The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-06-10
tendent of this Capitol extension. [Grcat


| saw the pale images of w ashington, Han
cock, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other dead
heroes and sages looking out upon me with
their dull cold eyes from every niche of
this Capitol, while fancied that the ghosts
of murdered States were fitting through
every corridor like "the unquiet shades
who haunt the Stygian Shore" with the
Constitution PROSTATE and chained like the
Titan to his rock, with the vulture of fac
tion rending and tearing at its vitals, to
my unsophisticated Imagination the poets
| picture Of the internal regions was so WV
| idly reproduced that / should have been
certain that he meant Sisyphus to represent
the superintendent if had not known that
poor Sisyphus had to roll his own stone
and never got cent for it, while the SUI
perintendent had IL large gang of cll-paid
hands to do the work, and he was drawing
fat salary for seeing them do it. Laugh
ter and applause.
Yes, Mr.. Chairman, it is true, as remark
ed by the gentleman from Illinois, Mr.
Cook, that the government has from time to
time expended large sums of money in
paving the avenues and streets of this city,
and Pennsylvania avenue in particular
But is that any reason why we should con
tinue to lavish the public funds in the
same directions If so, | would commend
it to the special attention of my esteemed
friend from Ohio, the chairman of the Com
mittee on Rctrenchment, Mr.. Wclker,
as a new and brilliant conception in the
science of political economy Wherever
you find AN abuse, wherever you find an
eXtravagant and uniustifiable expenditure
of public money, in order to correct the
abuse and save money all you have to do
is just to 60 on and double the outlay. |
say admit it is to my mind new and start
ling proposition in political science; but if
it be accepted by the House as good and
sound in this instance, it will do to act
upon in all Others.
Mr.. Chairman, | have trespassed upon
the courtesy of the committee fear too
long, certainly much longer than | had
any idea of when | commenced, Icries of
$50 on" $50 on!"] yet there are one or
two thoughts further that would like to
suggest Suppose, sir, that we do feel like
exercising liberal generosity in this mat
ter are we in condition to do so! A
wise and prudent business man who con-
templates the bestowal of large charity
will be sure to examine his balance sheet
before he does it, He will examine his
resources. He will consider his liabilities.
He will foot up his bank book and count
over his money Now, how does our ac-
count stand We are informed by the
Secretary of the Treasury that our bonded
debt amounts to about $4,000 1000, 000.--
Have you, sir, any conception of the mag
nitude of that sum z Has any gentleman
here? | make no imputation upon your
intellect when | say you do not. Try if
you can realize it unit by unit. Can you
do it? Sir, it is not within the power of
the human intellect. The brain reels
beneath the immensely of the concep-
ception. You had rs well undertake to
number the seconds on the dial OF eternity.
There is one way however, and only one
way by which the human intellect can APP
proach a realization of the magnitude of
this sum; and that is by comparison, Each
greenback dollar bill is about seven inches
in length. Now, place two thousand five
hundred millions OF them in a line, and
you will find it will be over two hundred
and fifty thousand miles long! Geogra-
pliers tell us it is twenty-five thousand
miles around the earth. Our public debt
would therefore make band of greenback
dollars that could cncircle this globe more
than ten times 1t is said to be two hun
bred and forty thousand miles from the
earth to the moon. If this is so, our debt
would make rope of greenback dollars
long enough to cable the moon to the earth,
and have over ten thousand miles to sag
| Laughter. Now, this House has repeat
edly declared that this debt, principal and
interest, shall be paid, and to meet the
annually accruing interest upon it the peo-
pie all over the country are taxed in every
conceivable way that the ingenuity of
Congress can suggest.
But, sir, this is not all, nor half | have
been speaking of only 50 much of our debt as
| we have given our notes for. Besides this
we owe, at the very lowest calculation, So,
600 900, 900; not to the bloated bondholder,
ofwhom we have heard so much not to the
millionaire who dwells in marble halls; but
to a class of our people to whom ofall Others
we are under the most sacred obligation to
pay. We owe it to the poor Woodworking
farmer in the country, the widow, the orphan
whose horses and cattle and sheep and hogs
and corn and wheat, and everything else,
were taken from them to sustain your armies
in the field. Their just and honest claims
are filed by the thousand in this House and
in the Departments at the other end of the
avenue. Year after year have they been
standing, waiting, imploring simple justice
from Government that owes them protec-
tion-a Government in whose coronct the
brightest jewel should be a faithful compli-
ance with the guarantee in its bill of rights,
"that private property shall not be taken for
public use without just compensation"
| | say we owe these poor claimants, whose
demands have been spurned and neglected
by the Government from year to year, to our
everlasting shame, and we owe them justly.
Their properly was taken from them under
an express or implied contract that they
should be paid just compensation for ii, or
they were ruthlessly robbed of it. Now, sir,
pay your bondholder, if you please; pay him
every cent, if you will, principal and inter-
est, but in the name Of justice and right
and manhood, pay these poor claimants also.
When you shall have paid them all, like just
and honest men, then you may talk of Civ
ing away the public money for objects such
as are contemplated in this BILL
1t may be possible, sir, that there are gen
tlemen who may look at this proposition to
give away $190,000 of the peoples money as
a matter of too much insignificance to en-
gage their attention at all. know there are
some intellects so constituted by nature that
they can only grapple with those gigantic
questions which from their magnitude attract
attention from the remotest parts ofthe coun-
try; intellects which stand like the colossus
upon the highest pinnacles ofpolitical science,
and look wo " into the horizon of futurjty with