Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
In addition to the dangers to the Constitution springing from the
sources I have stated, there has been one which was perhaps greater
than all. I allude to the materials which this subject has afforded for
sinister appeals to selfish feelings, and the opinion heretofore so
extensively entertained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal
ambition. With such stimulus it is not surprising that the acts and
pretensions of the Federal Government in this behalf should some times
have been carried to an alarming extent. The questions which have
arisen upon this subject have related--To the power of making internal
improvements within the limits of a State, with the right of
territorial jurisdiction, sufficient at least for their preservation
and use. To the right of appropriating money in aid of such works when
carried on by a State of by a company in virtue of State authority,
surrendering the claim of jurisdiction; and To the propriety of
appropriation for improvements of a particular class, viz, for light
houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and for the removal of sand bars,
sawyers, and other temporary and partial impediments in our navigable
rivers and harbors. The claims of power for the General Government upon
each of these points certainly present matter of the deepest interest.
The first is, however, of much the greatest importance, in as much as,
in addition to the dangers of unequal and improvident expenditures of
public moneys common to all, there is super-added to that the
conflicting jurisdictions of the respective governments. Federal
jurisdiction, at least to the extent I have stated, has been justly
regarded by its advocates as necessarily appurtenant to the power in
question, if that exists by the Constitution.
That the most injurious conflicts would unavoidably arise between the
respective jurisdictions of the State and Federal Governments in the
absence of a constitutional provision marking out their respective
boundaries can not be doubted. The local advantages to be obtained
would induce the States to overlook in the beginning the dangers and
difficulties to which they might ultimately be exposed. The powers
exercised by the Federal Government would soon be regarded with
jealousy by the State authorities, and originating as they must from
implication or assumption, it would be impossible to affix to them
certain and safe limits.
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