If an
enlargement of the powers of the Federal Government should be deemed
proper, it is safer and wiser to appeal to the States and the people
in the mode prescribed by the Constitution for the grant desired than
to assume its exercise without an amendment of the Constitution.
If Congress does not possess the general power to construct works of
internal improvement within the States, or to appropriate money from the
Treasury for that purpose, what is there to exempt some, at least, of
the objects of appropriation included in this bill from the operation of
the general rule? This bill assumes the existence of the power, and in
some of its provisions asserts the principle that Congress may exercise
it as fully as though the appropriations which it proposes were
applicable to the construction of roads and canals. If there be a
distinction in principle, it is not perceived, and should be clearly
defined. Some of the objects of appropriation contained in this bill are
local in their character, and lie within the limits of a single State;
and though in the language of the bill they are called _harbors_, they
are not connected with foreign commerce, nor are they places of refuge
or shelter for our Navy or commercial marine on the ocean or lake
shores.
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