American Literature, thoughts on, 337. Aesthetic manners, 204. Alton and Sangamon Railroad, 51. Biographical Individualities, 348. California, its products and commerce, Canada, its commerce with the United Canada, decline of its commerce with Carey, H. C., pamphlet on the pros- Cincinnati, elements of its population, Circulation of the atmosphere, 16: Commerce of the United States, sta- Commerce of New York, 183, 254. Commerce between the United States Im- ports from the Interior for the year Cotton, cost of transportation to Eng- Cotton, consumption and exports of Course of trade in the West, 167, Britain, 243. In the United States, Daguerreotyping Simplified, 200 and Index to Volume IV. Minnesota, its towns, statistics, &c., 103. Mississippi and Atlantic Railroad, 131, 199. Missouri, past present and future, 72. Moral power of Individuals, 396. Mullanphy, Bryan, munificent bequest of, 279. Navigation laws of Great Britain, effects of 300-1. Navigation, see shipping, vessels, &c., New York, imports and exports of, 183, 254. New Orleans, commerce and commer cial regulations of, 254. Value of produce received from the Interior, for the year, ending August, 31st, 1851, 390. Comparative value of produce received in four successive years, 192. Pacific Railroad, its location, 198. Its commencement, 259. Parasitic Fungi, natural history of, 218. Paupers in Great Britain, 245, 6. Plank Roads, mode of construction, by J. T. Ware, 171. Poor Rates in Great Britain, 236. Postage Law of the United States, 46. Railroads.-Alton and Sangamon R. Revenue of Great Britain raised by taxation, since 1800, 398, 268, 396. Rivers, improvement of Western, 1. River and Harbor Appropriations made since 1827, 45. River, Mississippi, suggestions in re- See Rail Roads, Plank Roads, St. Louis and Tennessee River Trade, 33. St. Louis Manufactures, 197. Shipping. See tonnage, vessels, com merce, Sioux Treaty, 351. The South, and its Staple, Cotton, 35. Steam Marine of Great Britain, 385. Sugar imported into the United States for the year ending June 30, 1850, 387. Exports of Sugar of foreign growth, 388. Exports of Sugar of domestic growth, 389. Imports of Sugar from 1847 to 1850, 392. Produce of Sugar in Louisiana from 1841 to 1850, 392. Tennessee River and St. Lous trade, 33. Tennessee Banks, 323. Terre Haute and Alton Rail Road, 55. Times, a glance at the present, 281. Thoughts on American Literature, 337. Tonnage of the United States, June 30th, 1850, 128. Tonnage of the several States and Territories, 187. Tonnage of Great Britain at different periods, 236. Trade of the West, its natural course, 107. Vessels, number of American and foreign vessels, with their tonnage, which entered the ports of the United States, during the year ending June 30, 1850, 125. National character of foreign vessels which entered into and cleared from the United States for the same period, 126. Number, tonnage and character of vessels which entered into each district, during same period, 127. Number and class of vessels built in each State and Territory, during the year ending June 30th, 1850, 190. Vide tonnage, commercial Siatistics, &c. Wabash aud Erie Canal, 61. tain, since 1800, 296 to 300. Williams, J. A., Inaugural Address, 147. Wine Fair, of St. Louis, in 1851, award of premium for Missouri Wine, 195. Writers, their influence on the public, 398. &c. Having long regarded the question touching the constitutional power of Congress to improve rivers and harbors as settled in the minds of a majority of the nation, and, trusting that the work of improvement would ere now have been resumed, we have hitherto refrained from all discussion on that subject. But the delay on the part of Congress to make appropriations to these objects, and the defeat of the bill recently before that body induce us to inquire into the causes which tend to weaken the political influence of the western States in the national councils. No one seems yet to have observed the important fact that, instead of gaining political influence with increase of population, the West is now more completely under the control of the East and South than it was twenty years ago, when its population bore a much less proportion to that of the older States than it does at present. This assertion is verified by the history of legislation on the subject before us. In the year 1827 Congress appropriated thirty thousand dollars for the improvement of the Ohio river; and other appropriations were made by each succeeding session until the year 1839. During this period of twelve years, embracing the entire administration of President Jackson, and, a part of Mr. Van Buren's, almost every river in the Union received something towards its improvement. In eighteen hundred and thirty eight a sum of $100,000 was appropriated to the improvement of the. Hudson, above and below Albany; and in eighteen hundred and forty-four an equal amount was appropriated to the improvement of the Ohio between the falls and Pittsburg. An executive veto in 1846 put an end to these appropriations; and notwithstanding the people, without distinction of party, have met in several large conventions and joined in urging upon Congress the resumption of the improvement of our rivers, yet the friends of the West have not been able to re-establish a policy which had been recognized and sustained by the nation for twenty years anterior to the Executive veto, by which it was in effect repudiated. We are informed that the late bill was defeated by stratagem and unfair conduct on the part of certain senators: this may have been the case, but does not explain the true cause. The acts of these senators only exhibit the manner in which the bill was finally lost; the cause of its defeat must be sought for elsewhere. Local or geographical parties are not less necessary, in the present condition of the United States, than parties formed upon questions of national policy. We have a northern and a southern party, but no western party with those, national politics are made subservient to sectional interests; and each is actuated by the strongest motives to support their respective measures. But in the West, all local interests are made to yield to national politics, modified by, and designed to promote the sectional interests and prejudices of the other two great divisions. Consequently the political power of the West is divided out between the North and the South, and, is made to subserve the purposes of the one or the other as they may happen to be in the ascendant. While in this condition it cannot be expected that the West can carry any measure which conflicts with the local interests or political views of either of the other parties. President making is the highest object aimed at by western politicians and it is natural that measures, though of vital importance to their constituents, should be made subservient to this end. So long as this State of things continues, the fate of all western measures must depend upon contingencies which have no relation to their merits; and we must be content to wait for an appropriation to remove the obstructions in our rivers until the happening of some lucky combination in the movement of politicians on the political chessboard. We charge no individual of the Western delegation with dereliction of duty; but we venture to affirm that, had they been united in the cordial support of Western interests and exerted that vigilance which distinguishes the Northern and Southern parties in the prosecution of their respective measures, the river and harbor bill, recently before Congress, would not have been defeated by a stratagem; and they would not have been compelled to return to their constituents with the humiliating appology that they had been outwitted and defeated by the disingenuous conduct of a minority. Nothing has transpired since the adoption of the Western States into the Union that so strongly manifests their weakness in the national councils as the action of the thirty-first Congress during the last day of its existence. The passage of a bill making liberal appropriations for light-houses on the Atlantic coast, immediately after the loss of the River and Harbor Bill, shows how easy it is for Congress to pass a measure calculated to encourage foreign commerce when the bill contains no provision for the benefit of the internal trade of the Western States. |