to them as firmly as I approve them cordially."

These things, taken together, show that the question of internal
improvements is now more distinctly made--has become more intense--than
at any former period. The veto message and the Baltimore resolution I
understand to be, in substance, the same thing; the latter being the more
general statement, of which the former is the amplification the bill of
particulars. While I know there are many Democrats, on this floor and
elsewhere, who disapprove that message, I understand that all who voted
for General Cass will thereafter be counted as having approved it, as
having indorsed all its doctrines.

I suppose all, or nearly all, the Democrats will vote for him. Many of
them will do so not because they like his position on this question, but
because they prefer him, being wrong on this, to another whom they
consider farther wrong on other questions. In this way the internal
improvement Democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, carried
over and arrayed against themselves on this measure of policy. General
Cass, once elected, will not trouble himself to make a constitutional
argument, or perhaps any argument at all, when he shall veto a river or
harbor bill; he will consider it a sufficient answer to all Democratic
murmurs to point to Mr. Polk's message, and to the Democratic platform.
This being the case, the question of improvements is verging to a final
crisis; and the friends of this policy must now battle, and battle
manfully, or surrender all. In this view, humble as I am, I wish to
review, and contest as well as I may, the general positions of this veto
message. When I say general positions, I mean to exclude from
consideration so much as relates to the present embarrassed state of the
treasury in consequence of the Mexican War.