Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

H. OF R.]

Internal Improvements.

[APRIL 6, 1832.

ments which had been made had been to recommend that own opinion. He was not acquainted with the gentleman any one of these objects should be discontinued? He did who had been engaged in the work, and he did not doubt not recollect ever to have heard that such had been the he was a very respectable man; but as to all the benefit case; nor did it seem probable that it ever would be, as which had resulted from his employment, according to all long as every appropriation asked for was regularly made that Mr. B. could learn, so far as regarded the effect in from year to year. Mr. B. differed from the gentleman the Mississippi, it was not worth one cent., nor ever could from Massachusetts, [Mr. REED,] who had told the House be. Mr. B. concluded by moving, that the amendments that, when asked to appropriate, the only inquiry he should be considered, one by one. would make should be, whether the proposed object would promote the general benefit of the country?

Mr. WHITTLESEY explained. In speaking of the economy which had been observed in the harbor improvements on the lakes, he referred to those only which were in Ohio. It was of those alone that he had a personal knowledge.

Mr. B. would inquire further: and though the proposed object might be for the general benefit, he should ask whether there were not other objects which would promote that end in a higher degree? The only correct way Mr. BELL said, he had so understood him. of deciding with respect to these amendments would be Mr. MERCER strenuously objected to the items in this to take up the items seriatim; to examine each one by it- amendment being taken up and considered as if they were self; to inquire what had already been done; whether the now for the first time proposed. Were such a course to money already appropriated had been economically ex-be pursued in reference to all objects for which appropriapended; and whether the object was likely to be worth the tions were needed, the Government could not endure sum that it would probably cost? The gentleman from twelve months. If objects which had already been maConnecticut [Mr. INGERSOLL] had referred to the benefi- turely considered, which had received the sanction of Concial effects of improvements on the lakes, by way of justi- gress, and which were in a course of completion, must be fying works proposed on the seaboard. delayed till each particular item was re-examined, and its

Mr. INGERSOLL replied that he had confined himself utility again demonstrated; and this process must be reto those objects which had been attacked. peated as often as supplies were needed, the Government Mr. BELL resumed. If gentlemen seriously intended was at an end, it would be perfectly impracticable to carry to vote for these amendments, it was due to themselves it on. The Committee of Roads and Canals had presented and to the nation that they should go into some examina- a report, in which the grounds and reasons of all these tion of them. They all knew something about the works improvements had been fully stated; the report had been in their own several neighborhoods. The only proposed considered, debated, and had received the deliberate sancappropriation in which his constituents had any particular tion of Congress; and therefore the propriety of the obinterest was, that for the improvement of the Ohio and jects was scarcely a legitimate topic of debate. Were Mississippi rivers; and even as to that item, he was under gentlemen, like so many engineers, to enter into a solemn the necessity of inquiring from the gentleman from Ken-investigation of the utility and practicability of every pubtucky, [Mr. WICKLIFFE,] or from some other gentleman, lic work in the country? Were they to discuss over again better informed than himself, how the two hundred thou- the policy of the Delaware breakwater when $620,000 had sand dollars last year appropriated for those objects had been appropriated for it? Were they to throw that money been expended? The House had a right to know how away? What was the argument brought in opposition to the money voted had been applied, as well in reference to it? That successive appropriations were asked for it from that object as to others. When he remembered that the year to year. Well, would gentlemen have had the whole Cumberland river, a natural channel, to excavate which sum it was ultimately to cost appropriated at once? Was would require ten millions of dollars, remained idle, and it not palpable that such a mode of proceeding would be comparatively useless, for more than half the year, for attended with a waste of money? Did not the House apwant of an appropriation of forty or fifty thousand dollars, propriate for the fortifications, gradually, in successive merely for the purpose of clearing out the rocks and other sums, according as the money could be best applied? obstructions at the Harpeth Shoals, and yet that had never Some of these works were experimental; that is, as to the been done, how could he, in faithfulness to his constitu- expense which would be necessary to effect them: this ents, vote for some of the objects in this amendment, while must depend on various circumstances, many of which exthat improvement, so needful and important, remained perience alone could determine. neglected? A natural channel, possessing such great ad- The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. BELL] had told vantages, lay in a condition useless to two, and he might the committee that the Cumberland river ought to be imsay, three States, for want of such a sum as he had named; proved, and thence drew an argument, (not very concluyet he had never urged that object, and never should ask sively,) that the improvements on the Atlantic ought not it, as he had been opposed to appropriations for objects to go on. He had also said that his constituents had never connected with this system. Thus it must appear that, un- applied for that improvement; but therein the gentleman less some gentleman should propose it who thought it his did great injustice to his predecessors. Applications for duty to go into the general system of internal improve- it had been repeatedly made, and the subject was now ment, it must remain in a state of neglect. As to the before the House. The Committee on Internal Improvemoney which had been appropriated for improving the ment had reported an appropriation for that object. Mr. navigation of the Ohio, if he had been rightly informed, M. thought he had some reason to complain; but, on the the only benefit which had hitherto resulted was, the clear- whole, was disposed rather to congratulate himself that ing out some of the obstructions in what was called the the gentleman had not condemned the objects as merely Grand Chain. After all which had been said of the new local, and that he entertained no constitutional objection and valuable machinery invented for the removal of snags as to the power of Congress to appropriate in behalf of and sawyers from the Mississippi, nothing, he believed, them. Mr. M. then went into a series of observations on had resulted to the nation but the brilliant descriptions the national character of the items in the amendment. with which that House had been entertained. After every They had all been considered by the Department of War, new freshet the islands and sand bars were found to be re- and by the Board of Internal Improvement. Where else clothed as thickly as ever with sawyers. The channels would gentlemen go for information? He then moved which had been opened were filled up, and the same certain other objects, a list of which was to be found in work had to be gone over again. He saw gentlemen the 36th page of document No. 10, which contained a reshake their heads, and he did not doubt that those gentlemen port from the War Department. It was not the business believed great benefits to have resulted: such was not his of an appropriation bill to do more than to enumerate

APRIL 7, 9, 1832.]

Quarantine Regulations.--Ordnance Board.--Revolutionary Pensions.

objects, and to specify sums. The requisite guards against misapplication of the funds must be provided elsewhere.

Mr. BELL protested against the argument of the gentleman from Virginia, so far as it was intended to show that the reports from the officers of the Government formed in themselves conclusive evidence of the propriety of making appropriations by that House; none could be more fallacious than they often were. As an illustration, he referred to the report in reference to the removing obstructions in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It was the report of whom? Of the very man who was, himself, to have the control of the $200,000 which were to be appropriated. It was the report of the very individual who was more interested than any other man in the United States that the appropriation should pass. The same thing might be said in reference to other reports. They come, in some instances, from persons who hoped to be contractors or superintendents, or who were urged by pride of opinion, in consequence of once having recommended the work. It was not the habit of the House to receive, implicitly, the recommendations of the department, in any matter deemed to be very important. He certainly had not found it to be so, in reference to the recommendations in respect to the Indian department. There every cent had been pried into. Nor did he complain of this; on the contrary, he considered it the proper course, and as evincing a becoming spirit in the House.

[H. OF R:

a sort of robbery of the property of claimants to apply the only days in which private claimants could have their petitions attended to in the prosecution of the public business. The motion did not prevail--ayes 59.

MONDAY, APRIL 9.

ORDNANCE BOARD.

fairs, reported a bill for the establishment of a military Mr. DRAYTON, from the Committee on Military Afboard for the administration and government of the Ordnance Department.

Mr. D., in explaining the nature and object of the bill, observed, that unless the bill should pass, the bill creating the Ordnance Department must remain wholly useless and board would be, to produce a uniformity in the structure abortive. One great object in creating the proposed The utility of such an arrangement must be at once apand dimensions of cannon, muskets, and other weapons. parent; the country had had an ordnance corps, under one form or other, ever since the existence of the Govern. ment. But the ends to be obtained by it had hitherto which had been devised by some members of the Military been, in a great measure, defeated. The present plan, Committee, had received the sanction of every artillery officer to whom it had been submitted, and also of the Secretary at War. It required no appropriation, and its utility must be so obvious, that he hoped there would be no necessity of committing the bill. He therefore moved that it be laid upon the table and printed, which was agreed to.

WISCASSET COLLECTOR.

Seeing Mr. WICKLIFFE now in his seat, Mr. B. repeated the observations he had made as to the result of the appropriations for improving the navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He did not absolutely deny that the appropriation had done any good; but he did deny that the application of that money had at all answered the Mr. KAVANAGH presented several depositions and a expectations of the public. He urged this, not as reflect-memorial relating to the complaint made by John McClining on the superintendent, Mr. Shreeve, but merely as tock against the collector of Wiscasset, and observed, an argument to prove the propriety of carefully examining each item recommended to the House, and inquiring whether the improvement was really worth the money asked for it.

Mr. WICKLIFFE rose to reply; but

that as the debate on this subject had taken an extensive range, he begged the indulgence of the House to have them read by the Clerk. He further observed, that all the friends of the collector had, from the outset of the discussion, whenever they had been able to obtain the floor,

A motion was made for the committee to rise, which expressed their earnest desire for an early and effectual prevailed, and

The House adjourned.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7.

QUARANTINE REGULATIONS.

Mr. HOWARD, from the Committee of Commerce, reported a bill to enforce quarantine regulations.

It

investigation of the charges made against him, not doubting that the severest scrutiny would result in his honorable acquittal.

Mr. E. EVERETT suggested that these depositions, &c. should be read when the subject to which they referred came up in its regular course for discussion.

This was agreed to; and when the subject came up, they were read accordingly. They were of an exculpatory character, as to McCrate, the collector, and the reverse as to the inspector, McClintock; after which,

Mr. H. then briefly explained the object of the bill. had been drawn up with some care, in conformity with suggestions received in the course of a correspondence Mr. HUBBARD said, as the hour for morning business with some of our principal seaports. There were only had nearly expired, he would suggest that further discustwo modes by which the municipal regulations on the sub-sion on this subject should be postponed until to-morrow, ject of quarantine could be enforced; one was by the and that the House proceed at once to the orders of the day. garrisons, where such were stationed; the other by the Mr. STORRS, who was in possession of the floor, asofficers of the customs. The former mode had been pro-sented to the postponement, and the House thereupon provided for by orders from the War Department. But it ceeded to the orders of the day. was desirable that similar regulations should prevail beyond the limits of the city jurisdictions, (which never could go

further than the limits of the States in which such cities were situated,) as for example in Delaware bay: the municipal regulations of the Philadelphia board of health would not be in force in the central parts of that bay; and it was therefore necessary that the authority of the General Government should supervene to supply the deficiency, and thus guard the health of the country.

The bill, without opposition, was ordered to be engrossed for its third reading.

Mr. VERPLANCK moved to suspend the rule which appropriates Fridays and Saturdays to private bills, in order to take up and proceed with the appropriation bills. Mr. BATES, of Massachusetts, remonstrated. It was

REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONS.

The House then went into Committee of the Whole, Mr. L. CONDICT in the chair, on the pension bill; the question being on the amendment proposed by Mr. H. ÈVERETT to the amendment of Mr. CRAIG, which went to repeal that feature of the existing pension law which requires the applicant to prove that he is in indigent cir

cumstances.

Mr. CHOATE, of Massachusetts, rose and said, he understood the precise question for consideration to be upon the amendment offered by the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. EVERETT] to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. CRAIG.] To that question he wished, if he might, to call back, in the first place, for a

H. OF R.]

Revolutionary Pensions.

[APRIL 9, 1832.

few minutes, the attention of the committee. It involved, one. Such a state of things, we all agree, ought not to be. he was aware, a comparatively subordinate point of mere continued twenty-four hours longer. In the language of detail, as the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. DAVIS] the civil law, duodecim tabulæ vetant--it is against first had remarked; but yet it was one of some practical im- principles. We ought forthwith to abandon special legis portance. When that question should be disposed of, he lation, by adopting a general system which shall render it would say a few words also upon the general merits of the useless. bill itself.

I am in favor of the proposition of the gentleman from Vermont. Its effect will be to supersede altogether that provision of the existing general pension system which makes the indigence of the petitioner for a pension the condition on which he obtains it. That provision, I think, upon the whole, an objectionable one, and am willing that it should be stricken out of the law.

But how will you change the law? Two propositions are before you; one, that of the gentleman from Vermont, which is to strike out altogether the requirement of proof of indigence, and to make service alone the condition of the pension; the other, that of the gentleman from Virgi nia, which is to retain the requirement of proof of indigence, but to enlarge the amount of property which shall be deemed to place its owner above indigence. Sir, it is a What is now the law, practically, in this particular? choice of difficulties. I have felt myself embarrassed a Why, as the acts of 1818 and 1820, which constitute the little, but I incline, on the whole, to the opinion that it is pension system are administered, nobody, whatever his better to dispense entirely with all proof respecting the merit, services, or actual necessities may be, can under pecuniary circumstances of the applicant for a pension. those acts obtain a pension, unless he shall satisfactorily Several considerations have had more or less weight prove to the Department of War that he does not possess with me. There is something in the suggestion that you estate of the value of three hundred dollars. He is holden set a strong temptation to fraud and perjury before these to file a schedule of his property in court, under oath; ob- aged and war-broken men, when you say to them, if your tain the opinion of the court upon its value, and then sub- property can be brought below a given limit, you shall mit the whole to the Secretary of War; and if, after all, receive a pension; and if it rises a dollar above it, you shall that officer shall rate him above this prescribed and arbi- have none. But, for obvious reasons, I do not much press trary limit of value, he denies him a pension. this. The discrimination, also, which the gentleman from Now, it is admitted, on all hands, that some alteration Virginia proposes to make, and which the law now makes, of the law, in this behalf, is indispensable. The gentle- between persons equally meritorious in point of service, man from Virginia, by the terms of his amendment, admits operates unpleasantly, and constitutes some objection-I this; for he proposes one thousand dollars instead of three do not say it is very weighty--to his amendment. He gives hundred, as the sum which shall exclude from the pension a pension to one who is indigent, because, perhaps, he has fund. The legislative daily practice of this House, and of been vicious and idle; and denies it to his next door neighour predecessors in Congress, almost as far back as 1820, bor, who served you as long, and as well, but who is not distinctly declares the opinion of the National Legislature so indigent, because, perhaps, he has been moral and inalso to be, that the pension system, in this particular, is dustrious. This will seem to be capricious and unreatoo narrow and too severe. We grant pensions every sonable, although it is not a very decisive consideration. day to persons to whom the general law denies them. But one practical difficulty will attend the gentleman's We grant them on proof of the requisite amount of revo- amendment, which constitutes a weightier objection to it. lutionary military service, and without a particle of proof I take it, sir, that a leading inducement with us all to a of that degree of indigence which the rule of the depart- change of the law is, to relieve Congress from the necesment imperatively prescribes. We satisfy ourselves, per- sity of so much and such unsatisfactory special legislation. haps, that the petitioner for a pension is not rolling in The amendment of the gentleman from Virginia will not wealth, as the gentleman from Virginia expresses himself; effect this object. According to his proposition, whosoever but we do not turn him away because his ascertained pro- possesses a property of one thousand dollars, under whatperty exceeds, and a great way exceeds, the sum of three ever circumstances, is to be denied a pension at the dehundred dollars. That excess, on the contrary, is the partment. The difficulty is, that this amount of property precise ground of his application to Congress for relief may afford something like a competence to one, and noagainst the department. This session we have granted thing like a competence to another. One may be hale, pensions. Since 1820, scores of them have been granted comparatively, with nobody good or bad to provide for, to persons whose pecuniary circumstances exclude them wholly from the provisions of the general law, as that is administered.

66

and with his money fortunately invested and productive. Another will be infirm, with a paralytic wife, and insane children, and with his money unfortunately and unproI repeat, then, it is admitted by every body that, in this, ductively invested. This man, equally with the former, your pension system is wrong. It is also admitted that, is above the zero or freezing point of the gentleman's instead of any longer attempting to get round it; instead thermometer, and yet he manifestly stands in need of of any longer attempting to relieve against it by inade- the aid of his country for support." Rejected at the dequate, unsatisfactory, partial, and special legislation, we partment, he will present his claim to you, and you will ought in some way to change the system itself. It is un- entertain and pronounce upon it. The effect will be, that sound in principle, and it works great actual injustice, you perpetuate the present system and the present prac that there should be, as there now is, one law for the mass tice. The Department of War will sit, as it now does, a of the community interested in this subject, and another kind of court of law, rigidly enforcing the letter of the for a few individuals who are so fortunate as to have a rule which you prescribe; and Congress will sit, as it now friend in Congress; for such exactly is the operation of the docs, or rather follow, haud passibus æquis, but, as near existing system. Here are a half dozen old soldiers-a pla- as it can, a kind of court of chancery, relieving, as well toon of them, if you please. They apply at the depart- as it can, against its own legislation. I think this system ment for a pension, and are refused it, because they pos- and practice objectionable and anomalous, and am against sess a nominal property of three hundred and fifty dollars a proposition having a tendency to continue it. each. They served together, and have grown old, and There is another objection to the requirement of proof grown poor together. One of them has an active and of indigence from the claimant of a pension. It must have persevering friend on this floor, and obtains a pension seemed to you, sir, and to such as you, who yet look back ex gratia speciali, and the other five, who rendered the with a sentiment of love and honor to the times and the same service, are just as indigent, and live under the same men of the revolution, a harsh and intolerable thing, that, system of general pension law, go to their graves without even when a survivor of the army of independence is

APRIL 9, 1832.]

Revolutionary Pensions.

[H. or R.

indigent, according to the gentleman's description of in- and, let us admit, sometimes their habits, were a little digence, he should be holden to prove it. We know, and shaken by the life they had been leading. War never leaves it is interesting to know, that some degree of very credit the individual who actively mingles in it, any more than it able pride often outlives within him the better days, and leaves the nation, exactly where it finds him. The idleness easier circumstances, and brighter hopes of his youth and of camp, and the excitements of camp, are alike unfavormanhood. He knows and feels that he "needs the aid able to morality and to industry. The chances were, that of his country for support," but then he loves to appear when they went back to their places in society, and the to be able to struggle on to the end of his long and weary land rested from the agitation with which it had so long march without it. You give him adequate and noble re- been heaving, they would all, if the expression may be lief, in amount, by your pension law; why not soothe the pardoned, have sunk at once to the bottom. The chances half extinguished feelings of old age, by permitting him were, that they would become the "cankers of a calm to receive it rather as compensation for service, and as world and a long peace." Many of them did so. Others honor for valor," than as alms to mendicancy? How much struggled, and rose to something like competence and commore politic it would be-how much more grateful, and fort, but not above the necessity of partaking of this relief. how much more truly it would bless him who gives and I cannot refrain from reminding you, in this connexion, him who takes! Nobody willingly admits that he feels that the ten years which immediately followed the war of the pressure of the most respectable poverty. It often independence, that period in which these men were callhappens with such a one, that the concealed and season-ed to put off the garments of the camp, and, beating their able charities of a child favorably settled in life, or friends swords into ploughshares, to resume, as well as they could, whom the world knows not of, enable him to keep on that the habits and pursuits of civil life, were for a time the decent exterior of comfort and independence, in which we most unfavorable to morality, to industry, to the acquisition all love to appear. But all this the gentleman's amendment of property, and the formation of a stable and elevated rudely tears away. It requires him to spread upon record character, which this country ever saw. There was no conclusive evidence of his pauperism, under his own opening to enterprise for any body, and, least of all, for hand and oath, to be twice judged of by two distinct tri- the pennyless, disheartened, and war-worn soldier. Mabunals, the court and the department. I repeat it; this is nufactures, we had none; and under such a Government as a harsh and cold feature in such a pension law as yours. It the old confederation, admitting the unrestrained importaalways has been so considered. This sentiment is gaining tion of the foreign article, we should have never had any. ground, and the country will sustain any Congress that Commerce and the fisheries were annihilated; agriculture shall strike it out. Yes, sir, I will trust the generous, was languishing to death. A great pressure of debt was direct, and manly sense of this people, that they will re-bearing upon the confederacy, the States, and the citizen. gard it, on our parts, as an act of suitable and sincere de- There was no circulating medium in existence except a ference to meritorious old age and feeling, and not as a cun- depreciated, worthless paper, wholly unfit to develop ning contrivance to sustain what the gentleman from and vivify the industry of a community, but very fit and South Carolina is pleased to call the "high pressure or very likely to make us a nation of gamesters and jockeys. protective system." Undoubtedly this was as severe a crisis as the sharpest But gentlemen say that pensions are for the necessitous agony of the war. Such was the world which the disonly, and that some such limitation as this proposed by banded soldiers began life in; and stronger and more affectthe gentleman from Virginia is indispensable, to preventing proof, both of the truth of this description, and of the their bestowment on persons rolling in wealth. They are disastrous influence which that hard season shed on all very much concerned lest, in the language of Grattan, we their after fortunes, you need not seek, than is afforded should tax pedlars to pamper pensioners. Sir, there is by the fact that far the larger number of those who resome force in the suggestion; but the fair, practical an-ceived their settlement certificates from the Government swer to it is this: almost all those who will come within at the close of the war were obliged to sell them, in the the provisions of this bill are, in point of fact, in com course of the ten years following, at an average of two paratively humble pecuniary circumstances; and this limi- shillings and sixpence in the pound. tation is not necessary in order to give the desired direction to this bounty. The limitation is in some respects a harsh one; it is not indispensable, and therefore I would not, if I could prevent it, have it in the bill. Gentlemen tell us of General Wade Hampton. He undoubtedly is There is another reason why the indigence of the party an extraordinary instance of one who served in the war of should not be expressed upon the face of the law, as the independence, and is now in the enjoyment of vast wealth. condition upon which he receives his pension. The genBut do gentlemen seriously mean to intimate an appre- tleman from Virginia makes light of it, and perhaps my hension that the provisions of this bill will generally be honored and estimable friend from Rhode Island [Mr. bestowed on such men as Wade Hampton? Surely the BURGES] stated it too strongly; but I still think the penfact is wholly and palpably otherwise. From my own ob- sions we now bestow, and which this bill proposes to beservation, from the testimony of other gentlemen given in stow, are to be regarded rather in the light of compensathis discussion, from the uniform concurrence of opinion tion for service, than as alms to the most meritorious expressed by all who, at any time heretofore, have advo-poverty. Perhaps they partake of a mixed character. cated in Congress the adoption or extension of the pension To some of those to whom we give them, they are given system, I am satisfied that, as a general fact, the survivors merely in charity; to others, and these the greater numof the war of the revolution are in reduced pecuniary cir- ber, they are nothing less than the long deferred and inadcumstances, although often considerably above want; the equate wages of such service as no money could ever precise condition of life which this charity pre-eminently compensate. This is the grand peculiarity which characblesses. Sir, we know why they are in such circumstances. terizes pensions for revolutionary military service, which They left the army at the average age of thirty-two or makes it safe to give them, and which distinguishes them thirty-three. The prime of life was already nearly past. from any others which this country ever can give, or Before that age, the foundations of most men's fortunes which foreign and older countries ever have given. Speakare laid, and their destinies fixed. Many of them had ing within bounds, I suppose not one in fifty of all whom families immediately dependent and expensive. The the bill embraces ever had the contract for wages which business which they followed before they went to the war, their country made with them fully performed. Fortyit was not perfectly easy at once to resume. Their health, nine in fifty, perhaps, in a refined and high equity, are YOL. VIII.-154

I repeat, then, it is unnecessary in terms to confine the provisions of this bill to the indigent. Without any such expressed limitation, few others will partake of them; and, therefore, the limitation will do more harm than good.

H. OF R.]

Revolutionary Pensions.

[APRIL 9, 1832.

But

your creditors to-day; and I submit that the law which ought They are beyond your charity, and his sarcasm. to adapt itself to the general state of the facts, ought for the living it does a good deal; and I care not how libetherefore to assume the form of a provision for the pay- rally, or how gracefully it is done. Sir, much has been ment of a national debt, rather than that of a distribution said, and ably said, upon this topic; but it seems to me the of national alms. It humbles and rebukes one, the strong, plain, and narrow ground on which the claims of thought that we should compel our creditor to prove not the militia upon the pension fund are to be placed, and only his right to the money he asks for, but his need the bill defended, is this: that you have already, and long

of it.

It

ago, established a pension system, the principle of which I studiously avoid details upon a subject so familiar to is broad enough to embrace, and does embrace, this speyou. But one brief general view I will hazard. You cies of force, and this kind of service. The bill does not may divide the soldiers of the revolution into two classes; seek to introduce a new and disputable principle; it only those who were paid off during the war, and those who were carries out and applies a received and settled principle. paid off at its close. Those paid during the war received The general reasonings for and against the giving of penall which they ever received, in a depreciated and depre- sions, seem to be hardly relevant to this deliberation. ciating State or continental paper money; and they lost does not greatly illustrate the pending question to argue, upon their contract in two ways. In the first place, it as the gentleman from South Carolina has done, that a generally happened that they were obliged to take this pension system is unconstitutional; that it is impolitic; that paper for more than it was worth when they took it; and it distributes more public money in one portion of the then again it invariably happened that it fell still lower be- country than in another; and that its tendencies are to abuse fore they could by possibility force it away. Those paid and perversion. The system actually exists. To some at the close of the war, were paid, not in money of any extent it is of the recognised institutions, and a part of the denomination, but in certificates of settlement, (a sort of settled and ancient policy of the country. Every political governmental due bill,) which were funded ten years af- party, every administration, every Congress, every Presiterwards. In that long and gloomy interval of depression, dent, has contributed to rear and sustain it. Do gentledisorder, and want, the greater number who had received men contend for its abolition? Nobody is so hardy. Why, these certificates, were compelled to sell them on an then, will they not help to make it equal, impartial, and average of two shillings and sixpence in the pound. Those, just, by expanding it to the proper limits of the principle more fortunate or more sagacious, who retained and had it rests upon? I submit that the case of the militia and them funded, lost heavily upon them by the mode in which their associates, in the provisions of this bill, stands upon they were funded. They were entitled to receive the precisely the same grounds of right and merit with that of whole interest of ten years at that time in arrears; but, by the continental troops, and that you cannot continue to the mode of funding, two-thirds only of that arrear was ever give pensions to one class, and yet fairly and consistently paid them. They were entitled to interest from the time withhold them from the other. Is it not so? Is there any of funding, upon the whole principal then due and unpaid; pretence for this discrimination? Is there, let me ask, but one-third of that principal bore no interest for ten in the first place, any thing in the character or in the years. Thus, in various ways, and in various degrees, all amount and value of the service rendered by the militia, suffered somewhat; some more than others, but most con- which unfavorably distinguishes their claim from that of siderably. Then the case stands thus: these persons held the soldiers of the line? The gentleman from South Caroa contract of their country, by which she engaged to pay them a certain sum in money. When the time of performance came, she was unable to meet the engagement, and was reluctantly obliged to give, and they were reluctantly obliged to take, less than the whole in lieu of the whole. In a great change of relative circumstances, which we cannot without emotion contemplate, they ask you to make up the deficiency. The gentleman from Virginia is perfectly willing to do so; but insists that it shall be done in the form of a donation of charity, which we are at liberty to withhold, and to which we may annex any condition. I submit that it is more honorable, more honest, and much nearer to the historical fact, that it take the form of a payment of a debt which we may not withhold, and to which we may not annex an offensive condition. Since the act is to be done, let us call it by its right name. Let us give it the name of the virtue it most resembles. It comes nearer to justice than to generosity, though borrowing of both; therefore, let us call it justice, and fashion the bill accordingly.

I now solicit your attention to another topic. I approve the great objects of this bill, and I am in favor, therefore, of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Vermont, partly for the further reason that it renders the bill more liberal and more grateful than it would be without it. I approve the whole bill, and chiefly that provision, so eloquently assailed by the gentleman from South Carolina, which it makes for a long disparaged and neglected portion of the army of the revolution--the militia, State troops, and volunteers. Sir, it will not "raise the dead" of the war of independence, as the honorable gentleman repeatedly and somewhat unkindly forewarned you.

"They are in their graves;

Nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can reach them further."

He has

lina, partly by direct assertion, and partly by adroit insinu-
ation, has sought on this point to make an impression, as I
regard it, palpably against the historical fact.
sought to persuade you that the revolutionary services of
this species of force were inconsiderable in amount, and
that they did not differ in character from those which the
entire male population of every invaded country necessa-
rily, and without merit, always do perform. He wonker
confound the enlisted, marching, and fighting militia with
"the three millions of whigs with arms in their hands"--
memorable words! by which Chatham intended to describe,
not a literal army, but a determined people. These views.
of the gentleman demand, perhaps, some notice.

Sir, I have heard it plausibly maintained that this country owes its independence to the militia. That, perhaps, is too broad a proposition; at all events, it is needless to discuss it. Our business to-day would rather seem to be, not to inquire whether the services of this portion of force were indispensable--for who can pronounce on that? not to compare them invidiously with those of their co-workers in that great labor of glory--but to inquire whether they were not real, considerable, national: and whether they ought not to be at length compensated by a place upon the national pension roll.

I abstain from details, but two or three general views may be suggested. I affirm, first, that there was not a campaign or battle, from the beginning of the war to the end, in which the militia did not bear an important part along with the continentals. I do not say that they generally mustered in equal numbers, nor that they ever learned to stand fire quite as well in the open field. We know they did not. But I do say they served every where, and fought every where, under regular contracts of enlistment from which they could not break away, or under compulsory levy for a prescribed term, and that they contributed

« AnteriorContinuar »