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Doc. No. 75. 



branches of business to carry out her plans^ let there be also a committee 

 appointed in Pennsylvania, intrusted with similar powers. Pinally, if 

 New York has attained to legislative perfection by adopting Mr. Clinton's 

 systenj, the tendency of which is to enrich the public treasury through 

 the medium of public works that are of great benefit to the country^ let 

 this system be adopted in Pennsylvania, and, if possible, upon a still more 

 magnificent scale. 



In Pennsylvania, no time was lost in useless discussions. The legisla- 

 tors of that State, profiting by the experience of New York, have pursued 

 a steady course; and the result of their operations is the best possible proof 

 that could be given of the wisdom of their proceedings. The general plan 

 for all the public works undertaken by the government of Pennsylvania 

 comprises 601 miles of canal and 113 miles of railway, requiring an out- 

 lay of ."$22,114,915, which capital was obtained on credit. In 1834, when 

 a portion of the canal was opened to navigation, the tollage for that year 

 produced f 325 ,000; in 1835, the works being much more advanced, the 

 sum collected amounted to $655,000; and in the month of June of the 

 same year, the governor addressed a special message to the legislature, in 

 which the following language occurs: I take the greatest pleasure in an- 

 nouncing to the legislature that the public treasury, at the close of the 

 present quarter, is in a condition to meet not only the ordinary expenses 

 of the government, without the necessity of resorting to taxation, but also 

 to pay the interest on the loan raised for the construction of canals and 

 railways " 



It is hardly more than twenty years ago that the territory now known 

 as the State of Ohio was only an uncultivated wilderness, inhabited by 

 bears and buffaloes. Emigrants from New England, with scarcely any 

 other baggage, as M. de Tocqueville observes, than a Bible in their 

 pocket and a hatchet on their shoulder, went to take possession of those 

 lands, the fertility of which invited cultivation. As soon as a sufficient 

 number of emigrants had assembled in the new country, they formed a 

 State and organized an independent government. In 1825, this govern- 

 ment, convinced of the advantages of Mr. Clinton's system, passed a law 

 authorizing the construction of a canal between the Ohio river and Lake 

 Erie, 310 miles in length, which cost five millions and a half of dollars, ob- 

 tained on State credit. This work was completed in 1832. In 1834, its 

 revenue amounted to $200,791; in 1835, it was increased to .$430,000; 

 so that at this period, after paying the interest upon the loan for the cur- 

 rent year, there was a balance of $130,000, which passed over into the 

 public treasury. 



Can any rational man say now that the loan system, as applied to the 

 construction of canals and railroads, has been ruinous to the people of 

 New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio? Will not these incontrovertible 

 facts suffice to convince our legislators that this is the very system which 

 ought to be adopted in relation to the Nicaragua canal — a project present- 

 ing far more brilliant prospects of future advantage than could have been 

 entertained by the governments of those States? Could these govern- 

 ments, I ask again, have calculated upon the influx of an immense foreign 

 trade, such as would swell the revenue of our canal ? Did those govern- 

 ments ever dream of the stupendous pohtical prospects that are intimately 

 connected with the execution of a work like this — destined, as it is, to pro- 

 duce a most beneficial revolution in the whole mercantile world; and to raise 



