Mr. HOWARD. Mr. President, Iinfer that the motion now made to recommit this bill does not proceed from any motive friendly to the final passage of the bill in whatever form it may assume. I would not be uncharitable, however, and I trust that those Senators who seem to entertain ahostility to the project itself will endeavor to review their opinions and to look at this subject in the as wet which really and truly belongs to it. This bill has been carefully considered by the ComCommerce of this body, and they have given it all the attention that it seemed to deserve. They have suggested a great number of amendments upon wh' l we shall be called on to act sooner or later. be e the bill will not be recommitted. It is o importance to the whole country that the question of the ultimate construction of a ship canal around Niagara falls should be settled permanently in order that the public mind may be at rest upon the subject. I am, for one, entirely content to leave the matter in the hands of acorporation subject to the legislation of Congress as to the re ulntion of tolls and any other matters of etail which we may see fit to reserve to the legislation of Congress. I have no fears of a corpo ration as connected with such a work. Only a few years since Congress made a very munificent donation of lands to the State of Michigan Ooconstruct a similar canal around the falls of the Sault Ste. Marie, within the limits of my State a work which many people at that time thought entirely impracticable and idle, but one which has since shown that it is not only practicable but has been very productive indeed, and has had the effect to open up the Lake superior country and to bring to light resources which n to that time were almost entirely concealed 'rom the world. That work was constructed b a corporation created by the Legislature of blew ork, and the whole business has been carried on through that corporation, by the consent of Michigan, to be sure, to whom the grant of land out of the proceeds of which it was constructed was originally made. It is even now a profitable wor', a mone making operation to the stockholders; and have no doubt at all that the ship canal around the falls of Niagara will turn out in the end to be equally profitable, not only to the public but to those who may see fit to embark their private capital in it. I do not concur at all with those Senators who insist that this shall be a national work. If the work is to be carriotl on economically, to the vigilance of private enterprise and private capital. the U.S., as a Government, is in no condition to supervise and carry on a work of this description. All that it can do, and what I think it ought to do, is to aid the oompan in some safe manner in the construction o the work. The interests of the commerce of the whole country, of the West as well as of the East, require the construction of this work, and I know of no better mode of i perfecting it and giving to it that efficiency and | importance which it deserves than by creating a corporation for that purposc. As to the power of Congress to create a corporation for such a purpose I have no sort of ( doubt, and I shall, therefore, at the proper time, vote to strike out the last amendment suggested by the committee which requires the consent of the State of NewYork to the operation of the bill. I have not the slight est doubt that, under the Constitution of the U.S., Congress have full power, when ever they shall see fit, to take the property of private persons for just'such a purpose as this, y making due compensation for it. It is one of the powers that belongto us under the constitution as a Government, to be used for the public good, under such restrictions, of course, as safety and the public interest may require. I hope, sir, the bi l will not be recommitted, but that we shall proceed to act upon it and to use it.