Western Sun & General Advertiser, Volume 21, Number 19, Vincennes, Knox County, 19 June 1830 — Page 1

A o 31? ELIHU STOUTJ VmCSffiTETES, (La.) SATURDAY, JU3STES 19, 1830tVOL. XXI. NO. 19.

IS published at 82 50 cents, for 52 numbers ; which may be discharged by the payment of g2 at the time of subscribing. Payment in advance, being the mutual interest of both parties, that mode is eolicited. A failure to 'notify a wish to discontinue at the expiration of the time subscribed for, will be considered a new engagement; &. no subscriber at liberty to discontinue, until all arrearages are paid. Subscribers must pay the postage on their papers when sent by mail. Let tcrg by mail to the Editor on business must be paid,or they will not be attended to. Produce will be received at the Cash JSTarket Price , for subscriptions, i! iJeiivcrcd within the year.

Advertisements not exceeding r iteen lines, will be inserted three tw.es f r one dollar, and tcuenty-fivc cents Sr each after insertion longer ones in tn. same proportion. CTPersons sending Advertisements, must specify the number of times they wish them inserteu, oi bey will be continued until ordered out and must be for paid accordingly. BY AUTHORITY, tin JLAWS OF THE UNITED ST A TES BASSKDATTHK FIRST SESSION OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CONGKESS. AN ACT to regulate and fix the compensation of Clerks in the Department ot State. BE it enacted by the Senate and ttx&e cf Representatives cf the United States cf America in Congress assembled That the Secretary of State be, and he is, hereby, authorized to employ one Chief Clerk, whose compensation shah not exceed two thousand dollars per annum ; one Clerk, whose compensation shall not exceed one thousand six hundred dollars per annum ; one Clerk, whose compensation shall not exceed 1,500 dollars per annum ; six Clerks, whose compensation shall not exceed one thousand four hundred dollars each, per annum ; one Clerk, whose salary shall not exoeed one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars per annum ; one Clerk, whose salary shall not exceed one thousand dollars, to be charged with the duty of translating foreign languages, in addition to other duties ; .one Clerk, whose salary shall not exceed cne thousand dollars per annum ; one Clerk "Whose salary shall not exceed nine hundred dollars per annum ; one Clerk, whose compensation shall not exceed eight hundred dollars per annum ; one Superintendent in the Patent Office, whose salary shall not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars per annum ; two Clerks, in the Patent Office, "whose compensation shall r.ot exceed one thousand dollars, each, per annum ; one Clerk, whose compensation shall not exceed eight hundred dollars per annum. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted That all acts, and parts of acts, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, be, and the same arc, herebyrepealed. A. STEVENSON, Sjieakerqf the House nf Representatives. J. C CALHOUN. Vice-President of the United S'ates and President cf the Senate. Approved, April 23. 1850. ANDREW JACKSON. AN ACT for the distribution of certain Books therein mentioned. BR it enacted by the Senate and House (if Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the copies of the Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, published in pursuance of a resolution of Congress ot twenty-seventh March, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, which have been, or may hereafter be received at the Department of State, be distributed and disposed of in the manner following, to wit: To the President and Vice-President of the United States, one copy each; to the Heads of Department, five copies each ; to the Postmaster General, the Commissioner ot tne General L.ana umce, ana tne Muper-1 Sntendent of the Patent Office, one copy each ; to each Member and Delegate of the present Congress, one copy ; to the Library of the Senate, five copies ; to the Library of the House of Representatives, twn copies; to the Attorney General, the Judges of the Supreme court, and ot the other Courts of the United Suites, each one copy ; to each Governor of a State or Territory, for the public Library of the State or Territory, one cony ; to the Military Academy at West Point, and to each incorporated University, College. Historical cr Antiquarian Society, and A then a: urn, one copy; to the Secretary of State, one copy tor each American Legation in foreign countries ; to the Secretary of the Navy, five copies for the aval Commanders on different stati ons ; and to each person who has been Pre siJent of the United States, one copy. Sec. 2. And b it further enacted. That ct the edition of the Journals of the House ordered to he printed by a resolution of this House of eighteenth Mav, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, the copies be distributed in the manner following, to wit : To the President and Vice-President cf the United States, one copy each; to the Heads of Department, five copies each: to each Member and Delegate of the present Congrt;.s, one copy; to the Library of the iiate.tiv.c copies; to the Library of the

House of Representatives, ten copies; to the Attorney and Postmaster General, one copy each; to each Governor of a State or Territory, for the public library of the Estate or Territory, one copy; to the Military Academy atWcst Point, and to each incorporated University, College, Historical cr Antiquarian Society, and Athenteum, one copy; and to each person who has been President of the United States, one cepv;

and that the residue remain in the custody of the Clerk of tne House of Representatives, till otherwise ordered by the House. Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That the books hereby directed to be distributed be prxerly prepared for transmission, under te direction of the Clerk of the House i representatives; & that they be forwarded free cf postage, by mail, to the persons Kc v authorized to receive them, or deV vf ' 1 1 the order of said persons in the 'v h r; And be it further enacted That, Ot . :cs ot the Diplomatic CorresponC!ff z toe Revolution which shall remain :v i:oc lisirbutcd to each new member of c:-.ui Co ;v.rcss succeeding the present, unit I iiil the -j' pies shall have been distributed, w'tt a tic exception of twenty-five, which shall be retained for the Library of Congress approved, May 26, 1830. IvlAYSVILLr, ROAD BILL. May 27, 1330. House of Representatives. Thefollowing Message was received from the President of the United Slate, returning to trie ) louse of Representatives the enrolled bill entitled An act authorizing a subscription of stock in the Maysvillc, Washington, 5uris, nd Lexington 1 nrnpike Road Campanv," with his objections thereto. U. S. Tel. To the House nf Representatives: GaNTLEMBx: I ;ave maturely considered c:,c b't ptoposing to authorize "a subscription of stock in the Mays villc, Washington, Pans, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company," and now re turn the same to inc House ot Representatives, in which it originated, with my objection to its passage Si icerely triendly to the improvement of our country by means ot roads and canals, I regret that any difference ot opinion in the mode of contributing to it should exist between us; and it, in stating this difference, I go beyond what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I hope to find an apology in the great importance of the subject, an unfeigned respect for tho high source from which this branch of it has emanated, and an anxious wish to be correctly understood by my constituents in the discharge oi all my duties. Diversity of sentiment among public functionaries, actuated by the same general motives, on the character and tendency of particular measures, is an incident common to all Governments, and the more to bo expected in one which, like ouri, owes its existence to the freedom of opinion, and must be upheld by the same influence. Controlled, as we thus are, by a higher tribunal, before which our respective acts will be canvassed with the indulgence due to the imperfections of our nature, and with that intelligence and unbiassed judgment which are the true correctives of error, all that our responsibility demands is, that the public good shou'd by the measure of our views, dictating alike their frank expression and honest maintenance. In the message which was presented to Congress at the opening of its present session, I endeavored to exhibit briefly my views upon the important and highly interesting subject, to which our attention is now to be directed. I was desirous of presenting to the Represen tatives of the several stares in Congress assembled, the inquiry, whether some mode could not be devised which would reconcile the diversity of opinion con cerning the powers of this Government over tno subject of internal improvement, and the manner in which these powers, if conferred by the Constitution, ought to be exercised. The act which I am called upon to consider, Ins there fore, bsen pissed with a knowledge of my views on this question, as these are expressed in the message referred to. In that document the following sjcres ;on wjh kc found. 4kAfter the extinction of the public debt, it is not probable that any adjust rneot of the tariff, upon principles satis factory to the people of the Union, will, un'il a remote period, if ever, leave the Government without a considerable sur plus in the treasury, beyond what may be required for its current service. As then the period approaches when the apolication of the revenue to the pay ment of debt will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided. Considered in connexion with the difficulties which have heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with those which this experience tePs u will certainly arise, whenever povverorer such subjects may be exercised by the General Government; it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the diversified interests of the states, and strengthen the bonds which unite them Every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefitted by the im

provement of inland navigation and the construction of highways in the several states. Let us then endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will be satisfactory to all. That hitherto "adopted has been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution by many of our fellow citizens; while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils;" and adverting to the Constitutional power of Congress to make what I consider a proper disposition of the surplus revenue, I subjoin the following remarks: "To avoid these evils, it appears tome that the most safe, just and federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue, would be its apportionment among the several states according to their ratio of representation; and should this measure not be found warranted by the Constitution, that it would be expedient to propose to the states an amendment authorizing it." The constitutional power of the Federal Government to construct or promote works of internal improvement, presents itself in two points of view: the first, as bearing upon the sovereignty of the states within whose limits their execution is contemplated, if juiisdiction of the territory which they may occupy, be claimed as necessary to their preservation and use: the second, as asserting the simple right to appropriate money from the national trasury in aid of such works when undertaken by state authority, surrendering the claim of jurisdiction. In the first view, the question of power is an open one, and can be decided without the embarrassment attending the other, arising from tho practice of the Government.

Although frequently and strenuous ly attempted, the power, to this ex tent, has never been exercised by the Government in a single instance. It does not, in my opinion, possess it; and no bill, therefore, which admits it, can receive my official sanction. But, in the other view of the power, the question is differently situated. The ground taken at an early period of the Government, was, "that whenever mo ney has been raised by the general au thority, and is to be applied to a particu lar measue, a question arises, whether the particular measure be within the en umerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the money requisite for it may be applied to it; if not, no such applica tion can be made.'1 The document in which this principle was first advanced is of deservedly high authority, and should be held in grateful remembrance for its immediate agency in rescuing the country from much existing abuse, and for its conservative effect upon some of the most valuable principles of the Con stitution. The symmetry and purity of the Government would, doubtless, have been better preserved, if this restriction of the power of appropriation could have been maintained without weakening its ability to fulfil the general objects of its institution; an effect so likely to attend its admission, notwithstanding its apparent fitness, that every subsequent administration of the Government, embracing a period of thirty out of the forty two years of its existence, has adopted a more enlarged construction of the power. It is not my purpose to detain you by a minute recital of the acts which sustain mis assertion, but it is proper that I should notice some of the most prominent, in order that the reflections which they suggest to my mind, may be better understood. In the administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two examples of the exercise of the right of appropriation, which, in the consideration that led to their adoption and in their effects upon tho public mind, have had a greater agency in marking the character of the power, than any subsequent events. I allude to the payment of fifteen millions of dollars for the purchase of Louisiana, and to the origi nal appropriation for the construction of the Cumberland Road; the latter act deriving much weight from the acquiesc encc and approbation of three of the most powerful of the original members of the confederacy, expressed through their re spective Legislatures. Although the circumstances of the latter case may be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual construction of the road, of the force of an obligatory exposition of the Constitution, it must, nevertheless, be admitted that, so far as the mere appropriation of money is concern ed, they present the principle in its most imposing aspect. No less than twentythree different laws have been passed through all the forms of the Constitution, appropriating upwards of two millions and a half of dollars out of the National Treasury in support of that improvement, with the approbation of every President of the United States, including my predecessor, since its commencement. Independently of the sanction given to appropriations for the Cumberland and other roads and objects, under this power, the administation of Mr. Madison was characterised by an act which furnishes the strongest evidence of his opinion of its extent. A bijl was passed

through both houses of Congress, and presented for his approval, "setting apart and pledging certain funds for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States; and to render more easy, and. less expensive, the means and provisions for lire common defence." Re. garding the bill as asserting a power in the Federal Government to construct roads and canals within the limits of the states in which they made, he objected to its passage, cn the ground ot its unconstitutionality, declaring that the as sent of the respective states, in the mede provided by the bill, could net confer the power in question; that the only cases in which the consent and cession of partic ular states can extend the power of Congress, are those specified and provided tor in the Constitution: and superadding to these avowals, his opinion, that "a restriction of the power lo provide for the common defence and general welfate, to cases which are to be provided for by the expenditure of money, would still leave within the legislative power of Congress, all the great and most important measures of Government, money being the ordinary and necessary means ol carrying them into execution." I have not been able to consider these declarations in any other point of view, than as a concession that the right of appropriation is not limited by the power to carry into effect the measure for which the money is asked, as was formerly con tended. The views of Mr. Monroe upon thi subject, were not left to inference During his administration a bill was passed through both Houses of Con

gress, conferring the jurisdiction nnd prescribing the mode by which the Federal Government should exercise it in the case of the Cumberland Road. He returned it with objections to its passage, and in assigning them, took occasion to say, that in the early stages of the Government, he had inclined to the construction that it had no right to expend mo ney, except in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific grants of power, according to a strict construction of them; but that, on further reflection and observation, his mind had undergone a change; that his opinion then was, "that Congress have an unlimited power to raise mency, and that, in its appropriation, they have a discretionary power, restricted only by the duty to ppropriate it to purposes ot common de fence, and of general, not local, national, not state benefit;" and this was avowed to be the governing principle through the residue of his administration. The views of the last administration are of such recent date as to render a particu lar reference to them unnecessary. It is well known that the appropriating power, to the utmost extent which had been claimed for it, in relation to internal improvements, was fully recognized and exercised by it. This brief reference to known facts, will be sufficient to show the difficulty, it not impracticability, of bringing back the operations of the Government to the construction of the Constitution set up in 1793, assuming that to be its true reading, in relation to the power under consideration: thus given an admonitory proof of the force of implication, and the necessity of guarding the Constitution with sleepless vigilance, against the authority of precedents which have not the sanction of its most plainly defined powers. For, although it is the duty of all to look to that sacred instrument, instead of the statute book, to repudiate at all times, encroachments upon its spirit, which are too apt to be effected by the conjuncture of peculiar and facilitating circumstances; it is not less true, that the public good and the nature cf our political institutions require, that individual differences should yield to a well settled acquiescence of the people and confederated authorities, in particular constructions of the Constitution, on doubtful points. Not to concede this much to the spirit of our institutions, would impair their stability, and defeat the objects of the Constitutionitself The bill before me does not call for a more definite opinion upon the particular circumstances which will warrant appropriations of money by Congress, to aid works of internal improvement, for although the extension of the power to apply money beyond that of carrying into effect the object for which it is appropriated, has, as we have seen, been long claimed and exercised by the Federal Government, yet such grants have always been professedly under the control of the general principle, that the works which might be thus aided, should be "of a general, not local national, not state" character. A disregard of this distinction would of necessity leid to the subversion of the federal system. TMat even this is an unsafe one, arbitrary in its natnre, and liable, consequently, to great abuses is too obvious to require the confirmation of experience. It is, however, sufficiently definite and imperative to my mind, to forbid my approbation of any bill having the character of the one under consideration. I have

given to its provisions all the reflectioa demanded by a just regard for the interests of those of our fellow citizens who have desired its passage, and by the iespect which is due to a co-ordimtc branch of the Gorernment; but I am ot able to view it in any other light than as a measure of purely local character; cr if it can be considered national, that na

further distinction between the appropriate dirties of the general and atato Government, need bo attempted; fop there can be no local interests that cnay not with equal propriety be denominated national. It has no cornexticn with a&7 established system of improvements; is exclusively within the limits of a state, starting at a point cn the Ohio rivcrf and running cut sixty miles to tn interior town; and even as far as the stato is interested, conferring partial iniUad cf general advantages. Considering the magnitude and Ira portanccof the powers, and the cmbir rassments to which, fiom the very La ture of the thing, Its exercise must, necessarily, Le subjected; the real friends of internal improvement ought not to bo willing to confide it to accident and chance. What is properly rational in its character, or otherwise is an inquiip which is often extremely difficult of so lution. The appropriations of one yearf for an object which is considered national, may be rendered nugatory, by the refusal of a succeeding Congress to continue the work, on the ground that it is local. No aid can be derived from tho intervention of corporations. The question regards the character cf tho work not that of those by whom it is to te accomplished. Notwithstanding the union ,i the Government with the corpora tion, by whose immediate agency, any work of internal improvement is earned on, the inquiry will still remain, is it national and conducive to the ben fit of ihe whole, or local, and operating only to the advantage of a portion of the Union? But, although, I might not feel it to be my jfficial duty to interpose the executive veto, to the passage of a bill ap proprkting money for ihe constiuction of such works, as aro authorized by tho states, and are national in their character, I do not wish to be understood as expressing an opinion, that it is expedient at this time, for the General Government to embatk in a system ot this kind and anxious that my constituents should be possessed of my views, on this, aa well as on all other subjects, which they have committed to my discetion, l&hail state them frankly and brit fly. Besidea many minor considerations, thtre aro two prominent riews of the subject, which have made a deep impression upon my mi'd, which, I thh.k. ae well entitled to your aeriou attention, and wilf, I hope, be maturely weighed by tho people. From the official communication suU mitted to you, it appear?, that if no ad verse and unforeseen contingency happens iriuur foreign relations, and no un.usual diversion be made of the funds set apart for the payment of the national debt, wt may look with confidence to its entiie extinguishment in the short period of four years. The extent to which thirpleaaing anticipation is dependent upon the policy, which may bo pursued in relation to measures, ci tho character cf the one, row under consideration, must be obvious to all, and equally , that the events of the present session are well calculated to awaken public solicitude upon the subject. By tho statement from the Treasury Department, end those from the Clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives, herewith submitted, it appears that tho bills which havo passed into laws, and these which in all probability, will pass before the adjournment of Congress, anticipate appropriations which, with the ordinary expenditures for the support of Government, will exceed considerable the amount in the Treasury for the year 1830. Thus, whilst we aro diminishing tha revenue by a reduction of the duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa, the appropriations for internal improvement are increasing beyond tho available means of the Treasury; and if to this calculation be added theamount contained in bills which are pending beforo tho two Houses, it may be safely affirmed, that ten mi 'iniiS of dollars would not make up the excess ever tho Treasury receipts, unless the payment cf tho national debt be postponed, aid tho means now pledged o that eSjcet applied to those enumerated in these hills. Without a well regulated system of internal improvement, this exhausting mode of appropriation is not likely to be avoided, ar.d the plain consequence must be, either a continuance of the national debt, or a resort to additional taxes. Although many of the states; with a laudable zeal, and under the influenco of an enlightened po'icy, at e successfully applving their scparato efforts to works of this character, the desire to enlist the aid of the General Government in the construction of such as from their nature ought to devolve upon it, and to which the means of the individual states are inadequate, is both ratiooU and patri-