ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.



passed both houses of that body, with a communication of the opinion
that Congress, under the constitution, possessed no power to enact
uch laws. High respect, pers( nal and official, must be felt by all,
as it is due, to those distinguished officers, and to their opinions, thus
solemnly announced; and the most profound consideration belongs to
our present Chief Magistrate, who has favored this House with a
written argument, of great length and labor, containing not less than
sixty or seventy pages, in support of his exposition of the constitu-
tion. From the magnitude of the interests involved in the question,
all will readily concur, that, if the power is granted, and does really
exist, it ought to be vindicated, upheld, and maintained, that the
country may derive the great benefits which may flow from its pru-
dent exercise. If it has not been communicated to Congress, then
all claim to it should be at once surrendered. It is a circumstance of
peculiar regret to me, that one more competent than myself has not
risen to support the course which the legislative department has here-
tofore felt itself bound to pursue on this great question. Of all the
trusts which are created by human agency, that is the highest, most
solemn, and most responsible, wkA;ah involves the exercise of politi-
cal power. Exerted when it has not been intrusted, the public func-
tionary is guilty of usurpation  And his infidelity to the public good
is not, perhaps, less culpable, when he neglects or refuses to exercise
a power which has been fairly conveyed, to promote the public pros-
perity. If the power, which he thus forbears to exercise, can only
be exercised by him-if no other public functionary can employ it,
and the public good requires its exercise, his treachery is greatly ag-
gravated. It is only in those cases where the object of the investment
of power is the personal ease or aggrandizement of the public agent,
that his forbearance to use it is praiseworthy, gracious, or magnani-
mous.

  I am extremely happy to find, that, on many of the points of the
argument of the honorable gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Barbour,)
there is entire concurrence between us, widely as we differ in our
ultimate conclusions. On this occasion, (as on all others on which
that gentleman obliges the House with an expression of his opinions,)
he displays great ability and ingenuity; and, as well from the mat-
ter as from the respectful manner of his argument, it is deserving of
the most thorough consideration. I am compelled to differ from
-hat gentleman at the very threshhold. He commenced by laying



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