Syracuse University Library
Special Collections Research Center
Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

Letter on "Internal Improvements".

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

Digital Edition.

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Call number: Smith 413

LETTER ON "INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS."

PETERBORO, October 8th,1839.

To the gentlemen of the County of Madison, who shall be chosen to seats in the Legislature, at the approaching Election:

As an inhabitant of your County, and as one of your constituents, I take the liberty of addressing you.

The policy of having the canals and rail roads of the State built by its government, is, perhaps, already established. Certain it is, that should this policy meet with the favor of our Legislature, for another session, and especially should further provision be then made for the enlargement of the Erie Canal and the construction of the New York and Erie Rail Road, it would become a settled policy, and would not cease, until it had worked out its own ruin. Whatever remonstrances are to be made against this policy should, therefore, be made now: and wherever, in any section or neighborhood of the State, there remains a man, who has been enabled to maintain the exercise of common sense, and withstand the infatuation of the times, on him does the crisis call loudly to lift up his earnest, prompt, and public testimony against a career, which will prove no less ruinous to the interests of the State than it is contemptuous of the counsels of prudence and integrity.

I do not object to the construction of rail roads and canals. The more of them, made in answer to the demands of increasing trave I and commerce, the better. My objection is to the radical and pernicious error of having them undertaken and executed by government. The only reasons for this objection, to which I will invite your attention, are, 1st, that, in such case, their construction and repairs cost more than is proper, - and 2nd, that, in such case, they are multiplied beyond reasonable limits.

No one doubts, that the repairs of the Erie and Champlain canals are one fourth greater than they would be, were those canals the property of individuals. The reason why the investment in those crowded avenues of commerce has yielded on the whole, but about our legal rate of interest, is that they were opened, and have been kept in repair, by government. Had they been individual, instead of State property, their net revenue, even with the present tariff of tolls, would, probably, have fallen but little short of double that rate of interest. It requires no explanation to prove the truth of the axiomatic proposition, that the labor of the arm is most untiring, and the vigilance of the eye most unceasing, where the arm and the eye are prompted by self-interest. The fact, that the common highways in our State are built and repaired - not by the State at large - not by counties - not even by townships - but by little neighborhoods, in which it is almost literally true, that every man, as in the case of the construction of the walls of Jerusalem, builds "over against his house" - shows the large and just reliance of the lawmakers, who so ordered it, on the element of self-interest. And no less unwilling would the people of the State be to have government build their ten thousand district school houses and supply them with teachers, than to have it build and repair all the highways and bridges in the State. Let government be the sole builder of these school houses, and the sole employer of the teachers for them - and let all the laborers upon our bridges and highways be in its pay; - and a general bankruptcy of our citizens would be the speedy consequence of operations carried on at so great a remove from self-interest, and partaking, necessarily, of so slight an infusion of its spirit.

I pass to the other reason for my objection to having our canals and rail roads the work and property of government. Under the policy of having the State at large build them, many are built, which should not be, and for which there is no legitimate occasion. Under this policy, political parties, for the sake of securing local favor, espouse the most chimerical undertakings. Hence is it, that various sections of the State are encouraged to press schemes of "internal improvement," which, but for the adoption of this unwise policy, would never have been conceived. Hence the construction of the Chenango Canal, the entire revenues of which are insufficient to keep it in repair. Hence the project of the New York and Erie Rail Road, and other no less ridiculous enterprises. If there were hope of success in the application, the people in and between Cooperstown and Fort Plain would ask the State government to connect those places by a rail road: but the same people would not make the road on their own account, even if that government were to furnish half the means. - The Chenango Canal passes, in its whole extent, through the counties of Oneida, Madison, Chenango, and Broome. Those counties would not have undertaken the construction of the canal on their own account exclusively, even had government consented to contribute one half the expense. Nevertheless, the votes of those few counties (and it must be borne in mind, that nearly half of Oneida and Madison were not in favor of the canal) were a prize, that the political parties thought it worth while to seek to win at the expense of millions of dollars to the people of the State. Said that eminently upright man and sound financier, Alvin Bronson, in a conversation I had with him during the pendency of the bill to construct the Black River Canal: "If the State make it, they will have to hire men to boat it." And yet visionary as is this undertaking, the little county of Lewis, with portions of Oneida and Jefferson, could induce the political parties to consent to waste millions of the public moneys upon it. "The sequestered counties," as they are called, are now, and long have been, clamoring for the government of the State to wind a rail road of some four hundred miles length amongst their sparsely peopled mountains. Now, who believes, that these "sequestered counties" would build this road, estimated to cost eight or ten millions of dollars, even if government were to furnish three fourths cf the expense? The owners of the great and almost trackless wilderness in the Northern part of the State would have the State expend two or three millions of dollars in connecting Lake Champlain with the St. Lawrence river by a rail road: - but they would not make the road on their own account, even if the income were to be quadruple what they expect it to be. Under this policy of having government do what should be done by individuals, or left undone, the people of the State are to be charged with an expenditure of six or seven millions of dollars for the construction of the Genesee canal. The expenditure will be a total loss. So also in all probability will be the thirty millions to be expended in enlarging the Erie Canal. When we consider, that millions will be annually required to keep in repair the banks and bridges, and locks and feeders of this great river, and to repair the damages of its occasional innundations; and when we further consider the growing competition for the trade of the West, and how powerfully the Mississippi, when connected with the great lakes by a navigable communication, will attract this trade; and how scarcely less inviting will be the St. Lawrence, when British enterprise and capital shall have perfected a ship channel all the way from Montreal to Lake Erie; and when, moreover, we consider, that Philadelphia and Baltimore will wage a competition for Western trade, sharper and, perhaps, more successful than that of the towns on the Mississippi or St. Lawrence, - when, I say, we take these and other considerations into the account, we may well believe, that the net income of the Erie Canal, enlarged, will be less, than it now is. A ship channel across our State, by means of which vessels of the Atlantic might, without breaking bulk, land their cargoes at Detroit or Chicago, would be an inestimable facility to the commerce of our country; and would, of course, be far more productive in tolls, than a mere boat canal. That even this, however, should be constructed, I do not here maintain. That it would be expedient to open even this channel, which, and which alone, would leave the City of New York, without a rival for the Western Trail is not here admitted. But that a canal should be made from the Hudson to the Lakes of very nearly the dimensions of a ship canal - costing three fourths, if not seven eighths as much per mile, as would a ship canal - and yet be but capacious enough to afford a passage for boats - this is, indeed, a wonder; and will be looked upon by future ages, as one of the most stupendous, if not the unequalled, folly of our own.

A principal reason why canals and rail roads are excessively multiplied under the policy of making them State works, is that government uses its credit in building them. If it built them, only as fast as it drew money from the pockets oŁ its citizens to pay for them, it would be called on to build but few more. The song of "internal improvements at the public expense" would, in that case, find few singers. Another reason is, that under the dishonest and demoralizing policy of making the whole body politic pay for local benefits

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and the advantage of sectional interests, conscientious reluctance to the perpretration of this form of robbery becomes very naturally, less and less. A single county - nay, a single town - will not hesitate, at last, to ask government to tax the people of the whole State for the accomplishment, however expensive, of an object, whose benefits are so strictly local, as to be confined to the town, which has the effrontery to ask for it. So rapid has been the debauching effect of this policy, that I much question, whether the public virtue would be shocked by such an application now, as that, which I have predicted. And yet the application would involve no less destitution of moral principle, than he would evince, who should compel his neighbors to plough his fields, or make his garden. There is a special reason, why the policy of constructing rail roads and canals by the government of this State should produce a remarkable number of schemes of "internal improvement." That reason is found in the fact of the extensive territory, great population, and great resources of the State. A State, the reverse of our own in these respects, is in little danger of multiplying works of "internal improvement," at the public expense. We do not hear of State rail roads and State canals in Delaware, or Rhode Island, or Vermont. Propose, for instance, that the State of Delaware should make, at the cost of three hundred thousand dollars, a rail road or canal entire within the limits, and exclusively for the benefit, of one of its three counties. The favored county would, doubtless, be greatly pleased with the idea of such an expenditure: but the fact, that it must meet the payment of one third of it would avail to keep back the assent even of that County, until well convinced, that the enterprise would, in itself be productive and desirable. Let, however, the supposed case be in a State of fifty or sixty counties - and then, even though there were no prospect, that the rails of the road would ever be pressed by a car, or the waters of the canal vexed by a boat, the county, which is to have the "internal improvement, would hail it loudly, and that too, and all the more, if its cost were three millions of dollars, instead of one tenth of that sum.

Another reason, why canals and rail roads are so unduly multiplied under the policy of having them government works, is that laws are obtained for them by that temporary combination of the advocates of various projects, and by that Herod and Pilate reconcilement of the most opposite views and interests, so generally known under the name of "log rolling." Millions may be appropriated, at the next session of the Legislature, to prosecute the enlargement of the Erie Canal: - but he need be no remarkable prophet to foretell, that the appropriation will be the fruit of "log rolling;" and that it will be found in the same company with appropriations for the construction of the New York and Erie, and Ogdensburgh and Champlain Rail Roads. No one of these visionary projects could, of itself, and by itself, command a majority in either House of our Legislature. If the General Banking Law has produced no other goad effect, we should at least rejoice, that it has terminated "log rolling" for bank charters: - and were we now to abandon the system of prosecuting "internal improvements" at the expense of the State, and thus put an end to those corrupt combinations for rail road and canal laws, which have so often been witnessed in our Legislature; we might reasonably calculate on a good degree of purity in our future legislation.

General demoralization and profligacy will be the most lamentable consequence of the system of "internal improvements," which New York, Pennsylvania, and other States, are prosecuting There will be also a long continuance of the pecuniary embarrassments under which our country is now suffering: and in the next; if not in dead in the present generation, there will be a repudiation of the hundreds of millions of debt incurred by the State governments in the building of rail roads and canals.

How strange, that our wise men should, so uniformly ascribe the pecuniary embarrassments of our country, for the last few years, to the multiplication of banks and the boundless issues of their paper - to extravagant speculations in real estate - and to no other cause! It is true; that hundreds and thousands have been greatly embarrassed, or entirely prostrated, by their participation in those speculations: but the mass of the people are but little affected by the transfer of property amongst groups of gamblers, at however inflated prices. It is also true, that a redundant paper currency greatly stimulates such speculations. But, the actual and anticipated expenditure during the last eight or ten years, of a hundred millions of dollars in our country on works of "internal improvement" is as much, perhaps, as all the banks, the occasion of these speculations. And as the investment of several scores of these millions in works, which, yielding, some less, and others but little more, than the cost of their repairs, have sunk the capital expended upon them, is a fact sufficient to account for no inconsiderable share of our pecuniary embarrassments - it is certainly unphilosophical to overlook this prolific cause, and go in quest, not merely of other, but of exclusive causes of these embarrassments. There would be no extraordinary money pressure in our country at the present time, if our oven money market and that of England were not glutted with stocks created for the purpose of promoting objects of "internal improvements" in the United States. Food would not have been scarce for the last few years in the mouths of God's poor in this country; and America would not have been reduced to the disgraceful necessity of seeking bread stuffs in Europe, had it not been, that humble agriculture was disparaged and overshadowed by the glories of "internal improvement," and tens of thousands of laborers diverted from the cultivation of tho earth to build the castles of enthusiasts and execute the designs of speculators.

I have said, that the debts, which some of our state governments are contracting, will be disowned by their citizens. I am not arguing, that they should be; though I might very pertinently inquire, whether they can be any more obligatory upon posterity, than the gambling debts of a father are upon his son. Is it said, that it would be hard for the innocent holders of these debts to lose them? It would be. But they should not have consented to become the creditors of government: - , which contract debts so unjustly. Is it said, that the subjects of European governments recognize, from age to age, debts, which those governments have been no less unjust in contracting? It is admitted. But, they recognize them, because compelled to do so. The sovereign citizens of a republican State will, on the contrary, pay what debts they choose - and amongst the debts, which they will choose to pay, will not be found the hundred millions of dollars, which there is but too much reason to fear, the government of this State will owe, within ten years, for unproductive rail roads and canals. The idea, that the debts we are incurring to build rail roads and canals for the good of posterity will lie disowned by that ungrateful posterity is shocking to many. But who of all that posterity will be so credulous - so much of a Jew Appella - as to believe, that such projects, as the Black River Canal, and New York and Erie Rail Road, sprung from a benevolent and disinterested regard for succeeding ages, and not from the rank soil of selfishness! The truth is, the policy of such projects is to plunder, instead of enrich, posterity - to anticipate and consume, rather than enhance the value of their earnings.

Can the ruin, which is fast coming upon our State, be averted? It can be, if we will stop where we are, and heartily adopt the principle, that it is not the province of government to make roads and canals for its citizens; and that government is but to protect, not to perform, the labors of its subjects. It can be, if we will abandon, at once and forever, the utter delusion, that government may build canals and rail roads to accelerate the growth and prosperity of a new country, or force the settlement of a howling wilderness. That delusion will afford a harvest of bitter fruits to Michigan and the other Western States, which are the subjects of it: and no where will its power be more strikingly exemplified than in this State, if its government undertake to construct the great Northern and Southern Rail Roads. Nothing short of extensive, present, and actual demands of commerce and travel can justify even individuals in building rail roads and canals. Much less should any other, than the only legitimate reasons, induce government to build them.

Let the Legislature, at its approaching session, arrest the enlargement of the Erie, and the construction of the Geneses and Black River Canals; let the finished and unfinished canals owned by the State, not excepting the Erie and Champlain Canals, if the people will consent to the removal of the Constitutional prohibition, be sold, as soon as practicable, at reasonable estimates of their value; - let the government of the State pay off its debt, as it then will be able to do; and solemnly protest against any future repetition of its past folly of plunging into debt; - let it set before its subjects this healthful and influential example of honesty and sobriety; - and the public mind and public heart will soon begin to recover their soundness; and a career of prosperity, more real and substantial, though it be less dazzling and intoxicating will quickly open upon us.

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It would, perhaps, be wiser to sell the Erie Canal in several sections, than entire. The terms of the sales of this and this other State canals should, of course, include all necessary securities against the abase of power on the part of the purchasers. The proposition to sell the Erie Canal will be especially revolting. But the reasons, why it should be sold, far outweigh those of an opposite character. In the first place, we need to sell it to be able to discharge our great debt. In the next place, the sooner government is deprived of the immense and corrupting patronage attendant on the ownership of the Erie Canal, the better for its own purity and the purity of the people. Again, the more judicious and economical management of the Canal in the hands of individuals will be necessary to enable it to bear the reduction of tolls resulting from the competition of other avenues of commerce. Then again, the continued ownership of the Erie Canal by government will stand in the way of the cordial and practical adoption of the principle, that the citizens are to make their own roads and canals, and not depend on government for them. There will be no safety for our State, until this principle become a part of its settled permanent policy. The principle will be strenuously, and, for a time, doubtless, successfully opposed: - but it wall prevail, because it is clearly right. Like the principle, that alcohol is unfit for a beverage; and, like the principle, that men of all climes and colors, "are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;" it will, for a season, be the object of raging hostility; but, like those principles, a will ultimately commend itself to the consciences, and gain the suffrages of rapidly swelling multitudes; and, like those principles, it is destined to a triumph, that will honor its earliest advocates, and put to shame the many, who shrink from espousing a truth, until it has become popular.

It will ever be a matter of wonder, that the American people, with whom the doctrine, that "a national debt is a national blessing" is so generally and justly odious, and who, in the recent eager payment of their national debt, so signally illustrated their abhorrence of this doctrine; - it will ever, I say, excite great surprise, that such a people should have consented to load down with debt the government of the States, which compose their nation. The continuance in her present policy, fifteen or twenty years longer, will bring the State of New York alone under a debt as great as the largest ever owed by the national government. Let none flatter themselves, that our State government will have no more claims made upon it for rail roads and canals, after it shall have given the North and the South their respective rail roads and the Centre and the West the enlarged Erie Canal. It will by these grants, but multiply such claim, and make them plausible. There will still remain counties - or, if not counties - towns, which the State has traversed, neither with rail roads nor canals: and their claims for governmental patronage will then be found urge at and formidable, in proportion to the number and cost of the rail roads and canals, which the State has given to other counties. And what is more, the very unproductiveness and worthlessness of moat of the rail roads and canals, which the State will have made, will constitute an imposing and successful plea for the further multiplication of such unproductive and worthless canals and rail roads. The scattered dwellers on the hill tops of Otsego and Schoharie will be able to present a route for a rail road, which will be quite as promising of income, as the great Northern and Southern Rail Roads - and that these have been made will constitute a conclusive argument, why theirs should be. The people of Onondaga and Cortland will revive their claims to a North and South canal: and the fact, that it cannot prove less productive, than its rival in the Chenango valley, will be brought forward in triumphant foreclosure of all objections, which the government of the State might urge against issuing a second edition of the Chenango Canal.

A republican people are naturally and properly jealous of a "strong government." It is their policy to confine the action of then government within the narrowest limits, and to retain the largest possible individual freedom and discretion. But no argument is necessary to show, that this policy is grossly violated, when government is made the agent to do the proper work of its citizens, and to do it too, by plunging deeply into debt. I know not what can realize the idea of "a strong government," if it be not a government, which combines with its legitimate offices the employment of tens of thousands of canal daggers and rail road builders; which borrows annually millions on millions to pay them with, mortgaging the houses, lands, and industry of its subjects; and which retains, in its own hands, rise control and patronage of the thoroughfares it creates. The heavy and iron yoke of such a government is already upon our necks I trust, gentlemen, that you will exert your official power and influence faithfully and fully to break this yoke in pieces. I trust, gentlemen, that no suitable efforts will be wanting on your part, to bring back the government of our State to those just principles from which it has so wisely and perniciously departed. A government, that is of a meddlesome spirit - that goes out of its sphere to mix itself up with, and control, the interests of its citizens - is an evil scarcely more tolerable than the coming up of vermin into "the house and bed-chamber and bed and ovens and kneading troughs." Happy would it be for the human family, if all the political communities of the earth were to regard it as the mission of civil government but to constitute itself a shield, beneath whose unintrusive and almost unseen, yet ample protection, the unmolested citizen might freely pursue the physical callings of this life and the higher purposes of his spiritual nature.Very respectfully yours,

GERRIT SMITH.