are the tax-gatherer's calls, that their sensibili-
ties have been kept constantly goaded into the
liveliest excitement. They are not blind to the
fact that the yearly revenues are always flowing
into one and the same channel—always building
up one and the same community at the expense
and sacrifice of all the rest. Whilst every com-
mercial facility has been extended to the North
and the Northwest, whilst the very rivers have
been made to give up their waters, and the moun-
tains to humble their lofty peaks to the level of
the plains— and all at the public expense—we, of
the other extreme, have been not only left to
overcome, by our own energies, every natural
impediment—but are even shorn of that very
wealth which might have converted our land in-
to a garden and filled it with additional thou-
sands. Solitude dwells in the bosom of our for-
ests, whilst yours is ringing merrily to the stroke
of the woodman's axe. Ours is crumbling hour-
ly into dust and decay—yours pierced to its very
heart by the iron track or the canals wilding
course is daily bringing in untold wealth. Won-
der not, then, that we have grown restless under
such unjust and unwise legislation. " There is a
point, beyond which, forbearance is no longer a
virtue." A place in which even a Job-like pa-
tience may beexhausted.
Hitherto we have borne all without the anti-
cipation of advantage—nay, with the belief pervading
a large portion of our community, that if
these works should ever be so successful as to
reach their final terminus—then the whole flood
of that western commerce which now must find
its way by a long and tortious road to the gulf,
and thence to the north 'ere it can reach a mart
—would flow immediately and directly to our
our centre—competing with our produce, and
eventually depreciating our very soil. If you
would then forever stay that spirit which has
placed us under the burthen of millions—beware
the proposition which comes from the honorable
gentleman from Washington, for there is danger
lurking within in. Under its provisions—he
power—the power, I repeat, is yielded to those,
who, more than all others, are interested in the
internal improvement system, and no man can
say how long before it shall again be exercised.
The gentleman states that he had no such design
in framing the amendment. I never have and
after such an avowal, with the high respect which
I entertained personally for that gentleman, I
shall be the last to prefer the charges, however
remarkable this project, as well by its peculiar
fractional ratio ashy all its features, would seem
to others to gratify this particular object, and
thereby to be especially suited to that region
from whence he comes. Indeed, designs are of
but little consequence—the fact, as it exists,
stares us in the face, and with that alone we have
to deal.
Tell me not that you have already placed
within the body of the Constitution, checks and
restrictions, upon the appropriation of money
that will act as an effectual guard in all future
time. What are the most binding restrictions or
the most solemn guarantees worth to us, without
the power to keep them in the instrument in |
which they are written? How long will they
stand after it becomes your interest to desire
their abolition or repeal? Like words traced up-
on sand at the waters edge—the first wave of
popular opinion will wash them out forever.—
'Tis useless to conceal from ourselves the stern
truth that without the power of self-protection
there is no longer safety. The barriers of the
present Constitution have been ruthlessly trodden
under foot, and why should we hope fur a better
result hereafter? Do they tell us that the system
of internal improvements is complete, and that
our tired energies can never again be taxed fur
such a purpose?
Aye, sir, '"tis the song of the Syren and
charm she never so sweetly "we should listen
not to her delusive voice. He who trusts it will
when too late learn that it was a promise given
to the ear but broken to the hope." Soon, the city
of Baltimore, devoted to her own prosperity, will
be clamoring for the long talked of ''cross-cut"
that is to lap the great highway that leads to the
imbedded and inexhaustible coal bed of the Al-
leganies. She will pause not in her efforts until
the whole of that vast mineral wealth, together
with the surplus of the distant west, diverted
from their present course, pours like a torrent
into her bosom.
As the coming years shall roll on, other and
mightier schemes will wake into life and being
—wild and visionary dreams will stir the imagi-
nation—and then the public mind of the north
and north-west ever sensitive to their own inter-
ests, feeling all the wonted and feverish excite-
ment of former days, and longing to launch forth
upon the ocean of experiment, will rend to frag-
ments the cobweb fetters which we are now so
gravely forging. Let no one, then, repose in
the fancied security of mere constitutional re-
straint.
But we are earnestly assured that should all
else fail, the peculiar organization of the Senate
—thoroughly territorial in its character, affords
an invincible guarantee upon which we may rely
with the most undoubting confidence. In the
other wing of the capitol sectional equality is
fully recognized, and the small counties there
banded together, may, amid all the clashing in-
terests successfully resist every aggression upon
their privileges. Alas, sir, who can tell how
long that body will remain in the form which we
have given it? Or, if untouched by the genius of
change, how long with even its present construc-
tion, would it be able to resist the moral force
of public opinion as shadowed forth in the popu-
lar branch? Once establish the principle even
in its initiatives ep. that the government rests sole-
ly upon numbers—and agitation and commotion
will go on inflaming the passions until every vestage
of that system, essential to our moral and
geographical condition, shall be swept away—
Like the devouring cancer, it will eat into the
heart, and feed upon our vitals. Now it seems
as alittle cloud upon the horizon, scarce bigger
than my hand—years hence it may envelop the
whole State, and fill with the bitterest despon-
dency the hearts of all that agricultural commu-
nity, whose protection and interests are to be |
