The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-01-07

Vic SAiStihS Ia" Vi tHtS JOFCIUtDent.
Mr.. LovEJoY. | do not not wish to
be understood as intimating that any ex-
penditure will be made contrary to law.
am not driving at that. l do not speak
Of the Secretary of, the Treasury as an in
dividual, but in his official capacity. He
asks this House to vote him the money.
and he, and his friends in this House
vote to spend it as they please, and then
they come back and taunt us with having
voted for all these objects. Sir, want to
know what the money is voted for.
Mr.. j. CLANCY JONES. / thought had
sufficiently explained it. The requisition
is for the authority to use $40, 900, if
necessary, to pay the debts of this Gov
eminent, in accordance with existing law.
Not dollar will be paid out by the Sec
rotary, except in accordance with the ap-
preparation bills of the last Congress.
Mr.. LovEJoY. do not suppose he will.
was asking, Mr.. Chairman, why this mon
ey was needed, and whether it is TO be en-
ployed in sustaining those four regiments
which are proposed in the Presidents m es-
sage. Is there not recommendation that
ten war steamers be built; and that, too, at
the same time that they are asking au-
thority to issue 100000 of Treasury
notes? Now, | want to know if these
S2O,0O0,000 are going to sustain those
four regiments? should like to know
whether it is necessary to have these four
regiments raised, in order to have cap
tains, ensigns, corporals, and sergeants
enough to give them strength enough to
carry through the Lecompton Constitu-
ton, without submission to the people
and whether we are to pay them with this
money? That is what | desire to know.
have no doubt they want money; but l
should like to know how much of it is
going to be used, as has been the case
heretofore, in sustaining usurpation in
Kansas? How much is to be used to
force, at the point of the bayonet, upon
the people 'of Kansas, Government for
which every person in the United States
knows they never voted, and never will
and that, too, right in the face of the
declaration that Government derives all
its just powers from the consent of the
governed" Let my right arm wither first,
and my tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth, before l will vote a cent to up
hold the Infamous despotism which the
past and present Administration have at
and are now attempting to i'm
pose upon an unwilling people. | have
the right to inquire, and | want to know,
that policy is still to be pursued
and whether the United States troops are
to be employed to force upon people
they do not want. / know
tyrants always want money. Philip ii
wanted money. 1t was the urgency of
his reign to want money. He wanted to
send the troops of Spain, under the Duke
of Alva, to the Netherlands, to enforce
the Inquisition upon the people of the
Lower Countries. President Buchanan
wants money, | believe, to force the Le-
compton Constitution upon the people of
Kansas.
Mr.. LETCHER. Is the gentleman aware
of the fact that the vote is being taken i'm
Kansas upon the Lecompton Constitution
to-day, so that the President cannot want
money for that purpose?
Mr.. LovEJoY. | know that the party
in power can play such fantastic tricks /"
as make heaven blush, and that other place
smile with JOY. Laughter. say tyrants
want money always, and that they are
always borrowing; and say | know no
parallel to the course of this Administra-
ton. | know nothing so much like it as
the reign of Philip III.
| object, finally, to this bill, because it
is unconstitutional. Now, it is said to be
out of taste, and parliamentary, to say
anything about conscience here. | do
not know but it is unparliamentary to say
anything about the Constitution; but |
hope not, because we have sworn to
support the Constitution. | want the
chairman of the Committee of WAYS and
Means, or any other friend of this bill to
point me to that clause of the Constitu-
ton which authorizes the issue of Treas
ury notes. There is the power to borrow
money upon the credit Of the United
States, it is true; but what is the use of
whipping the devil around the stump?
Why not come out frankly, like men, and
say they want to borrow money for the
purposes of the Government, and not ask
for authority to issue Treasury notes?
The truth is, there is no constitutional
power to issue Treasury notes. | know
that 1t will be brought up as plea, the
presidents, that we did it in 1887, in
1912, and in 1847 and now, cannot we
do it in 1857? In the language of Young,
with slight variation,
Once more the fatal precedent will plead"
We have done it three times, and why
not do it fourth' Every repetition of
an unconstitutional act endangers the
country, by making a subsequent violation
more easy, and soon you will find the
good national ship unmoored, and float
ing away in very ocean of precedents,
with the Constitution almost submerged,
and hardly able to keep above the angry
pillows. And here, from my place, and
upon my responsibility as member of
this House, | want especially to warn
those who live in the country-for
God made the country, and man made the town,
and | like Gods workmanship the best
want to warn the mechanics and labor
ers, and the industrial classes of the coun-
try, that this Administration which | said
was but an elongation of the preceding
one, Is endeavoring to convert this Gov
eminent, IN the name of Democracy, into
desPotism, and the Treasury Department,
under the guise of Treasury notes, into
one grand banking system.
And, sir, before this ceases, there will
be hundred millions of national indebt-
edness, and it will all be owned in the
free States, who will be under bonds to
that amount to keep the peace. And
when the Slavery Propaganda wish to
push their conquests over Freedom, and
nationalize their peculiar institutions and