I look upon a road over the Alleghanies, a canal round the falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway from the Atlantic to the Western waters, as being an object large and extensive enough to be fairly said to be for the com5 mon benefit. The gentleman thinks otherwise, and this is the key to his construction of the powers of the government. He may well ask what interest has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio. On his system, it is true, she has no interest. On that system Ohio and Carolina 10 are different governments and different countries; connected here, it is true, by some slight and ill-defined bond of union, but in all main respects separate and diverse. On that system Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. The gentleman, therefore, only 15 follows out his own principles; he does no more than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own doctrines; he only announces the true results of that creed which he has adopted himself, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares that South Carolina has no 20 interest in a public work in Ohio.

14 Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason thus. Our notion of things is entirely different. We look upon the States, not as separated, but as united. We love to dwell on that union, and on the mutual hap25 piness which it has so much promoted, and the common renown which it has so greatly contributed to acquire. In our contemplation, Carolina and Ohio are parts of the same country; States, united under the same general government, having interests common, associated, inter30 mingled. In whatever is within the proper sphere of the constitutional power of this government, we look upon the States as one. We do not impose geographical limits to our patriotic feeling or regard; we do not follow rivers and mountains and lines of latitude to find boun35 daries beyond which public improvements do not benefit

We who come here as agents and representatives of these narrow-minded and selfish men of New England, consider ourselves as bound to regard with an equal eye the good of the whole, in whatever is within our powers of legislation. Sir, if a railroad or canal, beginning in 5 South Carolina and ending in South Carolina, appeared to me to be of national importance and national magnitude, believing, as I do, that the power of government extends to the encouragement of works of that description, if I were to stand up here and ask, What interest 10 has Massachusetts in a railroad in South Carolina? I should not be willing to face my constituents. These same narrow-minded men would tell me that they had sent me to act for the whole country, and that one who possessed too little comprehension, either of intellect or 15 feeling, one who was not large enough, both in mind and in heart, to embrace the whole, was not fit to be intrusted with the interest of any part.

Sir, I do not desire to enlarge the powers of the government by unjustifiable construction, nor to exercise 20 any not within a fair interpretation. But when it is believed that a power does exist, then it is, in my judgment, to be exercised for the general benefit of the whole. So far as respects the exercise of such a power, the States" are one. It was the very object of the Constitution to 25 create unity of interests to the extent of the powers of the general government. In war and peace we are one; in commerce, one; because the authority of the general government reaches to war and peace, and to the regulation of commerce. I have never seen any more difficulty 30 in erecting lighthouses on the lakes, than on the ocean; in improving the harbors of inland seas, than if they were within the ebb and flow of the tide; or in removing obstructions in the vast streams of the West, more than in any work to facilitate commerce on the Atlantic coast. 35

It is proposed to construct a road in or of the new States in which this governes large quantities of land. Have the s no right, or, as a great and untaxed they under no obligation, to contribute thus calculated to promote the common e proprietors, themselves included? And pect to education, which is the extreme estion be considered. In the first place, en, it was made matter of compact with hat they should do their part to promote the next place, our whole system of land on the idea that education is for the comcause in every division a certain portion reserved and appropriated for the use of finally, have not these new States singuims founded on the ground already stated, ment is a great untaxed proprietor, in the the soil? It is a consideration of great at probably there is in no part of the the world, so great call for the means s in these new States; owing to the vast sons within those ages in which education are usually received, if received at all. ural consequence of recency of settlement The census of these States shows oportion of the whole population occupies ween infancy and manhood. These are the d here is the deep and quick soil for the

ease.

seeds of knowledge and virtue; and this is the favored season, the very spring-time for sowing them. Let them be disseminated without stint. Let them be scattered with a bountiful hand, broadcast. Whatever the government can fairly do towards these objects, in my 5 opinion, ought to be done.

17 These, Sir, are the grounds, succinctly stated, on which my votes for grants of lands for particular objects rest; while I maintain at the same time, that it is all a common fund, for the common benefit. And reasons like 10 these, I presume, have influenced the votes of other gentlemen of New England. Those who have a different view of the powers of the government, of course, come to different conclusions on these, as on other questions. I observed, when speaking on this subject before, that if 15 we looked to any measure, whether for a road, a canal, or anything else, intended for the improvement of the West, it would be found that, if the New England ayes were struck out of the lists of votes, the Southern noes would always have rejected the measure. The truth of 20 this has not been denied, and cannot be denied. In stating this, I thought it just to ascribe it to the constitutional scruples of the South, rather than to any other less favorable or less charitable cause. But no sooner had I done this, than the honorable gentleman asks if 25 I reproach him and his friends with their constitutional scruples. Sir, I reproach nobody. I stated a fact, and gave the most respectful reason for it that occurred to me. The gentleman cannot deny the fact; he may, if he choose, disclaim the reason. It is not long since I had 30 occasion, in presenting a petition from his own State, to account for its being intrusted to my hands, by saying that the constitutional opinions of the gentleman and his worthy colleague prevented them from supporting it. Sir, did I state this as matter of reproach? Far from it. 35

Did I attempt to find any other cause than an honest one for these scruples? Sir, I did not. It did not become me to doubt or to insinuate that the gentleman had either changed his sentiments, or that he had made up a 5 set of constitutional opinions accommodated to any particular combination of political occurrences. Had I done so, I should have felt that, while I was entitled to little credit in thus questioning other people's motives, I justified the whole world in suspecting my own. But how 10 has the gentleman returned this respect for others' opinions? His own candor and justice, how have they been exhibited towards the motives of others, while he has been at so much pains to maintain, what nobody has disputed, the purity of his own? Why, Sir, he has 15 asked when, and how, and why, New England votes were found going for measures favorable to the West? He has demanded to be informed whether all this did not begin in 1825, and while the election of President was still pending?

20 [Mr. Webster answers this insinuation by showing that the generous policy of New England toward the West found expression years before the political exigency referred to; and that it was embodied in the two well-known Acts of 1820 and 1821, "by far the most important general measures respecting 25 the public lands which have been adopted in the last twenty years."]

it Having recurred to these two important measures, in answer to the gentleman's inquiries, I must now beg permission to go back to a period yet somewhat earlier, 30 for the purpose of still further showing how much, or rather how little, reason there is for the gentleman's insinuation that political hopes or fears, or party associations, were the grounds of these New England votes. And after what has been said, I hope it may be forgiven