sales and the dividends of the United States Bank stock "as a permanent fund for the purposes of internal improvement.' Accordingly, on February 26, 1825, a bill was reported by the House committee on roads and canals which authorized the President to borrow funds up to $10,000,000, to be invested by the secretary of the treasury in such companies incorporated by the states as Congress should approve. The same official was to vote such stocks and receive the dividends arising therefrom.13 In January, 1826, there were two similar proposals: one, a House bill1 reported by Mr. Hemphill; another, a resolution15 submitted in the Senate by Mr. Dickerson, which proposed to require the secretary of the treasury to distribute $3,000,000 annually among the states for education and internal improve ment. Thus in the middle of the second decade of the nineteenth century, there was evinced in Congress a strong movement for the establishment of a general fund for internal improvement, and the railway, having by that time come within the scope of that term, this movement is of importance to the history of aid to railways. Its direct relation to the present history consists in the light it throws upon the immediate setting or atmosphere in which the railway entered Congress. 2. Railways specifically mentioned In at least one proposition for a general fund made at this time railways were specifically mentioned. On December 27, 1825, Mr. Test offered the following resolution: Resolved, "That the Committee on Roads and Canals be instructed to inquire into the expediency of establishing a general system of Internal Improvements embracing canals, roads and railways, with a fund derived from the sale of Public Lands or otherwise to be distributed among the several States, if required by them, agreeably to their population."'16 * In the following year we find an important set of resolutions advanced in the House by Mr. Mercer (Md.), who, it will be 13 H. J., 1824-25, p. 274; Rep. of Com., 1824-25, II, No. 83. Bill together with report laid on table. 14 Niles' Register, XXIX; 350. 15 Ibid., and S. J., 1825-26, p. 321; laid on table, p. 342. 16 Cong. Debates, 1825-26 (H. of R.), II, Pt. I, 861. remembered, was to be president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company, and was prominent in its controversy with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. These resolutions may be summarized: 17 1. It is expedient to establish a fund for internal improvements and devise rules for its proper application to such roads, railways and canals as may be deemed by Congress to lie within its constitutional powers. 2. This fund shall consist of a portion of the unappropriated annual revenue. 3. A system for collecting information for the distribution of this fund shall be devised, embracing United States engineers, both military and civil,-a corps of topographical engineers from the latter to collect information, the residue to estimate cost of public works already begun. And at each census the fund shall be appropriated for the next ten years.18 4. Preference shall be given to the instrumentality of joint stock companies, the income from such investments to constitute a special fund for payment of interest on loans and carrying out similar works of a public nature. The stocks shall be disposable by the United States for use, in case of need, for public defense. This set of resolutions constitutes one of the most comprehensive schemes for the creation and administration of a general fund for internal improvements which was proposed in Congress at this time. NATIONAL INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS LOSE FAVOR Shortly after this period the system of national internal improvement began to meet opposition and decrease in popular 17 Above. p. 221. 18 The census tables were to "comprehend especially descriptions of artificial roads, railways and canals, denoting of railways, the number of lines of parallel rails, and their horizontal inclination; of the canals, their breadth and depth of water, and of all of those public works, their denominated length, actual cost and annual profit", with tonnage carried, etc. Some attempt was made to follow this idea, and in 1835 a statistical view of the U. S. from 1790 to 1830 was published. Inquiries were sent to state and county officials. but on internal improvements returns were only received from six states, and were not published. ity, and consequently there was a decline in the movement to establish general funds for prosecuting canals, roads, and railways. For a time, bills and resolutions for such a fund continued to appear in Congress; 19 but the opposition of the South began to form, and this, together with the hostility to corporations and some abuses in the administration of the system, 20 gave rise to a series of counter resolutions, and by 1835 the movement was largely spent. There remains to be discussed, however, one incident in the early congressional history of internal improvement funds. On May 22, 1830, the Senate took up a bill for authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and after some discussion, Mr. Livingstone (La.) brought forward an amendment which required that funds for the proposed subscription be drawn from the sale of other stocks invested in works 21 of similar character. This alone, said he, could save "the system of internal improvement" from destruction. Mr. Webster (Mass.) agreed: he thought the funds of the general government in works of internal improvement ought to be a circulating fund; adding, however, that to dispose of stocks might be inexpedient. Mr. Grundy stated that if a transfer of stock from the Chesapeake & Ohio canal would answer, well and good; but he would vote against a project to draw money from the treasury.22 Thus the idea comprehended in this discussion was that of a mobile "fund" to be invested in a company, and then,-when the company was on its feet,-by a sale of stock to be made available for new works. President Jackson, in his message of 1831, suggested employing the surplus revenue, which was about to arise, in works of internal improvement, and he referred to railways as holding out great hopes for the future.23 In the resolutions proposed by Mr. Mercer in 1826, the establishment of a system for obtaining information was given 19 See indices of H. J. for 1827-28, and 1828-29, under Internal Improvement. 20 Ibid. 1 Ches. & Ohio Canal, Ches. & Del. Canal, etc. The amendment was not carried and the bill failed 21 to 19. 2 Above, p. 249. great importance, and a corps of engineers was proposed. Indeed, such a system was indispensable, nor was the preliminary work of examination and survey open to such constitutional objections as was investment in established enterprises. The nearest approach to the general internal improvement fund so strongly advocated from 1824 to 1826 ever reached by Congress was an annual appropriation for general surveys, which forms the subject of the following chapter. CHAPTER IX GOVERNMENT SURVEYS THE GENERAL SURVEY BILL: 1824 The period lying roughly between the years 1822 and 1824 was one of active and prolonged discussion concerning the proper attitude of our government toward the subject of internal improvements. Although, in 1822, Monroe's veto had resulted in the failure of a bill' which would have brought the operation of the Cumberland Road within the control of Congress, there were whole days of debate over the power of Congress to "establish" works of internal improvement during the two years that followed.2 Belief in the expediency of such a power was strong, but constitutional scruples proved stronger. A distinction was drawn, however, between actual construction by government and assistance given preliminary to construction by state or corporation, and along the line of this distinction a measure in the nature of a compromise was passed. This was the so-called general survey bill of April 30, 1824. In the early years of the century civil engineers were very scarce relatively to the demand for them. The settlement of our vast public domain and numerous roads and canals constantly required the service of surveyors and engineers, and on some of the larger works foreigners were employed." The period was one in which new lines of communication and transportation were rapidly projected, one of births and expansions. The work of plans, surveys and estimates was in great demand 1 See above, p. 254. 2 See Annals of Cong., 1823-24, e. g., p. 1022 ff. French engineers were in repute and were employed in connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio canal. |