The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 366
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Ms
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
April, 1844,
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Improvement of Rivers and Harbors—Mr. Bowlin.
H. of Reps.
small capital in government land, have not been
completed. They, too, have been abandoned, and
in some cases the only evidence of the design is a
mere survey upon paper. The indigent farmer—who
has invested his-all on the implied faith of the gov-
ernment, has toiled and labored hard to improve his
little farm, and has thereby enhanced the value of
all the contiguous publicjands—awaits patiently the
action of the government; but finally discovers that
his confidence has been misplaced, and there is no
hope of his expectations ever being realized. That
this is true, the history of your legislation proves;
and I submit whether it is just or proper.
I have before taken occasion to reply to the charge
of a combination of the lakes and rivers for the pur-
pose of uniting the strength of each, and thug carry-
ing the bill through. Now, if any one will take the
trouble of examining the resolution referring this
subject to the Committee on Commerce, and of recur-
ring to the action of this House on that resolution, he
will be satisfied that we acted in conformity with
your expressed wishes. It was introduced by the
gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. Wise;] and after
much discussion, and the rejection of many
amendments, it was adopted in its original
form. This directed the committee, to in-
quire into the policy of making appropriations
lor the improvement of the western rivers and har-
bors. How, then, could the committee disregard
this expression, and introduce a general bill, more
especially when few points other than those em-
braced by the present bill had, at the time of its
being reported,, been referred to our consideration?
But the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr.
Rhett] has gone one step farther, and has charged
that a combination exists between the friends of
the harbor and seaboard bills, and has seized the
opportunity to denounce the log-rolling system.
The only evidence he adduces to support his accu-
sation is, that immediately after the western bill
passed through the Committee of the Whole, it
was laid aside; and the eastern bill was taken up, and
action had upon it the same day. Now, Mr. Speak-
er, if the gentleman had referred to the journals,
he would have ascertained that action on the west-
ern bill ceased with the adjournment of the House,
and could not again be taken out of its order with-
out a two-thirds vote; and that, on a subsequent day,
the eastern bill passed through the committee with
some amendments, and there lies on the Speaker's
table. I do not hesitate to say that I believe the
friends of the one bill are generally in favor of the
other; because they involve the same great princi-
ples, and are part and parcel of the same system.
Why, then, should they not combine to accomplish
a common object? At the same time that I admit
this, I must be permitted to deny that there m fact
exists any such combination, or that there is any
disposition among the friends of the bill, so far as I
am aware, to carry through projects of a strictly
local character, or in which the public at large
is not -deeply interested, I am persuaded that all
that is desired is an impartial investigation into the
merits of the two bills, and fair action thereon. This
is all we ask: it is what we have a right to expect.
SPEECH OF MR. BOWLIN,
OP MISSOURI.
In the Hmtse of Representatives, Jiprll 5, 1844—
In reply to Mr. G. Davis, on the bill making an-
propriations to ccrtain rivers and harbors.
The bill making appropriations to certain western
rivers and harbors being before the House in Com-
mittee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and
in the progress of the debate,
Mr. Bowi.ik obtained the floor.
Mr. Ne wton of Virginia, asked the gentleman to
yield his right for a few moments, for the purpose
of an explanation, in reply to Mr. Payne of Ala-
bama.
Mr. Bowijn: I will allow the gentleman an op-
portunity of explaining, provided iie docs not take
up too much of my time (the one hour rule continu-
ing m force.) Will five minutes be sufficient for the
gentleman?
Mr,.Newton replied, that he could not tell how
long it would take to make the explanation re-
quired. '
Mr. 13oivlin. I decline, then, Mr. Chairman, to
give way. The gentleman can obtain the opportu-
nity m the progress of the debate, and make his
explanation at length.
Mr, Newton desired, then, for the present, to say
to the House, that the facts stated by the gentleman
from Alabama (being in reference to a party letter of
Mr. N., in which his friends are exhorted to repudi-
ate the raree shows and excesses of 1840, in the
coming campaign) are not consistent with the
record.
_ - Mr. Pavne, observed that he would incorporate
in, and publish with his speech, the whole of the
gentleman's letter; and then it would be seen that
there was nothing in it to conflict with the extract
he had selected.
Mr. Tibbatts of Kentucky then asked the gentle-
man from Missouri to yield him the floor one mo-
ment for the purpose of making an explanation.
Mr. Bowlin: I am sorry I cannot accommodate
the gentleman. To obtain the floor is difficult.
The hour allotted to me is wearing away, and if I
allow one gentleman the privilege of explanation,
another will suceeed with the , same request. Mr.
T. took his seat, and Mr. Bowlin resumed his re-
marks, in an answer to the speech of Mr. Q. Davis,
as follows:
Mr. Chairman: It is a source of exceeding regret
to me, that this bill, somewhat local in its character,
yet material in the benefits it is intended to achieve,
and of such vast importance to the people of the
Great West, should be made the medium of intro-
ducing before this House a discussion wholly irrele-
vant to the question—a discussion of party men,
and their measures of a party character.
I had fondly indulged the hope, sir, that the
weapons of party warfare, and the bitterness of par-
ty animosity, would have been laid aside for the
time, and that this bill would have been taken «p in
committee, and discussed entirely with regard to the
great and paramount interests it was framed to pro-
tect and encourage. I did hope that this was the
spirit in which these appropriations would be met, and
that the justness of their claims to public favor would
be discussed by gentlemen on both sides of this
House; and it little entered into my calculation that
if this bill were to fail in its adoption by the com-
mittee and the House, it would have received its
death-blow from a western man—a quarter whence
its warmest support would naturally be expected. 1
regret exceedingly that the gentleman from Ken-
tucky [Mr. G. Davis] waived, the other day, upon
the army retrenchment bill, the party speech he was
about to make, when he had the opportunity of ma-
king it at a more suitable time, and upon a much
more appropriate measure than the present. I re-
gret that the gentleman should have reserved his
party denunciations against the majority of this
House, and the party with which it is allied, to this
occasion. That measure which is used as the means
of bringing on a political conflict, in which all the
vindictive passions of party are engaged, if the light
of experience is to be relied on, rarely survives the
struggle; and the bill before the committee is one in
which every citizen of the West will feel the deepest
interest, and upon every representative of hers the
responsibility of its failure depends. Yet the tem-
per in which the gentleman from Kcutucky has en-
tertained the committee this morning is essentially
adapted to jeopard the bill, to destroy the spirit of
harmony and conciliation amongst its friends, and
their hopes of its ever becoming a law of the land.
Why this insidious manifestation of opposition to
the bill by the gentleman from Kentucky? Is it to
be destroyed in this indirect manner by those who,
from position, should foster and cherish it? Or is it
to present a uniformity of action in opposition to
the western improvements with his great leader,
who has also exhibited a changed ftont to these, par-
amount interests for which he formerly professed so
much attachment? Will the gentleman, notwith-
standing he has seen proper to" adopt a course so
eminently calculated to endanger the bill, still claim
to be its friend? Does he expcct such a claim to be
recognised by the true advocates of the measure? If
he does, he deceives himself. If we must fight over
it, we want a fair field and an open foe. He has al-
ready inflicted upon it a side-blow, covertly and in-
sidiously, but more fatal than any injury it could
have received fiom the direct assaults of an open
and avowed enemy.
Mr. Chairman, I surrender the gratifying reflec-
tions, which I had entertained in view of the passage
of this bill. Prom this day forth, I relinquish all
hope of carrying this measure through to its final
consummation; and I cannot avoid charging its de-
feat, if it shall be defnated, to the sectional aiid party
prejudices, which the gentleman has been laboring
to excite. The gentleman himself will be responsi-
ble to the country for the result If his objects had
been to war upon the interests of his own constit-
uents; if his purpose had been to arrest any benefits,
which might flow from the government to the sec-
tion of country of which he is himself a represent-
ative; he could not have accomplished that purpose
and that, object, more effectually than by the course
he has adopted upon this bill. It is difficult to de-
feat a measure so well sustained in justice, by an
open, direct, and magnanimous opposition; an as-
sumed interest, therefore, a feigned spirit of co-opera-
tion, are often the most effective means of destroying
in such cases. I know the gentleman too well, I
have too much respect for his intelligence, to sup-
pose for one moment that he could have mistaken
the consequences of the speech he had inflicted upon
this bill. Nor, with his known character for saga-
city, could he.have failed to appreciate the legitimate
results of his wanton and unprovoked assualts. What
is the necessary inference? what but the irresistible
conclusion that such was the object he had in view—
that, under the cover of a party speech, he designed
the overthrow of a measure in which all parties in
the West, at least, would feel an equal interest?
The subject under"discussion before the commit-
tee, when the gentleman commenced his remarks,
was simply a proposition to increase the amount of
the appropriation in one of the clauses of the bill,
augmenting the item for the Mississippi and her
tributaries, from §180,000 to §223,000; and from
this single question, the gentleman was drawn off
into the arena of party pmitics, in which he has at-
tacked almost every public man who differs from
him in political sentiments, coming within the range
of his observation. . From the beginning to the end
of his maledictions, the proposition to which he
should have properly directed his attention and
given his support, has been as entirely out of argu-
ment, as his remarks have been foreign to the sub-
ject under discussion. Yet it may not be improper
that the gentleman should be met, and the unsub-
stantial charges he has made, however diverse to
the legitimate subject of debate, repelled and re-
futed.
Not expecting so strange a turn to be given to
this debate, I have arisen unprepared to carry the
war into the enemy's camp, fortified as I could he
with authorities, to expose the extravagance and
corruptions of the whig administration. Besides, 1
desire not to make this bill the arena of a political
conflict; and shall therefore content myself with
meeting and refuting some of the extravagant
charges of the honorable gentlemen against the dem-
ocratic administration, together with some notice of
the famed 27th Congress, the object of his elaborate
but fanciful eulogy.
The gentleman has undertaken to tell the House
about the negligence of a former administration in
not settling the claims of the creditors of the gov-
vernment. In terrible array he cited the claims of
the Massachusetts militia; and the Missouri
Georgia, and Florida claims. Wliat possible con-
nexion, or by what process of reasoning, can it be
shown that these cases have any connexion with
the measure before the House? Does the gentleman
in his blind and headlong devotion to Mr. Clay, ex-
pect to manufacture the smallest modicum of politi-
cal capital from appeals to personal and sectional
prejudices and self-interest like this? If he does
Mr. Chairman, I flatter myself he will find, in the
sequel, when the facts are investigated, that he has
engaged in a losing operation—in a political specu-
lation that cannot win. As far, at least, as Missouri
in these relations to the federal government, is con-
cerned as fai as sac is intciested 111 these claims
the gentleman's affected sympathy is lost. The
people of Missouri too well remember that the gen-
tleman and his immaculate whig party have had""the
power in Congress for three consecutive sessions
to take up, and consider, and settle these demands of
the Missouri volunteers. But they did not do it
Their sense of justice seemed to diminish in exact
proportion to their increase of power and ability to
do justice. I hey had other measures then to attend
to, the dailing idols of the party, and the Missouri
volunteers are yet unpaid. The immaculate 27th
Congress has passed away, and the sufferers from
its taidy justice are to lie amused and soothed with
crocodile tears. Yet I trust, sir, that justice will not
longer be delayed, but that the claims of these men
who promptly answered to the call of their country!
and went forth cheerfully in its service, will be paid
and that promptly, too. ^ We have now a bill before
the House making provision and an appropriation
for the settlement of the.se claims; and I do hope,
notwithstanding the mas,? of business accumulating1
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/376/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.