The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-08-26

Ways and Means III the Douse, CohiP"seu
of majority of sectionalists, reported the
bill in the ordinary form, and making the
usual appropriations for the support of the
army. The sectional majority of the House,
on the motion of Mr.. Sherman, amended
the committees bill by attaching the pro-
viSo to which we have several times be-
fore referred as a revolutionary proceeding.
! In the Senate, the Finance Committee re-
ported the bill. with motion to strike out
! the Sherman amendment, and recommended
/ its passage just it was reported by the
! House Committee. In making this report,
| Mr.. Hunter stated that the Sherman amend
ment was an attempt to introduce subject
! of general legislation into an ordinary ap-
! preparation bill to which it had no proper
or necessary relationship; that it undertook
to legiSlate in this irregular mode on ques-
ton on which there was known antagOn-
| ism in the country, and on which the two
! houses of Congress were known to be at
issue. If the House persisted, and there
by the army appropriation was defeated, 1t
would be revolution. by stopping the wheels
of government; if the Senate and Executive
yielded TO the usurpation on the part OF the
House, it would be revolution, because the
Constitution contemplated that both Houses
should act freely and without constraint.-
In either alternative, he said, the House
would be responsible for the consequences.
But to avoid such an issue, Mr.. Hunter argu-
ed that the House might well abandon their
position, on the ground that the Legislation
proposed did not properly belong to an ap-
preparation bill. lie therefore asked the
/ concurrence of the Senate, without touch
| ing the merits of the Sherman proviso.
When this reasonable and conservative
! suggestion was made, wo hoped that the
republican side of the Senate would AT once
accept it, and thus manifest their dissent
from the rash and factiuus course of their
friends in the House. But so far from hav-
ing our hope realized, the leading republl-
cans not only rejected Mr. Hunters con-
servative suggestions, but entered upon a
debate in support of the Sherman amend
memt, and in justification and encourage
mcmt of the action of their friends of the
House, which lasted for eight hours. Messrs.
Wilson, Wade, Trumbull, and Seward ex-
haustcd all their ingenuity, and expended
no inconsiderable amount of fanatical sec
tionalism, in trying to Justify the amend
ment and in furnishing reasons why their
friends in the House ought to persevere
oven though the wheels of government
should be stopped! They insisted that the
House represents truly the sentiments of the
people, and that they have a clear right to
require the Senate and the President to
submit to their dictation, or to let the con-
sequences of the revolution come; and
they did not hesitate to proclaim that in
such an event, the responsibility would rest
upon the Senate and the President This
: the boldest di>union doctrine that has
yet been avowcd in the Senate. 1t is sim
ply and markedly the assertion Of the right
of one branch of Congress to resort to the
appropriation bills as medium through
which to make its will supreme over the
other branch and over the Executive-and
if the other departments refuse to submit,
that the revolution and disunion thus bro't
about are iustiiable.
These startling doctrines brought forth
from Messrs. Thompson, OF Ky, Jones, of
Tenn, Hunter, Butler. Douglas and Stuart,
a succession of the ablest and most eloquent
speeches delivered during the session. In
no debate have the dangerous tendencies
of sectionalism been so forcibly and so elo-
quently exposed. The result was the stri
king out of the revolutionary proviso by
vote of moro than three to one.
The bill now goes back to the House,
and if the counsel of the Republican Sena-
tors prevails in that body, the fate of the
army appropriation bill is scaled and in
asmuch as the civil and diplomatic bill
contains the same proviso, and others
equally revolutionary, that bill, too. may
be considered as defeated. The Republic
can Senators, led on by Mr.. Seward, have
avOwed their willingness to meet the res
possibility of defeating these bills, and thus
putting a stop to the operations of the gov
ernment. 1t is no longer to be denied or
doubted that the overthrow of the Union is
the end to which sect:onalism is drifting
and drifting with a rash precipitancy that
may bring about the catastrophe in the
next ten days. As was most eloquently and
solcmnly declared by Mr.. Butler, the pro-
position of the House is the most unconsti-
tutional and revolutionary proceeding ever
attempted to be enforced in Congress-
That proposition is openly and boldly ad-
vocated by the acknowledged champions
and leaders of the sectional organization
which seeks to elect President by the ex-
elusive vote of the North, and TO secure
majorities in Congress composed exclusive
ly of northern members. If this be not re-
vOlution and diSunion, then these terms
have lost their meaning.
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.
On Thursday, the President sent into
ToDcreSS tho fnllnviDc NaSScos.