Although the bill under consideration
proposes no appropriation ior a road or canal, it is not easy to
perceive the difference in principle or mischievous tendency between
appropriations for making roads and digging canals and appropriations to
deepen rivers and improve harbors. All are alike within the limits and
jurisdiction of the States, and rivers and harbors alone open an abyss
of expenditure sufficient to swallow up the wealth of the nation and
load it with a debt which may fetter its energies and tax its industry
for ages to come.
The experience of several of the States, as well as that of the United
States, during the period that Congress exercised the power of
appropriating the public money for internal improvements is full of
eloquent warnings. It seems impossible, in the nature of the subject, as
connected with local representation, that the several objects presented
for improvement shall be weighed according to their respective merits
and appropriations confined to those whose importance would justify a
tax on the whole community to effect their accomplishment.
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