The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-08-20

place of revenue by taxation to deray the ordinary
annual expenses Of the National Government never
more will the people of any State in this Union have
the benefit Of dollar from this richest of mines
OF inexhaustible wealth, bestowed upon them by
their bountifu Creator for the Improvement Of their
own condition but giuen atoayes, 10 the last cent
gipen aoay foreyerto pamper tue reckless extrava-
gance of Government forever preaching retrench-
ment and economy and forever heaping million upon
million of annual expenditures 4" 10 suckle armies
and dry-nurs the land
| The committee submit to the House their unhesi
tating opinion that the appropriation of any part OF
the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the
ordinary annual expenditures would be the only eec-
ual and irret ieyabe giving a,oay of that great and
nestimable inheritance of the American people
that if that growing and nexhaustibe fund shall
| be doomed to form the whole any part of the
rays and for the annual estimates oil the re-
cepts and expenditures of the National Government,
the people may bid farewell, long farewell to eve
ry hope of ever receiving dollars useful improve,
men from that gift of God to them, thus cruelty and
| perhdiousy wrested from their hands
! Nineteen of the States of this Union, in the ar
dent-perhaps, in some cases, inconsderatey ardent
pursuit of this Improvement Of their own coDdi-
| ton, have become involved-some of them heavily
invoved-in debt. The Creates portion OF tins DEBT
has been contracted for the accomplishment OF STU
pendous works, to expedite and facilitate the inter-
course of travel and of trade between the remotest
| extremes of this great Republic, swarming, from
year to year. with redoublng millions OF population
III estimate Oh tile 'dluc VI
works TO say that the saving Of time, oil labor, anu
of expense individual citizens Of the Union ENJOY
ing the benefit Of these public works, more than re-
pays, in every single year, the whole cost OF theh
construction
But, while these immense benefits have been thus
secured 10 the people a community OF ndiVouais'
the States which authorized them have contracted
burden of liabilities heavier Than they are able TO Dear,
| They need the assistance OF a friendly ana po"efu
hand, and where should they find II but IN the synpa-
tl (,.,N.r
to the committed to their charge in this Immense
| and almost boundless public domain I he aPpi'ca-
ton of the proceeds of the public lands to alleviate the
burden of these debts resslng upon the people oil al
most all the States is If not the only, the most uneh-
ceptonabe mode of extending the mighty arm OF the
Union to relieve the people of the States from the
pressure OF the burden bearing upon them-a reiiei
| consisting only of the distribution among them OF
| their property relief furnishing them the
means of paying to the United States themselves no
uncomfortable portion the debts due from the States
to them: that by one and the same operation, the
people of the States will be relieved from the intolera-
BILE pressure of their debt and the common treasury
of he Union will receive back In payment OF debt no
small part of the sums allotted 10 the States as
their respective portions of the distribution
The committee regret that the shortness of the time
which they have allowed themselves for the prepare
ton of this report consrans them to pass over hume
rous other considerations, amounting to the cleaTes
demonstr that the distribution among the States
of the proceeds of the sales of public lands will be
infinitely conducive to the ends OF Justice, and
to the relief of the people from their embarrassments
than the devo on of the funds to be swallowed
up in the satate gulf of the ordinary annual expen-
| SEES of the Federal Government to perish, In the
using like the nine millions of the fourth nstament
promised 10 the States the eight millions of
stock in the Bank of the nited States, and the five
SIX millions of Indian trust and navy pension funds
all sunk during the Van Buren, Administration,
without leaving wreck behind.
This review of the reasons of the President for OBJ
A
far into detail and all leading to the concu ion
that they feeble, inconsistent, and unsatisfactory
| Ii remains only for the House to take by yeas and
nays the question upon the final passage of the bill
and as the ma ony of the committee cannot indulge,
even alphabetically, the absurd hope OF majority Ell
Their in this the other House Of Congress competent
to the enactment of the bill into law, they leave the
House to determine what further measure they may
deem necessary and practicable, by the legislative au-
thory, in the present caamous condition of the
country.
They perceive that the whole legislative power of
the Union has been for the last fifteen months with
regard to the action of Congress upon measures of
vital Importance, in state of suspended animation,
srangled by the fire times repeated structure of the
Executive cord. They observe that, under these I'M
exampled distractions to the exercise of their high
and legitimate duties, they have hitherto preserved
the most respectful forbearance towards the Execu-
tive chief that while he has, time after time, an
nulled, by the mere act of his will, their commission
from the people to enact laws for the common well
fare they have forborne the expression of their
resentment for these multiplied insults and injuries
They believed they had high destiny to fulfil, by
administering to the people, in the form OF law, rem
edes for the sutferngs which they had too long en-
dured The will of has frustrated all their
labors, and Frustrated all their powers. The jor-
ty of the committee believe that the has occur
red in the annals of Union, contemplated by the
founders of the Constitution by the grant to the
House Of Representatives of the power to impeach
the President of the United States but they are
that the resort to that expedient might in the
present condition of public affairs, prove abortiye.
They that the lrreconceable difference of opin-
ion and of action between the legislative and execu-
tive departments of the Government is but sympa-
thetic with the same discordant views and feelings
among the people. To them alone the final issue of
the struggle must be left. In the and morti-
hcation under the failure of all their labors to re-
deem the honor and prosperity of their country it is
a cheering consolation to them that the termination
of their official existence at hand that they
are even now about to return to receive the sentence
of their constituents upon themselves that the egs-
latlve power of the Union, crippled and disabled as
II may now be- is about to pass renovated and revivi
fled by the will of the people, into other hands, upon
whom will devolve the task Of providing that rene
dy for the public disempers which their own honest
and agonizing energies have in vain endeavored to
supply
The power Of the present Congress to enact laws
essential to the welfare of the people has been struck
with apoplexy by the Executive hand. Submission to
his will, Is the only condition upon which he will per-
nit them to act For the enactment of measure
earnestly recommended by himself, he forbids their
action, unless coupled with condition declared by
himself to be on subject totally different that he
will not suffer them to be coupled in the same law.
With that condition, Congress cannot comply In
this state of things, he has assumed the committee
fully believe, the exercise of the whole legislative
power to himself, and is evyng millions of money
upon the people, without any authority of law. But
the final decision of this question depends neither up
on Legislative nor Executive, but upon Judicial au-
thority the final decision Of the Supreme
Court upon it be pronounced before the close OF the
present Congress In the time, the abusive ex-
ercse of the constitutional power of the President to