H. OF R.]

General Appropriation Bill.

[JAN. 28, 1835.

One word, Mr. Speaker, as to the argument of the member from Virginia, [Mr. WISE,] and I have done. That gentleman undertakes to justify this extraordinary increase of expense in clerk hire and stationary, because, as he says, the law of 1832 required you to open at the custom-house three sets of books. Now, sir, all I have to say upon that subject is, that the gentleman has been misinformed, and that the facts will not bear him out. As, unfortunately for his argument, the increase had been from $16,000 in 1829 to $47,000 in 1831, and stationary in proportion; so that you will see that this increase had commenced one year before the passage of the law of 1832. The gentleman has gone into a la bored calculation to show the House that this amendment will starve the poor weighers, and that they will be com

one; but when he heard his colleague talk about the number of cords of wood the weighers would burn in a winter, he had expected the next thing would be to weigh the butter they ate. The gentleman seemed to suppose that there was some one of these weighers who was particularly important in his eye; he could tell that gentleman, and tell the House, that there was not one of all the custom-house officers in the country who had the slightest shadow of a claim upon him. It was not true that he was the advocate of these men because they belonged to a certain establishment. The gentleman might know that that establishment had always been opposed to him. Yet he did not, on that account, wish to count their sticks of wood, nor weigh their pounds of butter. As to what reports might be sent home respecting his course, he cared neither for lying lettersn or false rec-pelled to abandon their places. Now, sir, the gentleords. He would say, however, for the sake of the city of Philadelphia proper, (a city which he loved, as he did the people in it,) to his colleague, that he had better go to another place, in a different part of the Capitol, and ask there, why, with all their light, and knowledge, and learning, and dignified standing, it happened that they had made no report yet? Those gentlemen were learned, intellectual, of high and dignified standing; their minds were capacious, and their extent of commercial, and all other species of learning, was almost equal to that of his colleague. Yet it seemed they had not been able to settle this knotty question of custom-house compensation; and need his colleague be astonished that a poor humble man like himself should have failed to introduce a measure that should embrace and equalize all the various interests concerned in such an arrangement? He would conclude by saying that the Committee of Commerce had under their consideration a proposition which would speedily be laid before the House, and which his colleague might weigh and re-weigh at his leisure. For himself, he went for the country, and the whole country; but God Almighty had not been kind enough to give him a mind which could in a moment grasp all the delicate relations and complex considerations pertaining to all the collectors in all the collection districts, in all the different States in this Union.

Mr. VANCE said that he must again ask the indulgence of the House for a moment, and he assured them that he asked even that moment with reluctance. As to the contest between the two members from Pennsylvania, [Messrs. SUTHERLAND and HARPER,] he was willing to let it rest where it then was. But he wished to say a word in answer to the member from Tennessee, [Mr. POLK.] That gentleman had stated that this whole matter was regulated by law, and the member has read us sundry extracts from that law. Now, sir, I am not going to controvert that point with the honorable member. The honorable member and myself do not differ about what the law is, but about what it ought to be. The very law he has read gives unlimited discretion to your custom-house officers, with the consent of the Secretary of the Treasury. This discretion I wish to limit, and I have shown, from the increasing of contingencies and subordinate officers, that it ought to be limited; and if I understand the honorable member, he does not himself object to the propriety of the measure, but to the manner in which it is made. His objection is to the restriction and limitation being put into the appropriation bill. Sir, it appears to shock certain gentlemen to have any restrictions put into the appropriation bills. It is perfectly right to incorporate sections into them that throw the doors of the treasury wide open to the discretion of your custom-house officers and Secretary of the Treasury; but, if you undertake to restrain this discretion, gentlemen become alarmed, lest some new principle shall be established, dangerous as precedents, and contrary to the spirit of the constitution.

man may be better informed on this subject than is the Secretary of the Treasury; but that officer, in the bill he has submitted to us for our consideration, has fixed the compensation of weighers at $1,200; and, after all the gentleman's deductions, he has not been able to reduce their compensation, under this amendment, lower than $1,300; so that the weighers are better off under this amendment than they would be under the adoption of the Secretary's bill. As to the remarks of the member from New York, [Mr. MANN,] I can only say that, if the bill passes the Senate, of which he speaks, this amendment will fall of course; and it cannot do harm to keep it where it now is. If we fail to legislate this session, this provision will ensure action at the next; if we do legislate this session, the amendment does harm to no one. Mr. WILLIAMS moved a call of the House, but the motion was rejected.

Mr. McKAY requested Mr. VANCE to modify his amendment, by striking out that clause of it which provided that the subordinate officers should not receive more than they had under the act of 1832.

Mr. VANCE accepted the modification; whereupon Mr. McKAY avowed his determination to vote for the amendment.

Mr. HALL, of North Carolina, declared a contrary purpose, and explained his reasons in a speech, scarce one word of which was audible at the reporter's table.

Mr. ADAMS, of Massachusetts, said that he should be compelled to vote against the amendment, because it went to introduce into an appropriation bill that which was foreign to it. Had he before entertained any doubt of the impropriety of thus encumbering appropriation bills, the present debate must have effectually removed it. Here had the House been occupied nearly a week, after they had gone through all the sections of the bill, on a matter which had nothing to do with it, and which could not be properly settled until it had received a full and deliberate examination. He took this opportunity of returning his thanks to the Committee of Ways and Means and its chairman, for having stripped the bill, in the manner they had done, of all matters of an extraneous kind. He hoped a similar course would be pursued for the future.

Mr. SCHLEY opposed the amendment on the same ground, and contended that the proviso, as it referred to a matter not in the bill, would not make common sense. If the object was to do justice, the provision of the bill of 1834 ought to be incorporated. The yeas and nays were now taken on the amendment, and it was adopted

as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Heman Allen, John J. Allen, Chilton Allan, W. Allen, Anthony, Archer, Ashley, Banks, Barber, Barringer, Bates, Beaty, Beaumont, Bell, Briggs, Burd, Burges, Casey, Chambers, Chilton, Claiborne, W. Clark, Clayton, Clowney, Coulter, Crane, Crockett, Darlington, Davis, Davenport, Deberry, Denny, Dickson, Dickinson, Evans, Ewing, Fillmore, Forester, P. C. Fuller, Gamble,

H. OF R.]

General Appropriation Bill.

[JAN. 28, 1835.

ent time. The gentleman from Massachusetts seemed to have forgotten that, when this same question was brought up by him last year, a letter had been produced and read from the former Postmaster General, [Mr. McLean,] who stated that it had always been the practice to hire extra clerks, as their services became necessary, until a permanent provision was made by law. Whatever allusion the gentleman might have had to the in

affirmed, in his place, that the fault, if any, of employing these extra clerks, was chargeable not on the Post Office Department, but on the neglect of Congress. Let the gentleman look at the General Land Office; was not the same thing done there? Let him look at the pension office, was it not the same there? There was no avoiding it. Congress must either provide the necessary clerks, or they must be employed by the Department. The present movement might possibly be intended as the commencement of a general attack on the Post Office. If that was the object, Mr. P. should not sanction it. He was astonished that the gentleman from Massachusetts, whose reputation had preceded him in that ball, should so misunderstand a plain matter, or should possess the faculty of so peculiarly mystifying the understanding that he had of it. The gentleman took up the Blue Book. He found there the names of all the clerks employed in the Post Office, with their respective compensations, and then the gentleman cried out, what need of extra clerk hire? But this the gentleman voluntarily was ignorant of, or wished to appear so, that the return in the Blue Book covered not only the clerks regularly employed under the sanction of law, but also the extra force which had from necessity been employed at the Department. It comprised the whole: the labor had been done, and the question was, whether it should be paid for.

not the return of the Post Office Department, the House had no return, and did not know how many clerks were employed. If it were his return, then no extra clerk hire was needed. The other heads of Departments, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, bad all made returns of the number of clerks they employed. Why should not the Postmaster General do the same? There was another item for "contingen-vestigations now going on in that Department, Mr. P. cies," and that in a Department which expended three millions of dollars without any account to the Govern ment: for when had the account been settled? Mr. L. had thus stated the two principal points of his objection. At so late an hour of the day he would not further enter into an argument. He was aware that it might be said that this was premature; that an investigation was going on, and that, by and by, the House would get all the facts, whether they were given by the Postmaster General or not. An investigation! For what purpose? Was it to be made in February, to be published in May, and to reach the members of this Congress (as some of the returns called for last year had done) in September or October; when the Postmaster General had, in the meanwhile, obtained the sanction of Congress to all his illegal appointments? Every one knew it was impossible that the report of the investigating committee could now be presented to Congress in time to be acted upon. In saying this, however, he intended no reproach upon the committee. He knew that they had been working night and day, that they had a Herculean task, such as required the strength of more than common men. He did not complain of the unavoidable delay, but he objected to an act which would give the sanction of Congress to the Postmaster General, in doing what he ought to have sought the authority of law to do. Mr. L. should ever object to paying clerks who had not been appointed according to law. He did not deny that a greater force was requisite in the Department than the law allowed; but that was a matter for Congress, not for the Postmaster General. Neither did he say that these clerks should not be paid for their labor; but he was for charging home the whole amount to the Department. He was for compelling the Postmaster General to do what that officer had said he could do with $300,000. He would charge these $38,000 to his account. He would load him down till he brought him to the door of that House to seek for relief. He cared not how great his debt was, nor how much he was impeded, so long as he continued to act without law. The refusal of the item would not injure the clerks; they were all paid. The only question was between Congress and the Department. The only question was, whether a subordinate officer of the Government should or should not come to the Legislature for legal authority before he acted without it? Let that officer send a representation to the House to-morrow, and Mr. L. would give him as many clerks as he wanted: then he would be under law; now he was above law. His object was to bring that Department into subserviency to the Government. Hitherto it had overridden the Government; and, holding as it did the avenues of knowledge, and in that respect the keys of public opinion, he feared it would yet override the liberties of the country.

Mr. POLK rose in reply, and promised not to occupy the House one fourth part of the time which had been consumed by the gentleman from Massachusetts. The question lay within a small compass. The clerical force provided by law for conducting the duties of the General Post Office was inadequate to that object. Congress had been informed so, and had been applied to from time to time to increase it. The House had thought fit not to do this directly, but had sanctioned the employment of extra clerk hire from the year 1828 to the pres

The Postmaster General was not to blame. Various bills had been reported to the House, providing for the requisite force, but until recently the Committee of Ways and Means had not supposed that they possessed jurisdiction respecting the particular number of clerks to be employed; but a resolution had passed the House ten days since, which expressly conferred upon them this jurisdiction, by requiring of them to report the number of clerks that would be requisite, and what reductions could be made in the expenses of the Department. The committee would shortly report a bill on that subject, and he now invoked beforehand the aid of the honorable gentleman when it should come before the House. They designed to have the number of clerks reduced, and he should stand up in his place and make a strong appeal to the House on that subject. Supposing the Postmaster General had not employed those clerks, the public business must have stood still, although the extent of the duties of the Department have been quadrupled. He trusted they should get the question on the bill.

Mr. R. M. JOHNSON had been in hopes that a subject which seemed so exciting would have been suffered to rest until the House received a report from their com mittee in relation to it, and they had the facts before them. He must profess his astonishment at the looseness of his friend's memory, in relation to the Post Office De partment. The gentleman had made, almost verbatim, the same speech last session, and it had been out of order then, as it was out of time now. Mr. J. stood there as the personal friend of the man who seemed to be the object of a general war in the Congress of the United States. He considered him as an upright and an honora ble man, and not as a lawless man. What he had done was not without law or without precedent. He should not, however, go at this time, into his defence. If the gen tleman would have but a little patience until the House could put its hand upon the facts, he might then attack as he pleased, and it would be all fair. But he must be

Death of Warren R. Davis--Amendment of the Constitution.

JAN. 29, 30, 31, 1835.]
permitted to say that he did not consider it very kind or
very honorable, or consistent with the high character of
a gentleman who had presided over a great State of this
Union, to attempt to represent a Department of this Gov-
ernment as lawless, for doing what had always been
done, and to deny to it what was necessary to the public
service, until he should have been able, to use his own
expression, to bring that Department within the law.
[Mr. LINCOLN rose to explain. When he had accused
the Department of a violation of law, he bad shown ex-
pressly in what particular the law had been violated.
He had referred to acts of Congress, and supported his
assertions by documentary proof. If the Postmaster
General had employed more than twice the number of
clerks the law allowed him, he must again declare that
in that respect he was lawless.]

[H. OF R.

colleagues, WARREN R. DAVIS, of South Carolina. He died this morning, a few moments before 7 o'clock. Sir, it is not my province to speak in the language of eulogy, but I trust I may be permitted to say of the deceased, that, whatever were his faults, they were of such a nature as to sink with him into the tomb, and be forgotten; whilst those who knew him best will remember only that he had a heart full of human kindness, rich in all those qualities that constitute a gallant man. Under wit that was ever brilliant, and humor that never grew heavy, he covered a shrewd sagacity in relation to men, and a thorough knowledge of human affairs. As a public man, perhaps the ruling feeling of his heart was a deep and burning attachment to his native State. With him it was not as with most men, the ordinary principle of patriotism. No, it was a permanent, abiding, passionate affection for her, and all her institutions. much so, that even in the last days of his lingering illness, at the very mention of South Carolina, you might see the fire of animated but sinking nature rekindle in his eye, and burn upon his cheek. It may be gratifying to his relations to know that, in his last suffering hours, even up to the moment of death, he retained the full exercise of all his faculties. And when it was announced to him that he would soon have to meet his God, he received the disclosure with the most perfect Mr. BEAUMONT moved farther to amend the bill by calmness and composure, and replied in these remarkastriking out the item for a library for the use of the At-ble words, that "all he desired was to die easily and torney General.

Mr. JOHNSON resumed. He had thought at the last session, that the gentleman from Massachusetts had ex. hibited peculiar pertinacity, not to say obstinacy, in pressing this subject. The gentleman, in his zeal to attack the Department, had twice brought this matter before the House prematurely. It was for that gentleman to use precisely such language as he chose to employ, and Mr. J. should exercise the same liberty.

The question being put, the amendment of Mr. LIN. COLN was negatived, without a count.

Mr. JACKSON, of Connecticut, opposed the amend

ment.

Mr. HARDIN said he was utterly opposed to granting appropriations for separate libraries, either to the Departments, or to the Attorney General. He would willingly vote rather for an increase of $10,000 more for the library of Congress, where he supposed the Attorney General, as well as the other heads of Departments, might readily come for such books as they wanted. The application for books for the use of the Attorney General's office, never, heretofore, had been made; and as this Attorney General had, with his public business, private practice to attend to, as well as former Attorneys General; the appropriation, consequently, would be of a private benefit, not so much, as to the public. For, if he practised as they did, and doubtless he did, he must have his own books to enable him to do so. He wished the Congress library to be increased, desiring, like the ancient Roman, to see the Capitol the finest building in the universe; so ought, he thought, their library to be the boast of their country. He opposed the appropriation; believing that, from the day Congress would sanction a system of separate libraries, thenceforth their own would go down, and he therefore rejoiced at having an opportunity to record his vote against the proposition.

The question was then taken by yeas and nays, and decided as follows: Yeas 114, nays 48.

So the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. McKAY moved to amend the bill by adding an additional section, respecting the payment of debts due the United States in notes under par value; which was agreed to, nem. con.; when the bill was at length ordered to its third reading.

And then the House adjourned.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29.

DEATH OF WARREN R. DAVIS.

After the reading of the journal,

Mr. PICKENS, of South Carolina, rose and addressed the House as follows:

Mr. Speaker: It becomes my melancholy and painful duty to announce to this House the death of one of my

|

gracefully."*

So

It may also be to his relations a source of consolation to know, that, during his protracted sickness, up to his death scene, he had around him the kindest and most devoted personal friends, who ministered to him all that affectionate attention could prompt.

I will conclude by saying, that in his death this House has lost a prominent member, and his State a patriot citizen, who might have been to her an ornament in the brightest days of her proud career.

Mr. P. concluded by moving that the House will attend the funeral of the deceased at 12 o'clock to-mor row, and in respect for his memory wear crape on the left arm for thirty days; which motions were severally agreed to.

[The SPEAKER announced the following as the committee of arrangements for the funeral: Messrs. PICKENS, ARCHER, WILDE, HARDIN, COULTER, LANSING, MCINTIRE, CRANE, and LEA of Tennessee.]

On motion of Mr. MANNING,

The House then immediately adjourned.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30.

No business was transacted in the House of Representatives to-day; the House being engaged in attending the funeral obsequies of the late WARREN R. DAVIS, a member of the House.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31.

AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Mr. GILMER, from the select committee to which was referred so much of the President's message as related to an amendment of the constitution in respect to the mode of electing the President and Vice President, reported that the committee had had the subject under consideration, and had come to no conclusion on the same, and he therefore moved that the committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject; which was agreed to.

Mr. GILMER asked leave to lay on the table the following joint resolution:

* Doubtless having a classical allusion.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following amendments to the constitution of the United States be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, which, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the States, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the constitution, to wit:

1st. No person who shall have been elected President of the United States shall be again eligible to that office.

[JAN. 31, 1835.

voted for, and the person receiving the highest number of votes shall have died before the counting of the votes, then, in the second election, the choice shall not be confined to the persons previously voted for, but any person may be voted for who may be otherwise qualified by the constitution to be President of the United States; which second election shall be conducted, the returns made, the votes counted, and the result of the election in each State certified by the Governor, in the same manner as in the first, and the final result of the election shall be ascertained in the same manner as in the first, and at such time as shall be fixed by law or resolution of Congress; and the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be President. But if two or more persons shall have received an equal and the highest number of votes at the second election, or if the person who shall have received the majority of the whole number of votes given at the second election shall have died before the counting of the votes, then the House of Representatives shall choose one of the remaining number of the persons voted for for President in the manner now prescribed by the constitution. But if there shall have been but two persons voted for in the second election, and the person who shall have received the highest number of votes shall have died before the counting of the votes, the Vice President then in office shall be President for the next succeeding term. The person having the greatest number of votes for Vice President, at the first election, shall be Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of votes given. And if no person shall have received such majority, or if the person who shall have received the majority of the whole number of votes given shall have died before the counting of the votes,then, of the persons having the two highest number of votes, the Senate shall choose one for Vice President; but if two or more persons have the highest and an equal number of votes, then the Senate shall choose a Vice President from the persons having the highest number of votes. But if there shall have been but two persons voted for, and the person who shall have received the highest number of votes shall have died before the counting of the votes, then the remaining person shall be Vice President; or if all the persons voted for shall have died before the counting of the votes, then the Senate shall choose one of their own body for Vicc President.

2d. Hereafter the President and Vice President of the United States shall be chosen by the people of the respective States, in the manner following: On the first Monday and succeeding Tuesday and Wednesday in the month of August, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and the same days in every fourth year thereafter, an election shall be held for President and Vice President of the United States, at such places, and in such manner, as elections are held by the laws of each State for members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature thereof. And the citizens of each State who possess the qualifications of electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature shall then and there vote for President and Vice President of the United States, one of whom shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And the superintendents or persons holding elections in each election district shall immediately thereafter make returns thereof to the Governor of the State. And it shall be the duty of the Governor, together with such other persons as shall be appointed by the authority of each State, to ascertain the result of said returns, and the person receiving the greatest number of votes for President, and the one receiving the greatest number of votes for Vice President, shall be holden to have received the whole number of votes which the State shall be entitled to give for President and Vice President: which fact shall be immediately certified by the Governor, and sent to the seat of the Government of the United States, to each of the Senators in Congress from such State, to the President of the Senate, and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The places and manner of holding such elections, of canvassing the votes, making returns thereof, and ascertaining their result, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof. But Congress may, at any time, make or alter such regula- | tions. Congress shall have the power of altering the times of holding the election, but they shall be held on the same days throughout the United States: and of altering the time, hereinafterwards prescribed, for the assembling of Congress every fourth year. The Congress of the United States shall be in session on the second Monday in October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, and on the same day in every fourth year thereafter; and the President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, shall, as soon as convenient and practicable, proceed to open all the certificates and returns, and the electoral votes of the States shall be thereupon counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of votes given; but if no person have such majority, or if the person having the majority of the whole number of votes given shall have died before the counting of the votes, then a second Mr. GILMER said he would be pleased to have the election shall be held on the first Monday and succeed-resolution read twice and committed to the Committee ing Tuesday and Wednesday in the month of December then next ensuing, which shall be confined to the perons having the two highest number of votes at the preceding election. But if two or more persons have the highest and an equal number of votes, then to the persons having the highest number of votes: Provided, however, if in the first election there were but two persons

3d. No Senator or Representative shall be appointed to any civil office, place, or emolument, under the authority of the United States, during the time for which he was elected, and for six months afterwards.

Mr. SPEIGHT asked whether it was the intention of the mover to press the consideration of the subject at the present session.

Mr. GILMER said it would depend upon the pleasure

of the House.

Mr. SPEIGHT remarked that there was no subject of greater importance before the House, and though we were so near to the end of the session, he hoped the gentleman would move the postponement of the resolu tion to a day certain, with a view to its consideration. Even if the subject should not be finally acted upon at this session, the discussion of it would be beneficial, inasmuch as it would bring the subject more fully before the people.

of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. HUBBARD was, he said, totally opposed to the proposition, and to the commitment of the resolution, as proposed.

After a word or two from Messrs. SPEIGHT and ARCHER, the resolution was laid on the table and or dered to be printed.