Polk like McFingal's
gun--"bears wide and kicks the owner over."
But to the constitutional question. In 1826 Chancellor Kent first
published his Commentaries on American law. He devoted a portion of one
of the lectures to the question of the authority of Congress to
appropriate public moneys for internal improvements. He mentions that the
subject had never been brought under judicial consideration, and proceeds
to give a brief summary of the discussion it had undergone between the
legislative and executive branches of the government. He shows that the
legislative branch had usually been for, and the executive against, the
power, till the period of Mr. J.Q. Adams's administration, at which point
he considers the executive influence as withdrawn from opposition, and
added to the support of the power. In 1844 the chancellor published a new
edition of his Commentaries, in which he adds some notes of what had
transpired on the question since 1826. I have not time to read the
original text on the notes; but the whole may be found on page 267, and
the two or three following pages, of the first volume of the edition of
1844. As to what Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the whole,
I read from one of the notes:
"Mr.
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