of us rejoice at this unprecedented event in the history of modern nations, so animating to the patriot, so cheering to the American people of all parties. Let the joyful tidings, as they roll along the valley of the Mississippi, or reverberate through the hills of Maine and New Hampshire, as they are wafted from the Atlantic to the lakes, and spread through every part of our country, as they reach the hamlet in the wilderness, the scattered settlements of the prairies, or the dense crowds of the city population, be followed by the equally joyful announcement that the Government is taking measures to lessen the burdens of the people, so far as the same can be done consistent with national faith, and a due regard to our great manufacturing, agricultural, and commercial interests; and while our statesmen are devising the means of disposing of the surplus revenue accumulating in the national treasury, let us not, at least, refuse the inquiry as to what duties on the necessaries of life may be remitted with benefit to all, and without injury to any.

Feeling unwilling to trespass longer on the time of the House, and grateful for the indulgence I have already experienced, I submit this resolution to your consideration, cherishing the hope that the inquiry will be allowed, and that it will be followed by a remission of the duty on coal, or at least that coal will be admitted to entry free of duty, in the same manner, and at the same time, as the articles enumerated in the fifth section of the compromise bill. I repeat, I only solicit an inquiry into the complaints of those who feel themselves aggrieved, and who look to the paternal wisdom of Government for protection. I do not wish to disturb the general provisions of the compromise bill, originating in those fraternal feelings which I cherish and respect; I only seek relief from the oppressive operation of a single duty, to which the attention of Congress was not particularly drawn when this compromise bill proclaimed to the nation that our dissensions had yielded to mutual concession, and that peace, harmony, and sentiments of attachment to our Union, prevailed throughout the Republic.

[During the delivery of Mr. FERRIS's remarks, as given entire above,

Mr. CROCKETT called for the orders of the day; which motion was decided in the affirmative: Yeas 102, nays 67.]

ALEXANDRIA CANAL.

The House proceeded to consider the motion heretofore made by Mr. BOULDIN, to reconsider the vote rejecting the bill for the relief of the city of Alexandria. Mr. BOULDIN said if he could get the attention of the House, he would detain them only for a few minutes. He did not mean to take upon himself the laboring oar in support of this bill. He should leave that to others, the original friends of the measure, who were far more able than himself to do justice to it. He would state briefly what induced him to move a reconsideration, and inclined him to support the bill. When it was before the House last session he voted for it. That, he believed at the time, was a vote designed to test its merits with the House, and he was in its favor. Not having any particular occasion to notice its progress afterwards, he had been some way impressed with the belief that it had passed, and the money expended. Being called on rather suddenly and unexpectedly to him to vote on it again during this session, he thought it was a new bill, proposing to appropriate an equal sum for the same work, unaccompanied with any explanation why this additional sum became necessary. He then voted against it. Having found his mistake, and that this is

the same bill which had never become a law, he had

thought proper to move a reconsideration: not so much

[FEB. 3, 1835.

with the hope of obtaining a different decision, as from a desire to explain how he had fallen into the mistake, and to change his vote thus given under an erroneous impression. He had not for a moment cherished the vain thought that so large a majority could be induced to alter their vote from any thing he should be able to say; yet he felt certain that, with a few moments of their attention, he could satisfy the House that injustice had been done to Alexandria. Without intending the least disrespect to persons of a different opinion, be thought that a mere statement of the facts ought to convince any one. He begged gentlemen not to be led off from an inquiry into the facts by the striking absurdity of a canal running on each side of tide watera broad, smooth, majestic river. It appeared to him in that light at first view, and nothing could have appeared to him more absurd, and he had not the least idea of voting one cent towards the completion of either. Being informed of one fact bad surprised him exceedingly, and altered his mind so far as this bill is concerned. The fact, he said, was this: In 1804 Congress had passed a law changing the main channel of the Potomac, by which the trade to Alexandria had been vitally injured. The injury happened in this way: Before the Chesapeake and Ohio canal was constructed, there was an old canal, much narrower, which had been in use many years, around the falls of the Potomac, along which most of the produce made in the rich valley of Virginia above the Blue Ridge, as well as the produce raised on the banks of this river above its falls, passed down to Alexandria. Immediately after passing through this old canal, the small boats that came down passed through a deep narrow channel between the falls and Mason's Island, and, reaching the shore next Alexandria, stuck closely to it until they reached that town in safety. Mainly by this trade Alexandria had grown up to be an interesting city to the State to which she then belonged. She never was large, but once was flourishing. The act of 1804 closed up this passage between the falls and Mason's Island, and threw the boats bound to Alexandria down by Georgetown and below Mason's Island. The small boats that came down that narrow canal were not able, after passing Mason's Island, to cross the river in safety; for at that place it is more than a mile wide. After this passage was closed, very few boats that came round the falls ever reached Alexandria. Many vain attempts were made by that devoted city to recover from the shock produced by that act of Congress. With the hope of remedying the evil, she subscribed a quarter of a million of dollars towards the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. This money has been nearly or quite all expended in constructing this canal, and the determination now is, to carry on the work no farther towards Alexandria, but to carry it on through Washington city, and let it terminate in the Eastern branch of the Potomac, near the navy yard. This will leave the boats navigating the canal still on the side opposite to the one on which Alexandria stands. This work has been so far finished as to be in use from above the Blue Ridge ple, unvarnished statement of the facts. And not a boat to Georgetown. This, he said, he believed was a simpassing around the falls has reached Alexandria for several years past. If these be not facts, let gentlemen show what the facts are. These are the facts reported by committees and officers whose duty it is to report the truth. Mr. B. said he would add further, that he had been informed by others that such were the facts. He said he believed these statements to be true. If false, he would not entertain a thought of sustaining the bill a moment by his vote, were he only set right on that point. If true, can any man doubt that Alexandria has it be possible that any man can believe it just thus to been injured, vitally wounded, by our legislation? Can

deal with her? After her citizens have laid out their all on the banks of this noble river, at a place where ships of any burden can ride in safety, and the highest point the largest merchant ships that navigate the ocean can come to with safety, can it be right to divert the channel of the river and destroy her commerce wholly; suffer her to lay out a quarter of a million, in conjunction with the United States and the company, with a hope of thereby obtaining redress; lay out the money in constructing a canal to conduct the produce to the door of her greatest rival, and stop it there? Can it be possible that it is right to take her own money to build up her rival over her, and to enhance at the same time the value of our own stock, which is very large, in the Chesapeake and Ohio canal? Can any man be led to believe that those people would have strained every nerve as they have done to raise this money, if they had suspected even that such would be the use made of it? He said he thought this impossible. They must all have believed that the canal would in some way be made to advance, not to destroy, the prospects of Alexandria. Take the whole matter together, and it seemed to him, with due respect to others, to be manifest injustice. Take the building of the dam in 1804 separately, it seemed little short of violence. He was bound to believe, however, that the effects were not fully foreseen by those who voted for the law in 1804. But still he said he had looked to the vote given at that time, and it had confirmed in him the conviction of its injustice, and that many did foresee the evil to Alexandria. The vote of Virginia, he said, would show this. Eleven of fourteen who voted went against it. One of the three who voted for it lived in Georgetown, one on the river above that place, and the other lived towards the centre of the State. John Randolph voted against it. It would seem, then, that almost all of those who had the best opportunity to know what the effects would be, or who were most likely to be interested themselves, or feel for Alexandria, voted against it. It was a vote of unusual unanimity, and shows what they thought of it; and the effects since produced show the truth of their convictions. Whether designedly done or not, the mischief was done, and originally without the agency of Alexandria, and ought to be redressed. It is true that private interest must yield to the great interests of the nation; but a just Government will never injure private citizens, or take their property from them, without redressing the injury in some way. He said, if any person would point out a better mode of redress, he would cheerfully vote for that; for he was very far from being sure that this mode would afford the redress that was hoped for by its friends. Redress was due. He was afraid that complete redress was not attainable in any way. he said, then adopt the mode pointed out by the injured party, and then if it failed we might bush their complaints by saying we had done what was required at our hands. We are bound, he said he thought, to show an honest, earnest desire to make amends for an injustice growing out of our own act. How can any man, when he believes there is injury done, get over voting for this bill, or proposing something better? But, he said, he was sure it was only necessary for the House to believe that injury had been done, in order to induce them to redress it. He said he wished to be distinctly understood as casting no reflection on the conduct of the people of Georgetown: but Georgetown was rising, while Alexandria was going down. How did this happen? Alexandria once had the start of her rival, under equal chances. He said he heard some one say behind him that neither is rising. If, then, Alexandria was declining and doomed to destruction, that would be the last reason for doing her an injury or treating her unkindly.

Let us,

He said he had stated, as briefly as he could, wherein

[H. OF R.

he thought Alexandria had been injured. He would now say one word with a view to prevent any misunderstanding of his vote. He said he had voted against internal improvements made out of this District, believing that this Government had no right to make them, under the federal constitution. He believed we had the pow. er to make internal improvements within this District; but had not looked on such works, even within this District, with a favorable eye; yet, he believed no one doubted the constitutional power of Congress to do good, to some extent, within the District of Columbia, and the work proposed is within its limits. He said he was not in favor of many of the splendid schemes for internal improvement in this District or out of it, by State or federal authority. He said he preferred to live in a country pretty much as God made it. He preferred to see towns grow up on the banks of navigable rivers, reared by the care and enterprise of man. He said there was something easy, social, and permanent, in this; a country mainly depending upon artificial means seemed to him to be always on the lift, always liable to change. He said he did not like to see the channels of the rivers or those of commerce diverted very far out of that course in which they had long continued, and consequently had long been trusted. After these towns had been built up by the patient industry of their citizens, for their own advantage and the benefit of the surrounding country, and the whole labor of that surrounding country had been applied for ages with a view to the permanency of these things, and trusting in them that they were to remain very much in the same relative situations, with the natural gradual growth, he did not like to see them rendered desolate, and their citizens bankrupt and ruined, and all their prospects blighted, by some splendid achievements of internal improvement. He did not like to see commerce diverted from its accustomed channels, to build up some town, destroying some ancient prosperous city, to be, in the same way, by some scheme still more splendid, in its turn destroyed, or to add to the grandeur and monopoly of some city already overgrown. He said he saw no beauty in all this; neither could he see the wisdom of it. Many of such schemes, he said, were mischievous. Many that he had thought entirely chimerical had been put into execution. The railroad at Petersburg, in Virginia, he had thought a wild scheme, considering the means which they had to accomplish it; yet, he said, it is now in daily operation. Some such things he believed to be useful, and the Petersburg railroad was one of them. It did but little injury to any one, and was productive of great good to many. He thought the plan proposed by the people of Alexandria far from being certain of success; yet he might be as much mistaken as he was about the Petersburg railroad. Men much better informed on such subjects were as much deceived in it as he had been; he did not affect to have any practical knowledge of such works. The men who had had success in other like works had confidence in this. But he would conclude by protesting that it was not with any view to give in to things of this kind himself, or from any great reliance of his own upon the success of this plan, that he made this motion to reconsider. No, he said he simply thought that Alexandria had been injured by our legislation, and that vitally; and that we were in justice bound, by our legislation, to redress it, or make the attempt; and, for the want of a better mode of redress, and that only, he was induced to support this bill. He said he was certain that, unless something in reply made it absolutely necessary, he should not again trouble the House upon this subject.

Mr. CHILTON said the decisive majority by which the bill had been before rejected was such that he did

cate the loss of the sums already expended, and he was now willing to vote for the sum required in the bill.

Mr. MINER said, here was a place located on navigable water, well situated for trade and commerce, and which, by the industry and enterprise of its citizens, was prosperous and flourishing, until by an act of the Government, that was perhaps very proper, for of that he knew nothing, an impediment had been placed in the river, turning and changing the old natural channel, and thereby substantially destroying the navigation formerly carried on there. This was the case of the city of Alexdria. Now came the question, whether an attempt which had been made to remedy this evil by the forma tion of a canal, which was called, and certainly was, an internal improvement, for the purpose of placing that city in some degree in the same situation it was before, should be completed. He was in favor of internal improvements generally, but this recommended itself on different grounds from what those usually did. Here was a city possessed of advantages bestowed upon it by the God of nature, a navigable stream to it, and of which it had been deprived by an act of the Government; and surely the application stood upon much higher grounds than those of ordinary cases of internal improvement, for the benefit of those who were not benefited before, and to whom it was a mere matter of favor, policy, or interest, whether it were done or not. But when the Government has interfered with pre-existing rights, or taken away privileges and advantages given by God himself to them, and when they have laid out almost their whole fortunes in the erection of buildings, warehouses, &c., for the purpose of carrying on their commerce, then he considered it a question resting on an entirely different basis than ordinary cases. It was on that general ground that he was in favor of reconsidering the vote rejecting the bill, and in favor of the grant proposed.

It had been said, and this weighed greatly on his mind, that the people of Alexandria had been led to expect that the canal, or one part of it, should be extended to that city; and that such assurances had been given, or held out to them, as raised expectations in their minds that such would be the case; that the canal would not be carried to Georgetown, or to this city, and there stop, from which they could possibly draw no advantage, but, on the contrary, receive nothing but injury. Under this expectation they subscribed a large sum of money to aid in the completion of the canal, all which money they had lost-worse than lost-provided the canal should stop where it then was, since their trade would be entirely destroyed. Mr. M. apprehended that this consideration alone would lead to the conclusion that the proposed appropriation ought to be made; and he accorded in the idea suggested, that it would be an act of injustice not to do it. He had no fears that it would not meet the views and wishes of their constituents, to extend the work a little further, and not stop in the middle of it. He believed it would redound to the honor, and glory, and wisdom, of the Government, and he hoped the motion to reconsider would prevail, and the application be successful.

on.

Mr. PARKS said they were told by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. VINTON] that this work having been commenced by the United States, it was incumbent upon those gentlemen who were opposed to the reconsideration of this vote, and opposed also to the construction of the work, to give good reasons why it should not go Mr. P. apprehended it would not be very difficult for any gentleman, in justification of his vote on this subject, to show that the work, if completed, would be useless, and that all the money heretofore expended upon it had been entirely, or almost entirely, wasted. That it was useless, a moment's reflection would, he thought, convince any one. Here was one of the finest

[H. OF R.

rivers upon the face of the earth, flowing between two commercial cities, or rather between two cities once commercial, and one of them asking Congress to dig a canal by the side of that river for the purpose of benefiting commerce. Was it possible for any boat or vessel to be conveyed on that canal that could not float on this majestic river? It was not. But, even were it so that this canal should be made the means of conveying the vast resources of this District, they would not go to Alexandria. The inevitable result was, that commerce would become concentrated at particular spots, in large cities and towns. The commerce of this section of country was once divided among many small rival ports; it was now concentrated in the city of Baltimore. Railroads might be constructed, canals might be dug to this city or to Alexandria, the railroad from the Point of Rocks, or to Washington city from Baltimore, would take every barrel of flour and every species of commodity from the city of Alexandria. Even if it could promote the navigation of the river itself, it would be useless, as far as Alexandria was concerned.

Mr. P. had stated that the money already expended had been thrown away: let us see how the fact stood. His recollection was, that the $100,000, voted last session, was for the purpose of building an aqueduct across the river at Georgetown. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. BATES] has said that the abutments were completed. Mr. P. did not know what the gentleman meant by abutments; but he himself had searched on the west side of the river, and could find nothing done that appeared to have any connexion with the aqueduct. On the other side he saw a pile of earth, which, anywhere in the North, could have been raised at a trifling expense. That was all he saw; and if the gentleman saw more, he was more fortunate than Mr. P. had been. The gentleman from Massachusetts further said, inasmuch as the work had been begun, it was the duty of Congress to complete it, whatever might be its cost, and that he, for one, would never consent that this canal should stand as a monument of our folly. Mr. P. would defy that gentleman, on any part of the habitable globe, out of the District of Columbia, to find such a monument of folly as this canal would be, if it were completed. The truth was, it was nothing more than voting the pub. lic money away for the benefit of the indolent in this District, and Mr. P. was for doing it, if at all, openly, plainly, and avowedly, so that their constituents should understand the purpose for which it was done. He could not bring himself to believe, and he had devoted some attention to the subject, that the canal, if finished, would ever benefit the country, the District, or a single individual except the contractor; and for this reason he should vote against the reconsideration.

Mr. HAWES jocosely remarked that, unless he took a hand now and then, he was beginning to fear he should forget how to speak. Moreover, he had another reason. His honorable friend from North Carolina [Mr. SPEIGHT] had sounded the administration trumpet, and called upon all the friends of the administration to come forward and resist this attempt at extravagant expenditure; and, as Mr. H. held himself to be as good an administration man as any gentleman upon that floor, he felt bound to obey the summons of the trumpeter. He was, however, somewhat afraid it would turn out like the case of a man in the western country celebrated for raising hogs, who was in the habit every morning of calling them, and when they came up, he gave them nothing to eat. At last they refused to come at his call, and the man swore he would change the breed of his hogs, because they refused to obey his summons. (Laughter.) But Mr. H. agreed with his honorable friend, and he would give his reason for it.

The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MILLER] said