2019 DBQ

Having . . . considered the advantages which canals will produce in point of wealth to individuals and the nation, I will now consider their importance to the union and their political consequences.

. . . Numerous have been the speculations on the duration of our union, and intrigues have been practiced to sever the western from the eastern states. The opinion endeavored to be inculcated, was, that the inhabitants beyond the mountains were cut off from the market of the Atlantic states; that consequently they had a separate interest, and should use their resources to open a communication to a market of their own; that remote from the seat of government they could not enjoy their portion of advantages arising from the union, and that sooner or later they must separate and govern for themselves.

. . . What stronger bonds of union can be invented than those which enable each individual to transport the produce of his industry 1,200 miles for 60 cents the hundred weight? Here then is a certain method of securing the union of the states, and of rendering it as lasting as the continent we inhabit.

To the topic of internal improvement, . . . the magnificence and splendor of their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up in despotism or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. . . . Nearly twenty years have passed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its construction was then unquestioned. . . . Repeated, liberal, and candid discussions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments and approximated the opinions of enlightened minds, upon the question of constitutional power. I can not but hope that, by the same process of friendly, patient, and persevering deliberation, all constitutional objections will ultimately be removed.

Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact, acted on by the legislature of the federal branch and it is but too evident that the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip their Colleagues, the States authorities of the powers reserved by them. . . . Under the power to regulate Commerce they assume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures. . . . Under the authority to establish post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the construction of roads, of digging canals, and, aided by a little sophistry on the words “general welfare” a right to do, not only the acts to effect that which are specifically enumerated and permitted, but whatsoever they shall think, or pretend will be for the general welfare. . . . The states should be watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights, [and] to denounce them as they occur.

As an instance of the rapid manner in which travelers get along, I may instance Mrs. Lloyd's trip to Richmond in Virginia. She left Philadelphia at six o'clock A.M. . . . and arrived in the evening of the second day from Philadelphia at the city of Richmond, thus traversing without fatigue a distance of five hundred miles in a little more than thirty-six hours!

Undoubtedly, a traveler will be able to go from Baltimore to New York by the light of a summer's sun when the locomotives shall be placed on the Amboy [New Jersey] railroad. An invitation to a three-o'clock dinner in New York or Philadelphia may now be complied with by the individual who takes his breakfast in either of these cities; and with the loco[motive], when established, he may start from one city in the morning and return again in the evening from a visit to the other.

We have . . . arrived at a period in the history of foreign immigration, when the number of foreigners coming here, one half of whom may be considered adults, nearly equals the whole natural increase of the white population of the United States. Such a mass of population annually diffused among these states, must . . . have most important effects on the condition and character of the people.

. . . The moral and physical condition of these immigrants, after undergoing many trials, which are to be expected from settling in a foreign country, is generally very much improved. . . . But is the country truly benefitted by this great foreign immigration? Have the people been made wiser or better or happier? It has been said that without these foreigners our rail-roads and canals could not have been constructed. . . . [But] the progress of the internal improvements, a year or two in advance of what they would have been without this foreign labor, will be a very poor compensation, if offset by the corruption of manners, the forfeiture of freedom, and the transfer of power to those who know not how to use it wisely.