The Portland daily press., 1885-01-27
Revenue Bills.
Revenue Bills.
Speech Of COngreSsman Reed On thO Power
of the senate.
In the House, oa Friday, Mr.. Hurd offered
the following preamble and resolution:

In the House, oa Friday, Mr.. Hurd offered
the following preamble and resolution:
\ Whereas certain bills. appropristing money from
The Treasury of the. United States originating In
theSenate have passed that body and nave been sent
to this House for its co occurrence, which now
upon the Speakers table TO wit, Ssl ate bill No.
1893 entitled "a bill to aid in the establishment and
Temporary support OF common schools" anu many
others; and
whereas it is asserted that these bills are in vio-
laton of the privilege Of this II use to exclusively
originate bills for raising revenue; therefore
Be 10 TesOtved. That the committee on the tudici-
airy be hereby drectea to inquire into the power Of
the Senate to originate bills apprOpriatiug- money
from he Treasury of the United States and report
to This House AZ as early day as practicable And
said committee shall have leave to report any time.
Mr.. Hurd supported the resolution in long
speech iu which he took the ground that in
originating the Blair educational bill the
Senate had transcendsd its constitutional
power. In reply, Congressman Reed spoke as
follows:
Mr.. Speaker, the clause In the constitution
which is now TO be made the subject OF inter-
probation seems to be very simple. 1t says:
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in tho
House of Representatives.
That language is plain, simple, and EASY to
be understood. II the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Hurd) can give IL any other meaning he
must do it by reference to the history Of its
time and enactment If, then, can
prove concusively by the history OF its
enactment that IL has no such meaning as be
undertakes to give it, / think that ell his elo-
quent discourse will fall to the ground, even
though it be much sustained by applause Of
those who admire eloquence in diction more
than they do soundness in reasoning.
The contest which resulted in the wording
OF this particular clause was not q contest be-
tween the Commons of England on the one side
and the House Of Lords and the sovereign OF
England on the other Any man who under
takes to view that sentence In the light solely
of English history will get as badly misled as
is the gentleman from Ohio. This Is no case
of power wrested from a king. To-day the
laws of England bear this preface: "Be it Gu
acted by the Queens most excellent majesty,
by and with the advice and consent" etc.
These words embalm the old fact the spirit OF
which perished long before our Constitution
was adopted.
We have never had TO wrest power from an
arbitrary ruler. On the contrary, the sources
OF our power were the States and their citizeus,
and its bouads were settled by the constitution
al convention. The fight in that constitution
al convention was not fight between an arbi-
trsry ruler and tae people to be governed. It
was contest between States. It arose from
the fact that We were to establish q nation
composed OF States; and the contest was to
preserve the rights OF the States as against
the rights of the nation; and, therefore, when
the proposition was originally reported by the
committee Of detail to the constitutional con-
vention August b, 1857, it was introduced in
this form, as will be found on page 377 Of the
Madison Papers, Elliot's edition OF 1845:
All bills for raising or appropriAting money ss
shall originate in the House OF Representatives, etc.
1t covered not only the raising of revenue
bat the appropriating OF the same. When the
matter came mp later In the same month Mr.,
Randolph moved that the clause be altered, GO
as to read:
Bills for raising money for the purpose of revenue
or for appropratng the same shall originate in the
House of Representatives.
That proposition as originally stated, to-
getber with the amendment proposed BY Mr.
Randolph. was defeated by a vote, II my recol-
lection serves me, of nearly two to one. This
was August 13, 1887 and the exact vote was
to 4. The question came up in that form more
than once, and every time it came up II was
defeated; and II was defeated upon the plain
ground that the States demanded that the
Senate, where they were peculiarly represent
ed, should have the same power as the House
of Representatives.
In September, however, on the 9th day, the
proposition assumed this form:
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the
House Of Representatives.
And on page 5l1 OF Madison PAPERS will be
found a statement by Mr.. Gouverneur Morris
as to that very claGse. "It had been agreed to
in the committee on the ground Of COM
promise" When the final vote was taken.
September 8, the vote was 9 to 2 in favor Of
bG6 COmpIOulists All eXdmlQaLIOn OF tla
notes on pages 81 9And 514 will show that am
correct. In other words. the whole history Of
this clause shows that the construction for
which the gentleman from Ohio contends was
put into plain language, that bills for raising
money and also for expeading money should
originate in the House. That was voted down
repeatedly. Then as a matter OF compromise
it was determined that bills raising revenue
raising money for the expenses Of the govern
ment, shoulc originals in the House, aud that
left all other bills, those expending moneys. TO
originate either in the Senate or in the House
as either body shall move.
And now the gentleman from Ohio comes
here and says that notwithstanding this for
which he contends was defeated time and
again, notwithstanding the fact that what was
adopted was called compromise, and history
shows II to have been a compromise, he comes
here and declares that by some juRgle of words
this thing which had been repeatedly defeated
by men who understood their position as thor
oughlv at least as he does was carried through
and this constitutional convention passed what
they never meant to pass, and that without a
single word indicating any change Of disposi-
tionl
It does seem to me that this matter is DEM
oDstration, and that my friend from Ohio IA
carrying bis affection for the English system
OF laws a trife too far. For my part 1 have
not seen anything in the history OF the Housa
of Representatives since / have been a mem-
Der Of it that should make me feel inclined 10
lheis0 uu Hnore Duls originating IN IL. We are
today so clogged with the business which leei-
timately belongs to us that under our present
system OF working we absolutely eau do noth-
ing. II, then, We should undertake to shut
OFF the Senate from what is their plain consti-
tational right, as the history of this legislation
shows, as the plain language of the Constitus
ton shows, am afraid We should exhibit to
the country still worse instance Of ineffec-
tuality than we do today TApplause on the
Republican sidao the House.
Fine Colt.
Hiram W. Harmon of Saco purchased on
Saturdav Last 80 N, c.o.,o III T,..t.- 49,