Newspapers / The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, … / Dec. 12, 1834, edition 1 / Page 2
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. This interesting document was tor warded to lis in pamphlet form hy the Hon. Jesse Speight. It occupies 13 closely printed octavo pages, and consequently N loo loop; lor insertion entire in our piKM To enable our readers, however, to form some opinion as to its content, we give the following brief and imperfect abstract of this able and highly important state paper: The Mosage states that our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, to maintain the favorable aspect which they bore in the last annual message the pacific and highly gratifying picture of our foreign relations however, does noi include those with France at this time, & the Pre sident gives it as his conviction, that the U. Slates ought to insist on a prompt execution of the late treaty, and in case it be refused, or longer de layed, take redress into their own hands: re marking, that it is a well settled principle of the inter-national code, that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt, which it refuse or neg lects to pay, the aggrieved party may seize on the properly belonging to the other, its citizens or suhjecls, sufficient to pay the debt, without giving just cause of war. The message then re fers to the state of the public finances, which are represented as follows: According to the estimate of the Treasury Department, the revenue ac cruing, from nil sources, during the pres ent year, will amount to twenty millions six hundred and twenty-four thousand seven hundred and seventeen dollars, which with the balance remaining in the Treasury on the first of January last, of eleven millions seven hundred and two thousand nine hundred and five dollars, produces an aggregate of thirty-two mill ions three hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and twenty-seven dollars. The total expenditure during the year for all objects, including the public debt, is estimated at twenty-five millions live hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred and ninety dol lars, which will leave a balance in the Tre isury on the first of January, 1835, of six millions seven hundred and thirty heretofore favored the establishment of a J substitute for the present Bank, will be induced to abandon it, as it is evidently better to incur any inconvenience that may be reasonably expected, than to con centrate the whole moneyed power of the Republic in any form whatsoever, or under any restrictions. Happily it is already illustrated that the agency of such an institution is not necessary to the fiscal operations of the Government. The State Banks are found fully adequate to the performance of all services which were required of the Bank of the United States, Cjuito as promptly, and with the same cheapness. They have maintained themselves, and discharged all these duties, while the Bank of the United States was still pow erful, and in the field as an open enemy; and it is not possible to conceive that they will find greater difficulties in their op erations, when that enemy shall cease to exist. Reference is then made to the rjports of the Secretary of War, of the Navy, and of the Post master General and the Message conclude as follow: 1 have not been able to satisfy myself that the bill entitled "an Actio improve the navigation of the Wabish river," which was sent to me at the close of your last session, ought to pass, and I have therefore withheld-from it ay approval, and now return it to the Serifctc, the body in which it originated. There can be no questioi connected with the administration of public nflairs, more important or difficult id be satisfac torily dealt with, than thativhich relates to the rightful authority and proper ac ambition. With such stimulants it is not surprising that the nets and pretentions o . . . . "i ,n till 43 MOtl.'lII 1 tion of the Federal Government upon the subject of Internal Improvements. To inherent embarrassments have been ad fled others resulting from the course of our legislation concerning it. I have heretofore communicated free ly with Congress upon llis subject, and in adverting to it again, ! cannot refrain six thousand two hundred and thirty-two I from expressing my increased conviction dollars. Itr this balance, however, will , of its extreme importance, as well in re- be included about one million one hun dred and fifty thousand dollars of what was heretofore reported by the Depart ment as not effective. Of former appropriations it is estima ted that there will remain unexpended at the close of the year, eight millions two thousand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars, and that of this sum there will not be required more than five millions one hundred and forty-one thousand nine hun dred and sixty-four dollars, to accomplish the objects of all the current appropria tions. Thus it appears that after satis fying all those appropriations, and after discharging the last item of our public debt, which will be done on the first of January next, there will remain unexpen ded in the Treasury an effective balance of about four hundred and forty thousand dollars. That such should be the aspect of our finances is highly flattering to the industry and enterprise of our population, and auspicious of the wealth and prosper ity vvlnnli nivnit flip future rnllivMt'mn rf their growing resources. It is not deem ed prudent, however, to recommend any change for the present in our impost rates, the effect of the gradual reduction now in progress in many of them, not being sufficiently tested, to guide us in determining the precise amount of reve nue which they will produce. The President then remarks that circumstan ces make it his duty to call the attention of Con gress to the Bank of the United States created ibr the convenience of the Government, that in stitution has become the scourge of the people. After enumerating the misconduct and various abuses of the Hank, the President continues: gard to its hearing upon he maintenance of the Constitution and te prudent man agement of the public revenue, as on ac count of its disturbing eflict upon the har mony of the Union. We are in no danger from violations of the Constitution by which encroach ments are made upon tfce personal rights of the citizens. The sentence of con demnation long since pronounced by the American People upor acts of that char acter, will, 1 doubt not, continue to prove as salutary in its effects as it is irreversi ble in its nature. Bjt against the dan gers of unconstitutional acts which, in stead of menacing thevengeance of offen ded authority, proffer local advantages, and bring in their tnin the patronage of the Government, W3 nre, I fear, not so safe. To suppose tint because our Gov ernment has been instituted for the ben efit of the People, it must therefore have the power to do whatever may seem to conduce to the pub.ic good, is an error, into which even horest minds are too apt to fall. In yielding themselves to this fallacy, they overlook the great consider ations in which the rederal Constitution was founded. Thy forget that in conse quence of the conceded diversities in the ititerest and condition of the different States, it was foreseen, at the period of its adoption, that although a particular measure of the Government might be ben eficial and proper in one State, it miglu be the reverse in another that it was for this reason the Slates would not consent to make a grant to the Federal Govern ment of the general and usual powers of Events have satisfied my mind, and j Government, but ot such only as were I think the minds of the American Peo-1 specifically enumerated, and the probable pie, thai me miscmeis ana dangers wtiieh flow from the National Bank far over bal mice all its advantages. The bold effort the present Bank has made to control the G'. eminent, lhe distresses it has wan t-!'v produced, the violence of which it has been the occasion in one of our cities faoifd for its observance of law and or der, ire but premonitions of the fate which awaits the American People should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of another like it. U is fervently hoped, that, thus admonished, those who have effects of winch they could, as thev j thought, safely anticipate: and they for get also the paramount obligation upon all to abide by the compact, then so so lemnly, and, as it was hoped, so firmly established. In addition to the dangers to the Constitution springing from the sources I have stated, there has been one which was perhaps greater than n41. I allude to the materials which this sub ject lias afforded for sinioler appeals to selfish feelings, and the opinion hereto fore so extensively entertained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal . i r.,.i.,-..i i:,iirirnmfr in una uomm lilt' I' IUUItll V VI v. ...... v.. - should sometimes have been carried to an alarming extent. The questions which have arisen upou this subject have rela ted . 1st. To the power of making internal lm provement within the limits of a S'ate, with the right of territorial jurisdiction, sufficient at least for their preservation and use. 2d. To the right of appropriating money in aid of such works when carried on hy a State or by a company in virtue of State authority, sur rendering the claim of jurisdiction; and 3d. To the propriety of appropriation for im provements of a particular class; viz. for light houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and for the removal of sand bars, sawyers and other tempo rary and partial impediments in oir navigable rivers and harbors. The claims of power for the General Government upon each of these points certainly present matter of the deepest interest. The first, is however, of much the greatest importance, inasmuch as, in addition to the dangers of unequal and improvident expenditures of public mon eys, common to all, ihrire is superadded to that the conflicting jurisdictions of the respective governments. Federal juris diction, at least to the extent I have sla ted, has been justly regarded by its advo cates us necessarily appurtenant to the power in question, if that exists by the constitution. That the most injurious conflicts would unavoidably arise between tin; respective jurisdictions of the Slate and Federal Governments, in the ab sence of a constitutional provision mark ing out their respective boundaries, can not be doubted. The local advantages to be obtained would induce the Slates to overlook in the beginning the dangers and difliculties to which they might ulti mately be exposed. The powers exer cised by the Federal Government would soon be regarded with jealousy by the State authorities', and originating as they must from implication or assumption, it would be impossible to affix to thcrn cer tain and safe limits. Opportunities and temptations to the assumption of power incompatible with State sovereignty would he increased, and those barriers which resist the tendency of our system towards consolidation greatly weakened. 1 he officers nnd agents of the Genera Government might not always have the discretion to abstain from intermeddling with State concerns; and if they did, they would not always escape the suspicion of having done so. Collisions, and conse quent irritations would spring up that harmony which should ever exist between the General Government and each mem ber of the Confederacy, would be fre quently interrupted a spirit of conten tion wou.d be engendered and the dan gers of division greatly multiplied. let we all know, that notwithstanding these grave objections, this dangerou doctrine was at one time apparently pro ceeding to its final establishment with fearful rapidity. The desire to embark tin; Federal Government in works of in ternal improvement, prevailed in the high est degree, during the first session of the first Congress that 1 had the honor to meet in mv present situation. When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Com panies, passed the two Houses, there had been reported, by the Committees of Internal Improvements, bills contain ing appropriations for such objects, ex clusive of those for the Cumberland road, nnd for harbors and light-houses to the amount of about one hundred and six millions of dollars. In this amount was included authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of different companies to a great extent, and the residue was principally for the direct construction of roads by this Government. In addition to these projects, which had been presented to the two Houses, under the sanction and recommendation of their respective Committees on Internal Im-( provements, mere were then still pend ing before the committees, and in memo rials to Congress, presented, but not re ferred, different projects for works of a similar character, the expense of which cannot be estimated with certainty, but must have exceeded one hundred millions of dollars. Regarding the i authorizing seription to the stock of the MaysY,e. Lexington Turnpike Company as tJl una MV as tli... tering wedge of a system, which u i, r... . . '"'Stiver wuuiv in ursi, migni soon become str enough to rive the bands nf ti..n asunder, and believing that i its pJS5ia,M Ofl-r . ., . I i .1 n wus ucijuiupceu in uy me Executive an the People, there would no longer ho a ' limitation upon the authority of the Q eral Government in respeci to the apnr"" priation of money for such ohj?Cu deemed it an imperative duty t0 uphold from it the Executive approval. t though, from the obviously local cliarac" ter of that work, I might well havo con tented myself with a refusal to approve the bill upon that ground, yet, sensible of the vital importance of the subject, and anxious that my views and opinion jn regard to the whole matter, should he ftf. ly understood by Congress, and by m constituents, I felt it my duty tu go fnr. ther. I therefore embraced that early occasion to apprize Congress, that, in my opinion, the Constitution did not confer upon it the power to authorize the con. struction of ordinary roads and canab within th limits of a State, and t0 say respectfully, that no bill arimiftitig such a power could receive my official sanc tion. 1 did so in the confident expecta tion that the speedy settlement of the pub lic mind upon the whole subject would be greatly facilitated by the difference be tween the two Houes and myself, and that the harmonious action of the several departments of the Federal Government in regard to it, would be ultimately se cured. So far at least as it regards this brnnch of the subject, 'my best hopes have been realized. Nearly four years hnve elaps ed, and several sessions of Congress have intervened, and no attempt, within my recollection, has been made to induce Congress to exercise this power. The applications for the construction of roads and canals, which were formerly multi plied upon your files, arc no longer pre sented; and we have good reason to infer that the current of public sentiment has become so decided against the pretension as effectually to discourage its re-assertion. So thinking, I derive the greatest satisfaction from the conviction, that thus much at least has been secured upon this important and embarrassing subject. From attempts to appropriate the na tional funds to objects which are confess edly of a local character, we cannot, I trust, have any thing further to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making appropriations for works which are claimed to be of a national character, and prosecuted under State authority, assuming that Congress have the right" to do so, were stated in my annual message to Congress in 1830, and also in that containing my objections to the Maysville Road Bill. So thoroughly convinced am I, that no such appropriations ought to beuiade by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest interests ot our country, that I could not consider myself as discharging rny duty to my constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill containing such an appropriation. If the People of the United Slates desire that the public. Treasury shall be resorted to for the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in an amendment of the constitu tion, prescribing a rule by which the na tional character of the works is to be tes ted, and by which the greatest practica ble equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the confederacy. The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing unprofitable expen ditures, in securing our legislation from the pernicious consequences of a scram ble for the favors of Government, and in repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from an unequal distribution of treasures which4eloug a- Iikc to all. There is another class of appropria tions for what may be called, without im propriety, internal improvements, which have always been regarded as standing upon different grounds from those to which I have referred. 1 allude to such as have for their object the improvement
The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.)
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Dec. 12, 1834, edition 1
2
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