The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 54
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APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
Jan. 1844.
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Improvement of the Western waters—Mr. Kennedy.
H. of Reps.
against too long treating us with the neglect and in-
differenee oilce exhibited towards them by a rude
stepmother, that neither knew their wants nor eould
appreciate their rising greatness.
The western States are the offspring of the east-
ern and southern States, and bear to them the affec-
tion due from a diStiful child to a mother; but the
mother might as well be at once notified that we are
jio longer to be held in leading-strings; and an effort
on her part longer to keep us m surveillance may oc-
casion an outbreak in the family that will not be
very agreeable in the domestic circle.
I beseech members to pause and reflect a few mo-
ments. How has your legislation heretofore been
conducted? The interests of the North and the in-
terests of the South have been the legislative song
hitherto. The interests of the West have never
been thought of or spoken about—we, good easy
souls, being content to be hung on as a kind of
makeweight to the North or the South. What has
been the result of all this? Simply that, between the
upper and lower millstone, our interests have been
ground to powder! Is this thing to be longer en-
dured? or are we of the West once in an age to set up
for ourselves? The North has attended to her inter-
ests, and the South has attended to hers; and who
blames them? Within the circle of our duty to the
whole Union, it is the bounden duty of the represent-
ative to attend to the local interests of his immediate
constituents. And who ever heard of a representative,
from either the North or the South, neglecting the
interests of his immediate constituents? But, Mr.
Chairman, who ever heard of a western representa-
tive attending to the interests of the West' And
have we of the West no interests to be attended to?
Why, sir, look to the great grain-growing regions,
stretching from the foot of the Alleghanies to the
Pacific ocean!—from the lakes of the northwest to
the gulf of Mexico!—embracing within its area al-
most as much agricultural soil, with a salubrious
climate, as half the inhabitable world beside! This
vast region is filled, and fast filling, with the most en-
terprising and industrious population that can be
found upon the face of the earth! Comparatively
speaking, all these myriads of people are engaged
in agricultural pursuits. And are there no interests
peculiar to these pursuits to be attended to?
Too long, Mr. Chairman, has the agriculture of
our country been neglected, and suffered to pine
under the heavy load thrown upon its shoulders by
a species of partial legislation, which invariably re-
sulted in lessening the rewards of labor expended in
this, the noblest of all pursuits. This thing must
have an end, and I fondly hope its end is nigh.
And whilst the agriculturist asks no legislative in-
terference to give him the reward due to the indus-
try of others; yet I hope and trust that their repre-
sentatives on this floor, now that they have the
power, will stand up for the interests of their constit-
uents, and, in their name, demand equal and exact
justicc to all men, and to all sections of this confed-
eracy. Let them say, whilst you are legislating for
the direct or incidental interests of the northern man-
ufacturer or the southern planter, recollect the in-
terests of the western farmer; and, in your appro-
priations, their outlets to the markets of the world
must receive their share of the nation's bounty.
Cut, Mr. Chairman, whilst we will do justice to
our own portion of this great republic, we will be
governed by the constitution, and its proper and
strict construction; and my friend from Virginia
[Mr. Wise] need entertain no fears of our doing
violence to that sacred instrument. We will not
act upon a rule that has been but too often practised,
vfthich stretches its construction to meet particular
and sectional interests. JNo, sir; the appropriations
that we shall ask for the lakes and rivers of the far
AVest, will be based upon as clear constitutional
grounds as the millions heretofore appropriated on
the seaboard. Whilst wc are able to take and
maintain this strong and impregnable position, I
warn my western friends to be careful how they
suffer pretended friends to place them in a false posi-
tion. I beseech them to be careful how they suffer
this vital question to be intertwined with that false
and odious doctrine, that this government may ap-
propriate the people's money to any and all objects
which to Congress seems meet. That was the
foundation of that wild and profligate expenditure
of public moneys, falsely called the "American sys-
tem." No wonder, then, that that system should
]^ve become so odious to the American people.
And, as a western man, I now declare that, rather
than suffer a connexion of an appropriation to our
western water# with such profligacy, I will wait
the advent of another census, which ■will bring a
majority of the members on this floor from the Mis-
sissippi valley. Sir, I abhor this log-rolling system
of legislation, by which a strong measure is made to
carry a weak one; a righteous to pass an unrighte-
ous one. By this species of legislation many of the
States have been wellnigh ruined; none of which
have suffered more than my own.
The gentleman from New York [Mr. Barnard]
intimates that the Hudson river must be placed on
this western appropriation—as a rider, I suppose; and
he speaks in glowing and eloquent terms of the com-
merce of that river. Well, I suppose it is a clever
little stream, and that there floats upon its bosom
considerable commerce. But, Mr. Chairman, that
same Hudson of his is no more in comparison to the
Mississippi and its trib utaries, than is a spring branch
to New York's vaunted stream. The Hudson
facilitates the commerce of New York; and a noble
State it is. But to what does the gentleman compare
it? Look to the Mississippi, rising in the Rocky
mountains, and flowing through the entire valley of
the West, dividing States from States in its course to
the ocean, and bearing on its bosom the rich prod-
ucts of an agricultural empire; one noble river after
another uniting with its turbulent waters, until, like
a vast inland sea, it empties itself into the Gulf of
Mexico, thousands-upon thousands of miles from its
source, affording, with its tributaries, to the industry
of the West, ten thousand miles of steam navigation
for the greater portion of the year. Nor is this all.
Whilst a portion of our western commerce finds,
through this channel, its way to the sunny South,
and through her to the uttermost parts of the earth;
another portion (nearly as large) of the citizens of
the West seeks a market for their surplus products
through the great chain of northwestern lakes;
which, starting at the Lake of the Woods, presents
an unbroken chain of fresh-water seas almost to the
emporium of the Empire State herself. Both these
sections of the West embrace within their limits the
most extensive, and, at the same time, the richest agri-
cultural soil which is to be found anywhere on this
terraqueous globe. Here is the agricultural store-
house of the universe—the garden of the world!
Look at this sober and simple statement of the ex-
tent of this vast country, and tell me, if you can tell,
where appropriations can be made to national
works, if it cannot be done there? Sir, the gentle-
man speaks of the commerce of the Hudson.
Where, I ask him, would be his Hudson, were it
not for the northwest pouring annually her surplus
millions into the markets of the world through this
single channel?
Between the northern and southern outlets for
western commerce,I have no prepossessions, as I
should have none; for, Mr. Chairman, whilst the
southern portion of the citizens of my congressional
district seek a market southward through the Mis-
sissippi and its tributaries, the north ern portion of
the same constituency seek, through the northern
lakes, a purchaser for their surplus products on the
eastern seaboard.
But, Mr. Chairman, it is not my intention to en-
ter into a discussion of the justice of their claims at
this time. The proper occasion will arrive for this
discussion. The simple object I had in view, in
rising at this time was, to express my gratification
that members have at length discovered that there
is a place in this confederacy called the West.
As to what committee this portion of the message
shall go, I care not, resting assured that, if the com-
mittee should not do the West justice, there is a
place where justice can and will be done.
REMARKS OF MR. KENNEDY,
OF INDIANA,
In the House of Representatives, January 16, 1844—
On the motion of Mr. Cave Johnson to reconsid-
er the vote of the House on the resolution instruct-
ing the Committee of Ways and Means to report
a Bill appropriating money to clear obstructions
from the"western rivers.
Mr. Speaker: Some weeks ago, when the ques-
tion of the referen&e of so much of the President's
message as refers to appropriations to western wa-
ters, was before the Committee of the whole House,
I took occasion to refer to what I conceived the in-
justice which had been done to the West in former
legislation, and to express my gratification at what
seemed the present disposition, at least to remember
the West. For my temerity on that occasion, I
have not only been grossly abused and bedaubed by
th« spken and filth of some of th« tetter-writers who
have crawled into and defiled the Capitol, as did the
lice and frogs, with which God cursed the land of
Egypt, defile and render loathsome the very
presence chamber of her kings. But the two-
penny editors about this and other cities—who
fear that the West, in doing herself justice,
may stop the leaks in the national treasury
through which they continue to get their bread
and butter—have belabored me in the most unmer-
ciful manner. For all this I am thankful; for their
abuse can only serve as a conclusive evidence to my
constituents that I am engaged in doing my duty.
But, Mr. Speaker, newspaper notoriety is not all
that falls to my lot as a penalty for the few words I
then uttered.
It has now been several weeks since that debate
commenced. Some twenty or thirty speeches have
been made in the course of it, and I think 1 do not
state too strongly when I say that scarcely one of
them, made by members out of the Mississippi val-
ley, has failed to read me a sharp lecture, sticking
my humble name some half dozen times into their
speeches. Nor is this all. Some of the "unlineal
and bastard sons of the West," still choosing to live,
and move, and act, in the shade of the great ones
from other sections, have joined in this hue-and-cry.
And, to wind up, the gentleman from Pennsylvania,
who has just taken his seat, has declared that the
West are too sectional in their feelings.
It may be we are too sectional; but if so, I am not
aware of it. True, I think we have been heretofore
neglected and ill-treated. It may be that in this I
am mistaken, but I think not.
But, says the gentleman from Pennsylvania who
preceded me, we will give you the appropriation
you ask for and deserve to have on your western
waters, if you will vote all the money we ask. This
"if" may chance to cost us dear. The plain English of
this is, that we are to adopt a grand system of in-
ternal improvements, by which our constituents are
to be taxed to the tune of hundreds of millions, in
order to secure an appropriation of a few thousand
dollars to our western channels of commerce.
Now, Mr. Speaker, let me be distinctly under-
stood. Let there be plain dealing between us.
The western people claim that a plain, simple,
economical administration of this government is
their birth-right. They claim that, within that lim-
ited and proper circle, there is coming to them a suf-
ficient appropriation to keep open their great chan-
nels of commerce, and therefore they mean to have
it. But I now tell the gentlemen that, if they expect
to use these appropriations as a mess ofpotage,
with which to purchase our aforesaid birth-
right, then they are mistaken as to the state o
our necessities. We will not act the Esau in this
matter. Do they expect us, for the purpose of getting
a few thousand dollars appropriated to our western
waters, to open up the floodgates of national ex-
travagance, and pour in upon our people a deluge
of wasteful expenditures, by which a national debt
of hundreds of millions is to be saddled upon the
industry of our laboring people, the annual in-
terest of which will eat out their substance, like a
canker praying upon their vitals? Before this is
done, I pray you to look upon the funded debt of
the mother country, which commenced at the size
of a mole-hill, but which has grown by degrees,
until now its top has reached far beyond all flight
of hope—daily threatening to topple to the earth,
engulfing beneath its ruins not only those who pro-
jected it, but the very government under which it was
created. And how long do you suppose it would
take the toiseacres of this government who invent
those funded debts that they ma,y fatten on the labor
of the masses, gathered in the shape of taxes—to
pay the interest thereon? How long, under the op-
eration of such a machine, would it be before the la-
borer of this once happy country would be grovel-
ling in the dust of poverty and wretchedness, that
has been the abiding place of the laborer of Europe
for the last half century? No, Mr. Speaker, no.
We never take our western appropriations on these
fatal conditions. We claim them on clear constitu-
tional grounds, within an economical administration
of national funds; and when the proper time arrives,
we will give such reasons in their favor as shall
commend them to the consciences of membeis. If
we fail in this, then we will fail in our appropria-
tions; for we will take them on no other terms.
Nor is this all. I now tell members of this House,
and my constituents, (if some of the reporters will
be so good as to recollect what I say,) that I will not
vote to spend even one dollar in my own district, if
I the money has to b« borrowed to b so •xpeadnd.
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/64/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.