in

proposed grants would be productive of good and not evil? The different projects are confined, for the present, to eleven States of this Union and one Territory. The reasons assigned for the grants show that it is proposed to put the works speedily process of construction. When we reflect that since the commencement of the construction of railways in the United States, stimulated as they have been by the large dividends realized from the earlier works over the great thoroughfares and between the most important points of commerce and population, encouraged by State legislation, and pressed forward by the amazing energy of private enterprise, only seventeen thousand miles have been completed in all the States in a quarter of a century; when we see the crippled condition of many works commenced and prosecuted upon what were deemed to be sound principles and safe calculations; when we contemplate the enormous absorption of capital withdrawn from the ordinary channels of business, the extravagant rates of interest at this moment paid to continue operations, the bankruptcies, not merely in money but in character, and the inevitable effect upon finances generally, can it be doubted that the tendency is to run to excess in this matter?

Is it wise to augment this excess by encouraging hopes of sudden wealth expected to flow from magnificent schemes dependent upon the action of Congress? Does the spirit which has produced such results need to be stimulated or checked? Is it not the better rule to leave all these works to private enterprise, regulated, and, when expedient, aided by the co-operation of States? If constructed by private capital, the stimulant and the check go together, and furnish a salutary restraint against speculative schemes and extravagance. But it is manifest that, with the most effective guards, there is danger of going too fast and too far.

We may well pause before a proposition contemplating a simultaneous movement for the construction of railroads, which, in extent, will equal, exclusive of the great Pacific Road and all its branches, nearly one-third of the entire length of such works now completed in the United States, and which can not cost, with equipments, less than one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The dangers likely to result from combinations of in

terests of this character, can hardly be overestimated. But, independently of these considerations, where is the accurate knowledge, the comprehensive intelligence, which shall discriminate between the relative claims of these twenty-eight proposed roads, in eleven States and one Territory? Where will you begin, and where end? If to enable these companies to execute their proposed works it is necessary that the aid of the General Government be primarily given, the policy will present a problem so comprehensive in its bearings and so important to our political and social well-being as to claim, in anticipation, the severest analysis. Entertaining these views, I recur with satisfaction to the experience and action of the last session of Congress as furnishing assurance that the subject will not fail to elicit a careful re-examination and rigid scrutiny.

It was my intention to present on this occasion some suggestions regarding internal improvements by the General Government, which want of time at the close of the last session prevented my submitting on the return to the House of Representatives, with objections, of the bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the repair, preservation, and completion of certain public works heretofore commenced under authority of law;" but the space in this communication already occupied with other matter of immediate public exigency constrains me to reserve that subject for a special message, which will be transmitted to the two Houses of Congress at an early day.

The judicial establishment of the United States requires modification, and certain reforms in the manner of conducting the legal business of the Government are also much needed; but as I have addressed you upon both these subjects at length before, I have only to call your attention to the suggestions then made.

My former recommendations in relation to suitable provision for various objects of deep interest to the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, are renewed. Many of these objects partake largely of a national character, and are important, independently of their relation to the prosperity of the only considerable organized community in the Union, entirely unrepresented in Congress.

I have thus presented suggestions on such subjects as appear

to me to be of particular interest or importance, and therefore most worthy of consideration during the short remaining period allotted to the labors of the present Congress.

Our forefathers of the thirteen United Colonies, in acquiring their independence, and in founding this Republic of the United States of America, have devolved upon us, their descendants, the greatest and the most noble trust ever committed to the hands of man, imposing upon all, and especially such as the public will may have invested for the time being with political functions, the most sacred obligations. We have to maintain inviolate the great doctrine of the inherent right of popular self-government; to reconcile the largest liberty of the individual citizen with complete security of the public order; to render cheerful obedience to the laws of the land, to unite in enforcing their execution, and to frown indignantly on all combinations to resist them; to harmonize a sincere and ardent devotion to the institutions of religious faith with the most universal religious toleration; to preserve the rights of all by causing each to respect those of the other; to carry forward every social improvement to the uttermost limit of human perfectibility, by the free action of mind upon mind, not by the obtrusive intervention of misapplied force; to uphold the integrity and guard the limitations of our organic law; to preserve sacred from all touch of usurpation, as the very palladium of our political salvation, the reserved rights and powers of the several States and of the people; to cherish, with loyal fealty and devoted affection, this Union, as the only sure foundation on which the hopes of civil liberty rest; to administer government with vigilant integrity and rigid economy; to cultivate peace and friendship with foreign nations, and to demand and exact equal justice from all, but to do wrong to none; to eschew intermeddling with the national policy and the domestic repose of other governments, and to repel it from our own; never to shrink from war when the rights and the honor of the country call us to arms, but to cultivate in preference the arts of peace, seek enlargement of the rights of neutrality, and elevate and liberalize the intercourse of nations; and by such just and honorable means, and such only, whilst exalting the condition of the Republic, to assure to it the legitimate influence and the

benign authority of a great example amongst all the powers of Christendom.

Under the solemnity of these convictions, the blessing of Almighty God is earnestly invoked to attend upon your deliberations, and upon all the counsels and acts of the Government, to the end that, with common zeal and common efforts, we may, in humble submission to the Divine will, co-operate for the promotion of the supreme good of these United States.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE MESSAGE-THEORIES OF THE CONSTITUTION-THE PARTIES THE VETOES THE LIEUTENANT-GEN

A

ERAL-THE WHIGS GO DOWN-THE

KNOW-NOTHINGS.

CONSIDERABLE part of this message is taken up by the President in a review of the recent transactions on the Mosquito Coast, and a defense of the action of Commander Hollins. But this vexatious subject and other Central American affairs will be referred to at the date of the next annual message. The proposition that "free ships make free goods" was held as a matter of considerable importance by this Administration. By the treaty with Russia heretofore mentioned, that country had conditionally recognized the theory; and France and England had signified their disposition to favor it. Mr. Buchanan, in presenting the matter to the British government, had taken up with the additional scheme of abolishing privateering. To this latter step the Administration objected at once, and to that effect Mr. Marcy wrote back to London. This would have been a fine point for England, as that nation with a navy superior to that of this country had the best of reasons for appreciating highly the privateering resources of the United States. But the Administration was not