Judge Lowe Presenting the "Van Buren Gavel" to President Wilson at the Centennial Celebration of the N. O. T. R. at Indianapolis, Oct. 12, 1916. Recently, in Grading Tnis Road to Rebuild it One of the Planks Was Dug Up and a Gavel Made From It. (Copy Now in the Office of Judge Lowe.) This Plank Was Placed in

Mudhole in Which Van Buren's Carriage Was Stuck.

petent for Congress to violate this compact, even though the State legislature might have expressed a willingness to condone such act?

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No lawyer will contend that Congress derived any power to deal with this question by reason of the action of any of the States. Jurisdiction cannot be thus confirmed. Either it was acquired by the compact of Union or by the Constitution. As the legislature cannot confer power nor jurisdiction on Congress, neither can it by any so-called consent," take it away. This is too plain for argument, and this question stands precisely where it stood before the action of the legislatures of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. If the legislature was powerless to confer jurisdiction, it was equally powerless to take it away, and the Government had no power to refund this money to the States if such is the fact.

But Congress never offered to relinquish the road to Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

So far as these three States are concerned, this question stands just as the acts admitting them to the Union left them. Three others of the tenty-nine public land States, to-wit: Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, having a like reserve road fund, as one of the conditions upon which they entered the Union, occupy the same position.

This reserve road fund was guaranteed to all States admitted to the Union prior to 1837, to be applied by the Government to building roads leading to such States, and after that, this fund given to the balance of the twenty-nine public land States to be administered by the State legislatures. Two per cent of this fund was to be used in building roads to such State, from what point? Evidently from the seat of government. No other idea prevailed at that time, nor was there any thought of limiting government activity to a single line of road. The committee of the House in reporting the Cumberland Road bill, mentioned several lines, but reported in favor of only one, for the sole reason that there were only funds sufficient to build one. They considered this as only a beginning, and when Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas entered into the compact of Union they came in on exactly the same terms as those given to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and that was, a national highway connecting their States with the national capital.

When Wisconsin was admitted, Abraham Lincoln, "the sweetest and wisest soul of all days and lands," supported an amendment which had passed the Senate, reserving each alternate section of the public lands in Illinois, to be appropriated to building roads in Illinois. The amendment was defeated in the House and the land subsequently given to railroads.

Two hundred million acres of these public lands taken from the "public land States" have been given to railroads, nearly double the combined acreage of Ohio, Indiapa, Illinois and Mis

souri, and now it is seriously proposed that "National Aid" be applied to building roads as "feeders to the railroads."

To refund this money to the States is no compliance with this agreement, neither does the ingenious but impracticable scheme of Senator Bourne called "federal aid," whereby Ohio would be taxed $104,400,000 for the privilege of borrowing $50,200,000 at four per cent. But the "Government cancels the State bonds!" Why shouldn't it, since the State has paid it twice over? God save us from such "aid" as that.

Congress may pile dollars heaven high, and turn it over to the States or the Congressional districts, and it would be no compliance. The agreement was to build roads to the Statesthe States to be carved out of the territory of the great Northwest, saved to the Union by that indomitable American soldier, George Rogers Clark, and his intrepid Virginia and Kentucky volunteers at Old Vincennes, and the States to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase.

I am raising no new question of State Rights, and no new principle of law. All we ask is, that the Government shall keep sacred its promises and fulfill the conditions upon which these States came into the Union.

Is there a court in all the land that would not enforce it if made between individuals? Is it less binding between the Government and the State? If Congress may repudiate this agreement then it can set at naught any and all covenants for the admission of the States and thus do what four long years of bloody warfare failed to accomplish: Dissolve the Union, and reduce the States to their original territorial condition.

The act authorizing these States to qualify for admission to the Union embodied the following clauses:

"The following propositions be and the same are hereby offered to the convention (authorized to adopt a constitution) of said territory, for the free acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted by the convention, shall be obligatory upon the United States."

Then follows various propositions and among them the reserved road fund as already stated. For illustration, Missouri in her ordinance of acceptance recites the five propositions submitted by Congress, the third being the provision for a road fund, in the following language: "Now, this convention for and in behalf of the people do accept the five before recited propositions, offered by the Act of Congress and this convention doth hereby request the Congress of the United States so to modify their third proposition that the whole amount of five per cent on the sale of public lands therein offered may be applied to the construction of roads and canals, and the promotion of education within this State, under the direction of the legislature thereof."

If this proposition, submitted by Congress to the States as an inducement to join the Union, can be set aside and annulled by a subsequent Act of Congress, then every other proposition and provision in the compact may be disregarded. Whether or not it was competent for the legislatures of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, constituting a portion of the original thirteen States, to accept the provisions of the Buchanan amendment, it is clear that the legislature of Ohio and the other public land States had no such power. Ohio had entered the compact of Union by accepting the terms offered by Congress, and this acceptance was made by the only authority competent to make it, and could not be unmade by any body of men having less authority. The ordinance accepting the terms of Union could not be changed by any subsequent act emanating from a source having no authority to make or change the terms of this agreement. The. State legislatures had no more authority to change the compact of Union than a school district or a town council would have had.

The territories had the right to reject any and all overtures of Union. The General Government said to them: "These propositions are offered for their free acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted by the convention (not the legislature), shall be obligatory upon the United States.

The political reason for building National roads may not be as acute now as it was in the beginning of our great Governmental experiment, but who shall say what dangers await us in the future? Who will deny the prophetic wisdom of the sages who planned this road? Who will deny the cohesive power of cementing the States by a great system of National highways? And who will lightly value the sacred promises solemnly made by the original thirteen States to induce the new territories to join the Union? Ohio has kept the faith, and for thirteen years her national road fund was appropriated beyond the borders of the State. Then she was joined in a similar compact by Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and unitedly they built and maintained this road out of their own road fund, and thus "saved the union." They, too, "kept the faith." Can the Governmentcan any government long survive which keeps only "Punic Faith" with its own people?

CHAPTER XVIII.

System of National Highways

In 1913 we proposed and had introduced in Congress the following Bill to construct a system of National or Interstate Highways:

A Bill to Provide for the Construction, Maintenance and Improvement of a System of National Highways and to Provide Funds for Their Construction and Maintenance.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress Assembled.

That there shall be established a National Highways Commission, consisting of the Director of the Bureau of the Office of Public Roads, and four other members to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate, one for the term of one year, one for two years, one for three years, and one for four years, and annually thereafter one shall be appointed for the term of four years, and said commissioners shall serve until their successors are appointed and qualified.

Not more than three of said Commissioners, including the Director of Roads, shall belong to the same political party as the President.

Sec. 2. That said Commissioners so to be appointed, with the Director of the Bureau of the Office of Public Roads, who shall also be a member of the President's Cabinet, as chair. man, shall be known as the National Highways Commission, and each commissioner shall receive a salary of $5,000 per annum and necessary expenses, payable monthly out of the United States Treasury, but said Director shall receive no salary in addition to that received as Director of the Bureau of the Office of Public Roads. Any member of the National Highways Commission shall be subject to removal by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of said Commission to carry out the provisions of this Act, and it shall have authority to appoint an assistant director in each State, who shall discharge such duties and receive such compensation as shall be fixed by said Commission, not to exceed $3,000 per annum; and it shall employ such engineers, patrolmen and assistants as may be neces