FEB. 23, 1836.] Fortification Bill. [SENATE. their patriotism, and rest the choice between the defensive and the distributive schemes upon all the lofty and holy considerations which recommend one and condemn the other. Finally, and by way of concluding his notice of the objections to fortifications, he would bring forward one which he had not heard mentioned by any speaker, but which he had found in the reports of one of the French It was Monsieur Rivardi, and might be interesting as a reminiscence now, as the novelists call it, and to show what kind of objectors there were to fortifications forty years ago, although the race may be now extinct, and the reference may remain without application: "I thought (said this ingenuous soldier) that, in a small community, where public welfare ought to be the chief aim of every individual, no jealousy, no parties, could be found. I do not think, however, that there exists any where else such ridiculous divisions as here. There is a large number of dissatisfied men who object altogether to fortifications, from the same principle for which they object to every measure of Government. Some would rather bush fight, as they call it, in case of a war; and the fact is, I fancy they had rather not fight at all. I drop this disagreeable subject: the only thing is to be deaf, and do what the safety of the country requires."-Letter of Rivardi to Gen. Knox, Secretary at War, July 28, 1794. each other, must come before the Senate, and go before the country, upon the respective merits and demerits of each; the defensive scheme resting upon a duty of constitutional obligation, upon a consideration of national independence, upon the sense of national interest, and upon the sanctioned system of forty years' decision; the distributive scheme resting upon the seductions of proffered pelf, without warrant in the constitution, unknown to our history, oppressive to the new States, demorali-engineers employed by President Washington in 1794. zing to the old ones, corrupting in its tendencies, and bringing the element of the public property to enter into the canvass for the presidential office. Upon these intrinsic and overruling considerations, Mr. B. would rely for the decision of the Senate and of the country between the two objects. He would not descend from the high level of such elevated considerations to the low comparison of sordid and pecuniary inducements. He could not insult his countrymen by referring to them the seductions of a sordid money scheme on one hand, and the enlightened obligations of duty and patriotism on the other. If he could do so, and could present the two schemes in a mere trafficking, trading, profit and loss point of view, the one divested of its patriotic attractions, the other stripped of its moral deformities, it would be easy to show that there would be more money diffused among the people by defending their country than by pillaging it themselves, and leaving it to be pillaged by foreign enemies afterwards. For such is the extent and variety of the means and objects to be combined in a great and durable system of national defence, that every part of the Union would receive its share in the first disbursements and in the annital expenditures thereafter. Forts, navies, navy yards, and dock yards, on the coasts; armories, arsenals, foundries, depots of arms and munitions, in the interior; troops on the western frontier; and annual supplies from the interior for all the establishments on the vast circumference of the Union: such would be the sources of expenditure. The first outlay and the perennial expenditure for all these objects would be great; and if the system of defence required for the country be now adopted, many great objects heretofore planned must go into effect: a grand naval national arsenal at Burwell's bay, in Virginia, as recommended by the military and naval board of 1821; a navy yard at Charleston, South Carolina, and another at Pensacola; with a fort and naval station at Key West, to command the Gulf of Mexico--to make that gulf what the Mediterranean sea was to the Romans, mare nostram, our sea, belonging, as it ought, to the masters of the Mississippi, and considered and treated as the outlet and estuary of the King of Floods. In such great establishments, and the numerous others indicated by the hand of defence, the people would find moneyed reasons for preferring the defence of their country to its pillage. But I do not present such reasons; I resume my position; I defer to their intelligence and to "The navy yards (excepting that of Charlestown, near Boston) have all been improperly placed; the conveniences for the erection of the necessary establishments having alone been taken into consideration, while all the other requisites for points so important, such as security against attack by sea and land, facility for receiving all kinds of building materials in time of war as well as in time of peace, vicinity to a place of rendezvous have been overlooked. Next, as to the advantages of fortifications. On this head Mr. B. would be brief, referring the Senate for a full understanding of the subject to the masterly reports of the board of engineers for 1821 and 1826, and confining what he should say chiefly to statements and reflections resulting from those reports. 1. Fortifications close up all important inlets to ports and harbors against enemies; they give security, confi dence, and tranquillity, in time of war, to the cities and coasts covered by them; the truth of which is exemplified in the opposite coasts of France and Great Britain, where the coast inhabitants and cities, covered by forti fications, are as tranquil in the pursuit of their business in time of war between these countries as in time of peace. 2. They give security and protection to the com. mercial and naval marine; as ships, either of war or of commerce, pursued by an enemy, fly to them for refuge, and lie in safety under the guns of a fort, or within a harbor defended by it. We have a vast commercial marine to which we owe protection; we have determin ed on the creation of a navy; and, for the preservation of both, we must have fortified harbors for their refuge and protection. 3. Forts are often necessary at points where there are are not cities to defend, as at positions which an en. emy might occupy in time of war, and from which he could assail, annoy, devastate, or alarm, the neighboring proper establishments for construction and repair, harbors of rendezvous, stations, and ports of refuge. It is only by taking into view the general character, as well as the details of the whole frontier, that we can fix on the most advantageous points for receiving these naval depots, harbors of rendezvous, stations, and ports of refuge. "On these considerations, Burwell's bay, in James river, and Charlestown, near Boston, have been especially recommended by the commission as the most proper sites for the great naval arsenals of the South and of the North; Hampton roads and Boston roads as the chief rendezvous, and Narraganset bay as an indispensable accessary to Boston roads."-Reports of 1819, 1820, 1821, by the Military and Naval Board, Gen. Ber"The navy must, in the first place, be provided with nard, Col. Tollen, and Com. Elliott. VOL. XII.-39 "A defensive system for the frontiers of the United States is therefore yet to be created. Its bases are, 1st, a navy; 2d, fortifications; 3d, regular troops and wellorganized militia; 4th, interior communication by land and water. These means must all be combined so as to form a complete system. SENATE.] Fortification Bill. country. Our extended coast presents many positions of this kind, and which we must occupy to prevent an enemy from establishing himself upon them. 4. Forts are necessary on the lines of interior navigation to keep open the communications in time of war. The debouches of canals, the passages through sounds, bays, and straits, and between islands and the main land, are examples of this necessity, and of which many instances may be found on the maritime and gulf frontier of the United States. 5. Forts are indispensable to the protection of navy yards, dock yards, and naval arsenals. The nature of these establishments require them to be accessible from sea; and, unless protected by forts, they may be inva ded, plundered, and burnt, by an enemy. This happened once in England, when the Dutch penetrated the Thames, and destroyed the naval establishments at Chat ham. 6. Forts are the cheapest mode of defence-cheapest in money, cheapest in the number of men to defend them, and cheapest in the number of lives lost. They are cheapest in money; because, when once built of the proper and durable material, earth and stone, they are built for ever, and in the course of centuries require but little for repair or reconstruction. They are cheapest in men; because a few can defend a fortified position against a great number, and thus abstract a smaller proportion of the population from peaceful pursuits. They are cheap. est in blood spilt or in lives lost, either of men killed in battle or dying of diseases from camp and field exposure. Behind the defences of a fort, sheltered from the weather, amply provided with every essential to health, the troops in a fort suffer far less in proportion to their numbers than those in the field or the camp. In exemplification of these ideas, Mr. B. would refer to the calculations made by the board of engineers, to show the difference of expense in men and money in defending a given number of our cities for a given time, with and without the cover of fortifications. They took Boston, New Nork, Philadephia, Baltimore, and New Orleans, and based their calculation of a campaign of six months against a menaced attack from an enemy's squadron. Without forts, the number of men required for the protection of these cities, not knowing which was to be attacked, and bound to be provided at each city, the aggregate number would be seventy-seven thousand to meet a descent of a fourth or a fifth of that number at any one point; the expense of which for six months would be $19,000,000. To defend the same cities with forts would require an aggregate of no more than twenty-sev en thousand men, and an expense of six and a half millions of dollars; making a difference of fifty thousand men and of twelve and a half millions of dollars. Thus, in a brief war of two or three years, the whole cost of the fortifications for the whole coast of the United States, on the largest scale projected, would be completely saved. 7. The efficiency of the defence is another of the advantages of fortifications on the seaboard. That efficiency on a land frontier has been a problem among military men, and opinions have divided upon it; but no such problem has ever existed in relation to the coast defences; on that point opinions have never divided; and throughout the world, in all ages, and in all countries, the defence of the coast, by fortifications, is the only safe reliance against approaches by sea; approaches which may be made without warning; which may threaten dozens of cities and thousands of miles of coast at the same time, which may stand off and on, hover round, distract and scatter the troops collected at any one point, wear out an army by marches and counter marches, and eventually strike where least expected or least prepared to resist. 8. But the great and crowning advantage of fortifi [FEB. 23, 1836. cations is their peculiar adaptation to defence by militia, by volunteers, and by the yeomanry of the country, and their consequent dispensation of large bodies of regular troops both in war and in peace. Forts are the peculiar defence of the militia. A few artillerists, and the militia of the adjacent country, are the proper defenders of forts. To these points, on the first signal of danger, the yeomanry of a free country will for ever flock. They will fly to the forts with alacrity and confidence, and will make brilliant and glorious defences. Placed in positions, and sheltered by works, even indifferent, the yeomanry of the United States have always performed prodigies of valor. Even in temporary field works, and the merest apologies for forts, they have rivalled and transcended the exploits of veterans. Our history is too full of examples of this character to admit of naming any without seeming to neglect others; and I must refer to a few, to the green log pen at Charleston, called Fort Moultrie; and the post and rail fences piled upon each other at Bunker's hill, in the war of the Revolution; and the mud wall at New Orleans, and the stakes stuck in the ground for a fort at Sandusky, during the late war; to remind the Senate of what a yeomanry and a few regu lars can do, placed in positions and covered by defences. Mr. B. concluded his speech with expatiating on the extent and variety of the defences required for the United States, and the wisdom, propriety, and necessity, of dedicating our present surplus money, and our present leisure time, to the creation of these defences. Ships, navy yards, dock yards, two great national naval arsenals of construction and repair; forts, armories, arsenals, depots of arms and munitions of war; arms and field artillery for the militia, swords and pistols for the cavalry of the States; and increase of the army for the western and northwestern, and, he might add, for the southern and southwestern frontier also; such was the vastness of the system, and the multitude of its objects, which the defence of the country required. The expense of all these works he had not calculated; but the Senate had adopted a resolution to ascertain that expense, and the answer would come in as soon as the Navy and War Departments could prepare it. Of the military branch alone he would venture to give an opinion, and would say the estimates for that branch alone must exceed $40,000,000. Of all the branches of this system of national defence, he had discussed but one, and not the whole of that; he had spoken of forts alone, but of the forts on the maritime and gulf frontier, without mentioning, though certainly not without remembering, that we had an extended line of lake frontier, washed by inland seas, and bordered by a foreign Power. He had spoken of fortifications alone; but it was not to be dissembled or denied that the whole system of defence, naval and military, was now upon trial. The bill for the nineteen new forts is the touchstone of the whole question. If that passes, then the whole system moves forward; if it is rejected, the whole system halts; for forts are the indispensable part of the whole system; they are its back bone, without which all the rest becomes vain and inefficient, and ships themselves are idle preparation. For what are ships without ports of refuge? What are harbors and breakwaters without defence? What are dock and navy yards without forts to cover them? Nothing but prizes, spoil, and prey, for the public enemies. But, Mr. B. repeated, the fate of this bill is the fate of the whole system of defence, and of the antagonist schemes for the distribution of the public money. If the bill becomes a law, the defences go on, and all the surpluses of revenue will go to that object; if the bill fails, the defences will halt and linger, and the distribution bills will spring upon the stage, and will labor to squander that money which a defenceless country calls for in vain. FEB. 24, 25, 1836.] Post Roads in Florida-Fortification Bill. I conclude (said Mr. B.) with remarking that the present period is to be an era in the history of our country. It is a period from which there must be a new movement forward, or a sad retrogression. It is a point, upon which posterity will look back for ages, and for centuries, to applaud the wisdom or to deplore the weakness of the national councils. The Navy and the War Departments will report soon, and will develop all the points of national and permanent defence which the extent of our country demands and the destiny of the republic requires. President Jackson has given us his earnest, his zealous, his reiterated recommendations; all depends now upon the legislative department, and upon the decision of the question, whether the public money shall go to the public defence, or shall be lavished and squandered in unconstitutional and demoralizing distributions among the States. When Mr. BENTON had concluded, Mr. PRESTON gave notice that he should to-morrow move to amend the clause in the bill making appropria tion for steam batteries, by striking out $660,000, and inserting $100,000 for the experiment. He would also move to strike out all the fortifications of the third class, and all for which no surveys or estimates have been made. On motion of Mr. PRESTON, The Senate adjourned. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24. POST ROADS IN FLORIDA. Mr. GRUNDY, from the Committee on the Post Of fice and Post Roads, reported a joint resolution referred to it, authorizing the establishment of certain post roads in Florida and Arkansas, with amendments; which were read. On motion of Mr. GRUNDY, the Senate proceeded to consider the resolution. FORTIFICATION BILL. [SENATE. CAREY & LEA'S HISTORY OF CONGRESS. Mr. ROBBINS, from the Committee on the Library, reported a joint resolution authorizing a subscription to Carey, Lea, & Co's History of Congress. The resolution having been read a first time, and the question being on a second reading, Mr. BENTON opposed it, and asked if this was not the press of that Carey, Lea, & Co. who had figured so largely in the expenditures of the bank, and if this was not a work got up for bank purposes. He would like to see the book exhibited in the Senate, that they might see it. Mr. HILL called for the ayes and noes. 1 Mr. BENTON. I move to lay the resolution on the table until the book shall have been exhibited to us. work was to be rejected because it was printed by a · Mr. PORTER said he did not know that a useful For his own part, he had never particular individual. But he thought Mr. GRUNDY stated that its object was to establish a communication between our military pcsts and the In-nquired by whom it was published. it perfectly proper that the work should be seen, and he would not oppose the motion to lay on the table. Mr. ROBBINS. Agreed. dians. Mr. CLAY inquired if there was any precedent for establishing post roads by a joint resolution, and that resolution not absolutely specifying what roads should be made, but leaving it at the discretion of the Postmaster General. The usual practice had been for Congress to specify in a bill the roads which were to be made. Mr. GRUNDY replied that there had been instances of the establishment of post roads by joint resolution. As to the second branch of the inquiry of the Senator from Kentucky, he would say, that if he had draughted the resolution he would have made the language absolute; but as he had found that it was left to the discretion of the Postmaster General, he had suffered it to remain so. He was willing, however, to amend the resolution by striking out the words which provided that the Postmaster General was to exercise a discretion in the matter. He concluded with moving the amend ment; which was agreed to. The other amendments were agreed to, and the joint resolution was ordered to its third reading. MAJOR DADE. On motion of Mr. TOMLINSON, the Committee on Pensions was discharged from the further consideration of the petition of the widow and children of Major Dade, and it was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. Mr. TOMLINSON stated that the Committee on Pensions did not wish to make any extension of the pension system, but, under the circumstances of this case, Major Dade having been killed in Florida, the Military Committee might probably propose some allowance in the form of extra pay. The resolution was then laid on the table. FORTIFICATION ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. The resolution submitted by Mr. SWIFT, directing the Secretary of War to cause a survey to be made of a site for a fortification on Lake Champlain, was considered. Mr. PRESTON thought this resolution ought to be referred to one of the committees. It necessarily involved the expenditure of a considerable sum of money. He would therefore move that it be referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. Mr. SWIFT said that, at a former period, this survey had been ordered, and for want of being able to procure a competent engineer to make the survey at the time, it had necessarily been delayed. He had, however, no objection to the reference. The resolution was then referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. FORTIFICATION BILL. The Senate resumed the consideration of the fortification bill, when Mr. PRESTON concluded the remarks commenced by him yesterday, by moving to amend the bill by striking out the clause appropriating for the fortification at Kennebeck. Mr. CLAY suggested the propriety of laying the bill on the table, and having the various tables printed which had been referred to by gentlemen, before the details of the bill were decided on. As the works embraced in this bill were all new ones, there was no immediate haste necessary in acting on this bill. The SENATE.] Cumberland Road. wisest course would be to make appropriation promptly for the old works not provided for last session, and to take time for a full examination of the various subjects of appropriation in this bill. Mr. PRESTON expressed his acquiescence in the force of the remark. Mr. BENTON said that he had returned one of the tables he had cited to the engineer from whom he obtained it. It might be had by noon to-morrow. The other tables were before him, and the printing could not occupy so much time as to delay the bill. Mr. CLAY said he did not wish to make the motion if any Senator was desirous to make remarks. He had been induced to make the suggestion because he thought the Chair was on the point of rising to put the question on the motion to amend. Mr. SHEPLEY then addressed some observations at length on the defenceless condition of the Northeast frontier. Mr. WEBSTER moved to postpone the further consideration of the bill till Monday, but withdrew his motion. Mr. BENTON moved to lay the bill on the table, with a view to call it up on Monday. Mr. EWING said he should endeavor to call up the land bill on that day. Mr. BUCHANAN said he should ask the Senate, as soon as he could get an opportunity, to take up the memorial on the abolition of slavery. Mr. CALHOUN said he neither wished to accelerate or retard the decision on that question. The fortification bill was then laid on the table, and the papers were ordered to be printed. On motion of Mr. BUCHANAN, the Senate proceeded, with closed doors, to consider executive business; after which, The Senate adjourned. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26. CUMBERLAND ROAD. The bill for the continuation of the Cumberland road in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was ta ken up. [This bill, as reported, proposes to appropriate $320,000, to be expended on the part of the road in Ohio, $350,000 in Indiana, and $190,000 in Illinois. ] Mr. HENDRICKS withdrew a motion which he had made when the bill was last under consideration, to add $20,000 to the appropriation for Indiana. Mr. CLAY objected to the appropriation of $100,000 for a bridge across the Wabash. There was no bridge over the Ohio or the Muskingum; though, in extent of utility, a bridge over either would be far preferable to the one proposed. His sentiments towards the Cumberland road were the same as ever; he felt some difficulty, however, in the question before the Senate; for here were gentlemen asking an appropriation for an object which was to benefit the people of their own States, when the whole system of internal improvements had been suspended by an administration brought into power by their co-operation, and sustained by their support. The two States of Kentucky and Tennessee had received less benefit from the expenditure of the public moneys than any of the others; yet, when it was proposed to extend the Cumberland road to Nashville, Maysville, and Lexington, that important measure was rejected, vetoed, by this administration, supported as it is by Senators who now ask exclusively for themselves those benefits which they have denied to us. Were he to listen to a spirit of resentment, he should vote nothing, except in cases where the whole Union was to be advantaged. He would not, however, act [FEB. 26, 1836. upon any such principle, nor be influenced by any such feeling. He was willing to carry on this work to the Mississippi; but not beyond it; and when asked for enormous appropriations and for new bridges, he felt it his duty to hesitate. He trusted gentlemen would limit their demands, and consent to have this appropriation stricken out. Mr. TIPTON said that he would not have troubled the Senate with a single remark upon the bill under consideration, had he not found opposition to the measure from a quarter quite new and unexpected to him; constituents, and for which they were entirely unpreone which, he had no doubt, would equally surprise his pared. The Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] who had moved to reduce the appropriation to the amount ap plied on the road last year, is surely not seriously op posed to the continuation of this great work, after hav. ing supported it with such signal ability for thirty years. I cannot believe that he desires its abandonment, but that he moves to reduce the sum proposed in the bill, that the road may be a longer time in the progress of its construction. He wants to be six years in doing what I propose to do in three. Something has been said about the number of hands that we can economically employ on the work, and doubts have been expressed whether a sufficient number can be obtained to complete it within the period proposed. We are now engaged in the construction of but two public works within the State of Indiana, viz: the Wabash and Erie canal and the Cumberland road. Contractors have come from public works already completed in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and have generally brought with them laborers and tools sufficient to go on vigorously with these works. They will remain until they are finished, if the money necessary to continue them is appropriated; but if you cut down and limit the appropriation, you postpone the completion of the road, and you double the expense. The State of Indiana has recently appropriated ten organized a board of public works to conduct them. millions of dollars for internal improvements, and has The construction of two canals, two railroads, and one Macadamized turnpike road, has been authorized, and the board will meet in a few days to determine upon their plan of operations for the year. If you make a liberal appropriation for the national road, it is proba ble that the State will not commence any of her works this year, as it may be possible that the two works albe obtained, but if you reduce the appropriation as ready in progress will employ all the laborers that can proposed by the motion of the honorable Senator, there will not be funds sufficient to employ all the hands now on the spot. They will consequently seek employment services are required upon the road, the price of labor on the State works in contemplation, and when their will have been enhanced, and you will thus not only procrastinate the completion of the road, but will mate. rially increase the cost of its construction. No good reason has been assigned for reducing the sum proposed in the bill. It is admitted on all hands that there is money in the treasury, and will be. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. EwING] has shown, most clearly to my mind, that we may pass this bill, the fortification bill, the favorite land bill of the Senator from Ken tucky, and still have a large surplus in the treasury at the beginning of the year 1837. When this bill was before the Senate some days ago, the honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CAL HOUN] moved to lay it on the table, and I understood him to say that his object was to prevent heavy drafts being made upon the treasury, until he was informed whether we were to have peace or war. He was kind enough to withdraw his motion, at my request, (for which I thank him,) to give the friends of the bill an opportunity to explain and defend it. I am happy now, sir, (said Mr. T.,) to have it in my power to say that the favorable change in our foreign relations justifies me in assuring the Senator that there is no reason to appre hend war in any quarter, unless it be those skirmishes which take place now and then with the Indians on our frontier. Should it ever become necessary for us, as a nation, to choose between war and a dishonorable peace, I have no doubt the Senator from South Carolina and myself, whether we be at that time citizens or Senators, will be found contending, side by side, for the honor of our country against the foreign foe. [SENATE. tion of this road is in compliance with these compacts, thus entered into with the new States, I might say with the whole West, which will ere long embrace more than one half of this Union. Upon the admission of these States into the Union, they relinquished their right to tax lands owned by the United States within their limits, or such as might be sold by the Government for a period of five years after their sale, and the United States agreed to give to the new States lands for the purposes of education, salines, and this road fund, as an equivalent for the relinquishment. put the vote on this bill on the ground of compliance with a compact between the United States and the new States of the Northwest. We have a right to expect appropriations to continue this road to the far West, not as a gift or grant to the new States, but as the performance of an agreement between the general Government and the people of the new States at the time of their admission into the Union. Were there no compact between us, the United States, being the great landholder in the new States, would find it both their interest and their duty to contribute largely toward the construction of a road leading to their own lands. Those who oppose this road surely have not a hope of arresting its progress westward. I was forcibly struck with a remark made by an honorable Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. PRESTON.] He told us yesterday that the Western people were not the purchasers of the public lands; that it was the people of the East and South that purchased them. This is true to a certain extent. As your population increases to over I cannot suppose that the Senator, in making that motion, was actuated by motives other than a strong sense of public duty; I have too long known him as a friend of internal improvements, to believe that any other motive can influence him to vote against the appropriation proposed in this bill. I confess, sir, that I was surprised to see a newspaper friendly to the Senator, in noticing his motion to lay the bill on the table, attempt to give it a party coloring, remarking that his motion caused a fluttering amongst the friends of the administration. I would regret to see the passage of this bill made a party question. Indeed, I do not see how it can be; it never has, to my knowledge, been considered heretofore as partaking of that character. Of the different political parties which have existed in the country for the last thirty years, some members have supported and others have opposed appropriations for the national road, with-flowing, and the means of support become more difficult out regard to political bearing. If proof were wanting at this late day of the national character of this work, I could refer to an able report made by the honorable Senator himself, when he was at the head of an important Department of the Government, which may be found at page 61 of the Senate's documents, 2d session of the 19th Congress, where it is most satisfactorily shown that the continuation of the road in question to St. Louis was a work of national importance. This has never been questioned. of attainment, the young and the enterprising, quitting the homes of their fathers, the land of their birth, emigrate to the West. They become purchasers of the public lands, and, to all intents and purposes, Western people. They make valuable citizens. We are always proud to welcome them amongst us. They contribute to fill your treasury, and unite with us in adding to the wealth and power of the nation. Hence, according to the Senator's own showing, the continuation of this road is equally beneficial to the old and to the new States, and its extension must keep pace with the progress of settlement toward the far West, which is proceeding with a rapidity altogether unparalleled in the history of man. It will not be ten years before these people will form a State Government, and apply for admission into the Union. This will make a fine State, extending up the Missouri far towards the Rocky mountains, the inhabi tants of which will be our friends, our neighbors; they will become purchasers of the public lands; and will they not have a right to expect to have the mail sent to them? And is it to be expected that they will not demand an extension of the national road westward? They surely will. I cannot doubt that this road will go on to the foot of the Rocky mountains, perhaps across them to the Pacific ocean. The sales of the public lands will afford the means, and we will apply them; for the same reasons that have heretofore induced Congress to construct the road thus far, will apply, in all their power, to its extension as far west as the Union may extend. The Cumberland road was commenced under a law of Congress of March 29, 1806, whilst Mr. Jefferson was President. It was favored by him and by every administration since his day, by none less than by the pres ent administration. It is true that this road has many Already has a settlement been commenced on the friends among the present party in power, and it is equal-west fork of the Mississippi, above the State of Missouri. ly true that it has many able and efficient supporters amongst those who do not support the measures of the administration. Others oppose this bill on grounds satisfactory to themselves and to their constituents. We have no right to object to their opposition. But I protest against suffering a bill of so much importance to those whom I have the honor, in part, to represent here, to be condemned to die on your table without giving its friends a hearing. I beg honorable Senators to come up and vote on this bill, not as a party question, but as a measure in which both national faith and national honor are pledged to the young States of the West for the completion of this road to Missouri. The act of Congress of 1806, to which I allude, and to which I beg leave to refer gentlemen who have doubts on the subject, authorized a survey of a road from Cumberland, in Maryland, or from a point on the Potomac river near Cum- In 1829 Congress made an appropriation to remove berland, over the mountains, to the State of Ohio, and the timber from the road through the State of Indiana, provides that the money appropriated for that object and to grade the banks preparatory to making it a turn($30,000) was to be refunded to the Treasury out of the pike road. The timber has been removed, and nearly fund set apart by the compact between the United States one half of the road is graded. Half the bridges are and the State of Ohio for making roads leading to that constructed, and stone prepared to cover a small portion State. By compacts between the United States and the of the graded road. Putting on the stone is the most new States of the West, a portion of the proceeds of the expensive part of road-making. This is the reason why sales of the public lands is set apart for the purpose of a heavy appropriation is now asked for. If the graded making roads leading to the new States. The continua-portion of the road be not covered with stone, the travel |