" That the United States should be prohibited
from purchasing lands within the States without their consent, even for
the most essential purposes of national defense, while left at liberty
to purchase or seize them for roads, canals, and other improvements of
immeasurably less importance, is not to be conceived.
A proposition was made in the Convention to provide for the appointment
of a "Secretary of Domestic Affairs," and make it his duty, among other
things, "to attend to the opening of roads and navigation and the
facilitating communications through the United States." It was referred
to a committee, and that appears to have been the last of it. On a
subsequent occasion a proposition was made to confer on Congress the
power to "provide for the cutting of canals when deemed necessary,"
which was rejected by the strong majority of eight States to three.
Among the reasons given for the rejection of this proposition, it was
urged that "the expense in such cases will fall on the United States
and the benefits accrue to the places where the canals may be cut.
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