The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-12


In his elaborate speech in the Senate on the
stat ult., on the deficiency bill, Mr.. HusrEa
thus expressed himself in relation to the march
of consolidation, aud The necessity of an organ.
lied party to resist IT.
But the Senator from Maryland seems to
think, in relation to this power Of transfer, to
the extent to which it is practiced, that il is
necessary. Necessary, Mr.. President! Can
any Of these practices, either in relation TO the
surplus fund, or the power of transfer. be neces-
sary? Up TO the period Of 1881 or 1882, when
Mr. Berrien gave his opinion, no such practices
prevailed, and the government had gone on very
well without it, Up to 1912, AID since 1870,
no such practice in relation to transfers had pre-
vailed, and the government went on very well
without it, Since 1912 no right Of transfer has
existed in the Navy Department at all, and the
government has gone on very well without 1t.
But, if believed such practices as these were
necessary believed we could not get on
without them, should feel bound to 60 further,
and admit that our Constitution was Impractical
lie, and that our experiment ofself government
had failed for, if they be necessary, 1t Is indis.
pensable to give to the executive power over
the appropriation of money, and, when that is
done, it's power will be unlimited. know it
| may De 64lQ, Ludt hltuOuSii ttio POWCt WVuiu oO
unlimited in regard to appropriations, it would
| not be 80 IA to collecting revenues. Sir, when
we come to look at what is done with treasury
circulars--when We see that they bear the same
relation to the revenue laws that the opinions
of Judges do to the statute aw--when we
come to zee what the Secretary can do towards
increasing or diminishing the revenue from Gus
toms, by one of those circulars-l think we
should DO slow in admitting that the Executive
could do nothing towards raising revenue. In
my opinion, it is one of the signs Of the times,
when men, like the Senator from Maryland
when gentleman of so pure public character
can consent to fold his arms and behold such
things as these with Indifference, nay, when he
feels constrained to cay that such practices are
necessary and essential. Is there nothing in the
tendencies of the uge--nothing in the natural
grayitation of power under our system-noth
ing in the past history, and present state of Elk
ecutve power to alarm US in relation to its flu
ture growth! Why, Mr. President, have we
not seen in the last few years, within the terri
tory of the United States, an Executive not
only raising, but disbursing revenue without
the authority of law? Have We not seen an
Executive, without the least authority of law,
calling State convention into existence, and
paving il! Have we not seen it in fact virtually
introducing u OLutJ icTo ~ yOul uoo's uuu INV
ting it to claim admission into this Union, with
out the least previous intimation Of any such
desire on the part Of Congress!
| And why was this done? Congress failed to
extend the revenue laws in time. Your Exccu-
tive authority pleading the necessity of the case,
did extend those laws. Congress failed to do its
duty, by giving territorial government and
the Executive assumed to call it into existence
az State, and to assemble a convention and pay
it. Congress, owing to the commissions which it
accustomed, was slow to settle great sectional
excitement And thus the Executive in effect
assumed to SETTLE and did settle it, 80 far as the
m st valuable portion of the subject in contro-
versy was concerned. And what do we see
year after year, and day after day? Is not Con-
gress yearly becoming more and more impracti.
cable and inefficient? DO not we seo necessary
appropriation bills delayed? Do not we ace in
dispensable legislation even, postponed and ne
elected, until the machinery Of society is threat
ened with stoppage, and the great operations of
commerce are seriously disturbed =! Then steps
in the Executive with some artlfice OF construc-
ton, some shift of policy, and by resorting to
something which in effect is Executive legisla.
ton, he removes the evil and remedies the diff
Guilty Who IS to expose it, and call him to &C.
count! Not Congress; because, in dongs they
WOuI0 nave 10 tXpOSc LIott oWU uoptVCt. INOt
the people who know most about it because
they are relieved by the interposition. And the
effect is that the precedent goes into the Execu-
tive storehouse to IL & ed hereafter, we know
not for what purpose. What has any Executive
to do that desires to increase its rover, or indeed
to use the whole powers of the government, but
to get up some great sectional excitement? =
During the tendency of that excitement, Con-
gress becomes impracticabe and inefficient, the
people become too much absorbed in the contest
to watch all hat is going on, and the Executive
goes on quietly, and assumes the whole furc'
tons of the government. If it will only dis
charge them in such way as to relieve the peo-
pie from the difficulties imposed by inefficient
legislation, it will hardly ever happen that either
Congress or the people will call it to account for
it's usurpations. When we see such Practices
as those which have exposed, which Transfer
the power over appropriations from Congress to
the Executive, quietly acquiesced in, and even
declared to be necessary, what are we to augur
for the future?
Mr. President, had intended to have made
an effort to reform these abuses by proposing
an amendment to this bill. | still design to
make that effort on come other appropriate bill
| | forbore here, because 1t would have delayed
still further bill which has already fingered
too long and the public interests might have
suffered. 1t is my purpose yet to try the ques
ton, for am unwilling to believe that the Con-
grc,s Of the United States will ever agree to
say, that such practices as these are justifiable,
nay, that they necessary on the part of the
executive branch of the government. What
makes the propest still more disheartenng and
gloomy to me is, that you often hear the word
despair falling from the lips of some of our best
and wisest men. They say that the work of
consolidation has gone 80 far that it is usless to
attempt to resist it--that the Capitalization OF
power here may be regarded as fact already
more than half accomplished Can that be true!
Can we have so trodden down the buwarks
which guard the rights of the States, and 80
DESTROYED the barriers which the Constitution
erected to save our people from absolute power
under any form Of government as already to
have taken that road which has conducted 30
many nations from the forms of free govern
ment to the absolute control ofexecutive despot
| T. lI,kt -, VI,