Mr. W. R. DAVIS inquired how often that pledge had been made in the House when former bills had been passed.

Mr. STEWART. No such pledge could be made until this time, when the States have resolved when the road shall be put in repair, they will erect gates to preserve it.

Mr. McKENNAN inquired whether the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means proposed to strike out the limitation in the next section?

Mr. POLK did not. He was of opinion that the sum proposed by him was amply sufficient for the complete repair of the road. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stewart] was mistaken in supposing the plan of repair had been settled, as he had stated. The Secretary of War, during the present session, had submitted this subject to the committee. He was unwilling to vote more than $300,000 at this session, or any other. Two years ago $150,000 was appropriated to put this road in repair, in order that the States might accept this road; the last session $154,000 was voted for the same purpose. Since the States were to accept the road, $304,000 had been expended. Now $652,000 more were asked. This was monstrous. If $300,000 would not repair the load, he never would vote another dollar to that object.

Mr. McKENNAN said this appropriation beyond $300,000 did not come from the friends of the road, but from those who wished to see the end of the expenditure.

Mr. McKAY was opposed, in principle, to the bill altogether; but he would vote in favor of appropriating $300,000, or even $600,000, if it could be entirely got rid of. He well remembered that in 1832 the gentleman from Pennsylvania near him, [Mr. McKennan,] pledged himself to the House that $328,000 would fully repair this road, and that after that sum had been expended, the road would maintain itself. After explaining the provisions of the laws of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, Mr. McK. proposed a proviso,which he should offer, that no more than $100,000 should be expended until those States should agree to take the road when the amount should be expended. Unless a guarantee should be given he would not vote to expend either sum.

Mr. THOMAS, of Maryland, said the interests of his immediate constituents forbade he should remain silent and permit the House to decide on the pending amendment under the erroneous impression which the remarks of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means were well calculated to produce. That gentleman had read an extract from the documents on our file from the War Department. The House ought to know that this extract did not appear in the report of the Secretary of War made to this House at the commencement of the session; nor in the annual report from the Engineer Department. It was to be found in the estimates of the War Department for the expenditures of the year 1834. In that paper the Secretary of War requires an appropriation of $300,000 for continuation of the repairs of the Cumberland road east of the Ohio river, provided the mode in which the department prefers these repairs should be made meets the approbation of Congress.

Now, the House will perceive that this estimate for the year 1834 must not be its guide in deciding on the propriety of passing the bill from the Senate under consideration. That bill proposes an appropriation of $652,000— not to be expended in 1833, but to complete the repairs of the Cumberland road now in progress. It is well known that the Senate refused to make an appropriation for prosecuting these repairs until an estimate had been furnished from the Engineer Department, showing the whole sum which would be required to complete them. In so doing, Mr. T. thought the Senate had acted wisely. The experience of the past ought to satisfy every member that these partial appropriations were inexpedient.

At the first session of the last Congress the laws of Maryland and Pennsylvania, relating to this road, had been assented to by the United States. They proposed that this Government should repair the Cumberland road within the limits of those States, and then surrender all claim to jurisdiction over it to them. In which event they agreed to appoint superintendents to collect a sum sufficient in toll from travelers thereon to keep that road ever thereafter in good repair.

In pursuance of this compact between the United States and the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania, to which Virginia subsequently assented in part, two of the appropriations were made by the last Congress at its several sittings to prosecute this improvement. In November last, those appropriations were exhausted, and from that time to the present, the officers of this Government employed to superintend these repairs had been idle, although they had a right to expect their salaries would be continued. The road, too, had been left in such a condition that it would now cost several thousand dollars more to repair it than would have been necessary if the work had progressed without interruption. These facts were made known to the Senate, and to avoid such a state of things hereafter, that body had rightly determined to appropriate a sum sufficient to exempt this Government from all further demands for this object.

The sum proposed to be given, is that which is demanded by the War Department, if the first of these several plans of repair mentioned in the annual report of the Chief of the Engineer Department, meets our approbation. Mr. T. here read extracts from the report in confirmation of his views. He then invited the House to turn its attention to the only question which ought to be agitated in connection with this bill. Are the estimates of the War Department unreasonable? Is the mode of improvement on which those estimates are predicated the one which Congress ought to sanction? Mr. T. said, from his personal knowledge of the country, he had no difficulty in answering both these questions in the affirmative. It would, he thought, be useless, worse than useless, to make a defective or partial repair of this great highway. If it is to be done, let it be well done, and in a manner creditable to the United States and beneficial to the people of the great valley of the Mississippi, for whose particular accommodation it was originally designed.

Mr. T. made some statements concerning the nature of the chief material which, had been used in the original construction of the road, to show that we ought to profit by experience and now use the limestone, which alone was calculated to make the road permanent. He also explained the defective manner in which the road had been originally constructed, and insisted that the MacAdam plan now, proposed by the War Department ought to be preferred.

In reply to statements which had been made showing the large sums of money heretofore expended on this road, Mr. T. appealed to the House, and entreated them not to permit such exhibitions to prejudice their minds. What have we to do with the errors of the Administrations which have preceded this? It is certain that Mr. Jefferson's Administration committed one error in not providing for the continued repair of the national road in some economical manner? And the administration which succeeded his, erred also in attempting to keep this road in repair by annual appropriations from the national treasury? But are we to permit these things to create a prejudice against the present measure? We now propose to make a good road, to reject the worthless material heretofore used, and then to erect toll-gates to collect a sum sufficient to relieve the treasury from this drain.

What, said he, are we reminded, too, of the very large sum which this road originally cost! He agreed the sum expended was enormous, and was at a loss to know how so much money could have been honestly expended for such a purpose. But are we to refuse an appropriation asked for by the present head of the War Department, solely because his predecessors or their subordinate agents, under former Administrations,have wasted or misapplied appropriations made by Congress? He hoped not. He hoped the House would examine the estimates now furnished, and if they were, as he believed they were, reasonable and accurate, he trusted the whole sum of $652,000 would be given.

Mr. T. said the House need not be alarmed at the suggestion of the gentleman from Tennessee, that this sum would embarrass the Treasury Department. It was now well understood, that the receipts from the customs for the year 1834 would exceed considerably the estimated receipts made by the Secretary of the Treasury at the commencement of the present Congress. Besides, the whole sum asked for cannot be expended within the year. It was most probable not more than $150,600 or $200,000 would be actually drawn from the Treasury during the year 1834. So that the only difference between the bill from the Senate and the bill, if amended, as proposed by the gentleman from Tennessee, would be this: if we make now an appropriation of $300,000, we shall be called next year for more money; we shall waste time again in a long debate, and perhaps suffer the repairs to be again suspended. On the contrary, if we sanction the bill from the Senate, we shall place at the disposal of the War Department a sum sufficient to relieve us from all further applications, and accomplish the object which the friends of the road desire.

Mr. SUTHERLAND moved to amend the amendment so as to provide that no larger sum than $300,000 be appropriated for the object this year- After some further remarks from Messrs. E. WHITTLESEY, ARCHER,and STEWART, Mr. CHILTON moved that the further consideration of the bill be postponed to Thursday next, with a view to proceed to other business.

Mr. MERCER hoped the bill would not be postponed. We should want time on Thursday next as much as now.

Mr. VANCE opposed the postponement. If it was to be passed, he hoped it would be passed at once.

Mr. SELDEN was in favor of the postponement, in order that the friends of the bill might unite their own views in regard to it.

Mr. EWING opposed the postponement. Mr. CHILTON withdrew the motion, in the hope that the question would be taken without further debate.

After some further discussion, in which Messrs. MERCER, POLK, SUTHERLAND, THOMAS of Maryland, CHAMBERS, and BEARDSLEY participated,

Mr. W. R.DAVIS, in order to test the principle of the bill, moved to strike out the enacting clause. Mr. MANN, of New York, could not, he said, vote for any of the propositions. We had expended four millions of dollars in making a road which we could neither give away nor use, without very great additional expense. He would vote to reduce the appropriation to $300,000, and to strike out the enacting clause, or for any proposition by which we could get clear of the burden of this road.

Mr. VANCE did not see (he said) how gentlemen could get along without this road. Without it, they would have no chance to make speeches every year in favor of economy, State rights, &c. If this was out of the way, gentlemen would be obliged to look out for some other subject for retrenchment speeches. They would be driven to talk about the $600,000 for the New York custom-house, the half a million for the repair of navy-yards, the million for repairs and contingencies for the navy, &c. We would have to look for some of the heavy expenditures made on our sea-board. He remembered the time when there was no commerce between the East and the West by this route. It gentlemen choose to cut off the commerce which had since grown up, and which had led to the settlement of the western States, let them do it by refusing to keep up this road. All the money which had ever been expended upon this road would not amount to three cents a pound on the merchandise which hand been transported upon it. The whole sum expended on the road did not amount to as much as the sums expended for repairs on your little navy-yards and dock-yards. Yet, inasmuch as the money had been expended for the benefit of the West, in common with the rest of the country— although it was the only expenditure which had been made for the benefit of the West— it was the constant theme of declamation for the friends of economy and retrenchment; as if all the revenue which had for the last twenty or thirty years been collected had been expended upon the Cumberland road.

The debate was continued by Messrs. GHOLSON, CHINN, GILLET, VINTON, POLK, P. THOMAS, SUTHERLAND, McKINLEY, and S. JONES, who, after an explanation of his views, moved to lay the bill on the table.

Mr. HAWES demanded the yeas and nays; which were ordered.

The motion to lay on the table was lost: Yeas 68, nays 133.

Mr. J. Q. ADAMS moved to amend the amendment by striking out the reference to the acts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, which he deemed unnecessary and improper, as he conceived the States were not bound, under the qualified assent of Congress, to accept the road.

Mr. W. C. JOHNSON explained his views upon the question raised by this motion; when the question was taken on the amendment to the amendment; which was lost.

The question was then stated on Mr. POLK'S motion to strike out $652,000, and insert $300,000.

Mr. McKINLEY demanded the yeas and nays; which were ordered.

Mr. MERCER made explanations relative to the expense of repairing the road.

The question was then taken on the amendment moved by Mr. Polk; which was negatived: Yeas 91, nays 92.

Mr. SUTHERLAND moved an amendment, providing that not more than $300,000 should be drawn from the Treasury for repairs during the present year.

Mr. P. DICKERSON proposed to amend the amendment by providing that not more than $300,000 should be expended, unless the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, should agree to take charge of the road, when the whole sum of $652,000 should be expended.

Before the question was taken,

The House adjourned.

* * * *

June 17, 2010 (Source)

The House then proceeded to the unfinished business of yesterday, being the bill for the continuation and repair of the Cumberland road.

Mr. GILMER moved to reconsider the vote by which the motion of Mr. Polk to reduce the appropriation for repairing the road from $652,000 to $300,000 was yesterday rejected.

Mr. STEWART said the friends of the bill would vote in favor of the amendment if the restriction in the next section should be stricken out. If the supporters of the amendment would intimate their willingness to accede to that proposition, no objection would be made to the amendment.

Mr. HAWES hoped no such intimation would be given. He was opposed to the whole system. Unless an end was put to the logrolling which prevailed in this House in relation to internal improvements, it would be necessary to increase the tariff to keep the Treasury from bankruptcy. The immense amount of appropriations which had already passed the House were sufficient, he believed, to exhaust the Treasury.

Mr. BROWN said he voted yesterday against the proposition of the honorable gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. Polk,] and, upon reflection, he now thought the vote was wrong. It had been his intention to move for a reconsideration this morning, but it gave him pleasure to find he had been anticipated by the honorable gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Gilmer.] He. was not unfriendly to such an appropriation as would finish the road when he considered the compact made by the Government; but he doubted very much whether the Treasury would be able to bear so large an appropriation of the public money for this single purpose during the present year. He hoped the observations of the honorable member from Kentucky [Mr. Haves] would not be entirely lost upon the House. He hoped honorable gentlemen would look about them and see where ail these immense appropriations will ultimately lead us. He admitted to a certain extent the obligation of the Government to complete this road,and he would willingly, at the proper time, vote for such a sum as would finish and put it in a condition to be surrendered to the several States through which it passes, and thus rid the nation forever from these continual, and what seemed to him extravagant and never ending expenditures of the public money. Unless he was much mistaken, the friends of the bill admitted that no more than $300,000 could be expended upon the road during the present year, and he therefore, upon reflection, deemed it most prudent to limit the present appropriation to that sum. He should vote for the reconsideration of the motion to amend, and should it prevail, he would then record his vote in favor of the sum proposed by the honorable gentleman from Tennessee.

Mr. EWING opposed the reconsideration at length.

Mr. HARDIN went at length into an explanation of the obligation resting upon the United States to make this road. Mr. H. expressed his alarm at the amount of the appropriations for various works of internal improvement contained in the bill already reported, which he estimated to be twenty millions. With regard to this road, he thought the $2,500,000 which had been expended upon it solely to enable Baltimore to compete with Philadelphia was quite enough. If a road to the West was necessary, why not make a road by the White Sulphur Springs and the Kenawha, which was a hundred miles nearer! If the friends of the bill were not satisfied with the $300,000 proposed by the amendment, he hoped they would not obtain more by the vote of the House.

Mr. F. THOMAS replied in detail to the arguments and suggestions of Mr. Hardin. Mr. T. expressed his willingness to accede to the propositions of Messrs. Sutherland and Dickerson, providing that only $300,000 should be expended during the present year, and that no further sum should be laid out upon the road until the States should signify their assent to take and maintain the road when the whole should be expended; and hoped the House would fairly meet the question, whether the road should be fully and finally repaired by the United States, or should be abandoned— which he considered to be involved in this motion to reconsider, unless the limitation was struck from the bill.

Mr. BURGES opposed the motion to reconsider, and explained his views of the mutual and relative interests of the eastern and western States at length.

Mr. CAMBRELENG concurred in opinion with the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. Archer.] He was willing to vote for almost any sum that would enable us to get rid of the road, and transfer it to the States through which it passed. But he feared it would be as difficult for us to rid ourselves of the Cumberland road as it would be for certain gentlemen to abandon another unprofitable concern. He was by no means opposed to the object in view; but the appropriation should be made with reference to the actual condition of the revenue, whatever amount might be applied during the present year. It was not so much with a view to this single object that he had risen, but to notice all extraordinary appropriations, and to ask gentlemen, before they proceeded further in authorizing expenditures not included in the annual estimate submitted by the Treasury, to inquire into the condition of the revenue for 1834. He concurred entirely with the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. Hardin,] that the state of the Treasury did not authorize such extraordinary expenditures. The sum of eleven hundred thousand dollars was appropriated by this bill. We had bills amounting to about three millions for expenditures in this District and the neighborhood. There were bills now before us embracing appropriations amounting to more than five millions, for objects which were not included in the Treasury estimates; which bills, it was expected by gentlemen, we should act upon. Before we do so, we should look into the state of the treasury for 1834. The balance in the treasury, and the estimated receipts for the year, from all sources, amount to twenty-six millions and a half; the expenditures of the year, embracing only those included in the estimates,and allowing an equal amount for unexpended balances of appropriations at the beginning and at the end of the year, amount to twenty-three millions and a half, including five millions for the public debt and interest— leaving a surplus of three millions. If we make the same extraordinary appropriations at this as at the last session, of three millions and a half, there would be a deficit of half a million at the end of the year. He had no doubt that the receipts of the year would equal the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury— they might perhaps exceed it— but we should recollect how much the resources of the year had been diminished. At the commencement of 1833 we had, of available revenue bonds, twenty-one millions and a half, while on the 1st of January last we had but seven millions and a half, making a difference of fourteen millions, and we commenced the year with a reduction of about two millions on our revenue from imports— making the resources for 1834 below those of 1833 sixteen millions. With this knowledge, we were not authorized to make large appropriations for extraordinary objects. If we did so, this House, and not the treasury, would be held accountable for any deficiency.

We hear much of the increase of Government expenditures, but we overlook the causes. It is in this hasty legislation, at the close of the session, when millions are appropriated without proper examination, in our presidential contests, when millions are authorized under political influences, in the great struggle between the tariff and anti-tariff sides of the House— the former endeavoring to increase the expenditures to sustain a large revenue, the latter struggling to bring down the revenue to a just and moderate measure of national expenditure. These were the causes; End the measures laying the foundation of new and heavy additions to our annual expense, were uniformly hurried through the House during the last week of the session— and too frequently on the very last night. This was the great cause of our recent increase of expenditures. It originated with the legislative, and not with the executive branch of the Government— and the corrective should begin here— in this House. There never could be any comprehensive, effectual, or substantial system of retrenchment of the expenditures of Government, till this habit of authorizing extraordinary expenditures, in the gross, at the close of the session, was reformed. As long as it is continued, our Federal expenditures must go on rapidly increasing; and it is not the executive branch of the Government, but this House, which should be held accountable to the country for this steady increase of the expenses of Government. During the last night of business of the last session, we appropriated eight hundred thousand dollars for this District. We had now before us bills amounting in their ultimate consequences to more than three millions for this District alone, in 1829 we laid the foundation for an expenditure of many millions at the mouth of the Delaware. It was in this way that almost ail our increase of Federal expenditures was justly to be ascribed to legislative and not to executive origin. It was not from opposition to this bill particularly that he had made these remarks. He should pursue the same course in regard to all other expenditures not indispensably required for the service of the year. He should, when the question came before us, support the motion which the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Polk] promised to make, to strike out the appropriations for fortifications not yet commenced. He would do so for another reason— in the hope that, before the next session, the subject would attract the attention of the War Department; and that a system would be proposed, similar to that adopted in regard to the navy— appropriating a fixed sum annually for the gradual enlargement of fortifications, furnishing them with ordnance, &c, to be placed under the direction of able officers to be distributed to one object or another as they might deem most fit for the national interest. Without such a system, some of our fortifications never would be supplied with ordnance, while our appropriations for fortifications would go on annually increasing and be annually contested. He hoped that no expenditure, not absolutely required, would be authorized for this or any other purpose, and that gentlemen would unite, on all sides, in arresting the progress of our annual expenditures and in an attempt to diminish those Government expenses which had originated in measures of our own, hastily adopted and too generally growing out of political causes. With regard to this measure, he hoped the sum of eleven hundred thousand dollars, the aggregate proposed in the different sections of the bill, would be reduced to an amount corresponding to the state of the Treasury.

Mr. THOMAS, of Maryland, contended that the proposed expenditure was taken into account in the Treasury estimates.

Messrs. CHILTON and DUNCAN spoke in support of the bill, and in opposition to the motion to reconsider.

Mr. PARKS said he had heard of the Cumberland road for many years, and every year we had been told that the sum asked would be the last which would be wanted. It appeared, from statements made here this morning, that one hundred and thirty-two miles of the road had cost two and a half millions of dollars, which was equal to 19,774 dollars a mile. It should be recollected, too, that this road, which had cost so much, run through one of the most fertile regions of this country. He would now call the attention of the House to the expense of road-making in the State of Maine. A few years ago, a military post having been established on the northeastern frontier, it was thought expedient to make a road to it, for the conveyance of stores, troops, &c. The distance was seventy miles, the whole lying in an uninhabited and entangled forest, and the provisions used by the laborers were brought from this very Ohio country. But this road cost only twenty-one hundred dollars a mile; and he assured the House that the greater part of it, for he was over it last fall— was as solid, smooth, and perfect, as the Pennsylvania avenue from the Capitol to the President's House. Further: he would state that the State of Maine, in taking the road from the Government, asked only six thousand dollars to put it in complete repair, and this sum the delegation from Maine thought would be amply sufficient. To be sure, this was not a macadamized road, but it was as good a road as any in New England. He thought we had better abandon the road which was to cost $20,000 a mile, and build one on a less expensive plan.

Mr. VANDERPOEL said that he was one of those who voted for the larger sum on yesterday, but that subsequent reflection had satisfied him that the sum of six hundred thousand dollars was too large, and he would therefore vote for a reconsideration, with a view ultimately to vote for the minor sum. He was satisfied that the condition of the Treasury would not justify the appropriation of the enormous sum proposed. Considering the compact that had been adverted to in this debate, and the fact that the Federal Government had already fathered this child for so many years, he (Mr. V.) had no constitutional scruples to embarrass him, in relation to this particular matter; and was therefore at liberty of viewing it as a mere mailer of justice; of justice, so far as it regarded the whole nation, which was proposed to be taxed, and of justice, also, as it regarded the claims of that section of country which the road accommodated; and viewing it solely under considerations of expediency and justice, he was constrained to say, that the larger amount proposed to be appropriated, was unreasonable and extravagant. Give your New England Yankees six hundred thousand dollars, and they would be able to construct with it a perfect Appian way over the whole of New England. They knew the value of money, and had the talent to disburse it to the best possible advantage. He had been told that nearly, or over, three millions of dollars has already been appropriated for this road. He could not say that he regretted even this enormous expenditure, because it had perhaps tended very much to the population and prosperity of that magnificent valley, where, at no distant period, would be the majority of our population. As an American citizen, looking to the good of the whole country, he should not deplore such a result, for mankind would always go where nature presented the strongest attractions; but there were reasons why we should at this crisis keep an eye to economy. We had. heard a great deal on this floor about the enormous expenditures of this Administration; and from the formidable appropriations he (Mr. V.) had already witnessed here, he was convinced that the Executive was made the scapegoat for the uniform prodigality of this House in making appropriations. Some of the most ardent friends of this bill had been most loud and vehement in their denunciations of the alleged extravagance of this Administration; and he (Mr. V.) could not but observe, that when some gentlemen had dilated upon this, their favorite topic, they always took good care to forget that the legislation of Congress had contributed most essentially to the expenditures of this Administration; that upon this Administration had fallen the enormous calls made upon your Treasury under the pension laws of 1828 and of 1832, and other claims created by Congress, too numerous to mention; and if we now, in the fulness of our affection for our western brethren, were to appropriate this formidable sum of six hundred thousand dollars, it was difficult to say how long it would be before one of the friends of the bill would animadvert "upon the startling aggregate expenditures of 1834," without mentioning the amount disbursed upon the Cumberland road, as a constituent part of the sum total of this year's expenditure. Mr. V. therefore thought that we were admonished, not only by a consideration of what was reasonable, but by the facility with which, not we, sir, but the head of the executive department, might in future be reproached for extravagance, not to grant the enormous sum appropriated by the vote of yesterday.

Mr. V. said, though he should vote for the minor sum, he desired to have it distinctly understood that he had not been converted to the measure by the speech made yesterday by the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Vance.] That gentleman must have supposed that my colleague [Mr. Mann] was the mouthpiece of the New York delegation, or he certainly would not have indulged in a train of remarks so illy calculated to propitiate the good will, and secure the votes of New York. Sir, (said Mr. V.,) it is the good or ill fortune of gentlemen from New York, sometimes to differ in opinion as to the subjects that here come before us, and for my part, 1 can freely say, that I am too often annoyed with the question, " How will the New Yorkers go upon this subject?" I cannot accord to the gentleman from Ohio, or any other gentleman, the right to infer that the entire New York delegation intend to go/or or against a particular measure, because one of its number indicates his course in regard to it. I repeat, sir, that I am not unfriendly to the bill, if it contains a reasonable sum, nor to the section of the country which it is designed to benefit; but I will here remark, that if the appropriation is to be supported in the spirit which characterized the speech of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Vance,] then the measure might well exclaim," Oft, save me from my friends,and I will take care of my enemies." Why had the gentleman alluded so cavalierly to the appropriation for the New York custom-house, and for the navy-yard at Brooklyn ? What was there in the history and career of New York, to justify the spirit which such remarks evinced? Was she justly chargeable with a spirit of meanness and parsimony to our western brethren? Had New York been a leech upon your Treasury? Had she ever received anything to aid her in her magnificent works of internal improvement? No, sir. She applied to you for aid, and you refused it. She asked for bread, and you gave her a stone; for, after she had completed her grand work, which was an ornament not only to that great State, but to the country, and to the age in which we lived, you, sir, (I mean this Federal Government,) attempted to subject her canal boats to your customhouse regulations. I believe, sir, that you appropriated some three or four thousand dollars to make a military road somewhere in the neighborhood of Sackett's Harbor, to enable you to transport your own cannon to the frontier; and that, sir, tells the whole story of your munificence to New York, by way of aiding her in her schemes of internal improvement. Mr. V. said he did not know why this facility to attack New York. Was it because she was great— because she had over two millions of population— because her resources were immense— and because she had her great commercial emporium, where was collected most of the revenue of this Government? He mentioned these things in no spirit of boasting, for he was fully persuaded, from the short time he had already been here, that these circumstances were not much calculated to commend her to an undue share of favor here. If New York had a commercial emporium that required custom-houses, and all the facilities for the collection of revenue, and if she had a harbor, accessible at all times, and well fitted as a naval depot, he could not perceive that these advantages, which nature had secured to her, warranted taunting allusions to her, or furnished any argument in favor of this formidable appropriation for the Cumberland road.

Mr. BEARDSLEY said he did not rise to discuss the character of the New York delegation. An opinion might be formed of that delegation without their speaking of themselves, and as one of the number, he chose to avoid that subject. Neither did he rise to say anything in reply to the remarks of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Vance,] for he had heard nothing from him to which he took exception, or which he thought should be regarded as offensive by any member from New York. But he had risen to entreat the House to drop the subjects upon which they had been occupied the last two hours, and to vote upon the bill before them, in order that they might take up some other of the important business of the session. The House, he thought, would not be greatly benefited or improved by remarks upon the character of any delegation, and he hoped the question about that of New York would be laid on the table, and the motion for reconsideration disposed of without further debate.

Mr. McKENNAN spoke earnestly in opposition to the motion to reconsider. He considered the reduction,of the sum as tantamount to the destruction of the bill itself.

Mr. LOVE followed on the same side.

Mr. HARDIN opposed the bill, and the whole system of which it was a part. The system of internal improvements he viewed as unconstitutional, and as enabling the Federal Government to swallow up the States. The interests of the West, he thought, were wholly mistaken on this subject. He believed it would be more for the interest of the West if mountains, higher than the Andes and capped with eternal snows, were between the Western and the Atlantic States. The trade of the West would then pass through its natural channel— New Orleans. Now, the imports of the West were made from the Northeast, and her exports through the Southwest— the two points being thousands of miles distant.

Messrs. LOVE, STEWART, and THOMAS of Maryland, followed in opposition to the motion to reconsider.

Mr. POLK advocated the motion,and insisted, that as only $200,000 could be beneficially used this year for the work, it was unnecessary to deprive the Government of the use of three times that sum. He also contended that though the revenue of the year would exceed the estimates by two millions of dollars, yet we had appropriated, and were likely to appropriate, such large sums for different objects, that the Treasury would not be able to meet them.

Mr. WAYNE made some remarks in support of the motion to reconsider, and in opposition to the bill.

Mr. D. J. PEARCE moved the previous question.

Mr. LANE earnestly requested him to withdraw it, as he wished to make a few remarks.

[Loud cries of "No," " No," and "Question," " Question."]

The previous question was seconded, and the main question was Ordered to be put without a division.

Mr. THOMAS, of Maryland, moved a call of the House; which was negatived.

The question on the motion to reconsider was then taken by yeas and nays, and determined in the affirmative:

Yeas 101, nays 96.

The amendment offered by Mr. Polk, reducing the appropriation for the repair of the road east of the Ohio, from $652,000 to $300,000, was then agreed to without a division.

Mr. McKENNAN moved to amend the bill by striking out the words "entire completion of," in the third section, and the whole of the fourth section of the bill; which was divided.

The question on the former being taken first—

Mr. ELLSWORTH opposed the motion. He should hesitate to vote for any appropriation for repairs, unless it was provided that this should be the last appropriation for that object. He would not, therefore, vote to strike out the words "entire completion of."

Mr. BEARDSLEY had voted against the motion to reconsider, and would vote against this motion. He wished the action of the House now to be final and conclusive.

Mr. McKENNAN remarked, that if the words were stricken out, the bill would stand exactly as it was reported from the Committee of Way sand. Means.

The question being taken, the motion to strike out the words "entire completion of," was negatived: Yeas 93, nays 115.

The question was then stated on striking out the fourth section.

Mr. GHOLSON moved to amend the section by adding a declaration that, after the money appropriated by this act shall be expended, Congress will abandon all further jurisdiction of the road.

After some remarks from Messrs. GHOLSON, BEARDSLEY, W. COST JOHNSON, ELLSWORTH, and MERCER, Mr. EWING offered an amendment to the amendment, providing that the States of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri, shall not he prohibited from taxing the public lands after the relinquishment of this road takes effect.

Mr. GILMER proposed a substitute for the amendment of Mr. Gholson, which he wished that gentleman to accept, before it was decided between them.

Mr. McKIM moved the previous question; which was seconded.

The CHAIR stated the main question would be on the third reading of the bill as amended.

The question on the third reading was carried; yeas 127, nays 78.

The bill was then read a third time and passed.

The House then adjourned.

* * * *

The Players

John Quincy Adams (MA)- [AM] William S. Archer (VA)- [J] Samuel Beardsley (NY)- [J] Bedford Brown (NC)- [J] Tristam Burges (RI)- [AJ] Churchill C. Cambreleng (NY)- [J] George Chambers (PA)- [AM] Thomas Chilton (KY)- [AJ] Joseph W. Chinn (VA)- [J] Warren R. Davis (SC)- (N) Philemon Dickerson (NJ)- [J] Joseph Duncan (IL)- [J] John Ewing (IN)- [AJ] Ransom H. Gillet (NY)- [J] George R. Gilmer (GA)- [J] James H. Gholson (VA)- [AJ] Benjamin Hardin (KY)- [AJ] Albert G. Hawes (KY)- [J] William Cost Johnson (MD)- [AJ] Seaborn Jones (GA)- [J]

Amos Lane (IN)- [J] James Love (KY)- [AJ] Abijah Mann, Jr. (NY)- [J] Isaac McKim (MD)- [J] Charles F. Mercer (VA)- [AJ] James I. McKay (NC)- [J] Thomas M. T. McKennan (PA)- [AM] John McKinley (AL)- [J] Gorham Parks (ME)- [J] Franklin Pierce (NH)- [J] James K. Polk (TN)- [J] Dudley Selden (NY)- [J] Andrew Stewart (PA)- [AM] Joel B. Sutherland (PA)- [J] Francis Thomas (MD)- [J] Joseph Vance (OH)- [AJ] Aaron Vanderpoel (NY)- [J] Samuel F. Vinton (OH)- [AJ] James M. Wayne (GA)- [J] Frederick Whittlesey (NY)- [AM]

Party Affiliations

Jacksonian Party (J), Anti-Jackson Party (AJ), Anti-Masonic Party (AM) and the Nullifier Party (N)

Transcribed by Steve Colby