country. Our extended coast presents many positions of this kind, and which we must occupy to prevent an enemy from establishing himself upon them. 4. Forts are necessary on the lines of interior navigation to keep open the communications in time of war. The debouches of canals, the passages through sounds, bays, and straits, and between islands and the main land, are examples of this necessity, and of which many instances may be found on the maritime and gulf frontier of the United States. 5. Forts are indispensable to the protection of navy yards, dock yards, and naval arsenals. The nature of these establishments require them to be accessible from sea; and, unless protected by forts, they may be invaded, plundered, and burnt, by an enemy. This happened once in England, when the Dutch penetrated the Thames, and destroyed the naval establishments at Chat ham. 6. Forts are the cheapest mode of defence-cheapest in money, cheapest in the number of men to defend them, and cheapest in the number of lives lost. They are cheapest in money; because, when once built of the proper and durable material, earth and stone, they are built for ever, and in the course of centuries require but little for repair or reconstruction. They are cheapest in men; because a few can defend a fortified position against a great number, and thus abstract a smaller proportion of the population from peaceful pursuits. They are cheap. est in blood spilt or in lives lost, either of men killed in battle or dying of diseases from camp and field exposure. Behind the defences of a fort, sheltered from the weath er, amply provided with every essential to health, the troops in a fort suffer far less in proportion to their numbers than those in the field or the camp. In exemplification of these ideas, Mr. B. would refer to the calculations made by the board of engineers, to show the difference of expense in men and money in defend ing a given number of our cities for a given time, with and without the cover of fortifications. They took Boston, New Nork, Philadephia, Baltimore, and New Orleans, and based their calculation of a campaign of six months against a menaced attack from an enemy's squadron. Without forts, the number of men required for the protection of these cities, not knowing which was to be attacked, and bound to be provided at each city, the aggregate number would be seventy-seven thousand to meet a descent of a fourth or a fifth of that number at any one point; the expense of which for six months would be $19,000,000. To defend the same cities with forts would require an aggregate of no more than twenty-sev en thousand men, and an expense of six and a half millions of dollars; making a difference of fifty thousand men and of twelve and a half millions of dollars. Thus, in a brief war of two or three years, the whole cost of the fortifications for the whole coast of the United States, on the largest scale projected, would be completely saved. 7. The efficiency of the defence is another of the advantages of fortifications on the seaboard. That efficiency on a land frontier has been a problem among military men, and opinions have divided upon it; but no such problem has ever existed in relation to the coast defences; on that point opinions have never divided; and throughout the world, in all ages, and in all countries, the defence of the coast, by fortifications, is the only safe reliance against approaches by sea; approaches which may be made without warning; which may threaten dozens of cities and thousands of miles of coast at the same time, which may stand off and on, hover round, distract and scatter the troops collected at any one point, wear out an army by marches and counter marches, and eventually strike where least expected or least prepared to resist. 8. But the great and crowning advantage of fortifi | [FEB. 23, 1836. cations is their peculiar adaptation to defence by militia, by volunteers, and by the yeomanry of the country, and their consequent dispensation of large bodies of regular troops both in war and in peace. Forts are the peculiar defence of the militia. A few artillerists, and the militia of the adjacent country, are the proper defenders of forts. To these points, on the first signal of danger, the yeomanry of a free country will for ever flock. They will fly to the forts with alacrity and confidence, and will make brilliant and glorious defences. Placed in posi. tions, and sheltered by works, even indifferent, the yeomanry of the United States have always performed prod igies of valor. Even in temporary field works, and the merest apologies for forts, they have rivalled and transcended the exploits of veterans. Our history is too full of examples of this character to admit of naming any without seeming to neglect others; and I must refer to a few, to the green log pen at Charleston, called Fort Moultrie; and the post and rail fences piled upon each other at Bunker's hill, in the war of the Revolution; and the mud wall at New Orleans, and the stakes stuck in the ground for a fort at Sandusky, during the late war; to remind the Senate of what a yeomanry and a few regu lars can do, placed in positions and covered by defences. Mr. B. concluded his speech with expatiating on the extent and variety of the defences required for the United States, and the wisdom, propriety, and necessity, of dedicating our present surplus money, and our present leisure time, to the creation of these defences. Ships, navy yards, dock yards, two great national naval arse. nals of construction and repair; forts, armories, arsenals, depots of arms and munitions of war; arms and field artillery for the militia, swords and pistols for the cavalry of the States; and increase of the army for the western and northwestern, and, he might add, for the southern and southwestern frontier also; such was the vastness of the system, and the multitude of its objects, which the defence of the country required. The expense of all these works he had not calculated; but the Senate had adopted a resolution to ascertain that expense, and the answer would come in as soon as the Navy and War Departments could prepare it. Of the military branch alone he would venture to give an opinion, and would say the estimates for that branch alone must exceed $40,000,000. Of all the branches of this system of national defence, he had discussed but one, and not the whole of that; he had spoken of forts alone, but of the forts on the maritime and gulf frontier, without mentioning, though certainly not without remembering, that we had an extended line of lake frontier, washed by inland seas, and bordered by a foreign Power. He had spoken of fortifications alone; but it was not to be dissembled or denied that the whole system of defence, naval and military, was now upon trial. The bill for the nineteen new forts is the touchstone of the whole question. If that passes, then the whole system moves forward; if it is rejected, the whole system halts; for forts are the indispensable part of the whole system; they are its back bone, without which all the rest becomes vain and inefficient, and ships themselves are idle preparation. For what are ships without ports of refuge? What are harbors and breakwaters without defence? What are dock and navy yards without forts to cover them? Nothing but prizes, spoil, and prey, for the public enemies. But, Mr. B. repeated, the fate of this bill is the fate of the whole system of defence, and of the antagonist schemes for the distribution of the public money. If the bill becomes a law, the defences go on, and all the surpluses of revenue will go to that object; if the bill fails, the defences will halt and linger, and the distribution bills will spring upon the stage, and will labor to squander that money which a defenceless country calls for in vain. FEB. 24, 25, 1836.] Post Roads in Florida-Fortification Bill. I conclude (said Mr. B.) with remarking that the present period is to be an era in the history of our country. It is a period from which there must be a new movement forward, or a sad retrogression. It is a point, upon which posterity will look back for ages, and for centuries, to applaud the wisdom or to deplore the weakness of the national councils. The Navy and the War Departments will report soon, and will develop all the points of national and permanent defence which the extent of our country demands and the destiny of the republic requires. President Jackson has given us his earnest, his zealous, his reiterated recommendations; all depends now upon the legislative department, and upon the decision of the question, whether the public money shall go to the public defence, or shall be lavished and squandered in unconstitutional and demoralizing distributions among the States. When Mr. BENTON had concluded, Mr. PRESTON gave notice that he should to-morrow move to amend the clause in the bill making appropriation for steam batteries, by striking out $660,000, and inserting $100,000 for the experiment. He would also move to strike out all the fortifications of the third class, and all for which no surveys or estimates have been made. On motion of Mr. PRESTON, The Senate adjourned. Mr. CLAY inquired if there was any precedent for establishing post roads by a joint resolution, and that resolution not absolutely specifying what roads should be made, but leaving it at the discretion of the Postmaster General. The usual practice had been for Congress to specify in a bill the roads which were to be made. Mr. GRUNDY replied that there had been instances of the establishment of post roads by joint resolution. As to the second branch of the inquiry of the Senator from Kentucky, he would say, that if he had draughted the resolution he would have made the language absoJute; but as he had found that it was left to the discretion of the Postmaster General, he had suffered it to remain so. He was willing, however, to amend the resolution by striking out the words which provided that the Postmaster General was to exercise a discretion in the matter. He concluded with moving the amend ment; which was agreed to. The other amendments were agreed to, and the joint resolution was ordered to its third reading. MAJOR DADE. On motion of Mr. TOMLINSON, the Committee on Pensions was discharged from the further consideration of the petition of the widow and children of Major Dade, and it was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. Mr. TOMLINSON stated that the Committee on Pensions did not wish to make any extension of the pension system, but, under the circumstances of this case, Major Dade having been killed in Florida, the Military Committee might probably propose some allowance in the form of extra pay. FORTIFICATION BILL. [SENATE. CAREY & LEA'S HISTORY OF CONGRESS. Mr. ROBBINS, from the Committee on the Library, reported a joint resolution authorizing a subscription to Carey, Lea, & Co's History of Congress. The resolution having been read a first time, and the question being on a second reading, Mr. BENTON opposed it, and asked if this was not the press of that Carey, Lea, & Co. who had figured so largely in the expenditures of the bank, and if this was not a work got up for bank purposes. He would like to see the book exhibited in the Senate, that they might see it. Mr. HILL called for the ayes and noes. Mr. BENTON. I move to lay the resolution on the table until the book shall have been exhibited to us. work was to be rejected because it was printed by a particular individual. For his own part, he had never it perfectly proper that the work should be seen, and inquired by whom it was published. But he thought he would not oppose the motion to lay on the table. Mr. ROBBINS. Agreed. Mr. PORTER said he did not know that a useful The resolution was then laid on the table. FORTIFICATION ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. The resolution submitted by Mr. SWIFT, directing the Secretary of War to cause a survey to be made of a site for a fortification on Lake Champlain, was considered. Mr. PRESTON thought this resolution ought to be referred to one of the committees. It necessarily involved the expenditure of a considerable sum of money. He would therefore move that it be referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. Mr. SWIFT said that, at a former period, this survey had been ordered, and for want of being able to procure a competent engineer to make the survey at the time, it had necessarily been delayed. He had, however, no objection to the reference. The resolution was then referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. FORTIFICATION BILL. The Senate resumed the consideration of the fortification bill, when Mr. PRESTON concluded the remarks commenced by him yesterday, by moving to amend the bill by stri. king out the clause appropriating for the fortification at Kennebeck. Mr. CLAY suggested the propriety of laying the bill on the table, and having the various tables printed which had been referred to by gentlemen, before the details of the bill were decided on. As the works embraced in this bill were all new ones, there was no immediate haste necessary in acting on this bill. The wisest course would be to make appropriation promptly for the old works not provided for last session, and to take time for a full examination of the various subjects of appropriation in this bill. Mr. PRESTON expressed his acquiescence in the force of the remark. The Mr. BENTON said that he had returned one of the tables he had cited to the engineer from whom he obtained it. It might be had by noon to-morrow. other tables were before him, and the printing could not occupy so much time as to delay the bill. Mr. CLAY said he did not wish to make the motion if any Senator was desirous to make remarks. He had been induced to make the suggestion because he thought the Chair was on the point of rising to put the question on the motion to amend. Mr. SHEPLEY then addressed some observations at length on the defenceless condition of the Northeast frontier. Mr. WEBSTER moved to postpone the further consideration of the bill till Monday, but withdrew his motion. Mr. BENTON moved to lay the bill on the table, with a view to call it up on Monday. Mr. EWING said he should endeavor to call up the land bill on that day. Mr. BUCHANAN said he should ask the Senate, as soon as he could get an opportunity, to take up the memorial on the abolition of slavery. Mr. CALHOUN said he neither wished to accelerate or retard the decision on that question. The fortification bill was then laid on the table, and the papers were ordered to be printed. On motion of Mr. BUCHANAN, the Senate proceeded, with closed doors, to consider executive business; after which, The Senate adjourned. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26. CUMBERLAND ROAD. The bill for the continuation of the Cumberland road in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was ta. ken up. [This bill, as reported, proposes to appropriate $320,000, to be expended on the part of the road in Ohio, $350,000 in Indiana, and $190,000 in Illinois. ] Mr. HENDRICKS withdrew a motion which he had made when the bill was last under consideration, to add $20,000 to the appropriation for Indiana. Mr. CLAY objected to the appropriation of $100,000 for a bridge across the Wabash. There was no bridge over the Ohio or the Muskingum; though, in extent of utility, a bridge over either would be far preferable to the one proposed. His sentiments towards the Cumberland road were the same as ever; he felt some difficulty, however, in the question before the Senate; for here were gentlemen asking an appropriation for an object which was to benefit the people of their own States, when the whole system of internal improvements had been suspended by an administration brought into power by their co-operation, and sustained by their support. The two States of Kentucky and Tennessee had received less benefit from the expenditure of the public moneys than any of the others; yet, when it was proposed to extend the Cumberland road to Nashville, Maysville, and Lexington, that important measure was rejected, vetoed, by this administration, supported as it is by Senators who now ask exclusively for themselves those benefits which they have denied to us. Were he to listen to a spirit of resentment, he should vote nothing, except in cases where the whole Union was to be advantaged. He would not, however, act [FEB. 26, 1836. upon any such principle, nor be influenced by any such feeling. He was willing to carry on this work to the Mississippi; but not beyond it; and when asked for enormous appropriations and for new bridges, he felt it his duty to hesitate. He trusted gentlemen would limit their demands, and consent to have this appropriation stricken out. Mr. TIPTON said that he would not have troubled the Senate with a single remark upon the bill under consideration, had he not found opposition to the measure from a quarter quite new and unexpected to him; one which, he had no doubt, would equally surprise his constituents, and for which they were entirely unprepared. The Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] who had moved to reduce the appropriation to the amount applied on the road last year, is surely not seriously opposed to the continuation of this great work, after having supported it with such signal ability for thirty years. I cannot believe that he desires its abandonment, but that he moves to reduce the sum proposed in the bill, that the road may be a longer time in the progress of its construction. He wants to be six years in doing what I propose to do in three. Something has been said about the number of hands that we can economically employ on the work, and doubts have been expressed whether a sufficient number can be obtained to complete it within the period proposed. We are now engaged in the construction of but two public works within the State of Indiana, viz: the Wabash and Erie canal and the Cumberland road. Contractors have come from public works already completed in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and have generally brought with them laborers and tools sufficient to go on vigorously with these works. They will remain until they are finished, if the money necessary to continue them is appropriated; but if you cut down and limit the appropriation, you postpone the completion of the road, and you double the expense. The State of Indiana has recently appropriated ten millions of dollars for internal improvements, and has organized a board of public works to conduct them. The construction of two canals, two railroads, and one Macadamized turnpike road, has been authorized, and the board will meet in a few days to determine upon their plan of operations for the year. If you make a liberal appropriation for the national road, it is probable that the State will not commence any of her works this year, as it may be possible that the two works already in progress will employ all the laborers that can be obtained; but if you reduce the appropriation as proposed by the motion of the honorable Senator, there will not be funds sufficient to employ all the hands now on the spot. They will consequently seek employment on the State works in contemplation, and when their services are required upon the road, the price of labor will have been enhanced, and you will thus not only procrastinate the completion of the road, but will materially increase the cost of its construction. No good reason has been assigned for reducing the sum proposed in the bill. It is admitted on all hands that there is money in the treasury, and will be. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. EwING] has shown, most clearly to my mind, that we may pass this bill, the fortification bill, the favorite land bill of the Senator from Kentucky, and still have a large surplus in the treasury at the beginning of the year 1837. When this bill was before the Senate some days ago, the honorable Senator from South Carolina [MY. CALHOUN] moved to lay it on the table, and I understood him to say that his object was to prevent heavy drafts being made upon the treasury, until he was informed whether we were to have peace or war. He was kind enough to withdraw his motion, at my request, (for which I thank him,) to give the friends of the bill an opportunity to explain and defend it. I am happy now, sir, (said Mr. T.,) to have it in my power to say that the favorable change in our foreign relations justifies me in assuring the Senator that there is no reason to appre hend war in any quarter, unless it be those skirmishes which take place now and then with the Indians on our frontier. Should it ever become necessary for us, as a nation, to choose between war and a dishonorable peace, I have no doubt the Senator from South Carolina and myself, whether we be at that time citizens or Senators, will be found contending, side by side, for the honor of our country against the foreign foe. I cannot suppose that the Senator, in making that motion, was actuated by motives other than a strong sense of public duty; I have too long known him as a friend of internal improvements, to believe that any other motive can influence him to vote against the appropriation proposed in this bill. I confess, sir, that I was surprised to see a newspaper friendly to the Senator, in noticing his motion to lay the bill on the table, attempt to give it a party coloring, remarking that his motion caused a fluttering amongst the friends of the administration. I would regret to see the passage of this bill made a party question. Indeed, I do not see how it can be; it never has, to my knowledge, been considered heretofore as partaking of that character. Of the different political parties which have existed in the country for the last thirty years, some members have supported and others have opposed appropriations for the national road, with out regard to political bearing. If proof were wanting at this late day of the national character of this work, I could refer to an able report made by the honorable Senator himself, when he was at the head of an important Department of the Government, which may be found at page 61 of the Senate's documents, 2d session of the 19th Congress, where it is most satisfactorily shown that the continuation of the road in question to St. Louis was a work of national importance. This has never been questioned. The Cumberland road was commenced under a law of Congress of March 29, 1806, whilst Mr. Jefferson was President. It was favored by him and by every administration since his day, by none less than by the present administration. It is true that this road has many friends among the present party in power, and it is equally true that it has many able and efficient supporters amongst those who do not support the measures of the administration. Others oppose this bi!! on grounds satisfactory to themselves and to their constituents. We have no right to object to their opposition. But I pro test against suffering a bill of so much importance to those whom I have the honor, in part, to represent here, to be condemned to die on your table without giving its friends a hearing. I beg honorable Senators to come up and vote on this bill, not as a party question, but as a measure in which both national faith and national honor are pledged to the young States of the West for the completion of this road to Missouri. The act of Congress of 1806, to which I allude, and to which I beg leave to refer gentlemen who have doubts on the subject, authorized a survey of a road from Cumberland, in Maryland, or from a point on the Potomac river near Cumberland, over the mountains, to the State of Ohio, and provides that the money appropriated for that object ($30,000) was to be refunded to the Treasury out of the fund set apart by the compact between the United States and the State of Ohio for making roads leading to that State. By compacts between the United States and the new States of the West, a portion of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands is set apart for the purpose of making roads leading to the new States. The continua [SENATE. tion of this road is in compliance with these compacts, thus entered into with the new States, I might say with the whole West, which will ere long embrace more than one half of this Union. Upon the admission of these States into the Union, they relinquished their right to tax lands owned by the United States within their limits, or such as might be sold by the Government for a period of five years after their sale, and the United States agreed to give to the new States lands for the purposes of education, salines, and this road fund, as an equivalent for the relinquishment. I put the vote on this bill on the ground of compliance with a compact between the United States and the new States of the Northwest. We have a right to expect appropriations to continue this road to the far West, not as a gift or grant to the new States, but as the performance of an agreement between the general Government and the people of the new States at the time of their admission into the Union. Were there no compact between us, the United States, being the great landholder in the new States, would find it both their interest and their duty to contribute largely toward the construction of a road leading to their own lands. Those who oppose this road surely have not a hope of arresting its progress westward. I was forcibly struck with a remark made by an honorable Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. PRESTON.] He told us yesterday that the Western people were not the purchasers of the public lands; that it was the people of the East and South that purchased them. This is true to a certain extent. As your population increases to overflowing, and the means of support become more difficult of attainment, the young and the enterprising, quitting the homes of their fathers, the land of their birth, emigrate to the West. They become purchasers of the public lands, and, to all intents and purposes, Western people. They make valuable citizens. We are always proud to welcome them amongst us. They contribute to fill your treasury, and unite with us in adding to the wealth and power of the nation. Hence, according to the Senator's own showing, the continuation of this road is equally beneficial to the old and to the new States, and its extension must keep pace with the progress of settlement toward the far West, which is proceeding with a rapidity altogether unparalleled in the history of man. Already has a settlement been commenced on the west fork of the Mississippi, above the State of Missouri. It will not be ten years before these people will form a State Government, and apply for admission into the Union. This will make a fine State, extending up the Missouri far towards the Rocky mountains, the inhabitants of which will be our friends, our neighbors; they will become purchasers of the public lands; and will they not have a right to expect to have the mail sent to them? And is it to be expected that they will not demand an extension of the national road westward? They surely will. I cannot doubt that this road will go on to the foot of the Rocky mountains, perhaps across them to the Pacific ocean. The sales of the public lands will afford the means, and we will apply them; for the same reasons that have heretofore induced Congress to construct the road thus far, will apply, in all their power, to its extension as far west as the Union may extend. In 1829 Congress made an appropriation to remove the timber from the road through the State of Indiana, and to grade the banks preparatory to making it a turnpike road. The timber has been removed, and nearly one half of the road is graded. Half the bridges are constructed, and stone prepared to cover a small portion of the graded road. Putting on the stone is the most expensive part of road-making. This is the reason why a heavy appropriation is now asked for. If the graded portion of the road be not covered with stone, the travel on it, which is immense, will destroy it, and the work will have to be done over again next year. The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] tells us that he thinks the country through which this road passes, in Indiana and Illinois, is rather thinly settled; that it is a long distance between houses on some parts of the road. I will not undertake to say how the facts are as regards the road in Illinois; the Senators from that State will doubtless inform us; but I assure the Senator from Kentucky that every acre of public land along the road in Indiana has been purchased from the United States. The country is densely populated; the farms, although not quite so extensive as they are in Kentucky, are much more numerous, and villages are springing up at short intervals all along the road. That Senator has also been pleased to allude to the support given to the present administration by the friends of the bill now before us; and he says that the States southwest of the Ohio wanted a branch of this road, which was denied them; and calls upon the friends of the national road to do even-handed justice to the States south as well as to those north of the Ohio. Sir, if that gentleman will look at the journals, I think he will find that several friends of this national road voted for the bill to which he alludes, (the Maysville and Lexington road bill;) if it did not become a law, it was no fault of theirs. With regard (said Mr. T.) to my feeble support of this or any other administration, I can only be influenced by the Executive as by other public men. I go with them just so far and no farther than they pursue that course which I think sustains the honor and the interest of my country. I look to the wishes of a majority of my constituents, and to my own judgment of what is right and wrong, for the rule of my conduct here, and not to the will of a Chief Magistrate, or of any other individual, public or private. I care not who is President of the United States. If he administers the Government agreeably to the constitution and laws, he has a right to expect my support, and upon no other terms. We have been told, during the discussion of this bill, that the great system of internal improvement by the general Government has been suspended. Sir, this is no fault of the friends of the national road; it is owing, as I believe, to a change in public opinion. Public sentiment in regard to internal improvement by the general Government is not now what it was in 1825. In that year an appropriation was made to prosecute surveys with a view to the construction of roads and canals in different quarters of the Union. The United States engineers went to work; civil engineers were employed to assist them, and surveys were extensively made for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of a number of roads and canals. In 1828 a great political conAlict terminated, that brought a new party into power in this country. The veto of the President on the Maysville and Lexington road bill, and his message returning it to the House in 1830, set the people to reflecting upon the subject of internal improvement on their own resources, by the States, or by incorporated companies. Before that time, but three States (New York the first one, stimulated and led on by her Clinton) had embarked extensively in improvement; Pennsylvania and Ohio had followed the example; in no other quarter was any thing of note going on. What, I would ask, is the fact in 1836? Why, sir, many States are making large appropriations for constructing roads, railroads, and canals. The people look this way no longer for aid, unless it be to the improving of our rivers; and this is withheld from some rivers, the Wabash for instance, to my utter astonishment, and to the serious injury of a large portion of the Northwest. The Senator objects to a new proposition, as he calls [FEB. 26, 1836. it, in this bill, for a bridge over the Wabash at Terre Haute, and tells us that the Ohio is not bridged where this road crosses it; nor was the United States called upon to bridge the Muskingum at Zanesville. Now, sir, I do not remember that any proposition for a bridge across the Ohio at Wheeling was ever submitted to Congress. I am confident that I have not opposed it, nor will I now give a pledge to support it, if the proposition be made hereafter. A bridge had been constructed over the Muskingum, at Zanesville, before the Cumberland road reached that place. The Scioto and White rivers have bridges constructed over them at the expense of the United States. This proposition to bridge the Wabash is not new to the Senate. A bill passed this body three years ago, containing an appropriation for that object. It was an amendment made by the Senate to a bill from the House of Representatives; and the House, for reasons which I will not trouble the Senate by relating at this time, refused to concur in the amendment of the Senate. It was near the close of the session, and fearing that the bill would be lost between the two Houses in the burry and bustle always unavoidable on the last day, the Senate receded from its amendment, that the bill, which contained an appropriation for continuing the road, might become a law. An opinion was entertained by some that a bridge could not be constructed over the Wabash at Terre Haute, without materially interrupt ing the navigation of the river. This, if true, wou'd have been a sufficient reason why the work should not be constructed, as one fourth of the people of Indiana, and a large portion of Illinois, are interested in the navigation of the stream above that place. To remove all doubts upon the subject, the Secretary of War was instructed by a resolution of the Senate to cause an examination to be made of the contemplated site for the bridge, and to report the facts, together with a plan and estimate of the cost of the work, to be laid before Congress. This report has been received, printed, and laid on our tables, and is satisfactory evidence that the bridge will be constructed on a plan which will not obstruct the navigation of the river. One item of appropriation in the bill on your table is to provide materials, and to construct the work in accordance with the plan submitted. The erection of this bridge is less important to Indiana than it is to the States west of her. point where the national road crosses the Wabash is within nine miles of the eastern boundary of Illinois. The Surely every Western Senator knows that, unless we bridge the Wabash, the United States mail cannot pass that river when the ice is floating, but will be arrested in its progress to the States and Territories west, and that all travel and communication between them and the east will be liable to constant interruptions for a portion of the winter. This would produce a state of things exceedingly embarrassing to a very large portion of the Western country. The Senator objects to the amount intended to be appropriated by this bill; says it is too large. He tells us that we were satisfied in by-gone days with far smaller appropriations; and he tells us that, although he does it with great reluctance, yet he is compelled, by his sense of public duty, to move to reduce the amount to what it was last year. It is true, sir, that when the treasury was drained to the last dollar, with the war debt unpaid, and a limited commerce, we were satisfied with a comparatively small appropriation. But it should be remembered that, at the time referred to by the honorable gentleman, our population was far less than it is now. Our settlements were then confined to the regions of country bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The last seven years has wrought a wonderful change in our condition, population, and business. |