ON THE FORTIFICATION BILL.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JUNE 29, 1836.
[IN consequence of the threatening appearance of our affairs with France, which at one time rendered a war with that nation probable, congress, at the session of 1836, passed a bill making large appropriations for building and repairing fortifications on the Atlantic coast. Mr. Clay opposed the bill on account of the extravagant amount proposed to be appropriated, as is shown in the following brief remarks on the subject.]
MR. CLAY thought there was no inconsistency between the two propositions to amend the bill as proposed by the senator from South Carolina, with the view of reducing the amount proposed for fortifications, and to amend it as proposed by the senator from Delaware, to restrain the issue of money from the public treasury, except as it should be called for in a course of regular disbursement. Both might be well adopted, and he hoped would be.
He had, however, risen more particularly for the purpose of calling the attention of the senate to the enormous and alarming amount of appropriations which had been actually made, or were in progress, during this session. He had procured from the secretary of the senate a statement of such as had been made by bills which had passed one or both houses up to the twenty-seventh of last month, when it amounted to about twenty-five millions. Since then, other bills had passed, which swelled it up to thirty-two or three millions; and other bills were now in progress, and would probably pass, carrying it up to forty millions, or beyond that sum. Forty millions of dollars in one year, when we have no debt, and no foreign war! Will not the country be justly alarmed, profoundly astonished, when it hears of these enormous appropriations? Is it possible to proceed with the government on such a scale of expenditure?
Why, sir, it is a greater amount than is appropriated to similar objects by the British parliament, since its reform, in one year. The whole revenue of Great Britain is about forty-two millions sterling, of which sum twenty-eight millions is applied to the public debt, six to the payment of pensions, annuities, and so forth,and only about eight millions to the current annual expenses of the whole of their vast establishments, military and naval, and the civil government at home and abroad. Now, forty millions of dollars exceed eight millions sterling. Who would have supposed that an administration, which came in upon pledges and promises of retrenchment, reform, and economy, should, in the eighth year of its rule, have swelled the expenditure of the government to an amount exceeding that of Great Britain? And this surprise must be increased, when we reflect that the British parliament stands to the people of Great Britain in the double relation of the federal and state governments to the people of the United States.
When Mr. Adams left the administration, the current annual expenses of the government, exclusive of the public debt, amounted to about twelve millions. Only a few years ago, a secretary of the treasury under the present administration, (Mr. McLane,) estimated the ordinary expenses of the government at fifteen millions annually. Even during the present session, the able senator from New York, when the land bill was under discussion, placed them, for a series of succeeding years, at eighteen millions. And now we propose, in this year, to more than treble the amount of expenditure during the extravagant administration, as it was charged, of Mr. Adams!
Mr. Clay hoped the senate would pause. He called upon the friends of the administration, in no taunting or reproachful spirit, to redeem the pledges and promises with which they came into power. If the love of country, if a faithful discharge of duty to the people, if a just economy, would not animate them, and stay these extravagant appropriations, he hoped the devotion to party would. Could they expect to continue in power, (and he candidly confessed, that he was not particularly anxious that they should,) with such unexampled appropriations? How can they meet their constituents with these bills staring them in the face?
And for what purpose shall they be made? Does any man believe, will any senator rise in his place and say, that these immense appropriations can be prudently, safely, and wisely disbursed? He had, indeed, heard that it was not expected they would be. He had heard, what was too wicked, profligate, and monstrous for him to believe, that it was intended to withdraw the appropriations from the public treasury, place them to the credit of disbursing officers, in the custody of local banks, and thus elude the operation of the deposit bill, which has recently passed. That bill had been demanded by the people of this country. It had passed from a profound sense of duty, in consequence of that demand, by unprecedented majorities in both houses. And he would not allow himself for a moment to believe, that a sinister design existed any where, to elude the operation of that great and salutary measure. What, sir! is the money of the people of thiscountry, to be held in the deposit banks, one of which, according to a statement going the rounds of the papers, has made fourteen and a half per centum dividend for six months?
The annual average appropriations for fortifications heretofore, have been about seven hundred and fifty or eight hundred thousand dollars; and by the bill now before us, and that for a similar object which we have sent to the house, if both pass, we shall have appropriated for fortifications for one year, four millions and a half. Is it possible in one year judiciously to expend this enormous sum? When we look at the price of labor, the demands upon it for an increase of the army, for volunteers, and for the general avocations of society, does any body believe, that this vast sum can be judiciously laid out? It has been said, that, having omitted to make any appropriation last year, we ought this year to appropriate double the ordinary sum. But, if you cannot safely expend it, why should that be done? He was willing to make large and liberal appropriations for the navy and for fortifications; we ought, however, to look to all our great interests, and regulate the appropriations in reference to a survey of the whole country; and he earnestly entreated the senate to fulfil the hopes and expectations which had been recently inspired in the people of this country, by checking and putting itself decidedly against this rash, wild, and ruinous extravagance. He would vote for the commitment, to reduce the appropriations one half; after which there would remain an amount equal to double the ordinary annual appropriations, without including the sum in the bill now before the house.