and he was utterly astonished to find such opposition, and from such a quarter, to this favorite work of the West. lle asked who would not pronounce the farmer insane who would throw obstructions in his own road to market? And where was the difference between such an act and the objections raised by western men to this road? [H. of R. vocated in such a spirit, the road, could it speak, might well exclaim, in the words of the Spanish proverb, "Save me from my friends!" He had heard much, and every body had heard much, of the prodigality of this administration. The Executive had been made the universal scape-goat for all the national sins. But the genMr. PARKS said it was now many years that the House tleman who declaimed so eloquently against the extravahad been hearing of this Cumberland road; and every gance of the present Government could vote with the time they heard of it, they were assured that that was to utmost coolness to add $600,000 at a clip to the public be the last. It had been stated, he did not know with expenditure, and that for an object which had already what correctness, that 132 miles of this road had cost the consumed millions. What had New York done to merit Government two and a half millions of dollars. Accord- the manifestation of such a spirit as had marked the ing to estimates, which remained uncontradicted, the ex- speech of the gentleman from Ohio? When she had had pense amounted to $19,774 per mile! Now, he would her great canal in contemplation, she had applied to the only call the attention of the House to a few plain facts, General Government for aid; and she had received none. which went to show the expense of making a good road She had, since that, accomplished, without it, a work in his own State. In consequence of some difficulty be- that was justly the pride, not of that State alone, or of the tween the United States and the Government of Great Union only, but of the age. And what had she seen Britain as to the true northern boundary of the State of since? An attempt by the General Government to make Maine, (and consequently of the United States,) a fort had her canal-boats the subject of custom-house taxation. The been established in an uncultivated wilderness, seventy Government had had the magnanimity to say we will afmiles from any inhabitant. The transportation of provisions ford you no aid to construct your canal; but, when you to this post in the winter time, had at that time cost $120 have completed it from your own resources, we will tax a ton. It was at length determined to make a road from it for our revenue. It was the fortune, or rather the the settlements to this point. It ran through a tangled, misfortune, of New York to boast of a population of nearly uninhabited wilderness; and every ounce of provisions two millions, possessed of immense resources: and what consumed in its construction had to be carried to the had she received from the General Government? 3 or spot; some of the pork having been brought all the way |4,000 dollars for a little road to Sackett's harbor, to transfrom Ohio, by the way of New Orleans, to Bangor. Under port the guns of the army; and the erection of a customall these circumstances a road had been constructed, house to receive a large portion of the revenues of the which, for forty miles, was fully equal to the Pennsylvania whole country. He could not esteem it just or generous avenue, at the expense of $2,021 per mile. He had him- in the gentleman to allude, in the spirit he had manifestself passed over the road the last autumn; and he assured ed, to the money spent on the State of New York. And the House, upon his honor, that such was the fact. It was he could not but repeat the expression of his deep regret not, indeed, a Macadamized road; but it was as good for at the tone and manner of the speech. It was illiberal all the uses of a public highway as it need to be; and and uncalled for. the State was ready to take it off the hands of the Gov- Mr. BEARDSLEY said he was not in the habit of ernment and put it in complete repair for $6,000 a mile. speaking about the New York delegation. He trusted As to this Cumberland road, if the Government was in- that they possessed a character that would exempt them deed bound by contract to make and keep up a road to from the necessity of saying any thing upon the subject. the Western States, the best and cheapest mode would As to the remarks of the gentleman from Ohio, he had be to make a new road entirely by the side of the old heard nothing from that gentleman to which he had any The 132 miles of road could be constructed for thing to object. He hoped the debate would be brought $266,000. The only end for which such an enormous to a speedy conclusion, and that the course of the public sum was asked must be, that the money might be squan- business would not be impeded by discussions respecting dered in the neighborhood, to benefit gentlemen's con- the course pursued by the delegation of any State. stituents. He thought if any one thing under this Government demanded reform, it was this eastern end of the Cumberland road. one. Mr. MCKENNAN said that, although the very existence of the prosperity of his constituents depended upon the completion of the repairs of this road, yet he had studiMr. VANDERPOEL said that, though he had voted ously avoided entering into a protracted discussion of the for the larger sum proposed, he thought it his duty, on subject, knowing the importance of the time of the reflection, to vote for reconsideration. He was not op- House, and its impatience to have a vote on the question. posed to the road, nor did he repent of the expenditure He had not now risen to make a speech, but to make a of public moneys upon it; but he must think the amount very few remarks, which were called for by the violent now asked was too large. He had no constitutional attack which had been made upon this road and its inscruples on the subject; on the contrary, he thought that terests. He said it would be remembered, by those with every principle of justice and expediency demanded the whom he had the honor of serving in the last Congress, construction of such a highway between the Eastern and that it was on his motion the amendment was adopted in the Western portions of the Union. The State of New the appropriation bill, two years since, appropriating one York had constantly been engaged in the construction of hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the repair of this roads and canals, and had never expended any thing like road, under the laws of Maryland and Pennsylvania such sums in proportion. The Chenango canal, extend- agreeing to take the road off the hands of the General ing ninety-six or one hundred miles, with with all its locks Government, and in future to save the treasury of the and all collateral expenses, had cost but a million. He must United States from the continual drain for that purpose. be permitted to say that, if the sums expended on this He wished now to state to the House that not one dollar portion of the Cumberland road had been put into the towards the substantial repair of the road had yet been hands of his Yankee friends, he had not a doubt that they laid out in his district-forty-four miles of the road had would, for that sum, have constructed a perfect Appian been untouched. He had urged the Department to apway across all the mountains of New England. He should ply a portion of the two former appropriations to the revote for the $300,000; but, had he been opposed to the pair of that part of the road; but the plan of making a bill, he should certainly have never been converted from his opposition by such speeches as that of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. VANCE.] If the measure was to be adVOL. X.--284 thorough repair, commencing at Cumberland and going west, so as to get up the toll-gates as soon as possible, was adopted, and his wishes and the wishes of his con H. OF R.] Cumberland Road. [JUNE 17, 1834. stituents were defeated. Their claims were postponed; materials necessary to complete the repair; the price of and there is too much reason to believe that, if the ef- quarrying, hauling, breaking, and laying them on the forts of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and road; the sums necessary for graduating; the amount and Means [Mr. POLK] should be successful, to limit the price of masonry, &c. It will not do to condemn it by whole expenditure to three hundred thousand dollars, sweeping denunciations of extravagance. that that part of the road which lies between the Monon- From this estimate, it seems that it will require $55,000 gahela river and the Virginia line will not be touched, to complete the section from Cumberland to Frostburg; or, at all events, will not be repaired in such a manner as $152,000 to complete that part lying between Frostburg to justify the commissioners appointed under the law of and the Maryland line; $47,000 from the Maryland line to Pennsylvania, to receive it from the hands of the Gov- the western base of Laurel hill; $58,000 from Laurel ernment. So far as the Department has gone, it will hill to the Monongahela river, including the bridge over be impossible to change the plan which has been adopt- Dunlap's creek; and $70,000 to finish that part of the road ed. The greater part of the road, from Cumberland to lying between the Virginia line and the Ohio river. Brownsville, has been taken up, and they must proceed With these facts staring them in the face, he would ask to complete the repair according to the plan they have the House how they would undertake to limit the approadopted. A brief statement of the condition and pro-priation to the sum proposed, which would fall short of gress of the repairs will show this. In Maryland ten completing the parts referred to, and would leave forty miles have been finished; nine miles have nine inches of miles of the road through his district untouched? He metal; six miles six inches; ten miles are graded, and would appeal to the liberality and justice of the House on most of the materials are on the ground to complete it; behalf of his constituents, and trusted the appeal would making, in the whole, thirty-five miles. In Pennsylvania not be made in vain. But further: as a matter of econotwenty-two miles are finished; thirty-one and a quarter my, the sum proposed in the bill from the Senate ought to miles have nine inches of metal; two miles have six be appropriated. Until the work is fully completed, the inches; eleven and a quarter miles, four and a half inches; Government of the United States cannot be relieved from the whole of the balance graded, and most of the materi- the burden of the road. He would not for a moment als are on the road, to complete it to the Monongahela harbor the idea that the representatives of the people river. In Virginia nine miles have been taken up and would abandon a work upon which so much money had partly repaired, much masonry and walling have been been already expended, and the benefits and advantages done, and materials collected. of which had been tenfold more than all that it had cost. They would not, surely, permit a road to go to destruction upon which the great mail is carried twenty-eight times a week, and which forms the line of connexion between the Atlantic and the extensive valley of the Mississippi. Un into a good state of repair throughout, it will not be taken under the care of the States; toll-gates will not be erected, and it must be kept up by the funds of the Government. From this burden the friends of the road wish to relieve the treasury, and a strict regard to economy requires that we should not stop till the repairs are fully completed. This statement has been furnished by the Engineer department, and will be found correct. It will be readily seen, then, that the plan of repairing that part of the road which has been commenced cannot now be altered; it must be completed as it has been begun; and a recur-less, then, a sufficient sum be appropriated to put the road rence to the detailed estimate, which has been laid upon the tables, shows that the whole $300,000, to which it is proposed to limit the appropriation, will be required to complete, in a proper manner, what has been commenced, and is still in an unfinished state. He begged to refer to that estimate, as furnishing the only safe basis of calculation to the House in making the appropriation. It is made He therefore implored the friends of internal improveout by Captain Delafield, who is an intelligent, skilful, and ment, and of this great work, as well as all those who experienced engineer; has been for two years employed wish to relieve the treasury from any future drafts upon upon the road, and must be presumed to be acquainted it, to resist the attempt which is now made to reconsider with the prices of labor, of materials, and of the difficulty the vote of yesterday. of procuring them, and with every thing connected with] No apprehension need be entertained by those who are the prosecution of the work. Surely, vastly more reliance afraid that the funds in the treasury will not meet the is to be placed upon his opinions and upon his estimates, expenditures for the present year. The whole sum of than upon the wild conjectures and crude notions of either $652,000 cannot be profitably employed, and it is not proof the gentlemen from Kentucky, [Mr. HARDIN and Mr. posed to draw from the treasury more than $300,000 duCHILTON,] who had, to his astonishment, felt it their duty ring this season. And, in order to remove all apprehento join the enemies of improvement in declaring war upon sions from the minds of some that the States of Pennsylthis road. He could not refrain from expressing his sur- vania aud Maryland will not accept the road, from the prise at the course they had taken, inasmuch as the State hands of the Government, even if the sum contained of Kentucky was as much if not more interested in keep in the bill should be appropriated, he would state that ing up the line of connexion between the Atlantic cities the friends of the work were perfectly satisfied to acand the Ohio river than any of the Western States. They cept the amendment offered hy the gentleman from New had undertaken to pronounce every thing connected with Jersey, [Mr. DICKERSON,] which provided that 350,000 this repair as extravagant and monstrous; and they did so dollars of the sum appropriated should be retained in without having the means of forming a correct judgment the treasury till those States shall agree to accept that sum as to the expense of materials, and the difficulty of pro- in full of the amount which may be required to complete curing those of a proper quality throughout the mountain- the repairs, according to the requisitions of their respectous region. For one, he said, he was not disposed to ive acts. He did not consider it necessary, inasmuch as yield his assent to their sweeping denunciations of the offi- it was the interest as well as the duty of the commissioncers who had been employed in this service, and whose ers who have been appointed by those States to accept means of correct information, upon which the House could the road and proceed to the erection of toll-gates so soon rely, were vastly superior to theirs. as the road is placed in good travelling condition. But, to He begged leave, then, to refer to the detailed estimate place the matter beyond all doubt or question, the friends which has been submitted by the Department, as furnish-of the measure were perfectly willing to accept of the ing the only safe data of calculation upon which the House amendment before referred to. could act. He asked gentlemen to take that estimate and He concluded by repeating a hope that the vote would point out its errors. It is minute and particular; divides not be reconsidered, but that the appropriation of $652,000 the road into sections; shows the quantity and kind of would be permitted to stand. quired for ordinary expenditure in the For payment of public debt, $4,995,082 2,597,285 7,997,630 Mr. HARDIN opposed the appropriation, and went From that sum, if we deduct the amount reinto a constitutional argument to prove that the General Government had no right to construct any road within the territory of the States, save for military purposes or the conveyance of the mail. He repelled the charge of inconsistency, and insisted that the interests of the West called for no such road to an eastern market. If a wall could be built between the Eastern and Western States, as high as the Andes, then the products of the West would all go to New Orleans, where the God of Nature intended, that they should go. The great evil, at present, was that, while their exports went to the South, their imports came from the East. He inveighed against the extravagant cost of the road, and compared it with that of the Guyandotte road through Staunton, the whole of which had cost but $200,000. Mr. LOVE made some further explanations in reply, which he concluded by observing that he would allow to the advocates of strict construction twenty years to go upon their principles, after which he was well persuaded they would return to the way of their fathers. Military establishment, including [H. of R. 3,551,073 22,141,070 $6,842,720 And we have $6,842,720 to meet such appropriations as Mr. THOMAS replied to Mr. CAMBRELENG, and in-calculations of the Department of War. sisted he was not authorized to characterize the bill under Mr. POLK, in reply to Mr. STEWART, insisted that, if consideration as one which proposed extraordinary ap- $200,000 was all that was needed during the present propriations, or as a measure to be classed with the bills year, it was unreasonable and improper to call for an apon the table for the benefit of the District of Columbia. propriation of $600,000 at this time. As to what had The latter had their origin in the committee of this House, been said with regard to the prospects of surplus reveand were not, of course, included in the estimates of pub-nue, gentlemen ought to look at the other side of the lic expenditure for the year 1834, which had been sent account, and consider what vast sums had already been to us by the Secretary of the Treasury in December last. appropriated by the legislation of the House. The bills Neither were they founded on estimates from either of which are already passed, exclusive of the Indian annuithe other Departments of the Government. But, sir, ties, amounted to upwards of $9,000,000. The annuity what are the facts in relation to the bill before us? It bill would make the amount over $12,000,000. Then, provides for an appropriation of $652,000 for the repair $3,000,000 more would be required for the pensions unof the Cumberland road east of the Ohio; and an appro- der the act of 1832; then the fortification bill called for priation of $450,000 more for the continuation of the same $900,000; the old harbor bill near $1,000,000; besides road through the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. which, there was the new harbor bill, the light-house bill, Both these sums are founded on estimates from the War the bills for territorial expenses, besides $5,000,000 to Department. The gentleman from New York is, then, meet the public debt payable on the 1st of January next. not correct when he places the bill we are examining in Let any man make the calculation, and he would find the same class with those by which Congress proposes to that the appropriations were like to exceed the receipts relieve this oppressed District. He has committed another of the Government. Why, then, lock up these $600,000, mistake, by saying that no part of the sum of $1,102,000 when $200,000 was all that could be expended this seacontained in this bill is included in the estimates of the son? Gentlemen must not debate this bill as if it involved Secretary of the Treasury of expenditures for the year the issue of internal improvements or no internal improve1834. Mr. T. said he had the estimates of the Secretary ments. It was merely a question as to sum and time. of War in his hands. We there find the following sums He hoped the reconsideration would prevail. required: For continuing the Cumberland road in Ohio, For continuing the Cumberland road in Indiana, Mr. WAYNE was aware of the manner in which this road had become so burdensome to the Government, and $200,000 feared that they should not very readily get rid of the 150,000 burden. He admitted the propriety of appropriating, 100,000 but could not consent to the larger sum asked. He quo$450,000 ted the report of the chief engineer, to show that the whole sum could not with advantage be expended this This sum of $450,000 is included in the estimates of the season. He called upon the House to be cautious; reSecretary of the Treasury, and in the $1,102,000 pro- minded them that it was but six months till there would posed to be appropriated by this bill. The inaccuracy of be another session of Congress, and thought it would be the gentleman, therefore, in this particular, is obvious; proper to insert a condition that the States should agree and his effort, by this means, to embarrass the friends of to take the road as soon as the sum estimated by the this bill, must be abortive. The attempt he has made to chief engineer had been applied. He noticed that, alprejudice the House against this bill, by awakening an apprehension that the receipts of the treasury will be inadequate to meet contemplated expenditures, would, Mr. T. said, be equally unavailing. The available funds in the treasury on the 1st The receipts into the treasury from all sources, during the year 1834, were, in the annual report of the Secretary, estimated at To which the report of the Secretary of the 16th of June, instant, authorizes us to add J. or R.] Cumberland Road. [JUNE 17, 1834. Mr. PEARCE, of Rhode Island, after adverting to the not now enter into the argument on that subject. He great length of the debate, demanded the previous ques- forebore, in consequence of the lateness of the hour, from tion; which was seconded without a count. doing any thing more than merely offering the amendment. The previous question was accordingly put and carried, and the main question, which was on reconsidering, being put, Mr. DAVENPORT demanded the yeas and nays. Mr. THOMAS moved a call of the House, but it was negatived; and the question was decided by yeas and nays, as follows: Yeas 101, nays 96. So the House agreed to reconsider. The question was then put on Mr. POLK's amendment, reducing the appropriation to $300,000, and agreed to. Of course, the amendments moved by Mr. SUTHERLAND and Mr. DICKERSON, of New Jersey, fell, having nothing to which they would apply. Mr. MCKENNAN now moved to strike out the words "for the entire completion," and also to strike out the fourth section of the bill. Mr. ELLSWORTH said he had been in favor of giving 600,000 dollars, provided the road was then to be taken off the hands of the Government. He was now unwilling to appropriate without knowing when there was to be an end. He could not give even the reduced sum without the limitation; and he should therefore be constrained to vote against the present amendment. Mr. BEARDSLEY approved the principle of the amendment, but thought that it did not go so far as he desired. He had drawn up an amendment, which he would offer if this should fail, declaring that Congress does unconditionally assent to the acts of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Mr. W. COST JOHNSON said that he would vote for the amendment, if the amount appropriated were adequate to fulfil the condition on which alone Maryland had agreed to take the road, viz: that it should be put in perfect repair; should be examined and approved, and furnished with toll-gates and toll-houses. But being convinced that the amount was inadequate, and that his State never would take the road unless more should be done, he was constrained to vote against it. The law giving her assent at all had not been passed without great difficulty, and he was well assured that her assent would never be yielded to receive the road in a state of imperfect repair. Mr. ELLSWORTH objected to the amendment, because it contained the implication that, in its preceding acts concerning this road, Congress had been guilty of a violation of the constitution, and that the General GovMr. GHOLSON thought that this was the time to as-ernment had no power, under any circumstances, to concertain whether Congress meant to persevere in appropriating for this road, or would now yield it up to the States. He therefore wished to move an amendment to the amendment; but which the Chair pronounced to be not now in order. Mr. ADAMS called for a division of the question; and, it being divided accordingly, the question was first put on striking out the words "for the entire completion. وو Mr. BEARDSLEY said he had voted against the reconsideration, but he could not vote for the present amendment. Mr. MCKENNAN demanded the yeas and nays, observing that, if the proposed words were stricken out, the bill would then be in the form in which the Committee of Ways and Means had reported it. The question was then put, and decided, by yeas and nays, in the negative: Yeas 93, nays 115. The question being on striking out the fourth section of the bill, Mr. GHOLSON now offered the following amendment: struct a road in a State, even for military purposes or the transportation of the mail. Such an implication unnecessarily embarrassed the bill. Mr. MERCER objected to the use of the word jurisdiction, as employed in the amendment. He had always thought that the United States Government possessed a qualified jurisdiction over every foot of the territory of the Union, and beyond it to a certain distance on the sea. But the amendment denied any jurisdiction of any sort, and involved the doctrine that the Government could not punish any crime, not even treason, if committed on any portion of this road. Mr. GHOLSON, in reply, denied any averment that all the Government had done respecting this road had been done in violation of the constitution. The amendment only went to relinquish all the authority which had been claimed. As to the criticism of his colleague, it was astonishing to him that the acute mind of that gentleman did not perceive the distinction between jurisdiction over crimes and jurisdiction over a road. The jurisdiction "That, from and after the expenditure of the money referred to in the amendment was that over the road alone, herein appropriated, all jurisdiction and authority what- which might be relinquished without, in the slightest deever, heretofore claimed for the Federal Government over gree, impairing the criminal jurisdiction of the Governor in relation to the said Cumberland road, be, and the ment. The amendment of the gentleman from New York same are hereby, for ever surrendered and abandoned." [Mr. BEARDSLEY] applied only to one portion of the road, Mr. VANCE said that this section had been added, unhis own to the whole. der the expectation that $600,000 was to be appropriated. Mr. EWING said that the subject had now arrived at The House had agreed to give but half that sum. They its crisis, and he should now offer a resolution, recognising might retain the section if they pleased. All he knew the compact of the General Government with the States was, that $300,000 would never complete the road, and of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and denying its right to he felt very certain that the States would not, in that case, surrender the road, unless completed to the satisfaction agree to take it off the hands of the Government. of all the States concerned. Mr. E. presented to Con Mr. GHOLSON said that several of his friends had sug-gress a serious question which might arise, and which it gested to him that the amendment he had proposed was, was necessary to have clearly understood, lest the faith of in effect, equivalent to the section at present in the bill; the Government should be forfeited, and injury commitbut in this they were mistaken. The section did not re- ted. Gentlemen had talked of constructing a road for peal the act of Congress of 1832, which act had declared $4,000 a mile., All he insisted on was, that the road that Congress might reassume its jurisdiction over the should be placed in perfect repair. If gentlemen could road, if the States should not, in its judgment, act wisely do this for $4,000 a mile, he had no objection. He dein their management of it. His amendment did repeal nied the right of the Government to relinquish the road, this act. He was for doing nothing by indirection. His unless by a new compact with the Western States. If the meaning was, and he openly declared it, that Congress Government would make a new bargain, and give up its should abandon and for ever surrender this road. If the right to hold the public lands untaxed, good and well; it States were to take it, let them take it with that under- was just what he desired. The States would then have standing, and not, on any condition, that their acts were their own soil, without begging any part of it as a boon subject to the supervision of Congress. Mr. G. would from Congress. They were not beggars by habit, and JUNE 18, 1834.] Public Lands-Harbor Bill. [H. of R. fewer beggars were to be found at the West than were those relating to the Territories, being of local interest, to be found in this District. Mr. E. predicted that would be neglected. the veto doctrine would pass away, that the road to Mr. POLK objectingBuffalo would yet be constructed, and that the day would! Mr. SEVIER entreated the House to consider that, if come when the representatives of the people would glory these bills were now passed by, as the bank or deposite in having constructed it. The gentleman from Kentucky bill would have to be acted upon after the appropriation [Mr. HARDIN] might now withhold his aid; but he might bills, any postponement now would have the effect of a hereafter reflect upon his vote with less satisfaction. A perfect veto on all the bills in relation to the Territories. contract and bargain had been made and sealed with the The House, however, on motion of Mr. POLK, susWestern States for the right of highway, and they had pended the rule for the purpose of considering the apgiven up the taxes to obtain it. If our side of the bargain propriation bills. was to be relinquished, the other must also. For such a measure, he would go heart and hand. If the gentleman from Virginia would vote for Mr. E.'s resolution, he would vote for his amendment. HARBOR BILL. The bill making additional appropriations for certain harbors, and removing obstacles in rivers, for 1834, was Mr. GILMER inquired of Mr. GHOLSON whether an then taken up. Several verbal amendments made in amendment to this effect would not suit him better than Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union havthat he had offered? That, as soon as the sum appropria-ing been concurred in, ted should have been expended on the road, the United States would thenceforth cease to interfere with the juris diction and right of soil of the States through which the road passes. Mr. GHOLSON said he had no choice between the amendments-either would meet his wishes. The question being on the amendment proposed by Mr. EWING Mr. McKIM moved the previous question, which was seconded: Ayes 102. Mr. HUBBARD moved that the House should not concur in an amendment increasing the appropriation for the removal of "the raft" or obstruction in the Red river from $30,000 to $100,000. Mr. POLK, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, opposed the amendment. The House had heard a letter from the superintendent of the work, in support of the motion of the member from Louisiana; but it would be borne in mind that that was a letter addressed merely to a private member of the House. No such communiThe previous question having been put and carried, cation had been made by the Department to the Committhe main question, on ordering the bill to its engross-tec of Ways and Means; nor had any such sum been rement, was carried by yeas and nays: Yeas 127, nays 72.commended to Congress by that Department. He called So the bill was ordered to be engrossed for its third upon the House to keep down the amount of money to reading. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18. be appropriated by this bill, and not to swell it by adopting every suggestion made by members for objects in which their own constituents might have a peculiar interest. It had been too often the practice in times past to load down the harbor bill in this manner, so as to endanger, if not entirely prevent, its passage. The Department had set down the amount required for this object of expenditure at $25,000. The committee, however, in consequence of representations made to them, had concluded to exceed that amount somewhat, and had inserted $30,000 in the bill, as by them reported to the House. It was now asked, on the authority of a private letter, at once to swell the sum to $100,000. He hoped the amendment would not prevail, and that it would not be made an occasion of prolonging the debate. Mr. DICKERSON moved that the House reconsider the vote by which the bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public lands was yesterday laid on the table. The bill and amendments there to having been readMr. PATTON said that it was perfectly manifest there was not time now left to consider the various projects connected with the subject of the public lands, and which must inevitably come up in discussion if the House should rescind their vote by which the subject was laid on the table. It was a question admitted to be Mr. HAWES said that he hoped that that portion of of importance to every State in the Union, and he thought the House which was desirous of seeing the removal of was therefore of too much importance for the House to this raft completed, and who did not wish to see Conbe dragged into a discussion upon at the heel of the ses-gress called upon year after year to make fresh appropri sion, when members were but too generally unwilling to ations for this object, as had been the case with the Cumtolerate the deliberation and discussion which it was all-berland road, to concur with him in supporting the important to give it. He therefore moved to lay the mo-amendment now proposed. Did gentlemen forget the tion to reconsider on the table. Mr. WILLIAMS, believing this to be a most important question, and one upon which it was necessary to have a full and distinct expression of the opinion of the House, moved a call of the House for that purpose; which was ordered, and the House was called accordingly. The motion to lay the motion to reconsider on the table was decided in the affirmative: Yeas 111, nays 87. So the House refused to reconsider the motion to lay the bill upon the table. Mr. SEVIER expressed his hope that the bills in relation to the Territories would be taken up, that they might be passed upon, and those which were approved be sent to the Senate for concurrence. Mr. POLK desired to have the appropriation bills proceeded with. Mr. SEVIER said there was little doubt that, as the appropriation bills were of general interest, they would certainly be taken up before the adjournment; whilst important fact which had been stated and explained by the gentleman from Louisiana, [Mr. GARLAND,] that this raft was increasing at the rate of three miles every year, by the accumulation of floating timber at its upper extremity? Loss of time, under such circumstances, was loss of money. The work to be done was increasing every hour. From the explanations which had been given it was clear that, of the $30,000 proposed in the bill, not more than $15,000 would or could be expended upon the work itself, the rest being necessarily consumed in the preparations unavoidably necessary beforehand. Whic ther the men worked at the raft a longer or a shorter time, they had to be collected and transported from a great distance to the spot. If the $100,000 now asked for should be granted, that sum would be sufficient to open a passage quite through the raft, and the accumulation of timber above would immediately cease. But, if the sum proposed by the committee should be all the House allowed, the same work, from the delay, the ac |