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Readings
on Internal Improvements IV. THE POLICY OF INTERNAL
IMPROVEMENTS
387 388 389
390 391 392
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Gallatin's
Report on Roads and Canals The Secretary of the Treasury, in
obedience to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d March, 1807,
respectfully, submits the following report on roads and canals. The general utility of artificial roads and canals, is at this time so universally admitted, as hardly to require any additional proofs. It is sufficiently evident that, whenever the annual expense of transportation on a certain route in its natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital employed in improving the communication, and the annual expense of transportation (exclusively of the tolls,) by the improved route; the difference is an annual additional income to the nation. Nor does in that case the general result vary, although the tolls may not have been fixed at a rate sufficient to pay to the undertakers the interest on the capital laid out. They indeed, when that
happens, lose; but the community is nevertheless benefited by the
undertaking. The general gain
is not confined to the difference between the expenses of the
transportation of those articles which had been formerly conveyed by that
route, but many which were brought to market by other channels, will then
find a new and more advantageous direction; and those which on account of
their distance or weight could not be transported in any manner whatever,
will acquire a value, and become a clear addition to the national wealth.
Those and many other advantages have become so obvious, that in
countries possessed of a large capital, where property is sufficiently
secure to induce individuals to lay out that capital on permanent
undertakings, and where a compact population creates an extensive
commercial intercourse, within short distances, those improvements may
often, in ordinary cases, be left to individual exertion, without any
direct aid from government. There are however some
circumstances, which, whilst they render the facility of communications
throughout the United States an object of primary importance, naturally
check the application of private capital and enterprise, to improvements
on a large scale. The price of labor is not
considered as a formidable obstacle, because whatever it may be, it
equally affects the expense of transportation, which is saved by the
improvement, and that of effecting the improvement itself.
The want of practical knowledge is no longer felt: and the
occasional influence of mistaken local interests, in sometimes thwarting
or giving an improper direction to public improvements, arises from the
nature of man, and is common to all countries.
The great demand for capital in the United States, and the extent
of territory compared with the population, are, it is believed, the true
causes which prevent new undertakings, and render those already
accomplished, less profitable than had been expected. 1.
Notwithstanding the great increase of capital during the last
fifteen years, the objects for which it is required continue to be more
numerous, and its application is generally more profitable than in Europe.
A small portion therefore is applied to objects which offer only
the prospect of remote and moderate profit.
And it
also happens that a less sum being subscribed at first, than is actually
requisite for completing the work, this proceeds slowly; the capital
applied remains unproductive for a much longer time than was necessary,
and the interest accruing during that period, becomes in fact an injurious
addition to the real expense of the undertaking. 2.
The present population of the United States, compared with the
extent of territory over which it is spread, does not, except in the
vicinity of the seaports, admit that extensive commercial intercourse
within short distances, which, in England and some other countries, forms
the principal support of artificial roads and canals.
With a few exceptions, canals particularly, cannot in America be
undertaken with a view solely to the intercourse between the two extremes
of, and along the inter-mediate ground which they occupy.
It is necessary, in order to be productive, that the canal should
open a communication with a natural extensive navigation which will flow
through that new channel. It
follows that whenever that navigation requires to be improved, or when it
might at some distance be connected by another canal to another
navigation, the first canal will remain comparatively unproductive, until
the other improvements are effected, until the other canal is also
completed. Thus the intended
canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware, will be deprived of the
additional benefit arising from the intercourse between New York and the
Chesapeake, until an inland navigation, shall have been opened between the
Delaware and New York. Thus
the expensive canals completed around the Falls of Potomac, will become
more and more productive in proportion to the improvement, first of the
navigation of the upper branches of the river, and then of its
communication with the western waters.
Some works already executed are unprofitable, many more remain
unattempted, because their ultimate productiveness depends on other
improvements, too extensive or too distant to be embraced by the same
individuals. The general government can alone
remove these obstacles. With resources amply sufficient
for the completion of every practicable improvement, it will always supply
the capital wanted for any work which it may undertake, as fast as the
work itself can progress,
avoiding thereby the ruinous loss of interest on a dormant capital, and
reducing the real expense to its lowest rate. With these resources, and
embracing the whole union, it will complete on any given line all the
improvements, however distant, which may be necessary to render the whole
productive, and eminently beneficial. The early and efficient aid of the
federal government is
recommended by still more important considerations.
The inconveniences, complaints, and perhaps dangers, which may
result from a vast extent of territory, can no otherwise be radically
removed, or prevented, than by opening speedy and easy communications
through all its parts. Good
roads and canals, will shorten distances, facilitate commercial and
personal intercourse, and unite by a still more intimate community of
interests, the most remote quarters of the United States.
No other single operation, within the power of government, can more
effectually tend to strengthen and perpetuate that union, which secures
external independence, domestic peace, and internal liberty. . . . It must not be omitted that the
facility of communications, constitutes, particularly in the United
States, an important branch of national defence.
Their extensive territory opposes a powerful obstacle to the
progress of an enemy. But on
the other hand, the number of regular forces, which may be raised,
necessarily limited by the population, will for many years be
inconsiderable when compared with that extent of territory.
That defect cannot otherwise be supplied than by those great
national improvements, which will afford the means of a rapid
concentration of that regular force, and of a formidable body of militia,
on any given point. Amongst the resources of the
union, there is one which from its nature seems more particularly
applicable to internal improvements.
Exclusively of Louisiana, the general government possesses, in
trust for the people of the United States, about one hundred millions of
acres fit for cultivation, north of the river Ohio, and near fifty
millions south of the state of Tennessee.
For the disposition of those lands a plan has been adopted,
calculated to enable every industrious citizen to become a freeholder, to
secure indisputable titles to the purchasers, to obtain a national
revenue, and above
all to suppress monopoly. Its
success has surpassed that of every former attempt, and exceeded the
expectations of its authors. But
a higher price than had usually been paid for waste lands by the first
inhabitants of the frontier became an unavoidable ingredient of a system
intended for general benefit, and was necessary in order to prevent the
public lands being engrossed by individuals possessing greater wealth,
activity or local advantages. It
is believed that nothing could be more gratifying to the purchasers, and
to the inhabitants of the western states generally, or better calculated
to remove popular objections, and to defeat insidious efforts, than the
application of the proceeds of the sales to improvements conferring
general advantages on the nation, and an immediate benefit on the
purchasers and inhabitants themselves. It may be added, that the United States, considered merely as
owners of the soil, are also deeply interested in the opening of those
communications, which must necessarily enhance the value of their
property. Thus the opening of
an inland navigation from tide water to the great lakes, would immediately
give to the great body of lands bordering on those lakes, as great value
as if they were situated at the distance of one hundred miles by land from
the sea coast. And if the
proceeds of the first ten millions of acres which may be sold, were
applied t such improvements, the United States would be amply repaid in
the sale of the other ninety millions.... The manner in which the public
monies may be applied to such objects, remains to be considered. It is evident that the United
States cannot under the constitution open any road or canal, without the
consent of the state through which such road or canal must pass. In order therefore to remove every impediment to a national
plan of internal improvements, an amendment to the constitution was
suggested by the executive when the subject was recommended to the
consideration of Congress. Until
this be obtained, the assent of the states being necessary for each
improvement, the modifications under which that assent may be given, will
necessarily control the manner of applying the money.
It may be however observed that in relation to the specific
improvements which have been suggested, there is hardly any which is not
either already authorized by the states respectively,
or so immediately beneficial to them, as to render it highly probable that
no material difficulty will be experienced in that respect. The monies may be applied in two different manners: the United States may with the assent of the states, undertake some of the works at their sole expense - or they may subscribe a certain number of shares of the stock of companies incorporated for the purpose. Loans might also in some instances be made to such companies. The first mode would perhaps, by effectually controlling local interests, give the most proper general direction to the work. Its details would probably be executed on a more economical plan by private companies. Both modes may perhaps be blended together so as to obtain the advantages pertaining to each. But the modifications of which the plan is susceptible must vary according to the nature of the work, and of the charters, and seem to belong to that class of details which are not the immediate subject of consideration. . . Madison's
Veto Message, March 3, 1817 The legislative powers vested in
Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first
article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power
proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers, or
that it falls by any just interpretation within the power to make laws
necessary and proper
for carrying into execution those or other powers vested by the
Constitution in the Government of the United States. . . . 
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