On the 12th of December, 1804, the State of Georgia passed a law levying a tonnage duty on vessels, “to be applied to the payment of the fees of the harbor master and health officer of the ports of Savannah and St. Marys.”

In April, 1783, the State of Maryland passed a law laying a tonnage duty on vessels, for the improvement of the “basin” and “harbor” of Baltimore and the “river Patapsco.”

On the 26th of December, 1791, the State of Maryland passed a law levying a tonnage duty on vessels, for the improvement of the “harbor and port of Baltimore.”

On the 28th of December, 1793, the State of Maryland passed a law authorizing the appointment of a health officer for the port of Baltimore, and laying a tonnage duty on vessels to defray the expenses.

Congress has passed many acts giving its “consent” to these and other State laws, the first of which is dated in 1790 and the last in 1843.  By the latter act the “consent” of Congress was given to the law of the legislature of the State of Maryland laying a tonnage duty on vessels for the improvement of the harbor of Baltimore, and continuing it in force until the 1st day of June, 1850.  I transmit herewith copies of such of the acts of the legislatures of the States on the subject, and also the acts of Congress giving its “consent” thereto, as have been collated.

That the power was constitutionally and rightfully exercised in these cases does not admit of a doubt.

The injustice and inequality resulting from conceding the power to both Governments is illustrated by several of the acts enumerated.  Take that for the improvement of the harbor of Baltimore.  That improvement is paid for exclusively by a tax on the commerce of that city, but if an appropriation be made from the National Treasury for the improvement of the harbor of Boston it must be paid in part out of taxes levied on the commerce of Baltimore.  The result is that the commerce of Baltimore pays the full cost of the harbor improvement designed for its own benefit, and in addition contributes to the cost of all other harbor and river improvements in the Union.  The facts need but be stated to prove the inequality and injustice which can not but flow from the practice embodied in this bill.  Either the subject should be left as it was during the first third of a century, or the practice of levying tonnage duties by the States should be abandoned altogether and all harbor and river improvements made under the authority of the United States, and by means of direct appropriations.  In view not only of the constitutional difficulty, but as a question of policy, I am clearly of opinion that the whole subject should be left to the States, aided by such tonnage duties on vessels navigating their waters as their respective legislatures may think proper to propose and Congress see fit to sanction.  This “consent” of Congress would never be refused in any case where the duty proposed to