The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 52
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APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
Jan. 1844.
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Revenue Bills—Mr. Woodbury.
Senate.
f'obe, and on the islands of the seas. We at least
esire the opportunity of making the experiment.
We wish fhis great central chain of intercommuni-
cation, connecting us with all the commercial cities
of the Union, improved, so that we may at all times,
when the demand fails at home, have a choice of
markets in forejgn countries; and if we fail to find
purchasers at fair prices, we will submit to our fa,te
with what of resignation we may be able to call to
our aid.
There is another point of view in which this sub-
ject may be presented, which is still more interest-
ing: In times of war, if the enemy should sieze upon
the Dry Tortugas, (and there is nothing to prevent
them from so doing,) we should be completely
blocked up, and no ordinary force could dislodge
" the enemy. The South and. West would be the
points of attack, should war come upon us at this
time. The vast commerce of our great rivers would
be a prize worth contending for; and our present
vulnerable and exposed condition would invite im-
mediate attack. We should at once take steps for
erecting a navy-yard and permanent military forti-
fications on the Dry Tortugas, by which not only
the free ingress and egress of our ships could be
secured, but a safe and secure place be provided for
the repairing and building of vessels of war.
Memphis, on the Mississippi river, is another
most eligible point for establishing a naval depot
and dock-yard for repairing and building steam-
ships and other vessels of war. Situated on the
fourth Chickasaw bluff, Memphis is about eighty
feet above low-water mark; the site is elevated and
commanding, and possesses many local advantages.
Mr. J. C. Clark, from the Committee on Naval
Affairs, during the last Congress, closed an elabo-
rate report to the House as follows:
"With these views and considerations, your com-
mittee respectfully recommend the establishment of
a naval depot and dock-yard at the city of Memphis,
and ask leave to report a bill for a survey and ex-
amination, under the direction of the Navy Depart-
ment, with a view to such establishment."
I beg leave to submit another extract from the
same report, which, coming from a representative
of the State of New York, shows something of the
injustice that has been done to the South and West.
"Hitherto the South and West have comparative-
ly enjoyed but little—in fact almost nothing—in the
way of local advantages from the navy. This has
sprung from causes not now necessary to enume-
rate. It is sufficient to say that it has not been be-
cause the South and West do not possess advanta-
ges and afford facilities for national depots, dock-
yards, and other naval establishments, equal at least
to other portions of the Union."
Fort Massack, on the Ohio river, has been selected
as the site for a western armory; and yet every ob-
stacle is thrown in the way of progressing with the
work to completion. Louisville, Cincinnati, and
Pittsburgh, are highly commercial points, and should
not be overlooked.
St. Louis, the great commercial emporium of the
West, has had but little done by the Government to
advance her interests. Alton, Q,uincy, and Galena,
in Illinois, have sprung up within the last few years,
and are now highly commercial points. Our west-
ern lakes, too, have been neglected: Chicago, on
Lake Michigan, is as much worthy of light-houses,
dock-yards, marine hospitals, and other naval in-
stitutions, as the cities in the East. The same re-
mark is also true of Mihvaukie, in Wisconsin. These
are the cities of a few years, the rapidity of whose
growth is almost incredible.
I, for one, Mr. Chairman, am far from desiring
that the general government should revive the ex-
ploded and justly deprecated general system of im-
provement by the general government. I am not
for forming any entangling alliances, by connecting
one river with another, and hanging one railroad
upon another, in the hope that they may be passed
by a union of dissimilar interests. No, sir; if the
objects of improvement that we present are not ne-
cessary forthe defenee of the country, and are not na-
tional in their character, we do not wish gentlemen to
violate thc_ constitution by voting the appropriaton.
Give a strict construction to that instrument; for
otherwise we have no chart to guide us.
Where will you get the money? is an inquiry that
lias been propounded with great emphasis. My
plan is this: sciutinize your Navy Department; and
if it be found that there are supernumeraries—per-
rons who are there but to receive their salary and
expend it in sumptuous dinners and costly wines at
"Jhe city hotels—cut them loose, pet them adrift, and
expend the money on western rivers. The same
remark may be applied to the War Department.
If, again, it is thought that the West Point Acade-
my is the nursery of an order of aristocracy, cut off
the expenses there. If, in looking at this District,
it is thought th^t about four prices are paid for the
work that is done here, apply the pruning knife;
and, sir, if I am not egregiously mistaken, the sum-
of money thus saved from these four sources will
amount to millions instead of thousands.
I will conclude by expressing the hope that this
subject may be referred to a select committee, so
that the West may for once be heard in a repotyto
this House and before this nation.
REMARKS OF MR. WOODBURY,
of new hampshire,
In Senate, January 18,1844—On the constitutionality
of originating revenue bills in the Senate.
Mr. WOODBURY said that it was his misfor-
fortune to be in the minority on the committee that
reported the resolution under consideration. He
was, therefore, opposed to its adoption; and as his
remarks would be confined to that question alone,
under the objection that the bill to which it relates
could not constitutionally originate in the Senate,
he would accept the courtesy offered by the author
of the bill. He would detain the Senate but a few
minutes. The best mode of answering the objec-
tions just urged by the chairman of the committee,
would be at once to present an outline of his own
views in favor of the power to originate such hills
here.
The clause in the constitution prohibiting bills
raising revenue from originating in the Senate, was
not a new one. It was derived from a practice, sim-
ilar, in some respects, in England, long before our in-
dependence. If we look to the origin of that prac-
tice—the circumstances attending its partial adoption
by our fathers—and the usage or precedents under
it—some rational opinion can be formed of its true
meaning; and the causes can be seen at once why
this bill does not trench on the true spirit of the con-
stitution.
This bill, it is admitted, imposes no new tax; it
raises higher no old one. On the contrary, it re-
lieves the people and the States from some of the
existing burdens, and is intended, throughout, to
mitigate rather than aggravate taxation. Its de-
sign, then, cannot militate with the great object
which led to the adoption of the prohibition.
Every one versed in the history of England and
the structure of her government, knows that the
House of Commons were originally convened
merely to assent to measures imposing additional
taxes which originated with royalty. But who
ever heard of any complaint there, if royalty alone
diminished taxes' Since the increase of power by
the Commons, they insisted not only on the right to
have no new burdens imposed without their assent,
but to have none originate except among them-
selves. And, to give greater efficacy to their control
over the subject, they stripped the House of Lords
of any power to amend such bills.
This control was claimed on the ground that they
alone represented the people at large, on whom taxes
were imposed—the House of Peers, as well as the
monarch, acting in their own right. It was insisted
that the Commons alone came fresh from the people
periodically, and thus knew best their means
and inclination for raising more money; and
the whole object of this provision was to guard
against increased taxation upon them. When our
constitution was formed, it appears at length, in Mr.
Madison's debates, that several members were in
favor of adopting the whole of the English system.
But the moment the subject was analyzed, it was
seen that the Senate bore no analogy to the House
of Lords m the tenure of their office—being nothing
in their own right, but wholly a representative body,
as much as that comened in the other wing of the
capitol. The only difference, beside the length
of service, was, that one represented sovereign
States equally, and the other the people of those
States in a ratio with their number. Hence
that part of the British practice—not to permit the
second branch of the legislature to amend money
bills—was abandoned, and the Senate was allowed to
make such amendments at pleasure, and thus we
were invested with all the substantial power on this
subject which is of any importance ultimately. But,
as a convenience in despatching business, it would
have been desirable that no part of the British prac-
tice on this subject should have been adopted; and
the sound reason for adopting any part of it seemed
almost entirely to disappear here, because the Sen-
ate, being a representative body, like the other,
knows the ability and wants of the people it repre-
sents; mingles yearly with the people, and sympa-
thizes with them; and, except the inequality of rep-
resentation looking to mere numbers, is likely to be
quite as vigilant and bold in defence of the proper-
ty and interests of the people of the States as of the
States themselves, or of what may technically be
deemed State rights. The delusion then got up—
that-the Senate would probably become a perma-
nent executive body; would constantly reside at the
seat of government; would become aristocratic and
alien from the people, and be much engaged in plot-
ting plans to fleece them—has long since been ex-
ploded, but aided the large States in confining the
jurisdiction to originate bills raising revenue to that
House where those States possessed most power.
The prohibition then exists, and is to be enforced,
so far as its spirit requires. But it is stripped of
many of the reasons which led to it, and of what
was most material in its origin—the restriction
against amendments. Under these circumstances,
though the provision is to be respected and obeyed
while it remains, yet there is little or no reason for
giving it a wider scope by construction, than to re-
strain measures increasing the public burdens, and
for carrying it beyond its original spirit and design,
as settled by the history of the case, and by nume-
rous analogies and precedents during the last haif
century it lias been operation. What other could
have been the object of the clausc? None can doubt
it was intended in theory to protect the people from
any increase of taxation, without the original prop-
osition for that purpose coming from the most im-
mediate'representatives of the people. They were
to hold the purse strings. The advocates of this
great provision could never care in what place bills
to lessen burdens originated, or bills to remove
them entirely. As little, could the object be to con-
fine the commencement of bills intended to guard
against evasions and frauds on the revenue to either
House. There was no great radical or living prin-
ciple at the root as to any thing except the augment-
ation of the public burdens. And though the
word raising might be technically extended to col-
lecting, or relating to the revenue, yet, as we have seen,
it was not the spirit or object of the provision to
restrict any measure, except one that should increase
taxes. The present bill, then, though it relates to
the revenue, adds no new tax, and raises higher no
old taxj and hence it is permissible within the ori-
ginal design and reason of the provision. But next,
how stood the analogies?
Any bill imposing a tax, relates to the revenue,
whether it be a tax on imports, or on land, or on car-
riages, or on the transportation of letters in the mail.
The word revenue (as justly observed by the chair-
man) is not confined to customs, but embraces all
kinds of public income, whether from duties, post-
ages, sales of land, or loans. It falls heavily, too, on
many individuals; exceeding many other taxes in
amount yearly. Nor is it graduated to th« mere ex-
pense of transportation, even in this country; but, as
we see and know daily, private expresses are ready
to carry letters for half the amount now collected.
The present income' covers, also, all the expense of
transporting free letters, and free newspapers, and
free documents of every description. But however
near the expense of the Post Office Department may
approach its revenue, yet every tax, or fee, or charge
of postage, imposed by an act of Congress, begins,
in form as well as substance, with a bill raising rev-
enue. Its income is returned as revenue in the
official reports. It is called the "revenues" of the
Post Office Department. In the law of 183fi, (in two
.separate sections,) it is required to be paid into the
treasury by that act, like other revenue. It is alno
drawn out by warrant, as other revenue, (S^e sec-
tions land 2.) And, as few gentlemen may suppose, a
portion of this revenue has been paid into the, treasu-
ry, and applied to general objects of expenditure, m
almost every year during the last holf century.
Here, sir, is a schedule of the amounts since 1790,
extracted from a table of the receipts and expendi-
tures down to 1840. It amounts to some thousand
dollars in each but ten or twelve years, which has
been applied to general objects; and whether it he
thousands or millions, cannot affect the principle or
the fact, that it is revenue within the usual meaning
of the term. In England, it amounts now to some-
thing like seven millions yearly; and in France to
five millions; and can be made to yield a large
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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/m1/62/?rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.