es may attempt.

Under this wise system the improvement of harbors and rivers was
commenced, or rather continued, from the organization of the Government
under the present Constitution. Many acts were passed by the several
States levying duties of tonnage, and many were passed by Congress
giving their consent to those acts. Such acts have been passed by
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and have been sanctioned by the
consent of Congress. Without enumerating them all, it may be instructive
to refer to some of them, as illustrative of the mode of improving
harbors and rivers in the early periods of our Government, as to the
constitutionality of which there can be no doubt.

In January, 1790, the State of Rhode Island passed a law levying a
tonnage duty on vessels arriving in the port of Providence, "for the
purpose of clearing and deepening the channel of Providence River and
making the same more navigable."

On the 2d of February, 1798, the State of Massachusetts passed a law
levying a tonnage duty on all vessels, whether employed in the foreign
or coasting trade, which might enter into the Kennebunk River, for the
improvement of the same by "rendering the passage in and out of said
river less difficult and dangerous."

On the 1st of April, 1805, the State of Pennsylvania passed a law
levying a tonnage duty on vessels, "to remove the obstructions to the
navigation of the river Delaware below the city of Philadelphia."

On the 23d of January, 1804, the State of Virginia passed a law levying
a tonnage duty on vessels, "for improving the navigation of James
River."

On the 22d of February, 1826, the State of Virginia passed a law levying
a tonnage duty on vessels, "for improving the navigation of James River
from Warwick to Rocketts landing."

On the 8th of December, 1824, the State of Virginia passed a law levying
a tonnage duty on vessels, "for improving the navigation of Appomattox
River from Pocahontas Bridge to Broadway."

In November, 1821, the State of North Carolina passed a law levying a
tonnage duty on vessels, "for the purpose of opening an inlet at the
lower end of Albemarle Sound, near a place called Nags Head, and
improving the navigation of said sound, with its branches;" and in
November, 1828, an amendatory law was passed.

On the 21st of December, 1804, the State of South Carolina passed a law
levying a tonnage duty, for t