WASHINGTON, _May 19, 1856_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I return herewith to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill
entitled "An act to remove obstructions to navigation in the mouth of
the Mississippi River at the Southwest Pass and Pass à l'Outre," which
proposes to appropriate a sum of money, to be expended under the
superintendence of the Secretary of War, "for the opening and keeping
open ship channels of sufficient capacity to accommodate the wants of
commerce through the Southwest Pass and Pass à l'Outre, leading from
the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico."
In a communication addressed by me to the two Houses of Congress on the
30th of December, 1854, my views were exhibited in full on the subject
of the relation of the General Government to internal improvements.
I set forth on that occasion the constitutional impediments, which in
my mind are insuperable, to the prosecution of a system of internal
improvements by means of appropriations from the Treasury of the United
States, more especially the consideration that the Constitution does
not confer on the General Government any express power to make such
appropriations, that they are not a necessary and proper incident of
any of the express powers, and that the assumption of authority on
the part of the Federal Government to commence and carry on a general
system of internal improvements, while exceptionable for the want of
constitutional power, is in other respects prejudicial to the several
interests and inconsistent with the true relation to one another of
the Union and of the individual States.
These objections apply to the whole system of internal improvements,
whether such improvements consist of works on land or in navigable
waters, either of the seacoast or of the interior lakes or rivers.
I have not been able, after the most careful reflection, to regard the
bill before me in any other light than as part of a general system of
internal improvements, and therefore feel constrained to submit it,
with these objections, to the reconsideration of Congress.