Doc. No. 75. 73 



erty greatly exceeding the four hundred miUions in produce and merchan- 

 dise that have flowed through the canal during the last fifteen years. 



The increased value of real-estate property consists in the foundation 

 of new villages on the margins of lakes and along the borders of the ca- 

 nal, where marshy grounds are dried up, in order to render the country 

 habitable. Every year, it is found necessary to issue a new map, in 

 which are always to be seen villages which had no existence the year be- 

 fore. The value of houses and. public buildings that have been erected 

 in the course of fifteen years amounts to an immense sum — which, how- 

 ever, cannot be specified with certainty until the next census shall have 

 been published. 



Such are the results of a loan of eleven millions and a half of dollars, 

 invested in a speculation of public utility — although the project had been 

 obstinately opposed by legislators who thought themselves wise, and 

 made a parade of the most ardent patriotism, as they thwarted Mr. Clin- 

 ton's views, and denounced him as a visionary. Many times, while re- 

 flecting upon this subject, I could not well avoid applying to the case in 

 question the maxim of the celebrated historian. Flavins Josephus, which 

 has remained engrafted on my mind from the first time I perused it: '^In- 

 capable legislators are a curse to the people — a calamity far more serious 

 than either plague, famine, or war: because the latter evils, although ter- 

 rible in themselves, are not of long duration; but the mischief caused by 

 the blunders of the former become a source of misery to many genera- 

 tions." It was an extremely fortunate thing for the State of New York 

 that the pernicious influence of those legislators who sought to defeat 

 Mr. Clinton's project (it may be from motives purely honest) did not pre- 

 vail for any length of time. In view of this fact, I trust that those mem- 

 bers of Congress upon v/hom will devolve the duty of examining the 

 propositions for building the Nicaragua canal, and of adopting the proper 

 means for raising a loan to defray the expenses, will give the subject all 

 that mature reflection which its importance detnands. I have placed be- 

 fore them the facts connected with the course pursued by the government 

 of the State of New York as an example worthy of being followed; and, 

 with a view of anticipating any objection that may be made, upon the 

 presumption that this is an isolated case, I shall now proceed to cite two 

 others of the same character, which will suffice to show that, in each and 

 all of th em, the happy results that followed were only the natural conse- 

 quences of regularity and order in the management of affairs. 



The State of Pennsylvania, the neighbor and rival of New York in all 

 that relates to progress and aggrandizement, could not witness the onward 

 strides of the latter without astonishment, and, taking up the maxim that 

 what has been achieved by one government can be accomplished by an- 

 other placed in similar circumstances, and resorting to the sam.e means, 

 began to reason thus: If the people of New York are becoming rich in 

 consequence of the facihties afforded to trade by the Erie canal, let Penn- 

 sylvania have also lier canals wherever they can be constructed, and, 

 where insurmountable obstacles exist, let us have railways, that may aflx)rd 

 new facilities to our own commerce. As New York, in her days of pov- 

 erty, had to resort to the loan system in order to pay the costs of her canal, 

 lei Pennsylvania, whose funds are equally Ioav, apply to money-lenders 

 for funds to defray the expenses of her public works. As New York ap- 

 pointed a committee familiar with all the administrative and economical 



