Doc. No. 75. 



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tion, appears to approximate more nearly to the calibre of that contem- 

 plated in Nicaragua, and it only cost, as we perceive, four millions and a 

 half dollars. Allowances, however, must be made in our favor for the 

 difference in the rate of wages, which, with us, hardly amount to one 

 half the sum that is paid for labor in the United States, Holland, and Scot- 

 land. In the former country, where they are even now constructing 

 canals and railways, laborers receive from ten to twelve shillings daily. 



Judging from these facts, we have sufficient reason to believe that five 

 millions of dollars would defray the expenses of the Nicaragua canal; but 

 assuming, for argument's sake, the most disadvantageous position, we will 

 suppose that no less a sum than ten millions of dollars will suffice to com- 

 plete the work; that, in consequence of our want of credit, this money 

 cannot be obtained for less than 8 per cent, a year; and finally, that the 

 revenue of the canal will not amount to seven millions of dollars, as I 

 have calculated, but only to two millions. Even in this case, the benefits 

 to be derived from the undertaking are self evident, because, deducting 

 from the two millions of revenue eight hundred thousand dollars for the 

 payment of interest, there would still remain twelve hundred thousand 

 dollars to be applied towards the liquidation of the debt from the first 

 year after the completion of the work. The instalment for the second 

 year would be much larger, as the original debt, and consequently the 

 interest upon it, would be diminished. Following these progressive pay- 

 ments with just regularity, the debt would, in a very few years, be can- 

 ceiled altogether at the expense of foreign commerce; the work itself 

 would become national property; its revenues flow into the public treasury 

 to defray the expenses of the government, and the people be thereby 

 eventually relieved from the burden of taxation. What nation ever had 

 the opportunity of achieving an enterprise of such magnitude and import- 

 ance? It is certain that no project that ever was started can compare 

 favorably with this. Here we find a combination of circumstances of the 

 highest possible importance; natural facilities, pecuniary advantages, and 

 the most flattering prospects of national aggrandizement and prosperity. 

 When I see what has been done by the respective governments of the 

 States of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and what is still doing by 

 those of other States with far more limited means, with smaller prospects 

 of profit, and commercial views infinitely inferior to those which the 

 namral advantages of our position invite us to entertain, I cannot help 

 admiring their enterprising spirit; their sagacity in adopting the most ster- 

 ling principles of political economy as the basis of their calculations; 

 their indefatigable zeal in the promotion of the common welfare, and their 

 ingenuity in selecting the most plausible means to effect that object; and 

 finally, the fruitful results of all these speculations. But when I come 

 dispassionately to compare the actual condition of the inhabitants of those 

 countries with that of our own people, I feel oppressed at heart; for I see, 

 with infinite sadness, what we really are, and what we might have been 

 at this hour, if, instead of transforming ourselves into tyrants and self- 

 executors by means of domestic feuds, we had availed ourselves of the 

 good example and experience of those governments, in order to regulate 

 our policy after the same principles of liberty and justice, and to work 

 out our own prosperity through the same natural and simple means which 

 they have employed. I trust I shall be excused for this trifling di- 

 gression; it is the natural effect of the love I bear to my country, and of 



