Chapter CXXVIII: Distribution of Revenue

Propositions for distributing the public land revenue among the States, had become common, to be succeeded by others to distribute the lands themselves, and finally the Custom House revenue, as well as that of the lands. The progress of distribution was natural and inevitable in that direction, when once begun. Mr. Calhoun and his friends had opposed these proposed distributions as unconstitutional, as well as demoralizing but after his junction with Mr. Clay, he began to favor them; but still with the salvo of an amendment to the constitution. With this view, in the latter part of the session of 1835, he moved a resolution of inquiry into the extent of executive patronage, the increase of public expenditure, and the increase of the number of persons employed or fed by the federal government; and he asked for a select committee of six to report upon his resolution. Both motions were granted by the Senate; and, according to parliamentary law, and the principles of fair legislation (which always accord a committee favorable to the object proposed), the members of the committee were appointed upon the selection of the six which he wished. They were: Messrs. Webster, Southard, Bibb, King of Georgia, and Benton--which, with himself, would make six. Mr. Webster declined, and Mr. Poindexter was appointed in his place; Mr. Southard did not act; and the committee, consisting of five, stood, politically, three against the administration--two for it; and was thus a frustration of Mr. Calhoun's plan of having an impartial committee, taken equally from the three political parties. He had proposed the committee upon the basis of three political parties in the Senate, desiring to have two members from each party; giving as a reason for that desire, that he wished to go into the examination of the important inquiry proposed, with a committee free from all prejudice, and calculated to give it an impartial consideration. This division into three parties was not to the taste of all the members; and hence the refusal of some to serve upon it. It was the first time that the existence of three parties was proposed to be made the basis of senatorial action, and did not succeed. The actual committee classed democratically, but with the majority opposed to the administration.

At the first meeting a sub-committee of three was formed--Mr. Calhoun of course at its head--to draw up a report for the consideration of the full committee: and of this sub-committee a majority was against the administration. Very soon the committee was assembled to hear the report read. I was surprised at it--both at the quickness of the preparation and the character of the paper. It was an elaborate, ingenious and plausible attack upon the administration, accusing it of having doubled the expenses of the government--of having doubled the number of persons employed or supported by it--of holding the public moneys in illegal custody--of exercising a patronage tending to corruption--the whole the result of an over full treasury, which there was no way to deplete but by a distribution of the surplus revenue among the States; for which purpose an amendment of the constitution would be necessary; and was proposed. Mr. Benton heard the reading in silence; and when finished declared his dissent to it: said he should make no minority report--a kind of reports which he always disliked; but when read in the Senate he should rise in his place and oppose it. Mr. King, of Georgia, sided with Mr. Benton; and thus the report went in. Mr. Calhoun read it himself at the secretary's table, and moved its printing. Mr. Poindexter moved an extra number of 30,000 copies; and spoke at length in support of his motion, and in favor of the report. Mr. King, of Georgia, followed him against the report: and Mr. Benton followed Mr. King on the same side. On the subject of the increase of expenditures doubled within the time mentioned, he showed that it came from extraordinary objects, not belonging to the expenses of the government, but temporary in their nature and transient in their existence; namely, the expenses of removing the Indians, the Indian war upon the Mississippi, and the pension act of 1832; which carried up the revolutionary pensions from $355,000 per annum to $3,500,000--just tenfold--and by an act which the friends of the administration opposed. He showed also that the increase in the number of persons employed, or supported by the government, came in a great degree from the same measure which carried up the number of pensioners from 17,000 to 40,000. On the subject of the illegal custody of the public moneys, it was shown, in the first place, that the custody was not illegal; and, in the second, that the deposit regulation bill had been defeated in the Senate by the opponents of the administration. Having vindicated the administration from the charge of extravagance, and the illegal custody of the public moneys, Mr. Benton came to the main part of the report--the surplus in the treasury, its distribution for eight years among the States (just the period to cover two presidential elections); and the proposed amendment to the constitution to permit that distribution to be made: and here it is right that the report should be allowed to speak for itself. Having assumed the annual surplus to be nine millions for eight years--until the compromise of 1833 worked out its problem;--that this surplus was inevitable, and that there was no legitimate object of federal care on which it could be expended, the report brought out distribution as the only practical depletion of the treasury, and the only remedy for the corruptions which an exuberant treasury engendered. It proceeded thus:

"But if no subject of expenditure can be selected on which the
surplus can be safely expended, and if neither the revenue nor
expenditure can, under existing circumstances, be reduced, the
next inquiry is, what is to be done with the surplus, which, as
has been shown, will probably equal, on an average, for the next
eight years, the sum of $9,000,000 beyond the just wants of the
government? A surplus of which, unless some safe disposition
can be made, all other means of reducing the patronage of the
Executive must prove ineffectual.

"Your committee are deeply sensible of the great difficulty
of finding any satisfactory solution of this question; but
believing that the very existence of our institutions, and with
them the liberty of the country, may depend on the success of
their investigation, they have carefully explored the whole
ground, and the result of their inquiry is, that but one means
has occurred to them holding out any reasonable prospect of
success. A few preliminary remarks will be necessary to explain
their views.

"Amidst all the difficulties of our situation, there is one
consolation: that the danger from Executive patronage, as far
as it depends on excess of revenue, must be temporary. Assuming
that the act of 2d of March, 1833, will be left undisturbed, by
its provisions the income, after the year 1842, is to be reduced
to the economical wants of the government. The government,
then, is in a state of passage from one where the revenue is
excessive, to another in which, at a fixed and no distant
period, it will be reduced to its proper limits. The difficulty
in the intermediate time is, that the revenue cannot be brought
down to the expenditure, nor the expenditure, without great
danger, raised to the revenue, for reasons already explained.
How is this difficulty to be overcome? It might seem that the
simple and natural means would be, to vest the surplus in some
safe and profitable stock, to accumulate for future use; but
the difficulty in such a course will, on examination, be found
insuperable.

"At the very commencement, in selecting the stock, there would
be great, if not insurmountable, difficulties. No one would
think of investing the surplus in bank stock, against which
there are so many and such decisive reasons that it is not
deemed necessary to state them; nor would the objections be less
decisive against vesting in the stock of the States, which would
create the dangerous relation of debtor and creditor between
the government and the members of the Union. But suppose this
difficulty surmounted, and that some stock perfectly safe was
selected, there would still remain another that could not be
surmounted. There cannot be found a stock, with an interest in
its favor sufficiently strong to compete with the interests
which, with a large surplus revenue, will be ever found in
favor of expenditures. It must be perfectly obvious to all who
have the least experience, or who will duly reflect on the
subject, that were a fund selected in which to vest the surplus
revenue for future use, there would be found in practice a
constant conflict between the interest in favor of some local
or favorite scheme of expenditure, and that in favor of the
stock. Nor can it be less obvious that, in point of fact, the
former would prove far stronger than the latter. The result is
obvious. The surplus, be it ever so great, would be absorbed by
appropriations, instead of being vested in the stock; and the
scheme, of course, would, in practice, prove an abortion; which
brings us back to the original inquiry, how is the surplus to
be disposed of until the excess shall be reduced to the just and
economical wants of the government?

"After bestowing on this question, on the successful solution
of which so much depends, the most deliberate attention, your
committee, as they have already stated, can advise but one means
by which it can be effected; and that is, an amendment of the
constitution, authorizing the temporary distribution of the
surplus revenue among the States till the year 1843; when, as
has been shown, the income and expenditure will be equalized.

"Your committee are fully aware of the many and fatal objections
to the distribution of the surplus revenue among the States,
considered as a part of the ordinary and regular system of
this government. They admit them to be as great as can well be
imagined. The proposition itself, that the government should
collect money for the purpose of such distribution, or should
distribute a surplus for the purpose of perpetuating taxes,
is too absurd to require refutation; and yet what would be
when applied, as supposed, so absurd and pernicious, is, in
the opinion of your committee, in the present extraordinary
and deeply disordered state of our affairs, not only useful
and salutary, but indispensable to the restoration of the body
politic to a sound condition; just as some potent medicine,
which it would be dangerous and absurd to prescribe to the
healthy, may, to the diseased, be the only means of arresting
the hand of death. Distribution, as proposed, is not for the
preposterous and dangerous purpose of raising a revenue for
distribution, or of distributing the surplus as a means of
perpetuating a system of duties or taxes; but a temporary
measure to dispose of an unavoidable surplus while the revenue
is in the course of reduction, and which cannot be otherwise
disposed of, without greatly aggravating a disease that
threatens the most dangerous consequences; and which holds out
hope, not only of arresting its further progress, but also of
restoring the body politic to a state of health and vigor. The
truth of this assertion a few observations will suffice to
illustrate.

"It must be obvious, on a little reflection, that the effects
of distribution of the surplus would be to place the interests
of the States, on all questions of expenditure, in opposition
to expenditure, as every reduction of expense would necessarily
increase the sum to be distributed among the States. The effect
of this would be convert them, through their interests, into
faithful and vigilant sentinels on the side of economy and
accountability in the expenditures of this government; and would
thus powerfully tend to restore the government, in its fiscal
action, to the plain and honest simplicity of former days.

"It may, perhaps, be thought by some that the power which the
distribution among the States would bring to bear against
the expenditure and its consequent tendency to retrench the
disbursements of the government, would be so strong, as not
only to curtail useless or improper expenditure, but also
the useful and necessary. Such, undoubtedly, would be the
consequence, if the process were too long continued; but in the
present irregular and excessive action of the system, when its
centripetal force threatens to concentrate all its powers in a
single department, the fear that the action of this government
will be too much reduced by the measure under consideration, in
the short period to which it is proposed to limit its operation,
is without just foundation. On the contrary, if the proposed
measure should be applied in the present diseased state of the
government, its effect would be like that of some powerful
alterative medicine operating just long enough to change the
present morbid action, but not sufficiently long to superinduce
another of an opposite character.

"But it may be objected that, though the distribution might
reduce all useless expenditure, it would at the same time give
additional power to the interest in favor of taxation. It is
not denied that such would be its tendency; and, if the danger
from increased duties or taxes was at this time as great as that
from a surplus revenue, the objection would be fatal; but it is
confidently believed that such is not the case. On the contrary,
in proposing the measure, it is assumed that the act of March
2, 1833, will remain undisturbed. It is on the strength of this
assumption that the measure is proposed, and, as it is believed,
safely proposed.

"It may, however, be said that the distribution may create,
on the part of the States, an appetite in its favor which
may ultimately lead to its adoption as a permanent measure.
It may indeed tend to excite such an appetite, short as is
the period proposed for its operation; but it is obvious
that this danger is far more than countervailed by the fact
that the proposed amendment to the constitution to authorize
the distribution would place the power beyond the reach of
legislative construction; and thus effectually prevent the
possibility of its adoption as a permanent measure; as it
cannot be conceived that three-fourths of the States will ever
assent to an amendment of the constitution to authorize a
distribution, except as an extraordinary measure, applicable to
some extraordinary condition of the country like the present.

"Giving, however, to these and other objections which may be
urged, all the force that can be claimed for them, it must be
remembered the question is not whether the measure proposed is
or is not liable to this or that objection, but whether any
other less objectionable can be devised; or rather, whether
there is any other, which promises the least prospect of
relief, that can be applied. Let not the delusion prevail that
the disease, after running through its natural course, will
terminate of itself, without fatal consequences. Experience
is opposed to such anticipations. Many and striking are the
examples of free States perishing under that excess of
patronage which now afflicts ours. It may, in fact, be said
with truth, that all or nearly all diseases which afflict free
governments may be traced directly or indirectly to excess of
revenue and expenditure; the effect of which is to rally around
the government a powerful, corrupt, and subservient corps--a
corps ever obedient to its will, and ready to sustain it in
every measure, whether right or wrong; and which, if the cause
of the disease be not eradicated, must ultimately render the
government stronger than the people.

"What progress this dangerous disease has already made in our
country it is not for your committee to say; but when they
reflect on the present symptoms; on the almost unbounded extent
of executive patronage, wielded by a single will; the surplus
revenue, which cannot be reduced within proper limits in less
than seven years--a period which covers two presidential
elections, on both of which all this mighty power and influence
will be brought to bear; and when they consider that, with the
vast patronage and influence of this government, that of all
the States acting in concert with it will be combined, there
are just grounds to fear that the fate which has befallen so
many other free governments must also befall ours, unless,
indeed, some effectual remedy be forthwith applied. It is under
this impression that your committee have suggested the one
proposal; not as free from all objections, but as the only one
of sufficient power to arrest the disease and to restore the
body politic to a sound condition; and they have accordingly
reported a resolution so to amend the constitution that the
money remaining in the treasury at the end of each year till the
1st of January, 1843, deducting therefrom the sum of $2,000,000
to meet current and contingent expenses, shall annually be
distributed among the States and Territories, including the
District of Columbia; and, for that purpose, the sum to be
distributed to be divided into as many shares as there are
senators and representatives in Congress, adding two for each
territory and two for the District of Columbia; and that there
shall be allotted to each State a number of shares equal to its
representation in both Houses, and to the territories, including
the District of Columbia, two shares each. Supposing the surplus
to be distributed should average $9,000,000 annually, as
estimated, it would give to each share $30,405; which multiplied
by the number of senators and representatives from a State will
show the amount to which any State will be entitled."

The report being here introduced to speak for itself, the reply also is introduced as delivered upon the instant, and found in the Congress register of debates, thus:

"Mr. Benton next came to the proposition in the report to amend
the constitution for eight years, to enable Congress to make
distribution among the States, Territories, and District of
Columbia, of the annual surplus of public money. The surplus is
carefully calculated at $9,000,000 per annum for eight years;
and the rule of distribution assumed goes to divide that sum
into as many shares as there are senators and representatives
in Congress; each State to take shares according to her
representation; which the report shows would give for each share
precisely $30,405; and then leaves it to the State itself, by a
little ciphering, in multiplying the aforesaid sum of $30,405 by
the whole number of senators and representatives which it may
have in Congress, to calculate the annual amount of the stipend
it would receive. This process the report extends through a
period of eight years; so that the whole sum to be divided to
the States, Territories, and District of Columbia, will amount
to seventy-two millions of dollars.

"Of all the propositions which he ever witnessed, brought
forward to astonish the senses, to confound recollection, and
to make him doubt the reality of a past or a present scene,
this proposition, said Mr. B., eclipses and distances the
whole! What! the Senate of the United States--not only the
same Senate, but the same members, sitting in the same chairs,
looking in each others' faces, remembering what each had said
only a few short months ago--now to be called upon to make an
alteration in the constitution of the United States, for the
purpose of dividing seventy-two millions of surplus money in
the treasury; when that same treasury was proclaimed, affirmed,
vaticinated, and proved, upon calculations, for the whole
period of the last session, to be sinking into bankruptcy! that
it would be destitute of revenue by the end of the year, and
could never be replenished until the deposits were restored!
the bank rechartered! and the usurper and despot driven from
the high place which he dishonored and abused! This was the cry
then; the cry which resounded through this chamber for six long
months, and was wafted upon every breeze to every quarter of the
Republic, to alarm, agitate, disquiet and enrage the people. The
author of this report, and the whole party with which he marched
under the _oriflamme_ of the Bank of the United States, filled
the Union with this cry of a bankrupt treasury, and predicted
the certain and speedy downfall of the administration, from the
want of money to carry on the operations of the government.

"[Mr. Calhoun here rose and wished to know of Mr. Benton whether
he meant to include him in the number of those who had predicted
a deficiency in the revenue.]

"Mr. B. said he would answer the gentleman by telling him
an anecdote. It was the story of a drummer taken prisoner
in the low countries by the videttes of Marshal Saxe, under
circumstances which deprived him of the protection of the laws
of war. About to be shot, the poor drummer plead in his defence
that he was a non-combatant; he did not fight and kill people;
he did nothing, he said, but beat his drum in the rear of the
line. But he was answered, so much the worse; that he made
other people fight, and kill one another, by driving them on
with that drum of his in the rear of the line; and so he should
suffer for it. Mr. B. hoped that the story would be understood,
and that it would be received by the gentleman as an answer to
his question; as neither in law, politics, nor war, was there
any difference between what a man did by himself, and did by
another. Be that as it may, said Mr. B., the strangeness of the
scene in which we are now engaged remains the same. Last year
it was a bankrupt treasury, and it beggared government; now it
is a treasury gorged to bursting with surplus millions, and a
government trampling down liberty, contaminating morals, bribing
and wielding vast masses of people, from the unemployable
funds of countless treasures. Such are the scenes which the
two sessions present; and it is in vain to deny it, for the
fatal speeches of that fatal session have gone forth to all the
borders of the republic. They were printed here by the myriad,
franked by members by the ton weight, freighted to all parts
by a decried and overwhelmed Post Office, and paid for! paid
for! by whom? Thanks for one thing, at least! The report of the
Finance Committee on the bank (Mr. Tyler's report) effected the
exhumation of one mass--one mass of hidden and buried putridity;
it was the printing account of the Bank of the United States for
that session of Congress which will long live in the history of
our country under the odious appellation of the panic session.
That printing account has been dug up; is the black vomit of
the bank! and he knew the medicine which could bring forty
such vomits from the foul stomach of the old red harlot. It
was the medicine of a committee of investigation, constituted
upon parliamentary principles; a committee, composed, in
its majority, of those who charged misconduct, and evinced
a disposition to probe every charge to the bottom; such a
committee as the Senate had appointed, at the same session, not
for the bank, but for the post office.

"Yes, exclaimed Mr. B., not only the treasury was to be
bankrupt, but the currency was to be ruined. There was to be
no money. The trash in the treasury, what little there was,
was to be nothing but depreciated paper, the vile issues of
insolvent pet banks. Silver, and United States bank notes, and
even good bills of exchange, were all to go off, all to take
leave, and make their mournful exit together; and gold! that
was a trick unworthy of countenance; a gull to bamboozle the
simple, and to insult the intelligent, until the fall election
were over. Ruin, ruin, ruin to the currency was the lugubrious
cry of the day, and the sorrowful burden of the speech for six
long months. Now, on the contrary, it seems to be admitted that
there is to be money, real good money, in the treasury, such
as the fiercest haters of the pet banks would wish to have;
and that not a little, since seventy-two millions of surpluses
are proposed to be drawn from that same empty treasury in the
brief space of eight years. Not a word about ruined currency
now. Not a word about the currency itself. The very word seems
to be dropped from the vocabulary of gentlemen. All lips closed
tight, all tongues hushed still, all allusion avoided, to that
once dear phrase. The silver currency doubled in a year; four
millions of gold coins in half a year; exchanges reduced to the
lowest and most uniform rates; the whole expenses of Congress
paid in gold; working people receiving gold and silver for their
ordinary wages. Such are the results which have confounded the
prophets of wo, silenced the tongues of lamentation, expelled
the word currency from our debates; and brought the people to
question, if it cannot bring themselves, to doubt, the future
infallibility of those undaunted alarmists who still go forward
with new and confident predictions, notwithstanding they
have been so recently and so conspicuously deceived in their
vaticinations of a ruined currency, a bankrupt treasury, and a
beggard government.

"But here we are, said Mr. B., actually engaged in a serious
proposition to alter the constitution of the United States
for the period of eight years, in order to get rid of surplus
revenue; and a most dazzling, seductive, and fascinating scheme
is presented; no less than nine millions a year for eight
consecutive years. It took like wildfire, Mr. B. said, and
he had seen a member--no, that might seem too particular--he
had seen a gentleman who looked upon it as establishing a
new era in the affairs of our America, establishing a new
test for the formation of parties, bringing a new question
into all our elections, State and federal; and operating the
political salvation and elevation of all who supported it and
the immediate, utter, and irretrievable political damnation
of all who opposed it. But Mr. B. dissented from the novelty
of the scheme. It was an old acquaintance of his, only new
vamped and new burnished, for the present occasion. It is the
same proposition, only to be accomplished in a different way,
which was brought forward, some years ago, by a senator from
New Jersey (Mr. Dickerson) and which then received unmeasured
condemnation, not merely for unconstitutionality, but for all
its effects and consequences: the degradation of mendicant
States, receiving their annual allowance from the bounty of the
federal government; the debauchment of the public morals, when
every citizen was to look to the federal treasury for money,
and every candidate for office was to outbid his competitor in
offering it; the consolidation of the States, thus resulting
from a central supply of revenue; the folly of collecting
with one hand to pay back with the other; and both hands to
be greased at the expense of the citizen, who pays one man to
collect the money from him, and another to bring it back to
him, _minus_ the interest and the cost of a double operation in
fetching and carrying; and the eventual and inevitable progress
of the scheme to the plunder of the weaker half of the Union by
the stronger; when the stronger half would undoubtedly throw
the whole burden of raising the money upon the weaker half, and
then take the main portion to themselves. Such were the main
objections uttered against this plan, seven years ago, when
a gallant son of South Carolina (General Hayne) stood by his
(Mr. B.'s) side--no, stood before him--and led him in the fight
against that fatal and delusive scheme, now brought forward
under a more seclusive, dangerous, alarming, inexcusable,
unjustifiable, and demoralizing form.

"Yes, said Mr. B., it is not only the revival of the same plan
for dividing surplus revenue, which received its condemnation
on this floor, seven or eight years ago; but it is the
modification, and that in a form infinitely worse for the new
States, of the famous land bill which now lies upon our table.
It takes up the object of that bill, and runs away with it,
giving nine millions where that gave three, and leaves the
author of that bill out of sight behind; and can the gentleman
from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) be so short-sighted as not
to see that somebody will play him the same prank, and come
forward with propositions to raise and divide twenty, thirty,
forty millions; and thus outleap, outjump, and outrun him in the
race of popularity, just as far as he himself has now outjumped,
outleaped, and outran, the author of the land distribution bill?

"Yes, said Mr. B., this scheme for dividing surplus revenue
is an old acquaintance on this floor; but never did it come
upon this floor at a time so inauspicious, under a form so
questionable, and upon assumptions so unfounded in fact, so
delusive in argument. He would speak of the inauspiciousness
of the time hereafter; at present, he would take positions in
direct contradiction to all the arguments of fact and reason
upon which this monstrous scheme of distribution is erected and
defended. Condensed into their essence, these arguments are:

"1. That there will be a surplus of nine millions annually, for
eight years.

"2. That there is no way to reduce the revenue.

"3. That there is no object of general utility to which these
surpluses can be applied.

"4. That distribution is the only way to carry them off without
poisoning and corrupting the whole body politic.

"Mr. B. disputed the whole of those propositions, and would
undertake to show each to be unfounded and erroneous.

"1. The report says that the surplus will probably equal, on
the average, for the next eight years, the sum of $9,000,000
beyond the just wants of the government; and in a subsequent
part it says, supposing the surplus to be distributed should
average $9,000,000, annually, as estimated, it would give to
each share $30,405, which, multiplied by the senators and
representatives of any State, would show the sum to which it
would be entitled. The amendment which has been reported to
carry this distribution into effect is to take effect for the
year 1835--the present year--and to continue till the 1st day
of January, 1843; of course it is inclusive of 1842, and makes
a period of eight years for the distribution to go on. The
amendment contains a blank, which is to be filled up with the
sum which is to be left in the treasury every year, to meet
contingent and unexpected demands and the report shows that this
blank is to be filled with the sum of $2,000,000. Here, then,
is the totality of these surpluses, eleven millions a year,
for eight consecutive years; but of which nine millions are
to be taken annually for distribution. Now, nine times eight
are seventy-two, so that here is a report setting forth the
enormous sum of $72,000,000 of mere surplus, after satisfying
all the just wants of the government, and leaving two millions
in the treasury, to be held up for distribution, and to excite
the people to clamor for their shares of such a great and
dazzling prize. At the same time, Mr. B. said, there would be
no such surplus. It was a delusive bait held out to whet the
appetite of the people for the spoils of their country; and
could never be realized, even if the amendment for authorizing
the distribution should now pass. The seventy-two millions could
never be found; they would exist nowhere but in this report, in
the author's imagination, and in the deluded hopes of an excited
community. The seventy-two millions could never be found; they
would turn out to be the 'fellows in Kendal green and buckram
suits,' which figured so largely in the imagination of Sir John
Falstaff--the two-and-fifty men in buckram which the valiant old
knight received upon his point, thus! [extending a pencil in
the attitude of defence]. The calculations of the author of the
report were wild, delusive, astonishing, incredible. He (Mr. B.)
could not limit himself to the epithet wild, for it was a clear
case of hallucination.

"Mr. B. then took up the treasury report of Mr. Secretary
Woodbury, communicated at the commencement of the present
session of Congress, and containing the estimates required by
law of the expected income and expenditure for the present year,
and also for the year 1836. At pages 4 and 5 are the estimates
for the present year; the income estimated at $20,000,000,
the expenditures at $19,683,540; being a difference of only
some three hundred thousand dollars between the income and the
outlay; and such is the chance for nine millions taken, and two
left in the first year of the distribution. At pages 10, 14, 15,
the revenue for 1836 is computed; and, after going over all the
heads of expense, on which diminutions will probably be made,
he computes the income and outlay of the year at about equal; or
probably a little surplus to the amount of one million. These
are the estimates, said Mr. B., formed upon data, and coming
from an officer making reports upon his responsibility, and
for the legislative guidance of Congress; and to which we are
bound to give credence until they are shown to be incorrect.
Here, then, are the first two years of the eight disposed of,
and nothing found in them to divide. The last two years of the
term could be dispatched even more quickly, said Mr. B.; for
every body that understands the compromise act of March, 1833,
must know that, in the last two years of the operation of that
act, there would be an actual deficit in the treasury. Look
at the terms of the act! It proceeds by slow and insensible
degrees, making slight deductions once in two years, until the
years 1841 and 1842, when it ceases crawling, and commences
jumping; and leaps down, at two jumps, to twenty per centum on
the value of the articles which pay duty, which articles are
less than one half of our importations. Twenty per cent. upon
the amount of goods which will then pay duty will produce but
little, say twelve or thirteen millions, upon the basis of
sixty or seventy millions of dutiable articles imported then,
which only amount to forty-seven millions now. Then there will
be no surplus at all for one half the period of eight years:
the first two and the last two. In the middle period of four
years there will probably be a surplus of two or three millions;
but Mr. B. took issue upon all the allegations with respect
to it; as that there was no way to reduce the revenue without
disturbing the compromise act of March, 1833; that there was no
object of general utility to which it could be applied; and that
distribution was the only way to get rid of it.

"Equally delusive, and profoundly erroneous, was the
gentleman's idea of the surplus which could be taken out of the
appropriations. True, that operation could be performed once,
and but once. The run of our treasury payments show that about
one quarter of the year's expenditure is not paid within the
year, but the first quarter of the next year, and thus could
be paid out of the revenue received in the first quarter of
the next year, even if the revenue of the last quarter of the
preceding year was thrown away. But this was a thing which could
only be done once. You might rely upon the first quarter, but
you could not upon the second, third, and fourth. There would
not be a dollar in the treasury at the end of four years, if
you deducted a quarter's amount four times successively. It
was a case, if a homely adage might be allowed, which would
well apply--you could not eat the cake and have it too. Mr. B.
submitted it, then, to the Senate, that, on the first point of
objection to the report, his issue was maintained. There was
no such surplus of nine millions a year for eight years, as
had been assumed, nor any thing near it; and this assumption
being the corner-stone of the whole edifice of the scheme of
distribution, it was sufficient to show the fallacy of that data
to blow the whole scheme into the empty air.

"Mr. B. admonished the Senate to beware of ridicule. To pass a
solemn vote for amending the constitution, for the purpose of
enabling Congress to make distribution of surpluses of revenue,
and then find no surplus to distribute, might lessen the dignity
and diminish the weight of so grave a body. It might expose it
to ridicule; and that was a hard thing for public bodies, and
public men, to stand. The Senate had stood much in its time;
much in the latter part of Mr. Monroe's administration, when
the Washington Republican habitually denounced it as a faction,
and displayed many brilliant essays, written by no mean hand,
to prove that the epithet was well applied, though applied to a
majority. It had stood much, also, during the four years of the
second Mr. Adams's administration; as the surviving pages of the
defunct National Journal could still attest: but in all that
time it stood clear of ridicule; it did nothing upon which saucy
wit could lay its lash. Let it beware now! for the passage of
this amendment may expose it to untried peril; the peril of song
and caricature. And wo the Senate, farewell to its dignity, if
it once gets into the windows of the printshop, and becomes the
burden of the ballads which the milkmaids sing to their cows.

"2. Mr. B. took up his second head of objection. The report
affirmed that there was no way to reduce the revenue before
the end of the year 1842, without violating the terms of the
compromise act of March, 1833. Mr. B. said he had opposed
that act when it was on its passage, and had then stated his
objections to it. It was certainly an extraordinary act, a
sort of new constitution for nine years, as he had heard it
felicitously called. It was made in an unusual manner, not
precisely by three men on an island on the coast of Italy, but
by two in some room of a boarding-house in this city; and then
pushed through Congress under a press of sail, and a duresse
of feeling; under the factitious cry of dissolution of the
Union, raised by those who had been declaring, on one hand,
that the tariff could not be reduced without dissolving the
Union; and on the other that it could not be kept up without
dissolving the same Union. The value of all such cries, Mr. B.
said, would be appreciated in future, when it was seen with how
much facility certain persons who had stood under the opposite
poles of the earth, as it were, on the subject of the tariff
had come together to compromise their opinions, and to lay the
tariff on the shelf for nine years! a period which covered two
presidential elections! That act was no favorite of his, but
he would let it alone; and thus leaving it to work out its
design for nine years, he would say there were ways to reduce
the revenue, very sensibly, without affecting the terms or the
spirit of that act. And here he would speak upon data. He had
the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Woodbury) to
declare that he believed he could reduce the revenue in this way
and upon imports to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars;
and he, Mr. B., should submit a resolution calling upon the
Secretary to furnish the details of this reduction to the Senate
at the commencement of their next stated session, that Congress
might act upon it. Further, Mr. B. would say, that it appeared
to him that the whole list of articles in the fifth section of
the act, amounting to thirty or forty in number, and which by
that section are to be free of duty in 1842, and which in his
opinion might be made free this day, and that not only without
injury to the manufacturers, but with such manifest advantage
to them, that, as an equivalent for it, and for the sake of
obtaining it, they ought to come forward of themselves, and
make a voluntary concession of reductions on some other points,
especially on some classes of woollen goods.

"Having given Mr. Woodbury's authority for a reduction of
$500,000 on imports, Mr. B. would show another source from
which a much larger reduction could be made, and that without
affecting this famous act of March, 1833, in another and a
different quarter; it was in the Western quarter, the new
States, the public lands! The act of 1833 did not embrace this
source of revenue, and Congress was free to act upon it, and
to give the people of the new States the same relief on the
purchase of the article on which they chiefly paid revenue as
it had done to the old States in the reduction of the tariff.
Mr. B. did not go into the worn-out and exploded objections
to the reduction of the price of the lands which the report
had gathered up from their old sleeping places, and presented
again to the Senate. Speculators, monopolies, the fall in the
price of real estate all over the Union; these were exploded
fallacies which he was sorry to see paraded here again, and
which he should not detain the Senate to answer. Suffice it to
say, that there is no application made now, made heretofore, or
intended to be made, so far as he knew, to reduce the price of
new land! One dollar and a quarter was low enough for the first
choice of new lands; but it was not low enough for the second,
third, fourth, and fifth choices! It was not low enough for
the refuse lands which had been five, ten, twenty, forty years
in market; and which could find no purchaser at $1 25, for the
solid reason that they were worth but the half, the quarter, the
tenth part, of that sum. It was for such lands that reduction
of prices was sought, and had been sought for many years, and
would continue to be sought until it was obtained; for it was
impossible to believe that Congress would persevere in the
flagrant injustice of for ever refusing to reduce the price of
refuse and unsalable lands to their actual value. The policy of
President Jackson, communicated in his messages, Mr. B. said,
was the policy of wisdom and justice. He was for disposing of
the lands more for the purpose of promoting settlements, and
creating freeholders, than for the purpose of exacting revenue
from the meritorious class of citizens who cultivate the soil.
He would sell the lands at prices which would pay expenses--the
expense of acquiring them from the Indians, and surveying and
selling them; and this system of moderate prices with donations,
or nominal sales to actual settlers, would do justice to the new
States, and effect a sensible reduction in the revenue; enough
to prevent the necessity of amending the constitution to get rid
of nine million surpluses! But whether the price of lands was
reduced or not, Mr. B. said, the revenue from that source would
soon be diminished. The revenue had been exorbitant from the
sale of lands for three or four years past. And why? Precisely
because immense bodies of new lands, and much of it in the
States adapted to the production of the great staples which now
bear so high a price, have within that period, come into market;
but these fresh lands must soon be exhausted; the old and refuse
only remain for sale; and the revenue from that source will sink
down to its former usual amount, instead of remaining at three
millions a year for nine years, as the report assumes.

"3. When he had thus shown that a diminution of revenue could
be effected, both on imports and on refuse and unsalable lands,
Mr. B. took up the third issue which he had joined with the
report; namely, the possibility of finding an object of general
utility on which the surpluses could be expended. The report
affirmed there was no such object; he, on the contrary, affirmed
that there were such; not one, but several, not only useful,
but necessary, not merely necessary, but exigent; not exigent
only, but in the highest possible degree indispensable and
essential. He alluded to the whole class of measures connected
with the general and permanent defence of the Union! In peace,
prepare for war! is the admonition of wisdom in all ages and
in all nations; and sorely and grievously has our America
heretofore paid for the neglect of that admonition. She has
paid for it in blood, in money, and in shame. Are we prepared
now? And is there any reason why we should not prepare now?
Look at your maritime coast, from Passamaquoddy Bay to Florida
point; your gulf coast, from Florida point to the Sabine; your
lake frontier, in its whole extent. What is the picture? Almost
destitute of forts; and, it might be said, quite destitute of
armament. Look at your armories and arsenals--too few and too
empty; and the West almost destitute! Look at your militia, many
of them mustering with corn stalks; the States deficient in
arms, especially in field artillery, and in swords and pistols
for their cavalry! Look at your navy; slowly increasing under
an annual appropriation of half a million a year, instead of a
whole million, at which it was fixed soon after the late war,
and from which it was reduced some years ago, when money ran
low in the treasury! Look at your dock-yards and navy-yards;
thinly dotted along the maritime coast, and hardly seen at all
on the gulf coast, where the whole South, and the great West,
so imperiously demand naval protection! Such is the picture;
such the state of our country; such its state at this time, when
even the most unobservant should see something to make us think
of defence! Such is the state of our defences now, with which,
oh! strange and wonderful contradiction! the administration is
now reproached, reviled, flouted, and taunted, by those who
go for distribution, and turn their backs on defence! and who
complain of the President for leaving us in this condition, when
five years ago, in the year 1829, he recommended the annual
sum of $250,000 for arming the fortifications (which Congress
refused to give), and who now are for taking the money out of
the treasury, to be divided among the people; instead of turning
it all to the great object of the general and permanent defence
of the Union, for which they were so solicitous, so clamorous,
so feelingly alive, and patriotically sensitive, even one short
month ago.

"Does not the present state of the country (said Mr. B.) call
for defence? and is not this the propitious time for putting
it in defence? and will not that object absorb every dollar
of real surplus that can be found in the treasury for these
eight years of plenty, during which we are to be afflicted with
seventy-two millions of surplus? Let us see. Let us take one
single branch of the general system of defence, and see how it
stands, and what it would cost to put it in the condition which
the safety and the honor of the country demanded. He spoke of
the fortifications, and selected that branch, because he had
data to go upon; data to which the senator from South Carolina,
the author of this report, could not object.

"The design (said Mr. B.) of fortifying the coasts of the
United States is as old as the Union itself. Our documents
are full of executive recommendations, departmental reports,
and reports of committees upon this subject, all urging this
great object upon the attention of Congress. From 1789, through
every succeeding administration, the subject was presented to
Congress; but it was only after the late war, and when the
evils of a defenceless coast were fresh before the eyes of the
people, that the subject was presented in the most impressive,
persevering, and systematic form. An engineer of the first rank
(General Bernard) was taken into our service from the school of
the great Napoleon. A resolution of the House of Representatives
called on the War Department for a plan of defence, and a
designation of forts adequate to the protection of the country;
and upon this call examinations were made, estimates framed,
and forts projected for the whole maritime coast from Savannah
to Boston. The result was the presentation, in 1821, of a
plan for ninety forts upon that part of the coast; namely,
twenty-four of the first class; twenty-three of the second;
and forty-three of the third. Under the administration of Mr.
Monroe, and the urgent recommendations of the then head of the
War Department (Mr. Calhoun), the construction of these forts
was commenced, and pushed with spirit and activity; but, owing
to circumstances not necessary now to be detailed, the object
declined in the public favor, lost a part of its popularity,
perhaps justly, and has since proceeded so slowly that, at the
end of twenty years from the late war, no more than thirteen of
these forts have been constructed; namely, eight of the first
class, three of the second, and two of the third; and of these
thirteen constructed, none are armed; almost all of them are
without guns or carriages, and more ready for the occupation of
an enemy than for the defence of ourselves. This is the state
of fortifications on the maritime coast, exclusive of the New
England coast to the north of Boston, exclusive of Cape Cod,
south of Boston, and exclusive of the Atlantic coast of Florida.
The lake frontier is untouched. The gulf frontier, almost two
thousand miles in length, barely is dotted with a few forts in
the neighborhood of Pensacola, New Orleans, and Mobile; all the
rest of the coast may be set down as naked and defenceless.
This was our condition. Now, Mr. B. did not venture to give an
opinion that the whole plan of fortifications developed in the
reports of 1821 should be carried into effect; but he would
say, and that most confidently, that much of it ought to be;
and it would be the business of Congress to decide on each fort
in making a specific appropriation for it. He would also say
that many forts would be found to be necessary which were not
embraced in that plan; for it did not touch the lake coast, and
the gulf coast, nor the New England coast, north of Boston, nor
any point of the land frontier. Without going into the question
at all, of how many were necessary, or where they should be
placed, it was sufficient to show that there were enough
wanting, beyond dispute, to constitute an object of utility,
worthy of the national expenditure; and sufficient to absorb,
not nine millions of annual surplus, to be sure, but about as
many millions of surplus as would ever be found, and the bank
stock into the bargain. The thirteen forts constructed had cost
twelve millions one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars; near
one million of dollars each. But this was for construction
only; the armament was still to follow; and for this object
two millions were estimated in 1821 for the ninety forts then
recommended; and of that two millions it may be assumed that but
little has been granted by Congress. So much for fortifications;
in itself a single branch of defence, and sufficient to absorb
many millions. But there were many other branches of defence
which, Mr. B. said, he would barely enumerate. There was the
navy, including its gradual increase, its dock-yards, its
navy-yards; then the armories and arsenals, which were so much
wanted in the South and West, and especially in the South,
for a reason (besides those which apply to foreign enemies)
which need not be named; then the supply of arms to the States,
especially field artillery, swords, and pistols, for which
an annual but inadequate appropriation had been made for so
long a time that he believed the States had almost forgot the
subject. Here are objects enough, Mr. President, exclaimed
Mr. B., to absorb every dollar of our surplus, and the bank
stock besides. The surpluses, he was certain, would be wholly
insufficient, and the bank stock, by a solemn resolution of
the two Houses of Congress, should be devoted to the object.
As a fund was set apart, and held sacred and inviolable, for
the payment of the public debt so; should a fund be now created
for national defence, and this bank stock should be the first
and most sacred item put into it. It is the only way to save
that stock from becoming the prey of incessant contrivances to
draw money from the treasury. Mr. B. said that he intended to
submit resolutions, requesting the President to cause to be
communicated to the next Congress full information upon all the
points that he had touched; the probable revenue and expenditure
for the next eight years; the plan and expense of fortifying
the coast; the navy, and every other point connected with the
general and permanent defence of the Union, with a view to let
Congress take it up, upon system, and with a design to complete
it without further delay. And he demanded, why hurry on this
amendment before that information can come in?

"Now is the auspicious moment, said Mr. B., for the republic
to rouse from the apathy into which it has lately sunk on the
subject of national defence. The public debt is paid; a sum of
six or seven millions will come from the bank; some surpluses
may occur; let the national defence become the next great
object after the payment of the debt, and all spare money go
to that purpose. If further stimulus were wanted, it might be
found in the present aspect of our foreign affairs, and in the
reproaches, the taunts, and in the offensive insinuations which
certain gentlemen have been indulging in for two months with
respect to the defenceless state of the coast; and which they
attribute to the negligence of the administration. Certainly
such gentlemen will not take that money for distribution, for
the immediate application of which their defenceless country is
now crying aloud, and stretching forth her imploring hands.

"Mr. B. would here avail himself of a voice more potential than
his own to enforce attention to the great object of national
defence, the revival of which he was now attempting. It was
a voice which the senator from South Carolina, the author of
this proposition to squander in distributions the funds which
should be sacred to defence, would instantly recognize. It was
an extract from a message communicated to Congress, December 3,
1822, by President Monroe. Whether considered under the relation
of similarity which it bears to the language and sentiments of
cotemporaneous reports from the then head of the War Department;
the position which the writer of those reports then held in
relation to President Monroe; the right which he possessed,
as Secretary of War, to know, at least, what was put into the
message in relation to measures connected with his department;
considered under any and all of these aspects, the extracts
which he was about to read might be considered as expressing
the sentiments, if not speaking the words, of the gentleman who
now sees no object of utility in providing for the defence of
his country; and who then plead the cause of that defence with
so much truth and energy, and with such commendable excess of
patriotic zeal.

"Mr. B. then read as follows:

"'Should war break out in any of those countries (the European),
who can foretell the extent to which it may be carried, or
the desolation which may spread? Exempt as we are from these
causes (of European civil wars), our internal tranquillity is
secure; and distant as we are from the troubled scene, and
faithful to just principles in regard to other powers, we might
reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them. This,
however, ought not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked
injuries are often inflicted, and even the peculiar felicity of
our situation might, with some, be a cause of excitement and
aggression. The history of the late wars in Europe furnishes
a complete demonstration that no system of conduct, however
correct in principle, can protect neutral powers from injury
from any party; that a defenceless position and distinguished
love of peace are the surest invitations to war; and that there
is no way to avoid it, other than by being always prepared,
and willing, for just cause, to meet it. If there be a people
on earth, whose more especial duty it is to be at all times
prepared to defend the rights with which they are blessed, and
to surpass all others in sustaining the necessary burdens, and
in submitting to sacrifices to make such preparations, it is
undoubtedly the people of these States.'

"Mr. B. having read thus far, stopped to make a remark, and but
a remark, upon a single sentiment in it. He would not weaken
the force and energy of the whole passage by going over it in
detail; but he invoked attention upon the last sentiment--our
peculiar duty, so strongly painted, to sustain burdens, and
submit to sacrifices, to accomplish the noble object of putting
our country into an attitude of defence! The ease with which we
can prepare for the same defence now, by the facile operation of
applying to that purpose surpluses of revenue and bank stock,
for which we have no other use, was the point on which he would
invoke and arrest the Senate's attention.

"Mr. B. resumed his reading, and read the next paragraph,
which enumerated all the causes which might lead to general
war in Europe, and our involvement in it, and concluded with
the declaration 'That the reasons for pushing forward all our
measures of defence, with the utmost vigor, appear to me to
acquire new force.' And then added, these causes for European
war are now in as great force as then; the danger of our
involvement is more apparent now than then; the reasons for
sensibility to our national honor are nearer now than then;
and upon all the principles of the passage from which he was
reading, the reasons for pushing forward all our measures of
defence with the utmost vigor, possessed far more force in this
present year 1835, than they did in the year 1822.

"Mr. B. continued to read:

"'The United States owe to the world a great example, and by
means thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous
support. They have so far succeeded to the satisfaction of the
virtuous and enlightened of every country. There is no reason to
doubt that their whole movement will be regulated by a sacred
regard to principle, all our institutions being founded on that
basis. The ability to support our own cause, under any trial
to which it may be exposed, is the great point on which the
public solicitude rests. It has often been charged against free
governments, that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue
to provide at the proper season for great emergencies; that
their course is improvident and expensive; that war will always
find them unprepared; and, whatever may be its calamities, that
its terrible warnings will be disregarded and forgotten as soon
as peace returns. I have full confidence that this charge, so
far as it relates to the United States, will be shown to be
utterly destitute of truth.'

"Mr. B., as he closed the book, said, he would make a few
remarks upon some of the points in this passage, which he had
last read--the reproach so often charged upon free governments
for want of foresight and virtue, their improvidence and
expensiveness, their proneness to disregard and forget in peace
the warning lessons of the most terrible calamities of war. And
he would take the liberty to suggest that, of all the mortal
beings now alive upon this earth, the author of the report under
discussion ought to be the last to disregard and to forget the
solemn and impressive admonition which the passage conveyed! the
last to so act as to subject his government to the mortifying
charge which has been so often cast upon them! the last to
subject the virtue of the people to the humiliating trial of
deciding between the defence and the plunder of their country!

"Mr. B. dwelt a moment on another point in the passage which
he had read--the great example which this republic owed to the
world, and to the cause of free governments, to prove itself
capable of supporting its cause under every trial; and that by
providing in peace for the dangers of war. It was a striking
point in the passage, and presented a grand and philosophic
conception to the reflecting mind. The example to be shown to
the world, and the duty of this republic to exhibit it, was an
elevated and patriotic conception, and worthy of the genius
which then presided over the War Department. But what is the
example which we are now required to exhibit? It is that of a
people preferring the spoils of their country to its defence!
It is that of the electioneerer, going from city to city, from
house to house, even to the uninformed tenant of the distant
hamlet, who has no means of detecting the fallacies which are
brought from afar to deceive his understanding: it is the
example of this electioneerer, with slate and pencil in his
hand (and here Mr. B. took up an old book cover, and a pencil,
and stooped over it to make figures, as if working out a little
sum in arithmetic), it is the example of this electioneerer,
offering for distribution that money which should be sacred to
the defence of his country; and pointing out for overthrow, at
the next election, every candidate for office who should be
found in opposition to this wretched and deceptive scheme of
distribution. This is the example which it is proposed that we
should now exhibit. And little did it enter into his (Mr. B.'s)
imagination, about the time that message was written, that it
should fall to his lot to plead for the defence of his country
against the author of this report. He admired the grandeur of
conception which the reports of the war office then displayed.
He said he differed from the party with whom he then acted,
in giving a general, though not a universal, support to the
Secretary of War. He looked to him as one who, when mellowed by
age and chastened by experience, might be among the most admired
Presidents that ever filled the presidential chair. [Mr. B., by
a _lapsus linguæ_, said throne, but corrected the expression on
its echo from the galleries.]

"Mr. B. said there was an example which it was worthy to
imitate: that of France; her coast defended by forts and
batteries, behind which the rich city reposed in safety--the
tranquil peasant cultivated his vine in security--while the
proud navy of England sailed innoxious before them, a spectacle
of amusement, not an object of terror. And there was an example
to be avoided: the case of our own America during the late war;
when the approach of a British squadron, upon any point of our
extended coast, was the signal for flight, for terror, for
consternation; when the hearts of the brave and the almost naked
hands of heroes were the sole reliance for defence; and where
those hearts and those hands could not come, the sacred soil of
our country was invaded; the ruffian soldier and the rude sailor
became the insolent masters of our citizens' houses; their
footsteps marked by the desolation of fields, the conflagration
of cities, the flight of virgins, the violation of matrons! the
blood of fathers, husbands, sons! This is the example which we
should avoid!

"But the amendment is to be temporary: it is only to last until
1842. What an idea!--a temporary alteration in a constitution
made for endless ages! But let no one think it will be
temporary, if once adopted. No! if the people once come to taste
that blood; if they once bring themselves to the acceptance
of money from the treasury they are gone for ever. They will
take that money in all time to come; and he that promises
most, receives most votes. The corruption of the Romans, the
debauchment of the voters, the venality of elections, commenced
with the Tribunitial distribution of corn out of the public
granaries; it advanced to the distribution of the spoils of
foreign nations, brought home to Rome by victorious generals and
divided out among the people; it ended in bringing the spoils
of the country into the canvass for the consulship, and in
putting up the diadem of empire itself to be knocked down to the
hammer of the auctioneer. In our America there can be no spoils
of conquered nations to distribute. Her own treasury--her own
lands--can alone furnish the fund. Begin at once, no matter how,
or upon what--surplus revenue, the proceeds of the lands, or the
lands themselves--no matter; the progress and the issue of the
whole game is as inevitable as it is obvious. Candidates bid,
the voters listen; and a plundered and pillaged country--the
empty skin of an immolated victim--is the prize and the spoil of
the last and the highest bidder."

The proposition to amend the constitution to admit of this distribution was never brought to a vote. In fact it was never mentioned again after the day of the above discussion. It seemed to have support from no source but that of its origin; and very soon events came to scatter the basis on which the whole stress and conclusion of the report lay. Instead of a surplus of nine millions to cover the period of two presidential elections, there was a deficit in the treasury in the period of the first one; and the government reduced to the humiliating resorts to obtain money to keep itself in motion--mendicant expeditions to Europe to borrow money, returning without it--and paper money struck under the name of treasury notes. But this attempt to amend the constitution to permit a distribution, becomes a material point in the history of the working of our government, seeing that a distribution afterwards took place without the amendment to permit it.