[67] And proved to be so in this case, though it required thirty years' experience to show it. When the system was brought to a close in 1822, it was found that the whole capital was gone.
[68] This was the first attempt to pay members of Congress as salaried officers.
[69] This resolution would seem to embody Mr. Madison's interpretation of the clause in the constitution which authorizes Congress to establish post roads.
[70] This explanatory note was written by Mr. Gales, editor of the Annals of Congress, who has rendered a valuable service to the student of political history in bringing these two great debates, each by itself, into a single and connected form. They are the groundwork of high constitutional knowledge; and, whether for the intrinsic importance of their matter, the close acquaintance of the speakers with their subject, or as fine specimens of parliamentary debating, they stand forth as debates of the first class which our congressional history has afforded. Marshall, in his history, says of them: "Never had a greater display been made of argument, of eloquence, and of passion; and never had a subject been discussed in which all classes of their fellow-citizens took a deeper interest." The first debate related to the Treaty-making power, and how far the House of Representatives had the right to refuse assent to a treaty which required an appropriation of money, or which regulated commerce, or which required the exercise of any other power specifically granted to Congress. The second applied to the execution of the commercial Treaty of 1794, with Great Britain; one party contending that the Congress was bound to make the appropriation to carry it into effect—the other denying the obligation and claiming the right of a discretionary power. The two debates were upon kindred subjects, and before the House at the same time, yet kept distinct, in the discussion, neither sliding into the other, and one finished before the other began; such was the closeness with which members then adhered to the subject, even in Committee of the Whole, and which gave to these early debates of our Congress so much point and power, and so much attraction to the hearer then and to the reader now. An abridgment can only present a part of these great debates, which cover above 300 pages of the Annals of Congress; but the whole argument will be seen on both sides, as the pith and marrow of each main speech will be given.
[71] This course was long followed, no Indian Treaty being held except authorized by an act of Congress, which was the Legislative consent to the grants of money which such Treaties usually contain, and for the payment of which an Act of Congress would be necessary. And in the two great cases of acquiring foreign territory, (Louisiana and Florida,) under Presidents contemporary with the formation of the constitution, and which required large appropriations to carry them into effect, the consent of the Legislative branch of the Government was sought and obtained before the Executive began to act—the law in both cases originating in the House of Representatives as the proper initiatory branch when money was to be paid which the people would have to raise.
[72] Thus the House, by a majority of 25, passed the call upon the President for the papers, and upon the declared ground of a right to judge the Treaty, as it contained a regulation of commerce, and also required an appropriation of money. President Washington received the call in the sense in which it was made, and although he had no objection to furnishing the papers, and had laid them before the Senate, (whence they became public,) yet he deemed it his duty to resist the claim of right asserted by the House, and therefore to refuse the papers—which he did in a closely reasoned Message, an epitome of the arguments used in the House on that side.
[73] It is seen in this answer of President Washington, that he holds the assent of the House to be unnecessary to the validity of any Treaty whatever, which, of course, includes the class contended for by the House, but makes the question broader than the one presented by its limited claim.
[74] In this resolution the House specifies the class of Treaties over which it claims a right of judgment, and limits it to those which involve a matter which has been specially granted to Congress—as an appropriation of money, or the regulation of commerce.
[75] And thus the President and the House were completely at issue—the House having expressly asserted, by a majority of 27, a right to judge, not every Treaty, or Treaties generally, but those which involved the exercise of any power granted by the constitution to itself. Trained in the school of this majority, the author of this Abridgment, as often as the occasion required, has maintained the same right for the House; and especially in the case of the territorial purchase from Mexico in 1854.
[76] Mr. Hillhouse had submitted a resolution in favor of carrying the Treaty into effect, and afterwards Mr. Maclay submitted one, declaring the contrary; and the question was, which should be taken up? Mr. Madison, as a skilful parliamentary tactician, preferred that of Mr. Hillhouse, as putting the burden of the affirmative upon the adversary, always an advantage in the debate, and, in an even vote, always decisive for the negative side.