Tuesday, January 21.
Contingent Expenses.
Mr. Early said he held in his hand a resolution instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of requiring the Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, and Navy, to lay before Congress at the opening of every session a detailed statement of the expenditure of the moneys appropriated to the contingent expenses of their departments. He would briefly state his reasons for offering this motion. The moneys for the contingent purposes of the Government were the only description of expenditures which were not controlled by the House. Over every other branch of expenditure the House exercised a control by specifying with definite clearness the respective objects of expenditure when an appropriation was made. But the moneys appropriated for contingent purposes, were left exclusively to the discretion of the different officers presiding over the several departments, in which they were alone governed by their own will and judgment. The only check which could be exercised over this description of expenditures, was to require a detailed statement of disbursements. It would be recollected that a committee had been appointed some time since to investigate the accounts of several officers of the Government, and that they made a detailed report to the House. About that time it had been contemplated to take the step which he now suggested, but for some reasons it had never been taken. Mr. Early said he by no means wished to be understood as entertaining the idea that the discretion with which the heads of department were clothed had been abused. He knew of no facts to justify such an opinion. It was on the ground of principle only that he offered this resolution. Through the four great departments which he had mentioned, passed nine-tenths of the whole money appropriated by Congress; and on looking at the statement contained in the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury, he found that more than one-fourth of the whole amount of money estimated as necessary for the several departments, was for contingent purposes. By that statement it appeared that the whole expenses of the Department of State were $27,000, of which $14,400 were for contingent purposes. Under the head of foreign intercourse, $182,500 were estimated as necessary; of which $76,000 were for contingent purposes. The estimates for the Treasury Department were $72,100, of which $12,100 were for contingent purposes. The estimates for the War Department were $29,400, of which $2,000 were for contingent purposes. The estimates for the Military Establishment were $900,500, of which $18,000 were for contingent purposes. The estimates for the Navy Department were $21,100, of which $2,700 were for contingent purposes. The estimates for the Naval Establishment were $867,800, of which $411,900 were for contingent purposes. Mr. Early said he presumed this view of the subject would justify him in the eyes of the members of the House in offering the resolution. The resolution was agreed to, as follows:
Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of making provision by law, for requiring the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy, to lay before Congress annually a detailed account of the expenditure of the fund appropriated for the contingent expenses of their several Departments, respectively.
Importation of Slaves.
The House again went into a Committee of the Whole on Mr. Sloan’s resolution for imposing a tax of ten dollars upon every slave imported into the United States.
Mr. Clark said it was essentially necessary to the passage of a law on this subject that the amendment should prevail. The original resolution contemplated a certain description of persons as slaves; the object of the amendment was to extend it to all persons imported into the United States. Suppose a cargo of slaves should arrive. Will they be entered at the custom-house as slaves? No. They will be recognized as a different description of persons, and by that means the payment of the tax will be evaded, and the law have no possible effect.
Mr. Dana.—Notwithstanding my great desire to gratify the gentleman from New Jersey, to gratify whom would afford me great pleasure, yet in the present case, with the best disposition in the world, I cannot do it. The amendment appears to me to be very consistent with the principles on which the resolution was offered. I understood it as a proposition of revenue relative to the importation of a species of men that is profitable to our merchants. I thought the revenue would be extended by taking in the consumption of a larger class of men, who might, therefore, be very fairly taxed. I could scarcely have expected that the gentleman should have travelled over the mountains, and have there counted the countless millions of acres spread out as a beneficent asylum for poor emigrants from Europe, much less that he should have so eloquently portrayed the oppression of England and France, and blended the number of persons about to occupy those western acres with the simple question of revenue now before the House. Gentlemen have brought this forward as a question of revenue. May we not be permitted to take them on their own ground? If, instead of revenue, their object be a condemnation of the trade, let them come out. The gentleman from New Jersey, with his knowledge, cannot be so ignorant as not to know that there are other persons besides slaves brought into the country, who are deemed beneficial to the community; are hardy and industrious, and that the price paid for their passage affords a profit to our merchants. Whether this description of imported persons is so beneficial as, in policy, not to be taxed, is one thing. By omitting to tax them, we virtually give a bounty. They may not be so valuable to the State as to justify an exemption from all taxation.
Mr. Macon (Speaker) said the State of which he was in part a representative, some time after the law now under consideration passed in a neighboring State, came to a resolution for amending the constitution, to give Congress the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves altogether, which was sent to the Legislature of the several States, many of whom had concurred in it, or in one similar to it. This showed the sense of the States as to this worst of all traffics. No person could more regret the conduct of South Carolina than he did. Perhaps coming from an adjoining State, his feelings might give him different impressions from that which they ought to do, although he was not sensible that this was the case. But it always seemed to him that this measure was nothing more nor less than arraigning the conduct of a State Legislature, a Legislature that was nearly equally divided, as pointing at them the finger of reprobation of the whole nation.
Mr. Southard said, the object of the resolution was to lay a tax of ten dollars on slaves imported into the United States. The amendment did not correspond with the spirit of the constitution; for it would not be contended that the convention ever meant to place free white persons wishing to emigrate to the United States under the same embarrassment as slaves. The importation of the latter had been considered as a great injury; but he would ask if the emigration of oppressed Europeans was an injury? We have only to look over the United States to see the large number, as well as the respectability of those who have been obliged to pay their passage by binding themselves out for a term of years. It was only necessary for gentlemen to view this subject dispassionately for a moment, to reject the amendment. He would ask, if the amendment carried, whether one member would vote for the resolution? He believed not, as it would be a greater evil to prevent the emigration of whites, than the importation of slaves; as the importation of the latter would be limited to the year 1808, when he had no doubt it would be prohibited by the unanimous vote of Congress.
Mr. Dana.—If I understand the gentleman from New Jersey right, he imagines the amendment is not in compliance with the spirit of the constitution, inasmuch as he is of opinion that the ninth section of the first article ought to be restricted in fair meaning to slaves. It is in the following words. [Mr. Dana here read the section.] It is, said he, indeed difficult for me to understand, how an amendment in the very words of the constitution, without the change of a single term, can violate its spirit. Because the same words are used, is it to be inferred it is contrary to the spirit of the constitution? I am sensible the amendment changes the complexion of the resolution; but while it embraces others, it includes likewise those persons in the resolution. Perhaps it may include some persons who ought to be excluded; but it should be observed that this is only a resolution for settling the principle, and that the subordinate details may be settled in a bill. Gentlemen will not contend that the importation of all descriptions of white persons is beneficial. I recollect one State into which a cargo of convicts was imported, which a law was passed to prohibit. The amendment then merely involves the question, whether the resolution shall be confined to slaves, or be extended to others.
The question was then taken on Mr. Dana’s amendment, to substitute persons in the room of slaves, and passed in the negative, only 32 members rising in favor of it.
Mr. Early.—I wish for the attention of the committee while I submit a very few observations on the resolution under consideration, which are intended to go to a single point which has been but slightly noticed by the honorable speaker, but which may be placed in some points of view that are important. I mean to consider the subject as a matter of feeling, in relation to the State on which it is about to bear. To her it is not unimportant. The object of the resolution certainly is either to point the disapprobation of this nation at the practice in question, or to raise a revenue from that practice. It is either one, or a union of both these ends. If the object be to point the disapprobation of the nation against South Carolina, I pray gentlemen to pause and reflect on the consequences of such a policy; and I beg all to recollect that they are interested as well as South Carolina with regard to such policy. Those who regard either the feelings of one State, or the peace and harmony of the whole nation, will do well to reflect before they adopt a policy bottomed on such a principle.
As it may be, that the measure is entertained as a source of revenue, if this is the object, I will ask one question. Is the price they are to get worth the evil they create? Is the petty sum of $40,000 or $50,000 of so much moment? Is it a sufficient object to this Government to induce them to adopt a measure, which will irritate and wound the feelings of a respectable member of the confederacy? Forty or fifty thousand dollars is a petty sum to this Government; but it is not so to a State; it is not so to South Carolina. Let gentlemen, if they please, attempt to get round the question, by saying that this resolution is not exclusively confined to South Carolina—the evasion is unworthy of them. The whole nation knows, South Carolina knows, and we know, what is intended by it; and it is the same as if South Carolina was on the face of it. The sum, though trifling to the United States, is not so to South Carolina. The revenue intended by this resolution to be drawn from South Carolina, will equal, if it does not exceed, the whole expense of her government. What, then, will be the situation of the people of that State, in case this resolution is adopted? It will be the situation of a people who pay a double tax. They will pay a tax for the support of their own government; revenue will be drawn from them for national purposes, as from the other parts of the Union; and they will be burdened with an additional tax, equal to the whole expense of their State Government. I will ask now, whether the evils attending such an imposition, and the reflections arising from it, will not necessarily irritate, wound, and offend the feelings of the people of that State? Whether, then, we consider it as a measure to evince the disapprobation of the nation, or as a source of revenue, it flows from a policy equally questionable. The people, sir, of South Carolina cannot avoid the reflection, that the finger of scorn is pointed at them; that a double tax is imposed on them. What will be the consequence? That which every gentleman must foresee. It is not difficult to foresee it, because it is a natural consequence, such as must follow whenever the common feelings of human nature are entertained. The consequence will be, an alienation of attachment to, and respect for this Government. I ask gentlemen to put the question home to themselves, whether the revenue they expect is worth the sacrifice? This is a question which ought never to be stirred in our national councils. Though older men than myself might better tell the committee than I can do, the effect which introducing this subject in any shape invariably has had on the feelings of the Government, or on the representatives of the nation, I will undertake to give my opinion of it. Sir, I have always understood that this subject was found most difficult to be adjusted in the Federal Convention. I have always understood that, when brought before the councils of the nation, in any period or in any shape, a fervor of feeling and warmth of sentiment never failed to disturb the public harmony. Every man knows the effect of the first application to Congress on this subject, by a man at the head of a noted body of men in Pennsylvania or Delaware, of the name, I believe, of Warner Mifflin. All know the effects of an application of a more recent date, in the other branch of the Legislature, from some friendly people northwardly. All know the effects of the celebrated resolution laid on our table the last session, by the same gentleman who has favored us with the resolution under consideration, to make free all persons born of a mother in the Territory of Columbia, after a certain period. All will recollect the height to which the feelings of men were wrought on those occasions. It is because the agitation of this subject always had and always will have the same effect, that I think it ought never to be introduced into this House.
Mr. Broom.—I agree with the gentleman from Georgia in expressing the wish that this resolution had never been brought forward, inasmuch as I wish that the State of South Carolina, in imitation of her sister States, had never given occasion for it. It is said that this is a question which has always produced agitation in this House whenever it came before it. If this be any argument at all, it is in favor of bringing the discussion to a close, by extinguishing the cause which produces it; for, until this shall be the case, there will always be found men in this House to offer a similar resolution, the result of which may be a like agitation. The question is not now whether this resolution shall be introduced, but, as it is introduced, whether it shall not be put to sleep for ever, by exercising at once our constitutional powers.
I need not dwell on the great number of slaves concentrated in the Southern States. At the time of taking the census they amounted to 832,000. In the State of South Carolina there were 146,000 slaves, and 199,000 whites. I need not expatiate on the greatness of this evil. Not only South Carolina may suffer, but all the other neighboring States may share the evil. Those States who are ashamed to avow a participation in the trade, may be indebted to her for an augmentation of their slaves; and the evil may extend to those States who now believe themselves secure. If these people were to rise on their masters, I ask if the whole Union would not be bound to assist in putting them down? It is not, therefore, South Carolina alone, but all the members of this confederacy, that may be disturbed by the accumulation of this evil. It is from these considerations—because I wish this traffic to be checked, and because, as an object of revenue, I am for making the most of the evil, and because we may be enabled thereby to exempt articles of the first necessity from at least a part of the duties imposed upon them—that I am of opinion that we ought not, in justice, to exempt this article any longer from duty.
Mr. Early said that he was far from intending to charge the mover of the resolution with a disposition to wound the feelings of any member of the House. He had said nothing to that effect. He would, on the contrary, observe that he considered the manner of the gentleman mild, and such as had not rendered him in the least obnoxious to such a charge. He had said that the feelings of South Carolina would be probably wounded by the measure. He had no disposition, however, to charge the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Sloan) with, such an intention. The task of wounding the feelings of South Carolina (if the observations of a gentleman on this floor could wound her feelings) had been reserved for the gentleman’s friend from Delaware, (Mr. Broom,) who had taken occasion to heap on her head, so far as related to the importation of slaves, every term of reproach which his imagination could bring to his aid. If he expected he would be imitated in such a procedure, he would be mistaken. One word in reply to an observation which he had applied to the State of Georgia. He had said that the evil was not confined to South Carolina, but that it extended to the neighboring States—that it extended to the State of Georgia, who, though ashamed to avow her approbation of it, participated, notwithstanding, with South Carolina in it. Give me leave to say, said Mr. E., so far as relates to the State of Georgia, that she has not been—that she never will be—ashamed to avow what she does; and that, so far from approving this trade, she took a step six or eight years back, that had not then been taken by any other State: she prohibited the traffic by an express injunction of her constitution. Let the gentleman from Delaware show any thing in his own constitution like this. On this occasion the opponents of the resolution were disposed to treat the subject with temper. Heretofore, the temper which had been displayed had originated with them, but now it has proceeded from a different quarter.
The debate here closed for this day. The committee rose about four o’clock, and obtained leave to sit again.