No. 216.] 491 



introduce foreign influence, highly prejudicial to the best interests of 

 our country; by this we introduce foreign principles utterly at vari- 

 ance with our free institutions, and by this we introduce the luxu- 

 ries, follies and vices of the corrupt governments of Europe. Yet 

 ■every true American will say our foreign commerce, cost what it 

 may, must be encouraged and supported; but how much more earn- 

 estly should he say, our domestic commerce must be encouraged and 

 supported, cost what it may. 



Our domestic commerce is in amount ten times greater than our 

 foreign; it promotes American industry exclusively; it establishes 

 the most friendly relations among the states; it strengthens the 

 Union; it requires no warlike navy-— no diplomatic corps; it leads 

 to no wars; it introduces no foreign influence, principles, luxuries, 

 vices or follies. And yet, comparatively speaking, little has been 

 done for its encouragement by our General Government. 



No country, not even China, presents so many natural advantages 

 for carrying on a most extensive domestic commerce as the United 

 States. Our immense lakes and rivers, if properly improvedi, afford 

 the means of transporting the products of our most Western states to 

 the Eastern, to each other, and to the ocean, the great highway of 

 nations. But to make these advantages available, large expendi- 

 tures of money must be made for improvements on those lakes and 

 rivers. And why have not such expenditures been made? A jeal- 

 ousy between the Atlantic and Western, — the old and the new 

 states, — has had an unfavorable influence, to which may be added 

 the constitutional scruples of some of our members of Congress; 

 these have prevented the proper appropriations. The first of these 

 causes will soon disappear. A better feeling prevails between 

 those states than formerly, and their interests are considered as 

 identified by our most eminent statesmen. As to the second cause, 

 it will have less weight than formerly, for the overwhelming influ- 

 ence of the great Chicago Convention of July last will have a won- 

 derful influence in removing constitutional scruples. 



There will be a great difficulty in legislating upon this subject by 

 the Congress of the United States, arising from sectional interests, 

 which will lead the members by bargain and compromise, to include 

 in the same bill of appropriations too great a variety of objects, and 

 thus secure a majority in its favor, by a process welj known at Wash- 

 ington, and vulgarly called log rolling. By this process, appropria- 

 tions which are proper will be connected with those which are impro- 



