expended the amount I allowed him, the house should be falling down, would I not advance more money to preserve it? The case was not parallel. This road was not our road. It was the road of Pennsylvania. It was not that we enjoy ed any benefit from the road, but Pennsylvania. We had authorized the State of Pennsylvania to collect tolls on the road for the purpose of keeping it up, and had thus put into her hands the means for keeping it up. Genilemen were therefore mistaken in supposing that Congress had imposed burdens on the States without giving them the means to sustain them. Because the people of all the States travelled on this road, it was not rendered incumbent on the United States to keep it up. If there was such an amount of travel as had been described, the toll-gates were erected for the purpose of keeping up the intercourse through a region of country where mountains had been levelled, and villages had sprung up in the wilderness. The road was now in a situation to be travelled, and the toll-gates exacted a tax from the traveller. If the travel was sufficient, instead of being called on to expend money on the road, the States might derive profit from it. And in parts where there was less travel, the States had exhibited a willingness to make the necessary expenditures, until the travel shall be sufficient. Yet gentlemen had said this road was to be a burden on the States in perpetuity. He had no desire to impute to the Senator from Pennsylvania that he had entertained at any time different opinions concerning this road from those which he had now expressed. He believed that Government had no right to make appropriations for the purpose of keeping up this road. But there were gentlemen with whom the Senator from Pennsylvania acted, who entertained different views from that Senator, as to the right of the Government to collect tolls. He did not mean to impugn the power of the States to establish gates for that purpose, under the authority of the general Government. He was aware that the road would go to ruin without repair, not so much from the travel upon it, as from the accidents to which it was liable. The slight expenditure which the States would be required to make upon it would be amply compensated. The road must be repaired, and whether the mode proposed was advantageous or disadvantageous, the great advantages derived from it by the States should induce them to undertake it. This eternal recurrence] of claims on the general Government seemed to him to show that gentlemen having once tasted of the sweets of Treasury patronage could not be driven from the feast; and that they had determined to come, year after year, until they had exhausted the patience of the general Government. As to the road west of Ohio, it should not go on with his acquiescence. He was desirous to move to amend the bill, by striking out the second and third sections, in order to test the feelings of the Senate. Mr. WEBSTER said that no doubt it was formerly considered the policy of Congress to erect toll-gates, and he should probably have followed the Senator from South Carolina in his train of reasoning, and even to the result to which he had come, did he not feel himself restrained by constitutional scruples not to acquiesce in his argument. But entertaining, originally, no doubt upon the subject, he (Mr. W.) took a somewhat dif ferent view of the whole matter as presented by the honorable Senator. He thought it more general and local in its character than the gentleman from South Carolina seemed to think it was. They all knew that, originally, the ground assumed as rendering it proper for Congress to construct this road was, that the new States should be benefited by it, the Government of the United States being possessed of such vast public domain. The object, then, of this road was to open [FEB. 11, 1835. access to those States, in order that the public lands might be brought into market. He (Mr. W.) did not consider it a road in which Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Virginia, had a particular interest. There was no reason to suppose that if Pennsylvania were to make a road through her territory for two hundred or three hundred miles, she would fix upon that route in particular. The same remark will apply to Maryland and Virginia. The object was more general-it was a national object. Well, whatever the object was, it was a great public work which had been prosecuted for many years; and he agreed that, either through misfortune of mismanagement, or some other cause, it had been a most extraordinarily expensive undertaking. But still, in the actual position of things, he confessed he saw no better mode of legislation for Congress to adopt than to follow up the course indicated in the bill of last year. He understood that the present bill had assumed two distinct objects. The one was to make a road beyond the Ohio river, to lead to the Mississippi, or indefinitely west. That purpose in the present bill did not seem to him to be exactly appropriate. The other object, and that the main one, was to appropriate $350,000 for the repair of that part of the road which lay on this side of the Ohio; and the object of that repair was said to be to place the road in such a condition as that the public authorities of those States interested in it would accept the same as belonging to themselves, and come under the contract to keep it in repair. Now, he supposed that every body who agreed or disagreed in respect to the original policy of the Government in making that road would admit, although it had been constructed at a great expense, that it was prudent and proper that the Government should be charged with the duty of preserving the road. He agreed with the policy adopted by Congress, and also with the sentiments expressed by the Senator from Pennsylvania near him, [Mr. BUCHANAN,] in that respect, and especially in this, that it was the true course for Congress to pursue to put the road in the most complete repair, and then transfer it to the respective States in which it lies. Arrangements had been entered into between the Government and the States, respectively. What were they? They were, that if the Government of the United States would put the road in repair, the States would take it and stipulate to keep it in that condition, and that was for the use of all the citizens of the United States. And he understood it as a part of the stipulation between the Govern ment and the States, (the gentleman would correct him if he was wrong,) that they should expend every cent that might be received at the various toll-gates upon it. Now, that road was no gift to those States in particular; they derived no more benefit than if he (Mr. W.) travelled west, and his friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. BUCHANAN] travelled east. They undertook to collect the revenue of the road, and to apply it to the purpose of repairing it. Every one must see how very inconve nient it was for Congress to possess such a road. He understood that there had been the most wasteful extravagance, in consequence of having suffered the road to be, from year to year, out of repair. If, however, it had been in the possession of the local authorities of the respective States, they would have been enabled, at a small expense, to have kept the road in repair. At the last session, it would be recollected that the estimate of the Engineer department, relative to this road, was laid before the Senate. $650,000 was stated as the sum requisite to put it in a state of complete repair. The Senate thought then that it would be judicious to make that appropriation, and thereby get rid of the burden at once. The House, however, thought differently, and appropriated only $300,000. No one supposed that that was enough to put the road in a state of repair. No one con |