t is to be accomplished. Notwithstanding the union of
the Government with the corporation by whose immediate agency any work
of internal improvement is carried on, the inquiry will still remain. Is
it national and conducive to the benefit of the whole, or local and
operating only to the advantage of a portion of the Union?

But although I might not feel it to be my official duty to interpose the
Executive veto to the passage of a bill appropriating money for the
construction of such works as are authorized by the States and are
national in their character, I do not wish to be understood as
expressing an opinion that it is expedient at this time for the General
Government to embark in a system of this kind; and anxious that my
constituents should be possessed of my views on this as well as on all
other subjects which they have committed to my discretion, I shall state
them frankly and briefly. Besides many minor considerations, there are
two prominent views of the subject which have made a deep impression
upon my mind, which, I think, are well entitled to your serious
attention, and will, I hope, be maturely weighed by the people.

From the official communication submitted to you it appears that if no
adverse and unforeseen contingency happens in our foreign relations and
no unusual diversion be made of the funds set apart for the payment of
the national debt we may look with confidence to its entire
extinguishment in the short period of four years. The extent to which
this pleasing anticipation is dependent upon the policy which may be
pursued in relation to measures of the character of the one now under
consideration must be obvious to all, and equally so that the events of
the present session are well calculated to awaken public solicitude upon
the subject. By the statement from the Treasury Department and those
from the clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives, herewith
submitted, it appears that the bills which have passed into laws, and
those which in all probability will pass before the adjournment of
Congress, anticipate appropriations which, with the ordinary
expenditures for the support of Government, will exceed considerably the
amount in the Treasury for the year 1830. Thus, whilst we are
diminishing the revenue by a reduction of the duties on tea, coffee, and
cocoa the appropriations for internal improvement are increasing beyond
the available means of the Treasury. And if to this calculation be add