The discussion of the general survey bill brought out
the significance of the problem of transportation, and revealed the
sectional divisions of the nation in clear light.
Henry Clay made an earnest effort to commit Congress to the exercise
of the power of construction of interstate highways and canals which
could not be undertaken by individual states or by combinations of
states, and which, if built at all, must be by the nation. He
recounted the attention given by Congress to the construction of
public buildings and light-houses, coast surveys, erection of sea-
walls in the Atlantic states--"everything on the margin of the
ocean, but nothing for domestic trade; nothing for the great
interior of the country." [Footnote: Annals of Cong., 18 Cong., 1
Sess., I., 1035.] "Not one stone," he said, "had yet been broken,
not one spade of earth removed, in any Western State." He boldly
claimed that the right to regulate commerce granted as fully the
power to construct roads and canals for the benefit of circulation
and trade in the interior as it did the power to promote coastwise
traffic.
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