The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-03-19
RATE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS.
RATES OF ADVRRTIsING

D VI
speech by the Hon John 4. bingham,
OfOhiO, on the Joint Resolution TO
/ Appropriate One HiIIIOn or Dollars
! for the Suffering Poor OF the south.
I F'oHE uis COn0rsELioHai GEo4e.
! Mr.. Chairman, had hoped that this
joint resolution would not have met
| with any opposition in this House and
/ especially upon the Republican side OF
/ IT; and, above all things, had hoped
that after thesEecord made by the Thir-
1 tnth Congress, no Republican
I would undertake to say in this Hall
/ that it Is not warranted by the Consti-
tuition TO provide for the, relief of the
poor OF any part of this-country by ian
appropriation OUT OF our common Treas
ury-
Why, sir, at the first session OF the
| last Congress Il bill was introduced
upon the Republican side OF the House,
I which Appropriated out of the common
Treasury of the United States for the
I support OF refugees aud freedmen in the
several States lately in insurrectiop. not
less than s. ,o1o.0 .00O. And yet. sir, we
| are to be told to-day that the legislation
Is not warranted by the Constitution
trust that those gentlemen who re
corded their votes by yeas and nays in
1 favor of the appropriation for this pur-
i
not take step backward, and concede
that the gentleman from Massachusetts
Mr.. Butler) is right in the position
! which he has assumed. slE
Mr.. Butler-MI. Chairman, I must
have made myself lily understood;
what said was, that gentlemen on the
/ other side, the strict constructionists of
the Constitution, would have said in
the earlier days-before the war-that
I II was unconstitutional to make any
such appropriation; but hat for myself
had got far beyond that idea. Think
We have right not only to appropriate
money to feed these people, but TO ap-
/ propriate money to govern them; TO
make them do exactly what we say
! they shall do, and omit to do exactly
WhNt-we- say they shall not do. They
are entirely in our hands, and, SO far
| as am concerned. 1 have no doubt
| about the power.
\ know that the gentleman does not OBJ
| ject 10 the power to make this appro-
pristion, and yet he certainly objects to
! the object of the joint resolution, and
undertakes to cut 1t off by a substitute
limiting our charity to the widows and
Z orphans of those who suffered in the
Libby prison, at Andersonville, and
Belle Isle.
Mr.. EIdridge-I desire to know
whether the gentleman from Ohio con-
cedes to the General Government the
| power affirmed by the gentleman from
Massachusetts, { Mr.. Butler.)
MIR. Btngham-Tr is too late, Mr.
Chairman, for the gentleman to address
10 me an inquiry of that sort. have
I too often during the session just closed
and before, declared in my place here,
that the States lately in insurrection are
as exclusively under the legislative
power of the United States Govern
/ 81, zk,u H., 4
! to their constitutional relations with
the consent OF Congress, as is the Dis
trict of Columbia, to admit OF doubt
about my position on that question.
But that is aside from the present dis
cussion.
The gentleman from Massachusetts
admits that he has no constitutional OBJ
! iections to argue against this bill; yet he
objects TO 1t, and offers here a substi-
/ tuIe which is to exclude from the char
liable consideration of this Congress,
everybody save those who are already
provided for by your existing laws in
TwofoId, threefold, fourfold, fivefoId
the esamsrmeasurs of relief proposed by
this bill. Sir, for one I trust that so
long as reason holds place in my brain
shall never forget that education and
charity are at least the cheap defense of
nations. ~
1t is enough for me 10 know that with
III lAc tLEL=1lCLiOA Vi Tue COulL4Ou GON-
ernment of this country there are men,
women, and children who are suffering
from famine, lifting up their ha2gard
faces, stretching forth their skinny tin
gers, and asking for leave to-eat of the
! crumbs that fall from your well-sup-
piled tables. Tell it notin Gath; pub
lish it not in the streets OF AskeIou," :"
that the American Congress, having the
control OF such resources as never be-
fore acknowledged the sway of any
other Government, will permit sixty
thousand OF their countrym men to per-
ish for bread within the limits OF their
own Jurisdiction. Especially let not
record of the Thirty Ninth Congress,
and interpose to a proposition of this
kind, any such quibbliug objections as
have this day been insisted upon.
If the widows and orphans of those
who perished at AndersonvilIe and
Libby are not already sufficiently pro-
yided for by existing legislation, am
ready to vote out of the national Treas
ury additional supplies. But, sir, by
no pretense of aiding them am going
to be diverted from contributing, so far
as 1 may be sble, TO carry into execu-
ton this bill, which has come to US
from the Senate, where il has been
passed by an almost unanimous vote
of our own'friends,
Mr.. EarnSwOrth-I desire to ask the
gentleman, with his permission, wheth-
er he does not believe that If an inves-
tigation should be made, there would
be found throughout the northern States
sixty thousand persons who have not
in their possession bread for the next
year, and who have no prospect of hav-
ing it unless they earn it; and If so,
would there not be Just as much pro-
prietY in our voting money TO supply
them with bread, as making an appro-
priatiou to supply sixty thousand
southern people2
Mr.. Bingham-If I understand the
gentleman, he is inquiring of me
| whether he voted in accordance with
his oath and the requirements OF the
Constitution during the first session of
the Thirty-Ninth Congress, when he
voted to appropriate s., ,000,0 600 for that
/ very purpose.
Mr. Farnsworth-I did not ask the
| gentleman anything about our consti-
! tudonal right to vote money in this
Mr.. Bingham-welI, sir, I under
stand the gentleman 10 ask me about
our power TO make such an appropria-
/ ton and l say that it is too late for
any Republican member of the Thirty
I Ninth Congress TO raise that question.
7 In the Thfrty-NTnth Congress we did
/ that very thing; and propose to follow
/ that example in the FOTtieth Congress.
j Mr.. Farnsworth-The gentleman
does not meet my question. 1 did no;
/ raise any unconstitutional question. at all.
] I simply asked for light in regard to the
1 propriety OF Congress voting money for
this purpose.
Mr.. Bingham-Well, sir, If there IS
I no constitutional objection, 1 think
! ~, IN the serene light of Christian rev
I eiatfou, can question the prOpFietV