The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 58
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CONGRESSIONAL GLGBfc.
- TBy Mr. C. M. READrThe petition of J. L. Kimberly &
- Go, and 110 commifision merchants and shipowners of the
city of Buffalo, asking -Congress to make an appropriation
for improving the harbor of Manitowoc, 011 Lake Aiicingan.
The petition of Joy and "Webster, and other shipowners of
New Vork, praying Congress to enact such laws as will
preventjC^nadiaa steamboat* transporting passengers coast-
. wise on tke American shore of Lake Erie.
By Mr. ISAAC E. MORSE: The petition of Ed J. Heard,
of tne parish of St. Martin, State of Louisiana, praying to be
allowed to purchase a'fraction of government land for the
• feasons set forth in his petition: referred to the Committee
' "on Private Land Claims. The petition of a large number of
'citizens of the parish of Union, in Louisiana, and of the
• county of Union, in the State of Arkansas, praying for the
establishment of a post road from Farmersville, parish of
Union, Louisiana, to Eldorado, in the county of Union, Ar-
kansas: referred to the Committee on the Post Office and
Post Roads. The petition of a large number of citi-
zens of the parish of DeSoto, praying for the establish-
ment of a post office at the town ofiVianbficld, in the abeve
parish: referred to the Committee on the Post Office and
rost Roads
By Mr. WENTWORTH:, The petition for a mail loute
from Janesville, Rock county, Wisconsin, to Balvidera,
' Boon county, Illinois, via Waterloo, northwest corner of
section' five, township forty-six north, and precinct: re-
ferred to the Committee on th® Post Office and Post
Roads. ,
By Mr. J. MORRIS: The petition of Josiah Dillon, pray-
ingforthe repayment of money furnished by him for the
use of the United States army, during the latee war, as as-
sistant deputy quartermaster general: referred to the Com-
mittee on Claims.
By Mr. CATL1N: Additional evidence in the ease
of the heirs of Reverend David Avery, deceased, praying
for a pension: referred to the Committee on Revolutionary
Pensions.
By Mr. McCAUSLEN: The petition of Joseph Coble, and
29 others, citizens of Carroll county, Ohio,- praying for a
reduction of the price of public lands, and a restriction of
the quantity entered by any one person: referred to the'
Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Saturday, December 21, 1844.
Mr. Tucker of Mississippi, and Mr. Belser of
Alabama, appeared in the House to-day and took
their seats.
Mr. RAMSAY asked the House to indulge him
■with taking up and acting on the resolution sub-
mitted a few days since by him, relative to the print-
ing extra copies of the report of Professor Johnson
on the various kinds of coal and their adaptation to
the generation of steam.
Mr. DROMGOOLE made the point of order that
the resolution offered by him at the adjournment last
" evening had precedence.
This point of order being sustained by the
Speaker,
Mr. DROMGOOLE asked for the reading of the
resolution; which was accordingly read as follows:
Resolved, That all debate in Committee of the Whole on
the-state of the Union on House bill No 216, "to provide for
the collection, safe-keeping, transfer, and dKbursement of
the public revenue," shall cease within two hours after the
same shall be again taken up jn committee, and the com-
mittee shall then report it to the House with such amend-
ments as may have boen agreed to by the committee.
Mr. D. moved the previous question on the adop-
tion of the resolution.
The question was taken by tellers on seconding
the demand for the previous question; and the vole
stood, ayes 56, noes 45. No quorum voting-,
Mr. PETTIT moved that the House adjourn.
[Cries of "agreed, agreed." uThe yeas and
nays, &c."]
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. PETTIT withdrew his motion.
Mr. W.J. BWOWN moved that the House ad-
journ. The motion, however, was not insisted on.
Mr. STEENROD appealed to his colleague [Mr.
Dromgoole] to waive the resolution for a moment,
in order to enable the resolution of the gentleman
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Ramsey] to be taken up.
It was a very important resolution. ,
Mr. DROMGOOLE remarked, that it was not in
his power to comply with the request of his col-
league, unless he withdrew his resolution entirely,
and thus suffered it to lose the pie^edence that it
now had.
After some conversation on a point of order,
The question was again taken on seconding the
demand for the previous question, and was decided
in the affirmative—a quorum now having been ob-
tained—ayes 76, noes 58.
The main question was ordered, and being taken,
resulted thus—ayes 76, noes 60.
So the resolution was adopted. *
Mr. SIMONS asked leave to offer a resolution
calling for information.
. Mr. DROMGOOLE objecting, it was not re-
ceived.
THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY.
On motion of Mr. DROMGOOLE, the House
then resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on
the state of the Union, (Mr. Cave Johnson in the
chair,) and resumed the consideration of the bill "to
provide for the collection, safe-keeping, transfer, and
disbursement of the public revenue."
The question pending was on rising and reporting
the bill.
Mr. YANCEY was entitled to the floor.
Mr. PAYNE rose, and remarked that his col-
league was so indisposed as to be unable to leave
his bed this morning.
Mr. HUNT of New York then obtained the
floor, expressing his regret that the gentleman from
Alabama was prevented, from this cause, from ad-
dressing the committee. He remarked that he would
venture to detain the committee for a few moments
in regard to the question pending before them. The
course of the debate, he said, had been not to estab-
lish that this measure was called for by the inter-
ests of the country; that it was calculated to pro-
mote the general welfare and prosperity of the coun-
try; but that, by the recent presidential election, the
people had declared in favor of the restoration of the
independent treasury system as the financial system
of this government. It was very difficult, from the
peculiar nature of the contest just determined, oil
what great leading measure the opinion of the peo-
ple had been expressed; but he was sure it would
surprise them to be told that they had declared that
this exploded system should again be fastened upon
the country.'
In order to determine whether the public opinion
were in favor of the restoration of the independent
treasury, Mr. H. hoped to be indulged in a brief re-
trospect of its history. They all remembered the
origin of this policy a few years ago, when the par-
ty were in power which had so recently obtained
possession of the government. At the commence-
ment^of Mr. Van Buren's administration, the sub-
treasury had been proposed as a new system of
finance, not to relieve the disorders of the currency
of the country, but as necessary to enable the gov-
ernment to go on and perform Us fiscal operations.
When that recommendation was made, that party
was triumphant; but from that moment the fortunes
of the party began to wane, and it lost the support
of the people, until, after full discussion for years,
in the memorable contest of 1840, the people, by
such an overwhelming majority as had never before
been known in a contested election, had pronounced
an emphatic sentence upon it and upon the whole
kindred policy. In refutation of the position that
had been assumed, that the election of 1840 was not
an expression of the people against the sub-treasury,
he referred to the fact that, in New York, where
Mr. Van Buren, at the time of his election in 1836,
had received a majority of 15,000 or 20,000 votes,
after his recommendation of this, sub-treasury the
party of which he was the head during his whole
administration never received a majority of the suf-
frages of that State; and on this question almost
exclusively in that State, as in the other States of
the Union, the issue had been made.
It was supposed, then, that this subject had been
placed at rest by the decision of the presidential
election of 1840; and Mr. H. proceeded to show that
nothing had, sine© that time, transpired to justify
the assumption that the opinion of the people -had
undergone a change with reference to this question,
citing in proof whereof the facts that the banking
system was still continued, and had been greatly ex-
tended since the introduction of the sub-treasury,
and more particularly since its repeal; that it still
continued to furnish a safe and secure currency for
the country; that no measures had been adopted by
the State legislatures in order to conform o this
new system of finance and currency, and to enable
themselves to pay to the government thirty millions
of dollars of revenue in gold and silver, &.c. He
further contended, on the other hand, if anything
had been decided by the recent election, and the |
course of parties in the canvass connected there-
with, that it was a final and decisive sentence
against the sub-treasury, as appeared from the fact
that Mr. Van Buren, whose name was connected
with this system, and who, for three years, and un-
til after the election of the delegates to the Baltimore
convention, had been considered by the whole par-
ty their standard-bearer, was, by that convention,
thrown aside; and finding it necessary, intorder to
enter the contest with any reasonable hope of suc-
cess, to go before the people with new measures and
new men, a new candidate had been taken up.
This system, even when it had been established by
Congress, had sbeen the result of executive power
and patronage, and of mere party drill; but it had
never received the genuine, spontaneous support of
the people of the country.
They had been told yesterday, in debate, by the
gentleman from Indiana, that one of the doctrines
on which the democracy carried the elections in In-
diana, was that government was an evil. Now,
judging, from the impetuous haste with which the
measures of the successful party are in progress,
he feared that we should all .have reason to sub-
scribe to the isoundness of that doctrine, and that
the people would find that it would be carried into
speedy and effectual operation by the party in the as-
cendency. If this system of the independent treasu-
ry, by which the revenues of the country were to be
collected in gold and silver, and by which the people
will be crippled in all their financial operation^ it
would soon be felt that government was an evil, and
that it was carried on to harass and embarrass the
people in all their business pursuits, and not to fos-
ter and cherish their interests. In the State from
which he came, this system of the independent
treasury was scarcely heard of. It was entirely
lost sight of in the other issues that were made; and
the supporters of Mr. Polk everywhere showed a
reluctance to make this issue, and shrank from it.
Indeed they were often told that this question was
not to be decided by the presidential decision. With
regard to principles," the successful party entered the
field with a sort of sliding scale of opinions, which
were greatly diversified in different parts of the
country. It was indeed difficult to fix on and de-
termine what were the doctrines on which the suc-
cessful party would stand committed. On the sub-
ject of the tariff, different doctrines were advocated
in different portions of the country. In Pennsylva-
nia the democratic party represented themselves as
the advocates of the protective policy, and insisted
that this interest was safer in their hands than in
those of the whig party; and that they .could not re-
ly on the whigs for the protection of this great inte-
rest. In the State of New York they were told
that the tariff of 1842 was not perfect, and that some
of its details must be corrected in order to make it a
democratic measure; but it was never pretended bv
the friends of Mr. Polk in that State, that they would
break down the principle of protection and discrimi-
nation in favor of American industry. The tariff, to
be sure, was Attacked in detail; some of the duties
levied by it were said to be too high, and some too
low; but it was never avowed by the democratic
party that the system was to he destroyed. The
course which that party pursued in all their discus-
sions on the tariff, was calculated to remind one of
a physician in his neighborhood, who, finding his.
business decrease in consequence of the rivalry of
practitioners of certain new schools of medicine, gave
out that he had made himself acquainted with all the
new systems of medicines, and that he would prac-
tice on the old system, or on one of the new, accord-
ing to the wishes of his patients; that to those who pre-
ferred the old system, he would administer medicines
accordining to that school and that to those who
preferred the Thomsonian system he would ad-
minister Thomsonian medicmcs; while to those
who preferred the homoeopathic school, he would' ad-
minister homoeopathic doses. So it was with the dem-
ocratic party in the late contest: they had doctrines
on the subject of the tariff ready to suit all part of
the country; and they were reedy to make it higher
or lower according to the tastes of the different sec-
tions of the country to which their arguments were
addressed. Again: the candidate of the democratic,
party for governor in that State had not only voted
for the tariff of 1842, but was ready to make the
protective principle the law of the land. On the,
question of the annexation of Texas, there was also
a great diversity of opinion among the different di-
visions of the democratic party. It had been pro-
claimed there that the result of the late late presiden-
tial election showed that a majority of the people
were in favor of that measure. Now look at the
state of facts in the State of New York. It was well
known that a majority of those who carried the State
of New York for Mr. Polk were opposed to annex-
ation; but after it was proclaimed at the Baltimore
convention to be one of the measmes of the demo-
cratic party, it was found necessary to come up to it
in order to support that party. But hundreds, not-
withstanding,"^ oted for Mr. Polk, with the reservation
that they were opposed to the measure. And more
than all this, the democratic candidate for governor
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, legislative document, 1845; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2366/m1/74/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.