with the National high road system, and then we will have roads that are worth while, and there will be no conflict of authority anywhere. What would you think if we applied this idea of divided control and management to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country? Imagine a river divided up, letting each State through which it passes, maintain it and regulating and controlling its navigation. Do you not know that such a thought is utterly inconsistent and illogical? It is just as practical, though, to manage the navigable waters of the country in that way as it is to manage the National roads by divided authority. Let the authority over the National roads remain where of right it belongs, in the National Government, under the supervision and control of National authority. (Applause.) And let the States and counties manage their own affairs in their own way. Now, let us get behind a single project. If it be not my project let it be yours, and if we decide on taking up some other proposition other than mine, I will back it with all the power I have. But let us get behind something definite, and stand for it, not only in this Convention, but when this convention adjourns and we go home let us stand for it; and talk for it; and if we do that before the Ides of next November you will see the Congress of the United States obeying our will and giving us the project we have been hoping for during all these long years. We will then come in and carry out a project that will do more for the up-building of the country; do more for the progressive ideas of the country; do more for the school system of the country; do more for the churches of the country; do more for the patriotism and manhood and womanhood of the country than any project ever conceived in the mind of man. (Applause) Chairman Diehl:-One moment before adjournment. The Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions states he wishes to make a personal report and ask the adoption of that report before adjournment. I recognize L. R. Speare, Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. Mr. Speare:-Your Committee will take only a very little of your time. I will now read the resolutions we present, and move their adoption: "Whereas, in the development of our country's transporting appliances for man and goods from place to place, it has become the universal will of the people of the United States for better roads; therefore, be it "Resolved, That we recommend our Federal Government to build and maintain an interstate system of highways connecting the capitals of the various States, and with the National Capital. Resolved, That we advocate the creation, wherever they do not now exist, of effective State Departments of Highways, in the various States, and that copy of this resolution be sent to the Governor of each State." The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. The Chairman of the Resolutions Committee read as follows: "Whereas, In the development of our country's transporting appliances for man and goods from place to place, it has become almost the universal will of the people of the United States for better roads; therefore, be it, 66 'Resolved, That we recommend our Federal Government to build and maintain an inter-state system of highways connecting the capitals of the various States, and with the National Capital. "Resolved, That we advocate the creation, wherever they do not now exist, of effective State Departments of Highways, in the various States, and that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Governor of each State.' Chairman Diehl (continuing) :-I would say in addition to that that the Chairman of the Committee gave quite a lengthy explanation of the fact that this was all boiled down into a few resolutions. Mr. Tomlinson: -I thank you very much. Chairman Diehl:-Is there anything further we can discuss with reference to the report of the Committee on Resolutions? Mr. Lowe: I move that the following resolution be adopted: "Resolved, That the taxes, approximately, that were in existence in 1879 on tobacco be restored and used for the purpose of building a National system of highways." I want to cover the suggestion made by Mr. Warburton in his speech. Chairman Diehl :-According to our rules that resolution would be referred without debate to the Committee on Resolutions, unless there is unanimous consent to its immediate consideration. Is there any objection to adopting that resolution in the Convention now? If not, I will declare the motion in order. Mr. Shackleford:-I do not rise to oppose it, but to offer an amendment, and that is that the money raised by this taxation be set apart as the fund to be applied to the construction or maintenance, or both, of such roads as Congress shall adopt. The gentleman from Kansas City moved that this be set apart in aid of a system of National roads. I move to amend this by saying it shall be set apart as a sacred fund to be used in the construction and maintenance of such roads as Congress shall determine to give aid to by Congressional legislation. The question was taken on the adoption of the amendment, and the Chair announced that the amendment was rejected. Mr. Shackleford:-I ask for a division on that. A division was taken and the Chair announced that the amendment was lost. Chairman Diehl :-The motion recurs on the original motion of Judge Lowe. The question was taken, and the Chair announced that the motion was apparently agreed to. Mr. Shackleford:-I ask for a division. A division was taken, and the vote resulted, yeas, 46; nays 2. So the resolution was agreed to. CHAPTER XIII. Speech of Abraham Lincoln in Favor of Delivered in the United States House of Representatives, (Issued first in 1912, by the National Old Trails Road Association.) In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill: Mr. Chairman: I wish at all times in no way to practice any fraud upon the House or the Committee, and I also desire to do nothing which may be very disagreeable to any of the members. I therefore state in advance that my object in taking the floor is to make a speech on the general subject of internal improvements; and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the chair an opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat. The Chair: I will not undertake to anticipate what the gentleman may say on the subject of internal improvements. He will, therefore, proceed in his remarks, and if any question of order shall be made, the Chair will then decide it. Mr. Lincoln. At an early day of this session the President sent us what may properly be called an internal improvement veto message. The late Democratic convention, which sat at Baltimore, and which nominated General Cass for the presidency, adopted a set of resolutions, now called the Democratic platform, among which is one in these words: "That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements." General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this language: .. "I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic National Convention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere to them as firmly as I approve them cordially. These things, taken together, show that the question of internal improvements is now more distinctly made-has become more intense-than at any former period. The veto message and the Baltimore resolution I understand to be, in substance, the same thing; the latter being the more general statement, of which the former is the amplification-the bill of particulars. While I know there are many Democrats on this floor and elsewhere, who disapprove that message, I understand that all who shall vote for General Cass will thereafter be counted as having approved it as having indorsed all its doctrines. I suppose all, or nearly all, the Democrats will vote for him. Many of them will do so not because they like his position on this question, but because they prefer him, being wrong on this, to another whom they consider farther wrong on other questions. In this way the internal improvement Democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, carried over and arrayed against themselves on this measure of policy. General Cass, once elected, will not trouble himself to make a Constitution argument, or perhaps any argument at all, when he shall veto a river or harbor bill; he will consider it a sufficient answer to all Democratic murmurs to point to Mr. Polk's message, and to the "Democratic Platform.” This being the case, the question of improvements is verging to a final crisis; and the friends of this policy must now battle, and battle manfully, or surrender all. In this view, humble as I am, I wish to review, and contest as well as I may, the general positions of this veto message. When I say general positions, I mean to exclude from consideration so much as relates to the present embarrassed state of the treasury in consequence of the Mexican War. Those general positions are that internal improvements ought not to be made by the General Government. First-Because they would overwhelm the treasury. Second-Because, while their burdens would be general, their benefits would be local and partial, involving an obnoxious inequality. ThirdBecause they would be unconstitutional. Fourth-Because the States may do enough by the levy and collection of tonnage duties; or if not. Fifth-That the Constitution may be amended. "Do nothing at all, lest you do something wrong, is the sum of these positions-is the sum of this message. And this, with the exception of what is said about constitutionality, applying as forcibly to what is said about making improvements by State authority as by the national authority; so that we must abandon the improvements of the country altogether, by any and every authority, or we must resist and repudiate the doctrines of this message. Let us attempt the latter. The first position is, that a system of internal improvements would overwhelm the treasury. That in such a system there is a tendency to undue expansion, is not to be denied. Such tendency is founded in the nature of the subject. A member of Congress will prefer voting for a bill which contains an appropriation for his district, to voting for one which does not; and when a bill shall be expanded till every district shall be provided for, that it will be too greatly expanded is obvious. But is this any more true in Congress than in a State legislature? If a member of Congress must have an appropriation for |