The treasure of the world would hardly be equal to the
improvement of every bay, inlet, creek, and river in our country which
might be supposed to promote the agricultural, manufacturing, or
commercial interests of a neighborhood.
The Federal Constitution was wisely adapted in its provisions to any
expansion of our limits and population, and with the advance of the
confederacy of the States in the career of national greatness it becomes
the more apparent that the harmony of the Union and the equal justice to
which all its parts are entitled require that the Federal Government
should confine its action within the limits prescribed by the
Constitution to its power and authority. Some of the provisions of this
bill are not subject to the objections stated, and did they stand alone
I should not feel it to be my duty to withhold my approval.
If no constitutional objections existed to the bill, there are others of
a serious nature which deserve some consideration. It appropriates
between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 for objects which are of no pressing
necessity, and this is proposed at a time when the country is engaged in
a foreign war, and when Congress at its present session has authorized a
loan or the issue of Treasury notes to defray the expenses of the war,
to be resorted to if the "exigencies of the Government shall require
it.
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