.MTk4.NDUwMzQ

Illustrate internal improvements & by the case of the Israelites when in the time? of Deborah the highways did not exist - by-ways used - & not a Shield and Spear among 40000 in Israel

To be raised from the foundation, for half the population now on the land; and our hundred millions of men now (stricken from the text) on their way hither. Under these circumstances Internal Improvements on the largest scale should be the first wish of the people, & the first case of government, (the first object of expenditure,) (stricken from text). Internal improvement [is the very thing which] (stricken from text) cannot be dispensed with, because it is one of the four corner stones of national wealth, union and safety. It cannot rest upon the individuals of the nation. It ought not to be confided to monopolies - it (necessarily) (stricken from text) devolves of right therefore (above text) upon the common head, & the common purse. Internal improvement is the very thing which would distinguish the legislation of an Anglo-American Freeman from the legislation of a Hottentot! One would make the desert an Eden- the other would transform Eden itself into a desert. But internal improvement, the thing that strikes every patriotic cord of the heart, we are told, is not a (above text) constitutional duty of the General Government (above text). A war waged for no earthy purpose conceivable by the human mind, which would not shame humanity, may demand its hundred millions of money to say nothing of men,- and we must acquiesce in this