The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1844-04-12
Wing Principles.

IS wings in Philadelphia, who, as must a, the Tin
S have been the case with most Of his whig breth
: ren found himself in the dark as 10 what were IT
ally the principles OF his party, took the troubl
e TO write To Mr.. Clay on the subject and ask hin
: todeGnc them. Ia his reply, Mr.. Clay stated III
= following to be the principles of the grea, viii
: party:
, I. A sound national currency, regulated by tn
will and authority Of the nation.
.. An adequate revenue, with fair protection Il
American industry.
3. Just restraint upon executive power.
, a. An equitable distribution Of the proceeds o
the sales of the public lands among the states.
= 5. An homes, and economical administration o
the general government.
6. a Limitation Of the presidential! Office TO one
term.
Now, with the exception Of perhaps the 4,h and
last, no language can lie more vague aud indcii-
mite than that IN which these principles are d, fin
J ed, and we are lcf nearly much in the dark as
to what constitute the principles of the wing par
" as we were before. Indeed, we know Of but
one way in which we can make any approxima-
ton to what the above language really means, and
that is, Ivy comparing it with wing practice And,
as We have not room, atd it would perhaps be a
work Of supercrogation, to go over the whole lisl
of wing principles as above given and compa~,
them with wing practice, we shall at present take
but one, and from it the reader may perhaps OBJ
! tain a clue for interpreting the rest.
M Clay states the 4,h principle Of the wing
party to be:
! "An honcs, and economical administration of
the general government
| Now, this language, j, will be seen at once,
is vague and indefnile, and without some com
mentary, can mean nothing, One man will con-
slider that an economical administration Of the go-
vernmcnt,' which another would consider highly
cxlravagant. This is plain that we deem it
unnecessary to give Illustrations Where, then,
shall we look for a Commentary 1t will be adj
mt,cd on all hands that, if the wings, with Mr..
Clay at their head, once had the government un.
der their entire control, the economy they cxercis-
ed during that period in administering It's affairs
Is the mos, appropriate commentary on the above
fore, for the purpose of illus,raioug what the
wings mean by an economical administration of
the government" give the national expenditures
for ,hctwo fiscal years Immediately preceding tho
lst of January 1913, during which time the go
vcrnmcht. or at least the whole appropriating
power was in the hands of the wings. And, by !
way of setting the matter in as clear a light as
possible, we will give them us compared with the
Expenditures Of Mr.. Van Buren's administration,
which all wing orators and papers ugrcc in repre-
sen'lng rs having been highly extravagant.
To begin then, tho amount expended during
the first year OF Mr.. Van Burens administration,
1897, was s34 6lOCO3
Second year, 1888, n SD 1916
Third year, 1889, 224i3 ZIG
Fourth year, 1910, 22.3S9 1856
Aggregate OK, V. D.'s admioisl'n., sllO,0O7 All
This includes the ordinary and extraordinary
expenditures. by the ordinary expenditures
are meant tho civil and diplomatic expenditures,
as well as the ordinary expenditures for the army
and navy, Indian ahnullics and interest on the
funded or District dcbl--aI of which are ordinary
because they are of yearly occurrence; and by the
extraordinary expenditures are meant those which |
occurred H. consequence of the border difficulties,
public buildings, the Creek Indian war, &c, &c.
nearly all Of which had their beginning and end
in Mr. Van Burcns administration. We will
separate them from each other:
Amour, expended for the Florida and the Creek
war; during Van Buren's ndmn. S3S 900 600
Amount expended on behalf Of our
border difficulties, .O,1
Amt for removal Of Indians across tho
Mississippi and their settlement, 32GI, 3l5
Amt expended on public buildings, 100000
The aggregate of which is AZ 96l,3l5
Deduct this from the expenditures for
the entire admin. Of Mr.. Van Buren, 40 997, All
And we have s67036, l56
As the entire amount expended during the four
years Of Mr.. Van Burcn's administration for the
ordinary support of the government.
Now LEI us look at the expenditures Of the 90.
ve'nnent during The two years of wing suprcma.
cy. And here we have no expenditures bu,
such as, under Mr.. Van Burcn's administration
we have called ordinary. While in power. the
wings held three sessions of congress Hero nre
the appropriations Of each.
For diplomatic aud miscellaneous
First session, 81, 65 OO1
Second session, A 625 4a3
Third session, 6,2655j5
:, --- 81, 6l6,O79
For naval services
First session, i,7O39'6
Second session, 6,lSi,169
\ Third session, 9l4f,i33
:, =. --si1622,47s
For military services, including all
which 5eong to the military de-
partmcnt--
rirste