of the public money in their possession, with private deposites to the amount of ten or twelve millions more, with a circulation of twenty-five millions, they have about twelve or fifteen millions of actual cash means ready at any time to meet it; not more than one dollar to every six of their debts. The last catastrophe, the final crush of these banks, it is still in the power of Congress to avert. If the public funds be drawn gradually, but constantly, from its unsafe depositories, and divided among the States, though a part of the money may be for many years, perhaps for ever, unavailable, yet we may save the country from the calamity which now threatens her. On this subject, the gentlemen who brought the mischief upon us, and who are still urging it to its consummation, advise us to be silent, to speak in whispers, lest a disclosure of the true situation of things should bring about the crisis. They caution us not to arouse the sleepwalker, whom they have led to and left upon the brink of the cliff, lest, when his eyes are opened, his head reel, and he topple into the abyss below. | [APRIL 23, 1836. the land bill would not have been greater than those now existing? He was not, however, prepared at this time to say to the Senator from South Carolina whether the adoption of the measure before them would or would not injuriously affect the new States. He did not believe it would have the effect to prevent speculation, though it might affect many of the cultivators who purchased in small quantities. This, however, was an important measure; and they ought to be in possession of the fullest information before they acted on it. His desire was that it might be inquired into by one of the committees of that body; and if, after investigation, it should be found that the measure would be productive of the benefits that had been predicted, why, it would be proper to adopt it. If, on the contrary, it should be found that it would produce embarrassment to the bonafide purchasers, it would be rejected. Mr. K. then submitted the following amendment: Strike out all after "Resolved," and insert, "that the Committee on Finance be instructed to inquire into the expediency of prohibiting the receipt, in payment for public lands, of any thing but gold and silver, after the day of -;" thus changing the character of the resolution from that of an order to bring in a bill to one of mere inquiry as to the expediency of doing so. Mr. SHEPLEY said it was with extreme reluctance that he said a word at that time. He had imposed silence upon himself upon personal considerations; but he could not permit the remarks of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. EWING] to pass without notice, lest his silence might be supposed to admit their accuracy. I do think (said Mr. S.) that he is greatly in error if he supposes that the prediction was not made that the Treasury would be unable to meet the just demands upon it. cannot mistake the import of the expressions which I heard two years since upon this floor. They were too deeply interesting; they were too forcibly impressed upon my mind to allow me to do so. I do not profess to use the language, but only to convey the idea, then so frequent A word as to this resolution. I see its full bearing and effect, or I think I see it, but I am not prepared to vote for or against it, for I do not yet know precisely the situation in which the western banks and the western currency are placed. I presented to the Senate, several days ago, a circular of the Clinton Bank in Columbus, one of the three deposite banks in Ohio, claiming to themselves, in fact exercising, a portion of the legislative power of Congress, requiring the other banks of the State, on pain of the discredit of their notes, to pay a price for permitting them to be received in payment for public lands; and on my motion you sent a resolution to the Secretary of the Treasury, inquiring of him whether he had vested this power in any of the deposite banks. To this we have as yet received no answer; and, until that answer come, I am not prepared to vote on this resolution. If that answer tell us that the people of the West are subject and are to continue subject to this miserable petty tyranny, and that all their financially and emphatically exhibited, that we were to have an operations are to be placed under such control, I will resort to almost any measure, however dangerous, to rescue them from such degrading and vexatious imposition. I hope the resolution will lie over until the Secre tary's answer is received. Mr. CALHOUN observed that he should be very much governed in the vote he should give on this occasion by the opinions of gentlemen coming from the new States, where the public lands were. He saw a great many advantages that would result from the measure, and particularly in the check it would give to that spirit of speculation by which bank rags were given in exchange for the valuable public domain. If the gentlemen coming from the West were of opinion that the measure would not affect the settlement and prosperity of the new States, be would cheerfully give it his support. Mr. KING, of Alabama, said he did not intend to enter into the discussion of this question, and would only remark that gentlemen seemed to have travelled out of their way to discuss questions long since gone by, either to show that distress and ruin had not taken place, or that it had resulted from certain causes which were apparent to them. Now, these questions were not to be settled there, but were to be settled by the people of the United States. Whether the vetoes of the President had, as alleged by the gentleman from Massachusetts, caused the derangement of the currency, was a question which the people could decide as well, and probably better than gentlemen on that floor. With regard to the superabundance of the Treasury, they all knew that it would not have occurred had the land bill passed; but the question was, whether the evils resulting from empty Treasury. The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] imputes the evils of the currency, and the fluctuations and speculations in business, to the refusal to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States. Sir, (said Mr. S.,) I allege that these evils have been occasioned by the action of that very bank, or at least have been greatly aggravated by it. We need only recur to the history of the last five or fourteen years to be satisfied of it. In 1831 the loans of the bank to the people were, if he recollected rightly, about forty-two millions. The next year they were raised to seventy millions. In 1834 they had become reduced again to nearly forty millions; and in 1835 they were again very high; and this year reduced again. This was but the brief history of its operations for five years. It had been producing fluctuations in the money market, uncertainty in prices, and an insecurity in property, during the whole of that short period. The direct tendency of such a course was subversive of honest industry, of regular business, and breaking up all calculation for future action. No dependence could be placed upon any state of things, present or past; for a new change is hastened on to break up all of regularity that might otherwise have been looked for. It was to these excesses of expansion and depression of its loans, four times in five years, to the amount of many millions at each time, that he charged the evils which they had experienced. These were the fruits, the blessed fruits, of a national bank. This, the practical benefit of that mighty institution which was to regulate the currency and business operations of the country, and to pour out blessings upon the people. Sir, (said Mr. S.,) I do not believe there has existed a country upon the face of the earth where the fluctuations in the moneyed system have been as great, and the changes as sudden, for any term of twenty years, as they have been in this country during the twenty years' time that the charter of that bank has existed. The State banks might have contributed their share. was no apologist for those which had done so. When the United States Bank increased its loans by millions upon millions, they had naturally pursued the same course of increase; but, compared with the United States Bank, their excesses had been small; and he had never yet noticed a State bank that had increased and decreased its loans in the proportion of fifty per cent. to that of the United States Bank. The United States Bank had been the mischief-maker, instead of the regulator, in the moneyed concerns of the country. It had been the instrument for putting property up, and for putting it down, at pleasure. It could change the relation of debtor and creditor, so that the creditor might not obtain more than half his debt; or the debtor might be compelled to pay double, by the great changes occasioned in the prices of property. He was no more for schemes or projects than the Senator from Massachusetts. He was for adhering to practical experience; and the experience which they had had taught them, that they should no more trust the destinies of their country to the machinations, the fluctuations, the fictitious prosperity, and the fictitious adversity, occasioned by the United States Bank. The Senator, two years ago, when the bank was calling in its loans at the rate of from one to three millions a month, justified that course, and regarded it as the necessary and proper duty of the bank to continue to call in its loans until the end of its charter. He took occasion then to express the opinion that there was no necessity for it, and that it was done "designedly, unnecessarily, to compel obedience to the bank." And what was the result? Soon after the adjournment of Congress, the bank, instead of following the course alleged to be necessary, extended its loans, and continued to extend them, until the millions which it had called in were thrown out again. And now complaint was made against the State banks that they had done a little of what that bank had done much. If the measure now before them could be adopted without injury to the new States in the West, he was disposed to vote for it; but upon that subject he was not sufficiently advised at the time to form an opinion. It might do something towards protecting us from those great and sudden changes in our moneyed concerns which had marked their history for the last five years. Mr. MANGUM rose, not for the purpose of prolonging the discussion, but to suggest to the Senator from Alabama the expediency of referring the resolution to a select committee, instead of the Committee on Finance. This measure contemplated an important change in the currency of the country, and he preferred that it should be left in the charge of its friends, who better understood it. He was perfectly ready to vote for it, if it came recommended by the gentlemen from the new States; and he was willing to do so, because he looked upon it to be a remedy against speculations in the public lands, and because it might possibly bring about a sounder state in the circulating medium. He thought the present debate an unprofitable one. All this bandying of reproaches tended to no good; they had better set about applying some remedy to the evils which all acknowledged to exist, than to waste time in criminating each other. He had taken no part in this unprofitable discussion, because his opinions were so primitive that he almost feared to express them, lest they should be scouted at. They might be chimeras; but he believed that all these wealthy corporate institutions were inimi [SENATE. cal to a spirit of liberty, which he preferred to all the wealth and splendor of the great cities. Banks, railroads, stock companies of every description, might be useful; but he was opposed to them all, because, in his opinion, they were inconsistent with the true spirit of liberty. He repeated that he would give this measure his hearty support if, in the opinion of the western gentlemen, it would not retard the settlement and prosperity of the new States. Mr. CALHOUN agreed with the Senator from North Carolina as to the appointment of a select committee, and hoped that it would be appointed by the Chair, selecting a majority from the new States. In reply to the Senator from Connecticut, he would observe that, during the time of the pecuniary pressure, he said nothing, because he believed that it would be temporary. He never did doubt that the removal of the deposites would produce the greatest distress, and the most disastrous consequences; but he always did believe that there would be an excess in the Treasury. We make great mistakes in supposing that certain events do not follow their causes, because they do not come at once. In the ordinary course of Providence, causes and their consequences are frequently remote; but this was no reason for neglecting the caution, that the one necessarily followed the other. He The great distress that pervaded the country, the changes of property, and the derangement of the currency-all these were seen and predicted; and the present majority were justly chargeable with them. never had any thing to do with the Bank of the United States, though he opposed the removal of the deposites, as leading to a ruinous derangement of the currency by the unlimited use of State bank paper. Since that measure, one hundred millions had been added to the currency by these banks, which would not have been the case had there been a Bank of the United States to control them. As to the superabundance of the Treasury, he had always foreseen it. Ever since the fatal tariff of 1828, he foresaw the evil, and his subsequent course, which had brought on him so much opprobrium, (he alluded to the proceedings of South Carolina in opposition to the tariff,) was dictated by the knowledge that this tariff would produce an overwhelming accumulation of money in the Treasury, which ought never to be there. There was a deep responsibility on those who had caused these evils. But let us, said, he, not look to the past, but to the future. Let us apply what remedies are in our power; and, above all, let us endeavor to prevent this noble domain, the public lands, from passing out of our hands into those of speculators, in exchange for worthless bank rags. His only desire was that the measure under consideration should be approved of by the western gentlemen, and, if it was so, he should give it his hearty support. ers. Mr. PORTER said he could not agree in opinion with the honorable Senator from North Carolina. He was unwilling the party should have their full swing on the currency; certainly, it would be no more than practical justice they should, if they were to be the only sufferBut the country would be the principal victim. It was said by the greatest of English statesmen, (Lord Chatham,) that public credit was like the sensitive plant-touch it, and it dies; that public credit mainly rested on a sound and unfluctuating currency. tendency of the resolution moved by the Senator from Missouri was to produce a great and sudden change in it. He (Mr. P.) thought that such an alteration, in these times of inordinate expansion, would produce a fatal shock on the whole commerce and trade of the republic. He believed its influence would not be alone confined to the western States; it would extend over the whole Union; and he therefore saw no reason for selecting the The SENATE.] Specie Payments. committee solely from western members. The amount of the sales of public land last year was fifteen millions; the whole specie in the country forty-five millions. This specie, as we all know, was, or ought to be, the great basis on which banks discounted and made issue of paper. To subtract such a sum from their vaults, deposite it in land offices, or keep it in transitu between the several points where it might be required for Government uses, must necessarily produce an immense contraction in discounts, of a sum not less than thirty millions. Such a change, at this moment, would be absolutely fatal to public credit, and must prove ruinous to the community. Mr. P. observed that it had been said it was improper to make the subject of our currency the subject of conversation and debate here, as the discussion only tended to bring on the evil which all wished to avoid. He did not, however, think so. It was here that, if there was any prospect of the mischief correcting itself, it would be better to look quietly at its workings, and await the return of sober and correct action by the State banks. But the history of the past, and a slight knowledge of the strong principle of self-interest, which was ever active, and often blind, forbade any such hope. Nothing could avert the evil but a wide-spread conviction of the dangers which awaited us. The public mind ought to be instructed of the present state of things, and their tendency. The mass of the community were sound in their principles on this as on all other questions; and it was our duty to warn them against the delusive schemes and wild projects by which the cunning and the speculating part of society were striving to convert the fruits of the labors of the industrious portion of it into their unclean pockets. Mr. P. said he almost despaired of a correction of the evil, yet he still hoped for its alleviation. If the State banks would only look at their permanent interest, instead of immediate advantage; and would act on the principle that they must finally be the victims of an excessive issue of their notes, and consequent total derangement of the money circulation of the country, things might return to a much bet ter state than they are now in; though nothing like security could, he admitted, be found, unless in a system which enabled the federal Government to regulate a machine which had a constant tendency towards derangement. Reference (said Mr. P.) had been made in debate to the situation of our currency previous to the expiration of the charter of the late United States Bank. The contrast was most humiliating; but gentlemen on the other side need not expect that it would not be frequent. ly presented to their contemplation. With our impressions, we should be faithless to our trust if we did not, on all proper occasions, place it before the eye of the American people. The cause of our present evils, and the proper remedy for them, are best found in the contemplation of the past. There could not be a doubt that if the United States Bank had been rechartered, we should be in a far different and better situation than we are now placed in. It was with great surprise (Mr. P. said) that he had heard the Senator from Maine charge on the bank that it had been the means of deranging our currency during the whole time it was in existence: nay, more, that it was to it we now owed its unsettled condition. He wished the Senator had given us his data for these assertions: he should have preferred facts to declamation on a question of this kind. Mr. P. said that the knowledge he possessed of the conduct of that institution had led him to a totally different conclusion. The Senator had said that, for the first four years after its establishment, it had totally failed to regulate the circulating medium of the country. Nothing was more true. It was created at a time when that medium [APRIL 23, 1836. was entirely unsound; and it could not be restored in a day or week. It is the work of years to restore a healthy action to a depraved currency: all hasty and great changes only increase the evil. Under any management, therefore, the institution could not have accomplished such a great object at once. He, (Mr. P.,) however, believed that the affairs of the bank were not wisely conducted on its first organization. The fatal spirit of speculation which had seized the whole community at the close of the late war, had full possession of the minds of that portion of it which were first selected to administer the bank, and the pernicious effects of their wildness were early seen in a derangement of its concerns, and a depreciation of the value of its stock. It soon, however, righted itself, and justified public expectation. Institutions of this kind, from their immense capital, are always able to command the highest talents and purest virtue for the administration of their concerns. The bank called them to its service; and from the period Mr. Cheves was placed at its head to the close of its affairs under the direction of Mr. Biddle, it fully and faithfully accomplished the purposes of its creation. Without referring to detailed statements to sustain the assertion, Mr. P. said he would first bring under the notice of the Senate the state of our currency at two periods--the one immediately after the bank began to exercise its wholesome authority over State emissions, the other at the period when it was assailed by the Executive in 1820 and 1830. At the first mentioned epoch, according to the account laid on our tables this year by the Secretary of the Treasury, the circulation of the United States was $44,863,344; at the last mentioned, $61,323,898, showing merely an increase of between sixteen and seventeen millions in ten years; an increase which every one must admit was but justly proportioned by the increase of our wealth and population during this space of time. I doubt (said Mr. P.) if the history of the world can show any thing which more strikingly illustrates sound management than this; and the recollections we all have of the steady and progressive improvement of the country during the period just stated, its absence from all sudden changes, prove triumphantly how well the system worked. Since the year 1830, however, our circulation has doubled. The Senator from Maine says this increase is due to it, and to it alone; at one time increasing its discounts, and at another time reducing them; and now the distress is owing to its contractions. If, said Mr. F., the bank is now calling in and husbanding its resources, as the Senator states, while, at the same time, the circulating medium is increasing, it is not easy to see how his conclusion follows the premises he professes to base it on. I believe, however, (said Mr. P.,) that all the changes made by the bank during the four years' war waged against it were only such as were forced on it by the wild and furious attacks constantly made on the institution, and the uncertainty which they naturally produced in all financial operations. One word, Mr. P. said, before he concluded, in relation to the hard-money currency which the Senator from Missouri was laboring to introduce. He (Mr. P.) did not believe it was possible to introduce it; and if we could be brought back to it, he doubted its utility. It could not be disguised that the system, though the safest, was not that best adapted to the wants of a commercial people. The two most eminently commercial of all nations, England and the United States, had used, as a means for becoming so, a paper circulation. Gold and silver currency necessarily wanted the capacity of extension, which was almost indispensable, to meet the fluctuations to which commerce was inevitably subject; and they could not be expanded to supply the wants of a country which, every twenty-five years, was doubling its We population, and more than quadrupling its wealth. should find, it was true, in a gold and silver currency, a complete exemption from the evils to which paper circulation was subject; but we would lose by it the immense advantages which that circulation conferred; the energy it imparted; the enterprise it fostered and sustained. To it, even in its unhealthy and ill-regulated action, Mr. P. firmly believed, we are in a great meas ure indebted for an unmatched progress in private wealth and public improvements of all kinds, during the last half century. He thought a well-regulated paper currency the best adapted to the condition of this growing country. Experience had shown us we could regulate it; and he trusted he would live to see the day when it would be again well regulated. The habits of our citizens being now accustomed to it, he believed it would be almost impossible to change them. And if we could change them, that change could not be brought about by laws making gold and silver only a tender in the fiscal transactions of the general Government, because the still greater amount of private commerce would continue to be carried on in paper, and the State banks had a constant interest to take up the specie, and substitute their paper in its place. He was willing, however, the subject should receive consideration, provided the opinion of Congress could be at once obtained on it. He believed that every member of this body had his opinion on this subject made up, and was prepared to vote on it. On motion of Mr. MOORE, The Senate then adjourned. MONDAY, APRIL 25. SLAVERY IN ARKANSAS. Mr. BUCHANAN presented a petition from the Society of Friends in Philadelphia; on the presentation of which he addressed the Senate to the following effect: Mr. B. said he rose to present the memorial of the yearly meeting of the religious Society of Friends, which had been recently held in the city of Philadelphia, remonstrating against the admission of Arkansas into the Union, whilst a provision remained in her constitution which admits of and may perpetuate slavery. This yearly meeting embraced within its jurisdiction the greater part of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the whole of the State of Delaware, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The language of this memorial was perfectly respectful. Indeed, it could not be otherwise, considering the source from which it emanated. It breathed throughout the pure and Christian spirit which had always animated the Society of Friends; and although he did not concur with them in opinion, their memorial was entitled to be received with great respect. When the highly respectable committee which had chargeof this memorial called upon him this morning, and requested him to present it to the Senate, he had felt it to be his duty to inform them in what relation he stood to the question. He stated to them that he had been requested by the Delegate from Arkansas to take charge of the application of that Territory to be admitted into the Union, and that he had cheerfully taken upon himself the performance of this duty. He also read to them the 8th section of the act of Congress of 6th March, 1820, containing the famous Missouri compromise; and informed them that the whole Territory of Arkansas was south of the parallel of 36 degrees and a half of north latitude; and that he regarded this compromise, considering the exciting and alarming circumstances under which it was made, and the dangers to the existence of the Union which it had removed, to be almost as sacred as a constitutional provision. That there might be no mistake on the subject, he had also informed [SENATE. them that, in presenting their memorial, he should feel it to be his duty to state these facts to the Senate. With this course on his part they were satisfied, and still continued their request that he might present the memorial. He now did so with great pleasure. He hoped it might be received by the Senate with all the respect it so highly deserved. He asked that it might be read; and as the question of the admission of Arkansas was no longer before us, he moved that it might be laid upon the table. The memorial was accordingly read, and was ordered to be laid upon the table. NAVY BILL. The Senate proceeded to the consideration of the bill making appropriations for the support of the navy for the year 1836; and the amendments reported by the Committee on Naval Affairs being read, Mr. WHITE said he would be glad if some member of the committee would explain the objects of these amendments, and why so large an increase of the appropriations made by the House was deemed necessary by them. [The amendments increased the appropriations of the House nearly two millions of dollars.] Mr. SOUTHARD explained that the increase of the appropriations, particularly the largest increase, (five hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and sixty dollars,) was for keeping a greater number of vessels afloat than was recommended by the Executive at the commencement of the session, thereby incurring a great additional expense for the pay and subsistence of the officers and seamen. The increase of this item of expenditure had been recommended in a communication received from the Navy Department, since the receipt of the President's message at the opening of the session. It was also contemplated by the committee to employ four steam vessels for the defence of the coasts, and to fit up three of the ships of the line, to be used as receiving ships at each of the three navy yards, at Boston, New York, and Norfolk; but so far completed as to be in a situation to be fitted for sea at a very short notice, should the defence of the country require it. The other increased appropriations were for dry docks, completing a steam vessel, a navy hospital, and a powder magazine at Boston and New York, and for the purchase of sites and the erection of barracks at Brooklyn, Gosport, and Pensacola, not provided for by the House of Representatives. Mr. HILL, said the amendments proposed by the Committee on Naval Affairs in the Senate provided for an addition to the bill as it had passed the House of nearly two millions of dollars. It added simply to the pay of officers and seamen of the navy, more than half a million. He was unable to divine why this great addition to the navy expenditures was now to be made. When the bill was first taken up by the House of Representatives, our foreign affairs, in a highly critical State, seemed to require an increased expenditure, and the bill had passed the House, making considerable increase. Yet this was not enough. The chairman of the Naval Committee, [Mr. SOUTHARD,] who a few days ago made a speech in favor of distributing among the several States twentyseven millions of dollars, now recommends an addition of other millions to the naval appropriation. How gentlemen can vote for these extravagant, these uncalledfor appropriations, at the same time they vote to distribute the surplus, he (Mr. H.) would not attempt to explain. He was anxious to see who of this body were in favor of these appropriations; he wished the ayes and noes to be placed on the journal on the principal amendments proposed by the Naval Committee. It was indeed extraordinary that the Executive should now recommend these increased expenditures over and above what SENATE.] Land Bill. [APRIL 25, 1836. purchase by the United States. He believed the doctrines of the Chief Magistrate were correct. They were not called on to decide the question whether revenue arising out of all sources was constitutionally sub was recommended by the Executive three months ago, when the estimates were sent from the Department to the committee of the House of Representatives. If the Executive shall be thus unsteady and wavering in its recommendations, its wishes would not be much regard-ject to a general distribution. Had they not the power, ed in any vote he (Mr. H.) should give. [Mr. SOUTHARD having explained that the estimates differing from those of the House resulted from a changed view of the importance of the navy, and said they were derived from the commissioners of the navy-] Mr. HILL continued: He would not regard communications coming from a subordinate bureau of any Department, as executive recommendations; he could not, knowing their sentiments in relation to the Chief Magistrate, take the recommendations of the navy commissioners as his guide. The hour of one o'clock having arrived, Mr. CALHOUN moved to lay the bill on the table, for the purpose of taking up the special order; which motion was agreed to: Ayes 16, noes 11. LAND BILL. The bill to distribute the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the States, and for granting lands to certain States, was then taken up as the special order of the day; when Mr. WHITE said the circumstances with which we were now surrounded were not only novel, but were different from those of former times when a debt was due by the nation, and no money in the Treasury beyond the sum necessary to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government. Now the nation owed not one cent, and the Treasury was full to overflowing. In this state of things, after satisfying every ordinary demand on the Government, every man supposed a surplus would be left. For the distribution of this surplus, various projects had been offered, and this among the rest. He had compared this one with each of the others, with a view to make a selection of that one which he conceived most advantageous to the country. The question arose, he asked, to correct the mistakes of the Government in collecting the revenues? Suppose, said he, you estimate fifteen millions as the amount necessary for the expenses of Government, and when you come to collect it, it amounts to seventeen millions, must you let those two millions be locked up for ever? Or have you the power to correct the mistake by returning the excess to the people from whom it comes? In cases where the Government took from an individual more money than was due from him, where, he asked, did they get the power to refund? They had the power to assess and collect taxes, and to pay him out of it. It would be thought strange if one man, in settling with another, should not have the power to correct mistakes; and why should not the Government have the same power as individuals. He agreed with the President, that where a doubt of the power existed it ought not to be exercised. But the question is, said he, whose money is it you have got in your Treasury? You don't know who you received it from, and therefore cannot return it to its proper owners. All the public lands were acquired either by deeds of cession or by purchase. The deed of cession from Virginia in 1784 contained an express provision that these funds were to be applied for the benefit of all the States in the Union, or that should thereafter be admitted. in. question of distribution was not involved. It had been objected that, in making a distribution among all the States, they would include the grantor as well as the other States. If his views were correct, they would not only have the right to make appropriations as trustees, but it was their bounden duty, under the old confederation, to return the excess to the States. He cited a clause in the sixth article of the constitution to show that a change of Government was not intended to change the relative rights of any of the States, but that they stood in the same situation as before; and also cited authorities to show that Congress had clearly the power over the fund arising from the public lands. Although they had a general power to collect taxes, yet that power was necessarily limited to the objects for which it was given. If, by giving a section of land along a line of canal, it would increase the value of the rest, nobody would doubt the power of Congress to do so. But it was said this deed was made before the new confederation, and before which each State contributed its proportion to the support of the Government. Suppose, said he, that form of Government had continued, and the national debt had been paid off, and it had acquired a surplus, as it has now. In that case, he asked, what became of the question, what shall be done with the surplus revenue? They could dispose of it only by distributing it on the same principle by which it was paid has Congress the power to make this distribution? If If they were obliged to appropriate, as other apit had not, then the inquiry into the expediency or poli-propriations, that was another matter, in which the cy was useless. Some years ago it was foreseen that there would be a surplus; and, if he was not mistaken, the President had made a communication in relation to it. The Secretary of the Navy, (Mr. Dickerson,) when in Congress, had made a report on the subject in 1825'26, from which he read extracts to show the great advantages he (Mr. D.) thought would result from an equitable distribution of the revenue for purposes of education and internal improvements, which report, Mr. W. said, was not confined to the revenue from one source or another, but embraced the whole revenue, and that it even recommended a distribution of a portion of the revenue in anticipation of the gradual extinguishment of the national debt; and asserted that it would relieve Congress from a great source of unnecessary legislation. When the present Chief Magistrate came into power, so far as he knew in the section of country in which he lived, it found very considerable favor among the mass of the people. He quoted the recommendation of the President to distribute the surplus revenue in a ratio of representation among the States, and that, if there were any constitutional doubts, to apply to the legitimate source, the States, for their removal. He cited the report of the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. McLane) in 1831, in favor of the constitutional power of Congress over the revenue from public lands, to appropriate them to the purposes of education and internal improvement. No distinction was observed in the message of the President. But the Secretary of the Treasury saw difficulties ahead, and seized upon it, and suggested how it should be met by But it was said that Louisiana and Florida were purchased. How were the lands in these new States acquired? By the avails of the public lands, which ena bled the Government to purchase more lands; and these newly acquired lands in Louisiana and Florida would be decreed in a court of chancery to be held, as the other lands were held, in trust by the Government. With this view of the subject, his mind was clearly settled down that Congress had the power to distribute the surplus revenue from the public lands. But it was said that, after all the appropriations were made, there would be only four or five hundred thousand dollars to dispose of. Insettling this question, he doubted the propriety of going |
