> *Remarks by Davey Crockett, backwoodsman, mighty hunter, skilled
> scout, brave soldier, expert rifleman, able judge, heroic defender of
> the Alamo and member of the 20th 21st and 23rd congress from
> Tennessee. From \"The Life of Colonel David Crockett,\" by Edward
> Sylvester Ellis.*
>
> One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up
> appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished
> naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its
> support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett
> arose:
>
> \"Mr Speaker\--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased,
> and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as
> any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead
> or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of
> injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument
> to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as
> an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.
>
> We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own
> money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no
> right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent
> appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the
> deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the
> war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I ever heard that
> the government was in arrears to him.
>
> \"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without
> the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a
> debt. We have not the emblance of authority to appropriate it as
> charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much
> money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I
> cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week\'s pay to the
> object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will
> amount to more than the bill asks.\"
>
> He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage,
> and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and
> as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few
> votes, and, of course, was lost.
>
> Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation,
> Crockett gave this explanation.
>
> Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the
> Capitol with some members of Congress, when our attention was
> attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a
> large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could.
> In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many
> families made houseless, and besides, some of them had lost all but
> the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so
> many children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for
> them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating \$20,000
> for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it
> through as soon as it could be done.
>
> \"The next summer, when it began to be time to think about election, I
> concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I
> had no opposition there but, as the election was some time off, I did
> not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my
> district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man
> in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so
> that we should meet as he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied
> politely, but as I thought, rather coldly.
>
> \"I began: \'Well friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called
> candidates and\-\--
>
> \"Yes I know you; you are Colonel Crockett. I have seen you once
> before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose
> you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time
> or mine, I shall not vote for you again.\"
>
> \"This was a sockdolger\...I begged him tell me what was the matter.
>
> \"Well Colonel, it is hardly worthwhile to waste time or words upon
> it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter
> which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the
> Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to
> be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me.
> But I beg your pardon for expressing it that way. I did not intend to
> avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a
> candidate for the purpose of insulting you or wounding you.\'
>
> \"I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the
> constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what
> but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be
> honest.
>
> But an understanding of the constitution different from mine I cannot
> overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held
> sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields
> power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the honest he is.\'
>
> \" \'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake.
> Though I live in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the
> papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of
> Congress. My papers say you voted for a bill to appropriate \$20,000
> to some sufferers by fire in Georgetown. Is that true?
>
> \"Well my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But
> certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours
> should give the insignificant sum of \$20,000 to relieve its suffering
> women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing treasury,
> and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just the
> same as I did.\'
>
> \"It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the
> principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the
> Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has
> nothing with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing
> money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to
> man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff,
> which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be,
> and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means.
>
> What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the
> weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can
> ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while
> you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands
> who are even worse off than he.
>
> If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter
> of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give \$20,000,000
> as \$20,000. If you have the right to give at all; and as the
> Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you
> are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or
> profess to believe, is a charity and to any amount you may think
> proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open
> for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for
> robbing the people on the other. \'No, Colonel, Congress has no right
> to give charity.\'
>
> \"\'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they
> please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money
> for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this
> country as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress
> would have Thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are
> about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown
> their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week\'s pay,
> it would have made over \$13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men
> around Washington who could have given \$20,000 without depriving
> themselves of even a luxury of life.\'
>
> \"The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be
> true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about
> Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from necessity
> of giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to
> Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do
> these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing
> else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the
> Constitution.\'
>
> \"\'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I
> consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the
> country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the
> limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security
> for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not
> make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and
> you see that I cannot vote for you.\'
>
> \"I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and
> this man should go to talking and in that district I was a gone
> fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully
> convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy
> him, and I said to him:
>
> \"Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had
> not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be
> guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many
> speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have
> said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all
> the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it
> that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would
> have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me
> again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be
> shot.\'
>
> \"He laughingly replied; \'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once
> before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You are
> convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do
> more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district,
> you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it
> was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to
> keep down opposition, and perhaps, I may exert some little influence
> in that way.\'
>
> \"If I don\'t, said I, \'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you
> that I am in ernest in what I say I will come back this way in a week
> or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of people, I will make
> a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.\'
>
> \"No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section but we have
> plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare
> for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days,
> and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. \'This Thursday; I will
> see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and
> we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see
> and hear you.
>
> \"\'Well I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-bye. I
> must know your name.\"
>
> \"\'My name is Bunce.\'
>
> \"\'Not Horatio Bunce?\'
>
> \"\'Yes
>
> \"\'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have
> seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very
> proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.\'
>
> \"It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He
> mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his
> remarkable intelligence, and for a heart brim-full and running over
> with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in
> words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him,
> and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate
> acquaintance. Though I had never met him, before, I had heard much of
> him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had
> opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man
> could now stand up in that district under such a vote.
>
> \"At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our
> conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all
> night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and
> confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.
>
> \"Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and,
> under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept
> him up until midnight talking about the principles and affairs of
> government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got
> all my life before.\"
>
> \"I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him - no,
> that is not the word - I reverence and love him more than any living
> man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will
> tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and
> acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the
> world by storm.
>
> \"But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue
> and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good
> many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me
> around until I had got pretty well acquainted - at least, they all
> knew me.
>
> \"In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They
> gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech
> by saying:
>
> \"Fellow-citizens - I present myself before you today feeling like a
> new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or
> prejudice or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I
> can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service
> than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for
> the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I
> should make this acknowledgement is due to myself as well as to you.
> Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration
> only.\"
>
> \"I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the
> appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I
> closed by saying:
>
> \"And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that
> the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was
> simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr.
> Bunce, convinced me of my error.
>
> \"It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to
> the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and
> that he will get up here and tell you so.\'
>
> \"He came up to the stand and said:
>
> \"Fellow-citizens - it affords me great pleasure to comply with the
> request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly
> honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all
> that he has promised you today.\'
>
> \"He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for
> Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.\'
>
> \"I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then
> and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now
> that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the
> honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the
> honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or
> ever shall make, as a member of Congress.\'
>
> \"Now, sir,\" concluded Crockett,\"you know why I made that speech
> yesterday. \"There is one thing which I will call your attention,
> \"you remember that I proposed to give a week\'s pay. There are in
> that House many very wealthy men - men who think nothing of spending a
> week\'s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when
> they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made
> beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country
> owed the deceased\--a debt which could not be paid by money\--and the
> insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so
> insignificant a sum as \$20,000 when weighed against the honor of the
> nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with
> them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it
> is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many
> of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.\"