[THE Cumberland road is a national work, constructed under the
authority of congress, commencing at Cumberland on the Potomac
river in the state of Maryland, and extending west to the Ohio
river at Wheeling; from whence it is to be continued, under the
name of the national road, through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Missouri, to Jefferson, the capital of the latter state. At the
time when the compact with the state of Ohio was made by the
United States, this road had become absolutely necessary for
the purpose of securing an intercourse between the west and the
east side of the Alleghany mountains. The first step to effect
this, was taken in 1802, when Mr. Jefferson was president. Its
completion to the Ohio river, was in a great measure owing to
the exertions of Mr. Clay in the cause of internal improvement,
at various periods during his congressional career. After the
road had been made to Columbus, in the state of Ohio, the Ohio
section had been given to and accepted by that state. At the
session of congress in 1834, an appropriation of three hundred
thousand dollars had been made for repairing the road, and on
the present occasion a further sum of three hundred and forty
thousand dollars was proposed for the purpose of putting the
work in good condition, previously to its being surrendered
to the states through which it passes. The bill to effect this
object passed the senate by a vote of thirty-two to nine, after
considerable discussion; Mr. Clay giving his views as follows.]
MR. CLAY remarked, that he would not have said a word then, but for the
introduction in this discussion of collateral matters, not immediately
connected with it. He meant to vote for the appropriation contained
in the bill, and he should do so with pleasure, because, under all
the circumstances of the case, he felt himself called upon by a sense
of imperative necessity to yield his assent to the appropriation. The
road would be abandoned, and all the expenditures which had heretofore
been made upon it would have been entirely thrown away, unless they
now succeeded in obtaining an appropriation to put the road in a state
of repair. Now, he did not concur with the gentleman, (Mr. Ewing,)
that Ohio could, as a matter of strict right, demand of the government
to keep this road in repair. And why so? Because, by the terms of the
compact, under the operation of which the road was made, there was
a restricted and defined fund, set apart in order to accomplish that
object. And that fund measured the obligation of the government. It had
been, however, long since exhausted. There was no obligation, then, on
the part of the government, to keep the road in repair. But he was free
to admit, that considerations of policy would prompt it to adopt that
course, in order that an opportunity should be presented to the states
to take it into their own hands.
The honorable senator from Pennsylvania felicitated himself on having,
at a very early epoch, discovered the unconstitutionality of the
general government’s erecting toll-gates upon this road, and he voted
against the first measure to carry that object into execution. He (Mr.
Clay) must say, that, for himself, he thought the general government
had a right to adopt that course which it deemed necessary for the
preservation of a road which was made under its own authority. And as
a legitimate consequence from the power of making a road, was derived
the power of making an improvement on it. That was established; and,
on that point he was sure the honorable gentleman did not differ from
those who were in favor of establishing toll-gates at the period to
which he had alluded. He would repeat, that, if the power to make a
road were conceded, it followed, as a legitimate consequence from that
power, that the general government had a right to preserve it. And, if
the right to do so, there was no mode of preservation more fitting and
suitable, than that which resulted from a moderate toll for keeping up
the road, and thus continuing it for all time to come.
The opinion held by the honorable senator, at the period to which he
had adverted, was not the general opinion. He would well remember that
the power which he, (Mr. Clay,) contended, did exist, was sustained
in the other branch of the legislature by large majorities. And, in
that senate, if he was not mistaken, there were but nine dissentients
from the existence of it. If his recollection deceived him not, he had
the pleasure of concurring with the distinguished individual who now
presided over the deliberations of that body. He thought that he, (the
vice-president,) in common with the majority of the senate and house
of representatives, coincided in the belief, that a road, constructed
under the orders of the general government, ought to be preserved by
the authority which brought it into being. Now, that was his, (Mr.
Clay’s,) opinion still. He was not one of those who, on this or any
other great national subject, had changed his opinion in consequence of
being wrought upon by various conflicting circumstances.
With regard to the general power of making internal improvements, as
far as it existed in the opinions he had frequently expressed in both
houses, his opinion was unaltered. But with respect to the expediency
of exercising that power, at any period, it must depend upon the
circumstances of the times. And, in his opinion, the power was to be
found in the constitution. This belief he had always entertained, and
it remained unshaken. He could not coincide in the opinion expressed by
the honorable senator from Pennsylvania and the honorable senator from
Massachusetts, in regard to the disposition that was to be made of this
road.
What, he would ask, had been stated on all hands? That the Cumberland
road was a great national object, in which all the people of the United
States were interested and concerned; that we are interested in our
corporate capacity, on account of the stake we possessed in the public
domain, and that we were consequently benefited by that road; that the
people of the west were interested in it, as a common thoroughfare to
all places from one side of the country to the other. Now, what was the
principle of the arrangement that had been entered into? It was this
common object, this national object, this object in which the people
of this country were interested; its care, its preservation, was to be
confided to different states, having no special motive or interest in
its preservation; and, therefore, not responsible for the consequences
that might result. The people of Kentucky and Indiana, and of the
states west of those states, as well as the people living on the
eastern side of the mountains, were all interested in the use and
occupation of this road, which, instead of being retained and kept
under the control of that common government in which all had a share,
their interest in it was to be confided to the local jurisdictions
through which the road passed; and thus the states, generally, were to
depend upon the manner in which they should perform their duties; upon
those having no sympathy with them, having no regard for their interest,
but left to do as they chose in regard to the preservation of this road.
He would say that the principle was fundamentally wrong. He protested
against it; had done from the first, and did so again now. It was a
great national object, and they might as well give the care of the mint
to Pennsylvania, the protection of the breakwater, or of the public
vessels in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, to the respective
legislatures of the states in which that property was situated, as give
the care of a great national road, in which the whole people of the
United States were concerned, to the care of a few states which were
acknowledged to have no particular interest in it――states having so
little interest in that great work, that they would not repair it when
offered to their hands.
But, he said, he would vote for this appropriation; he was compelled to
vote for it by the force of circumstances over which he had no control.
He had seen, in reference to internal improvements, and other measures
of a national character, not individuals, merely, but whole masses,
entire communities, prostrating their own settled opinions, to which
they had conformed for half a century, wheel to the right or the left,
march this way or that, according as they saw high authority for it.
And he saw that there was no way of preserving this great object, which
afforded such vast facilities to the western states, no other mode of
preserving it, but by a reluctant acquiescence in a course of policy,
which _all_, at least, had not contributed to produce, but which was
formed to operate on the country, and from which there lay no appeal.
Mr. Clay, in conclusion, again reiterated that he should vote for the
appropriation in this bill, although very reluctantly, and with the
protest, that the road in question, being the common property of the
whole nation, and under the guardianship of the general government,
ought not to be treacherously parted from by it, and put into the hands
of the local governments, who felt no interest in the matter.