188 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Constitution, wherein Congress was given the power to control 
foreign and domestic commerce. The clause conferring this 
power is the basis of all harbor legislation, although as an in¬ 
cident of this power Congress did not immediately assume the 
improvement of even the ocean harbors. That .there was a sub¬ 
stance and a latent force to the clause, however, is shown by the 
fact that as soon as the Constitution was adopted, the states ap¬ 
plied to Congress for permission to levy tonnage duties, acts that 
they had performed independently hitherto. The proceeds 
gained by this and other means enabled the states to undertake 
ill-planned and worse-executed systems of internal improvement. 
Most of the funds, thus applied, were devoted to roads, canals 
and rivers, however, harbors receiving little recognition. 
'Mere state authority could not indeed long meet the require¬ 
ments of an expanding people. By a series of legal refinements 
and complicated distinctions the national system insinuated it¬ 
self into active being. The first national turnpike had been 
built in 1807, the first national canal in 1812 and finally in 
1822 the first appropriation for a harbor passed Congress. 
Prior to this there had been bills “for the maintenance of light¬ 
houses, beacons, public piers, etc.,” the constitutionality of which 
had never been questioned but they were not harbor appropria¬ 
tions in the true sense of the term. The original accepted 
doctrine was that the Constitution was “a salt water instrument” 
giving power for sea coast improvement only. The new north¬ 
west, however, soon lifted its voice, demanding harbors on the 
Great Lakes, and the convenient theory was advanced that these 
bodies of water were merely “inland seas.” There were those 
in authority, however, that were unable to admit the constitu¬ 
tionality of improving inland harbors for the needs of commerce, 
but were satisfied if the plans were designated as “refuge har¬ 
bors.” 
Wisconsin came into being as a territory just as the west was 
beginning to realize the need for national assistance in local 
projects. Harbor improvements and, indeed, lake commerce 
prior to 1843, the date of the first appropriation for a Wisconsin 
harbor, were meagre. The first steamer had appeared on the 
lakes in 1819; the number had increased to eleven by 1833 and 
