The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-06-16


Mr.. C. said the gentleman from North Carolina
had deduced argument from the relation of the appro
pration for the Home Squadron to the service of the
present year. The gentleman admitted that he voted
for the Home Squadron bill; that bill passed in Au-
gust l84l In Sept. the orders were given, and from
ceedng, for the chief part during the five months Of
the present year In fact the appropriation for the
Home Squadron to be considered addition
to the estimates for l84l and to the General Appro
priation bill of the 4th of March, l84l and like that
appropriation ran into the year I842. 1t was
ira appropriation Did gentlemen contend that this pro-
vision improper one; that the Home Squad
ron ough to exist? That would be strange, since
the bill passed the House with but eight votes against
it. Abundant and satisfactory reasons were then as
signed for the enactment of that law, in the useful
service which the Home Squadron might perform on
the Atlantic coast of the United States. In addition
to which, the Home Squadron might eventually take
the place of the West India Squadron, and be en-
poyed the coast of the Gulf In opposing the pre-
sent Appropriation bill, on account OF the Home
Squadron appropriation, was it the design of gentle
men, indirectly, to put end to that Squadron For
great part of the year 1912 the expenditure that
Squadron became part of the general expenditure OF
the year 1912, and was embraced in the general esti-
mates Did gentlemen mean to repeal the Home
Squadron bill2 If So he wished they would do it d.
rectIy and expressly, instead of doing it indirectly,
by cutting down these estimates. fit was not that
in thus cutting down the aggregate service, gentle
men were not repeating the act home
Squadron The other alternative was, that in order
to maintain Home Squadron they would cripple the
service by cutting down the ordinary and regular APP
preparations. In either point of view the argument
was untenable and unjust towards the Navy.
The gentleman from N. Y. (Mr. Mcclellan referred
to the unexpended balance ofwo millions nine hundred
thousand dollars at the end of184 ifit were add
ton the estimates of 194l Certainly this wrong
There continual error in Congress as to these
expended balances lthere had been such balance Of
the last appropriation remaining hand in December,
how could the Governmenthave gone onsince? Gentle
men reasoned if it now the lst of January in
fact the estimates made for calendar years, da
ting from the lst of January; but the appropriation
not being made by Congress for mont afterwards,
the expenditures necessarily run into the succeeding
years !; there would be unexpended balance at the
end Of 1872 to be used in l843 Just there at
the end of l84l to be used in 1872 it was what the
Navy had been subsisting on from December last
and without which the Department would have come
to dead stand; of the balance of $300O,000
at the end Of l84l was not to be considered IN any
respect as so much Of additional means in the Trea-
sury.
This want of correspondence between the year
of estimates and the year Of expenditures was not
only the of confusion and continual and
debate in Congress-, but it was attended with other
very serious evils one was that members were told
that the Treasury exhausted that the Appropri-
alton bills must be hurried through and in this way
debate in the House was limited and abridged ano-
Their serious evil consequent on 1t was In the case OF
the civil agents Of Government. Appropriations of
nearly ten millions for the civil service ought to be
in the Treasury on the LIST of January 1912; yet in
point of fact, the bill making the appropriations did
not pass until April May, and thus all the clerks
in the Departments were compelled to borrow mo-
ney for their subsistence, in anticipation of the pas
sage of the appropriations This owing to the
erroneous manner of commencing the fiscal year; it
ought to at such time as the House should
have passed its appropriations and before the expen-
ditures of the year began then all these difficulties
would be axoded
Gentlemen asked if there prospect of war
He did not expect any war; and if this appropriation
could not be defended without raising war panic,
he should not defend it, he justified it its merits,
and on what he believed to be the permanent inte-
rests of the country all he desired was what those
permanent interests of the country require-that the
Navy should be maintained on its present footing
and efficiency and that such gradual increase should
be made as to be commensurate with the increase
in the wealth, population and commerce of the Uni
ted States.
The gentleman from New York (Mr. McClellan) had
offered the amendn reducing number of officers
on the plea of economy and a desire to reduce the
expenditures of the Navy. This was newborn
zeal on that side of the House. He did not remem-
Der that there had been among then any talk about
reducing the number of officers or the amount ofexpen
dtures before the Sd Of March Is4I when they were
deprived OF the control of the Government
The House, by the establishment Of the Home
Squadron, to which there was but eight dissenting