the country, according to population and means. We have stretched out
lines of railroad from the seaboard to the mountains; dug down the
hills, and filled up the valleys, at a cost of $25,000,000. * * * No
State was in greater need of such facilities than Georgia, but we did
not ask that these works should be made by appropriations out of the
common treasury. The cost of the grading, the superstructure, and the
equipment of our roads was borne by those who had entered into the
enterprise. Nay, more, not only the cost of the iron--no small item in
the general cost--was borne in the same way, but we were compelled
to pay into the common treasury several millions of dollars for the
privilege of importing the iron, after the price was paid for it abroad.
What justice was there in taking this money, which our people paid into
the common treasury on the importation of our iron, and applying it to
the improvement of rivers and harbors elsewhere? The true principle is
to subject the commerce of every locality to whatever burdens may be
necessary to facilitate it. If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let
the commerce of Charleston bear the burden. * * * This, again, is the
broad principle of perfect equality and justice; and it is especially
set forth and established in our new constitution.

Another feature to which I will allude is that the new constitution
provides that cabinet ministers and heads of departments may have
the privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of
Representatives, may have the right to participate in the debates and
discussions upon the various subjects of administration. I should have
preferred that this provision should have gone further, and required
the President to select his constitutional advisers from the Senate
and House of Representatives. That would have conformed entirely to the
practice in the British Parliament, which, in my judgment, is one of the
wisest provisions in the British constitution. It is the only feature