ORIGINATION OF APPROPRIATION BILLS.
Speech in the Senate, on the Usurpation of the Senate in the Origination of Appropriation Bills, February 7, 1856.
On the 11th of December, 1855, Mr. Brodhead, of Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution directing the Committee on Finance to consider the expediency of reporting the appropriation bills for the support of the Government. The resolution was allowed to lie on the table till January 7, 1856, when it was called up for consideration, and adopted. On the 4th of February, Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, Chairman of the Committee on Finance, reported to the Senate the following resolution:—
“Resolved, That the Committee on Finance be instructed to prepare and report such of the general appropriation bills as they may deem expedient.”
The resolution was adopted by the Senate, February 7, but this was all. Nothing was done under it.
This attempt was prompted by the protracted contest in the organization of the House of Representatives, when, after one hundred and thirty-three ballotings, Mr. Banks was chosen Speaker, February 2, and the Slave Power received its first check.
In the course of the debate, February 7, Mr. Sumner spoke as follows.