came from a school with which we had been acquainted et noscitur a sociis. I hold in my hand, sir, a printed speech of this distinguished gentleman [Mr. McDuffie], “on internal improvements," delivered about the period to which I now refer, and printed with a few introductory remarks upon consolidation; in which, sir, I think he quite consolidated the arguments of his opponents, the Radicals, if to crush be to consolidate. I give you a short, but substantive quotation from these remarks. He is speaking of a pamphlet, then recently published, entitled "Consolidation"; and having alluded to the question of renewing the charter of the former Bank of the United States, he says:

"Moreover, in the early history of parties, and when Mr. Crawford advocated a renewal of the old charter, it was considered a Federal measure; which internal improvements never was, as this author erroneously states. This latter measure originated in the administration of Mr. Jefferson, with the appropriation for the Cumberland road; and was first proposed, as a system, by Mr. Calhoun, and carried through the House of Representatives by a large majority of the Republicans, including almost every one of the leading men who carried us through the late war."

So then, internal improvement is not one of the Federal heresies. One paragraph more, sir:

"The author in question, not content with denouncing, as Federalists, General Jackson, Mr. Adams, Mr. Calhoun, and the majority of the South Carolina delegation in Congress, modestly extends the denunciation

to Mr. Monroe and the whole Republican party. Here are his words: 'During the administration of Mr. Monroe much has passed which the Republican party would be glad to approve if they could. But the principal feature, and that which has chiefly elicited these observations, is the renewal of the system of internal improvements.' Now this measure was adopted by a vote of one hundred and fifteen to eighty-six, of a Republican Congress, and sanctioned by a Republican President. Who, then, is this author-who assumes the high prerogative of denouncing, in the name of the Republican party, the Republican administration of the country? A denunciation including within its sweep Calhoun, Lowndes, and Cheves-men who will be regarded as the brightest ornaments of South Carolina, and the strongest pillars of the Republican party, as long as the late war shall be remembered, and talents and patriotism shall be regarded as the proper objects of the admiration and gratitude of a free people."

Such are the opinions, sir, which were maintained by South Carolina gentlemen, in the House of Representatives, on the subject of internal improvements, when I took my seat there as a member from Massachusetts in 1823. But this is not all. We had a bill before us, and passed it in that House, entitled: "An act to procure the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates upon the subject of roads and canals." It authorized the President to cause surveys and estimates to be made of the routes of such roads and canals as he might deem of national importance, in a commercial or military point of view, or for the transportation of the mail, and appropriated thirty thousand dollars out of the

!

Treasury to defray the expense. This act, though preliminary in its nature, covered the whole ground. It took for granted the complete power of internal improvement as far as any of its advocates had ever contended for it. Having passed the other House, the bill came up to the Senate, and was here considered and debated in April, 1824. The honorable member from South Carolina was a member of the Senate at that time. While the bill was under consideration here, a motion was made to add the following proviso:

"Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to affirm or admit a power in Congress, on their own authority, to make roads or canals within any of the States of the Union."

The yeas and nays were taken on this proviso and the honorable member voted in the negative! The proviso failed.

A motion was then made to add this proviso, namely:

"Provided, That the faith of the United States is hereby pledged, that no money shall ever be expended for roads or canals except it shall be among the several States and in the same proportion as direct taxes are laid and assessed by the provisions of the Constitution."

The honorable member voted against this proviso, also, and it failed. The bill was then put on its passage and the honorable member voted for it, and it passed and became a law.

Now it strikes me, sir, that there is no maintaining these votes, but upon the power of internal improvement, in its broadest sense. In truth, these bills for surveys and estimates have always been considered as test questions they show who is for and who against internal improvement. This law itself went the whole ' length and assumed the full and complete power. The gentleman's votes sustained that power in every form in which the various propositions to amend presented it. He went for the entire and unrestrained authority without consulting the States, and without agreeing to any proportionate distribution. And now suffer me to remind you, Mr. President, that it is this very same power, thus sanctioned in every form by the gentleman's own opinion, that is so plain and manifest a usurpation that the State of South Carolina is supposed to be justified in refusing submission to any laws carrying the power into effect. Truly, sir, is not this a little too hard? May we not crave some mercy under favor and protection of the gentleman's own authority. Admitting that a road, or a canal, must be written down flat usurpation as was ever committed, may we find no mitigation in our respect for his place and his vote as one that knows the law?

The tariff, which South Carolina had an efficient hand in establishing, in 1816, and this asserted power of internal improvement, advanced by her in the same year, and, as we have seen, approved and sanctioned by her Representatives in 1824, these two measures are the great grounds on which she is now thought to be justified in breaking up the Union, if she sees fit to break it up!

I may now safely say, I think, that we have had the authority of leading and distinguished gentlemen from South Carolina, in support of the doctrine of internal improvement. I repeat that, up to 1824, I for one followed South Carolina; but, when that star, in its ascension, veered off, in an unexpected direction, I relied on its light no longer.

Here the Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun, said: " Does the chair understand the gentleman from Massachusetts to say that the person now occupying the chair of the Senate has changed his opinions on the subject of internal improvements?"

From nothing ever said to me, sir, have I had reason to know of any change in the opinions of the person filling the chair of the Senate. If such change has taken place, I regret it. I speak generally of the State of South Carolina. Individuals, we know there are, who hold opinions favorable to the power. An application for its exercise, in behalf of a public work in South Carolina itself, is now pending, I believe, in the other House, presented by members from that ¡ State.

I have thus, sir, perhaps not without some tediousness of detail, shown that if I am in error on the subject of internal improvement, how, and in what company, I fell into that error. If I am wrong, it is apparent who misled me.

I go to other remarks of the honorable member; and I have to complain of an entire misapprehension of what I said on the subject of the national debt, though