Kitabı oku: «Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.)», sayfa 56

Sir, much has been recently said of the amount of specie in the United States. Theoretical men have made many and vague conjectures about it, for after all it must rest upon conjecture; some have estimated it at ten millions of dollars – some twelve, some twenty, and some newspaper scribblers at forty millions of dollars. Sir, I do not believe that for the last ten years the United States have at any time been more bare of specie than at the present moment. A few years since, specie flowed in upon us in abundance. This resulted principally from an operation of a very singular and peculiar nature. The Spanish Government, as it was then understood, agreed to pay to France a very large sum of money – many millions of dollars, the precise number I am unable to state, from her possessions in South America. France contracted with a celebrated English banking house, as was said at the time, with either the concurrence or connivance of the English Government, that this money should be obtained through the United States. These bankers, by their agent, contracted with certain American houses, principally I believe in Baltimore, for the importation of this specie from La Vera Cruz into the United States, from whence it was not transmitted in coin to Europe, but invested in adventures in the shipments of produce, the proceeds of which ultimately go into the hands of these bankers in London, or of their friends on the continent, from whom it was finally realized by the French Government, either by drafts from Paris, or remittances to that city. This operation had a trebly favorable effect on the United States – it made fortunes for some of the merchants, it furnished the means of shipments to Europe, and it also provided the funds for adventures to the East Indies and to China. But this contract has now been finished some years; and since that time there has been a constant drain of specie from the country. Where it is in future to be procured from, I know not. Not from South America. Specie is, I believe, protected from exportation there, except to Spain. From Spain we cannot get it – to a great part of what was Spain we have now scarcely any trade. From France it cannot be obtained, for if we can get it there even by license, we are obliged to bring back her produce or manufactures. From England it cannot be imported – it is now made highly penal to attempt to send it out of the kingdom. With South America we have but little trade – hitherto we furnished them with smuggled or licensed European and India goods; but now the markets are flooded with these goods by importations direct from England, and which have been attended with great loss to the shippers. For these reasons, it is difficult to find a vessel sailing from the United States to the Spanish ports in South America. These are among the reasons why the amount of specie now in the country is small, and has for some time past been gradually lessening. Sir, without indulging in vague conjectures, what are the best data we have to form an estimate of the amount of specie in the country? The Bank of the United States has five millions of dollars in its vaults. In Boston there are three State banks – in New York I believe four, Philadelphia four, and Baltimore eight – call these nineteen twenty, and allow on an average one hundred and fifty thousand dollars specie, which probably is as much as they generally possess, and this will make three millions of dollars; this amount, united to the sum in the vaults of the Bank of the United States, gives eight millions of dollars – to which, if you allow two millions of dollars for a loose circulation of specie, you get an aggregate of ten millions of dollars. We are sometimes told of the large sums of money hoarded in our country by individuals – probably there may be some among the German farmers in Pennsylvania – perhaps more in that State than in any other, or all the others in the Union; but still of no great amount – the reputation of a little money possessed in this way easily swells into a large sum. At any rate, let the amount be what it may, in time of distress and mistrust, it would afford no addition to your circulating medium; for it is precisely in times like these, that men who hoard money will lock it up most securely.

Sir, the circulation of our country is at present emphatically a paper circulation – very little specie passes in exchange between individuals – it is a circulation bottomed on bank paper and bank credits, amounting perhaps to fifty millions of dollars. And on what, sir, does this circulation rest? It rests upon the ten millions of dollars, if that be the amount of specie in the country, and upon public confidence.

The Bank of the United States has fifteen millions of dollars to collect – call it ten, sir – nobody will dispute this – no one will pretend that this bank is not solvent – the remnant of its surplus dividends, and the interest it will have earned, will be sufficient to cover its losses at New Orleans, at Washington, and perhaps elsewhere. In what are these ten millions of dollars to be collected? In bank bills, the credit of which is at least doubtful? No, sir, in specie; and when this is entirely withdrawn from the State banks, and the banks are unable to pay the money for their bills, who does not see that this confidence is instantly destroyed – that the bubble bursts – that floods of paper bills will be poured in upon them, which they will be unable to meet, and which will for a time be as worthless as oak leaves – that the banks themselves must, at least temporarily, become bankrupts, and that a prostration of credit, and all those habits of punctuality which for twenty years, we have been striving so successfully to establish, will inevitably ensue, and, with them, also, there must be suspended the commerce, the industry and manufactures of the country; and a scene of embarrassment and derangement be produced, which has been unexampled in our history.

I will now make a very few remarks on the effects which the dissolution of the bank will have on the revenue and fiscal concerns of the country. Can it be supposed, sir, that the source to which will be imputed the distress that will have flowed from this event, will be the first to be thought of to be guarded against a participation of the evils that will result from it, in preference to the claims of the most intimate friends and connections? No, sir, the bonds due to the United States will be collected only at the tail of an execution. But I mean not to press this consideration. Admit, for a moment, that they will all be equally well collected – that they will be paid as usual, although it is palpable that for a considerable time the merchants will be unable to find the means to pay them: yet, admit, sir, that the money is collected in the State banks, how is it to be transmitted? It must come to the centre of the seat of Government; very little of the public money is expended in the Northern section of the Union. Will it come from the Eastward, in bills of the State banks? Penobscot bank bills sometimes will not pass in Boston; Boston bills pass with difficulty in New York or Philadelphia; and the bills of New York State banks probably would not be readily current in Washington. You must, then, sir, if Boston gives you a revenue of two millions of dollars, transmit the greater part of it to the seat of Government, or wherever it may be wanted in specie. Can this be done? We have not two millions of dollars of specie in our town, and, I may almost venture to say, never had. Suppose you make this transmission once, can you do it a second time? No, sir, the thing is utterly impracticable. You must adopt some other mode. Exchange between the different cities will not reach the case; frequently it cannot be purchased even for an insignificant amount.

Sir, will your money, when collected, be safe in the State banks? Of this I am extremely doubtful. Solicitations will undoubtedly be made for it from all quarters. They have already been made. In one instance, I am told, sir, the agent of a bank, even during the few past weeks, has been here for the purpose – that suddenly the agent was gone, and in a few days it was discovered that, owing to the failure of one of the debtors to the bank which he represented, (a great broker,) the stock had fallen in one day near 20 per cent. What was this the evidence of, but that those who were most interested in this bank, the stockholders who were on the spot, and best acquainted with its solidity, were willing to wash their hands of their concern in it, at almost any rate of sacrifice? Sir, I only state this, as it was here reported. I have no personal knowledge on the subject. But will you trust your funds with an institution thus precarious, and whose solidity is distrusted even by its best friends?

Wednesday, February 13

The credentials of Nicholas Gilman, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, for the term of six years, commencing on the 4th day of March next, were read, and ordered to lie on file.

Thursday, February 14

Bank of the United States

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill to amend and continue in force an act, entitled "An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States," passed on the 25th of February, 1791.

The question being to strike out the first section —

Mr. Giles. – Mr. President: It is with great reluctance that I find myself compelled to enter into the discussion of the subject now under the consideration of the Senate, but the observations which fell from the honorable gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Crawford) were of such a character as to impose on me an irresistible obligation to present that view of the subject which has resulted from the best reflections I have been enabled to bestow on it. This obligation arises from the very high respect I entertain for the Legislature of the State I have the honor to represent, the great respect I feel for the gentleman who made the observations, as well as from the respect which is manifestly due to myself. In executing this unpleasant task, I labor under circumstances of peculiar embarrassment. This embarrassment arises from a conviction that the views of the subject now proposed to be exhibited will disappoint the expectations both of the opposers and the favorers of the bill, and that they will not be acceptable to either. I shall not, however, in this instance, depart from my invariable habit, when urged by duty to participate in debate before this honorable body, of disclosing in the most undisguised manner my real opinions upon the whole subject, free of any consideration of political difficulties or inconveniences which may consequently affect myself.

In the first place, I find myself called upon to oppose a law, on constitutional grounds, which has been in existence for nearly twenty years, and during that period, I am compelled to admit, has been acquiesced in by the several State governments, as well as by the General Government, and its republican administrations. It is peculiarly irksome to me to question the constitutionality of a law which has been thus and so long acquiesced in, because it tends to give the character of instability to the laws generally, and in my judgment, tends also to impair the sacred character of the laws, and of course, to lessen their efficacy. In a Government like ours, where the laudable boast of every citizen is that he lives under a government of laws, and not of men, no subject should be touched with more caution and delicacy than one which questions the validity of the laws, lessens the confidence of the citizens in them, or impairs the obligation of obedience to them. Yet, sir, the course of observations I propose to make may have some of these tendencies, which I should extremely regret, and this apprehension, of course, produces embarrassment. Connected with this idea is another circumstance of embarrassment. I cannot help observing the inordinate zeal manifested by the opposers of this bill, evidently resulting from a belief that its rejection will lessen the powers of the Federal Government. Although it may be properly directed in the present instance, yet I think I have seen, and fear I may hereafter see the same spirit directed against some of the powers and proceedings of the Government which I have deemed indispensable to its own preservation, and its beneficial efficacy towards the people. It may, perhaps, be thought by some not becoming in me to say that I have not been an inattentive observer of the progress of this Government for twenty years, and more particularly, since the Republican party came into power. Some of the scenes through which I have passed, have produced an impressive influence on my mind. Such is the nature of the Government that its administration will vibrate from one principle to another, and it will always require great wisdom to keep its oscillations from wandering too far. Whilst those who preceded us in power endeavored to legislate into the constitution an unnecessary constructive energy, leading to what has been called consolidation, it appears to me that we have taken too much the opposite course, leading to disunion and dissolution, by depriving it constructively of its legitimate, necessary, and proper powers. If this course should be unfortunately persevered in, it requires no spirit of prophecy to foresee that the Government will fall to pieces from the want of due energy in the administration of its legitimate powers, or that some extraordinary means must be resorted to for its resuscitation.

The honorable gentleman from Georgia, (Mr. Crawford,) who reported this bill, as the chairman of the committee, to whom the subject was generally referred, excited not a little surprise in my mind by the prefatory remarks which fell from him in support of it. The gentleman prefaced his arguments by observing, "that it had latterly become the fashion to eulogize the Constitution of the United States; and that whenever he heard lavish encomiums applied to it, he could not help apprehending mischief." I acknowledge I could not comprehend the bearing of this remark upon the question under discussion. I, sir, have long been in the habit of venerating the constitution, and have often expressed my admiration at the wisdom of its provisions; and I really had hoped that I might have been indulged in these sentiments and prepossessions, and even the expression of them upon proper occasions, without exciting in the mind of any gentleman apprehensions of mischief; nor can I divine what species of mischief the gentleman apprehends from that cause. Mr. President, when we look over the whole world known to us; when we particularly cast our eyes over that part of it with which we have the most intimate relations; when we see the rapid strides which despotism is making over the whole human race; when we observe the various and powerful means now in use to rivet its immovable dominion upon mankind; when we reflect that the Constitution of the United States now affords the only practical experiment upon the republican principle, and the only and last hope for the preservation and extension of the liberties of man; is it wonderful or alarming, that we should feel and express some partiality and even veneration for an instrument of so peculiar a character? or should even endeavor to teach others to venerate, to cherish, to support it? An instrument, whose provisions at least exempt us from the general scene of despotism, and may eventually extend their blessings to the whole human race? Or if, in dwelling upon the wisdom and importance of its provisions, we might pass over some possible defects from scrutinizing them with an hypercritical eye, might not the omission be indulged without producing animadversion or censure? Sir, we all venerate the republican principle. I know the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Crawford) does; nor do I pretend that my devotion to it is greater than his; but, sir, I have given the greatest attention to the observations of the gentleman upon the constitution; and I can now say that my veneration for the instrument, and admiration at the wisdom of its provisions, are not at all impaired nor diminished, notwithstanding the gentleman's criticisms, &c. I will now, Mr. President, endeavor to exhibit the general character of the constitution; to point out the mode for its correct interpretation, and apply it to the subject now under consideration. In doing so, I propose to follow the course of observations made by the honorable chairman of the committee who reported the bill.

The gentleman proceeded to remark, that in taking a review of the constitution he found general as well as incidental powers enumerated therein. I did not see the precise application the gentleman intended to make of this remark, but I have been induced to review the constitution in reference to this subject, and it does appear to me, that the classification and definition of powers is as well arranged as human wisdom could devise. I know that nothing is perfect which is the work of man; that no language is capable of perfect definition. But, as far as definition can be drawn from language, I conceive the constitution exhibits as perfect an example as is in existence. In the next place, the gentleman remarked that there was a number of cases in which Congress had departed from the particular enumerated powers in the constitution and had resorted to implication or construction for the derivation of its powers. The remark is perfectly correct, and I am very ready to admit that there is no such thing as carrying into effect enumerated powers in any instrument whatever, without the intervention of certain derivative and implied powers. But if the gentleman had succeeded in showing that there had been aberrations by the Congress of the United States from the enumerated powers of the constitution, would he think it correct to use those aberrations as precedents for still further aberrations? Ought they not rather to be considered as mementoes on the part of Congress to induce them to tread with more care, and, if they find that their former errors could not be supported by a fair and candid construction of the constitution, to restrain the laws within its wholesome provisions? Certainly that is the use to which the history of errors presented by the honorable gentleman from Georgia ought to be applied. But, before I proceed to examine the subject with more accuracy, I cannot avoid to express my surprise at another observation which fell from the gentleman. The gentleman observed, that the argument drawn from the distinction between ends and means was "incomprehensible;" and he went so far as to call it "nonsensical jargon." It is not only comprehensible to me, sir, as I conceive, but, in my opinion, is the only way in which a just construction of the constitution is to be attained. This results from the peculiar nature and organization of the instrument. Permit me here to endeavor to illustrate my idea by a reference to the constitution itself? The constitution is an instrument which grew out of the situation of the United States at the time of, and preceding its adoption; and to show that the constitution recited the great objects of its formation, and then prescribed the means for carrying them into effect, I beg leave to refer to a part of the instrument itself. The preamble, like all other preambles, was designed to express the objects of the instrument or the ends to be effected by its provisions. "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity; do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." What is the plain language of this preamble? The answer is obvious. That certain great ends or objects are here proposed to be effected. In what mode, or by what means are they to be effected? The preamble tells you, sir, "by establishing this Constitution for the United States of America." That is the mode in which these great ends are proposed to be effected, and the body of the instrument prescribes the means which were deemed necessary and proper to the effectuation of these ends. The subject will be better understood by throwing the mind back to the period of time when this constitution originated, and reviewing the peculiar political situation of the United States then, and for some time antecedently thereto.

At the time, and antecedently to the establishment of the present constitution, the existing State Governments were in possession of all the powers of sovereignty, subject only to feeble and inefficient articles of confederation, without the means of executing their own will, and resting for its execution solely on requisitions upon the respective States, which might either comply or refuse to comply with such requisitions at their discretion. A non-compliance was almost invariably the result of State deliberations, and hence the feebleness of the old Confederation. The present constitution was adopted as the remedy for this great and alarming evil. Without it, disunion and ruin to the States would have been the inevitable consequence, because, upon actual experiment, the States were found utterly incompetent to the due administration of all the powers of sovereignty intrusted to their management. The reason of this incompetency was, that some of the most important powers of sovereignty inherently possessed a geographical influence beyond the geographical limits of the several States individually, and their jurisdiction could not transcend their geographical limits. Of this description of powers is the power to declare war, &c., to regulate commerce, &c., and all the other enumerated powers of the constitution. In consequence of the conflicting systems adopted by the several States in relation to some of these powers, which were then in practical operation; particularly in the conflicting regulations of commerce, the States were getting into the most serious collisions, &c. The formidable evils necessarily growing out of the state of things required a formidable and competent remedy. The great subject for the contemplation of every reflecting mind in America was, what that remedy should be? The wise framers of our admirable constitution, after great deliberation, conceived and executed the only practical expedient. It consisted in separating the powers of sovereignty; in establishing a General Government, and conferring on it all the powers of sovereignty whose geographical influence was found co-extensive with the geographical limits of the United States, and reserving to the State Governments respectively those powers which were of a mere local character, and which possessed no influence beyond the limits of the States respectively. And also to confer on the General Government "all the means necessary and proper" for executing its own laws in relation to these enumerated powers, without any dependence upon requisitions from the respective State Governments for this indispensable object. The idea was a grand one, and executed with an admirable simplicity, and the most consummate wisdom. Hence it appears that the great object of the framers of the constitution was to establish a General or Federal Government, and to confer on it all the powers of sovereignty, which in their nature and character possessed an influence co-extensive with the United States, and to reserve to the previously-existing State Governments all the powers of sovereignty of a more local character, and whose influence did not extend beyond the geographical limits of the States respectively, and therefore could be rendered completely subservient to State jurisdiction and management. These are the means prescribed in the constitution for effecting the ends expressed in the preamble. To the administrators of the General Government the framers of the constitution have said: We give to you all the powers of sovereignty of a general character; and to the administrators of the State Governments they have said: We reserve to you all the powers of sovereignty of a local character. I verily believe, that if those various Governments should be administered with the wisdom with which this separation of powers was made in the body of the constitution, the people of the United States will not be disappointed in the great and interesting objects proclaimed in its preamble. From this short history of the origin of the constitution, and the causes which produced it, it evidently appears, that the General or Federal Government is in its nature and character a Government of enumerated powers, taken from previously existing State Governments, enumerated and conferred on it, reserving all unenumerated powers to the State Governments, or to the people in their individual capacities. But if any doubts had existed upon this subject, two amendments to the constitution, growing out of some jealousies lest a contrary interpretation should be given to the constitution, have been adopted, which ought to put this question to rest forever. The 9th and 10th articles of amendments to the constitution are as follow:

"The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Now, sir, can language be more explicit than this, in declaring that this charter contains certain enumerated powers, and that all not enumerated are reserved to the States or to the people? There is one article reserving rights to the people, and afterwards another article reserving them to the States and to the people. While on this subject, I beg leave to read a clause in the constitution, which I find among the enumerated powers, and which has been construed by some, as intended to convey a general grant of powers among the enumerated powers: "Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States." The words "and to provide for the common defence and general welfare," have by some been considered as conveying a general grant of power. Nothing is necessary to show that this is not a fair and correct construction of the constitution, but reading it with attention. These terms contain no grant of power whatever, but are used to express the ends or objects for which particular grants of power were given. Paying the debts and providing for the common defence and general welfare are great objects, intimately connected with the particular grants of power which are given for their effectuation; and without these particular grants of power, it would not have been possible for Congress to effect them. The framers of the constitution have simply selected some of the objects expressed in the preamble, and declared that to effect them, and to pay the debts of the United States, were the considerations which induced them to give to Congress the power "to lay and collect taxes," &c. Thus taxes are to be laid, &c. "to pay the debts, and to provide for the common defence and general welfare." Could they have chosen a more appropriate phraseology? The plain language to Congress is: "You shall have power to lay and collect taxes, to pay the debts," &c., and to provide for the common defence and general welfare, or, in other words, for the purpose of paying the debts, &c., and of providing for the common defence and general welfare. These words do not contain a general grant of powers, but express the objects of a particular grant of powers. The framers of the constitution could not have done an act so absurd as to make a general grant of powers, among an enumeration of specified powers.

I will now, Mr. President, proceed to examine those instances which the gentleman has presented of the supposed aberrations of the Congress of the United States from the enumerated powers, and I think it will not be difficult to show that there is not a single instance quoted, but which is deducible from a fair and correct interpretation of the express words of the constitution, giving them their common and appropriate meaning.

The first instance presented to our consideration by the honorable gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Crawford) of the exercise of a power by Congress not enumerated in the constitution, was the erection of light-houses. The gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Lloyd,) to whose dispassionate observations I listened with great pleasure, superadded the instance of the erection of custom-houses. On these, both of the gentlemen seemed to place great reliance, as cases in point with the one under consideration. Both these powers I conceive are given to Congress by the express words of the constitution; but if I should be mistaken in this idea, they are certainly comprehended as incidental and subservient to, or in other words, "necessary and proper" for carrying into effect some of the enumerated powers.

The express words of the constitution give to Congress the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises," &c.; "to regulate commerce with foreign nations among the several States, and with the Indian tribes;" "to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatever, &c., over all places purchased by consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings." From these clauses of the constitution, taken in connection with each other, I think Congress possesses the power to erect light-houses and custom-houses by the express words of the constitution; for both of these descriptions of houses must necessarily be included within the term "needful buildings," or the only construction which is at all applicable to these cases is, that needful buildings is the general term, and light-houses and custom-houses are particular instances or examples under the general term; or, if I may be so allowed to express my ideas, needful buildings may be considered as the genus, of which light-houses and custom-houses are particular species. The reason with the framers of the constitution for using this general term is obvious. It was, because it was impossible for them to foresee all the particular species of needful buildings which might become necessary to the salutary operations of this Government in the course of its complicated and due administration; they therefore wisely left that subject to the discussion of Congress, restrained and limited, nevertheless, by the requisition of the consent of the Legislatures of the States respectively, in every case proposed for the exercise of this discretion. That this is a plain and correct interpretation of the constitution is evinced by the concurrent opinions of every Legislature of every State, which has heretofore ceded lands for any of these objects; and it is to be remarked, that Congress has never attempted to erect any of these buildings without the constitutional requisition of the consent of the States respectively. But if this term "needful buildings" had not been expressed in the constitution, I should not hesitate to admit with these gentlemen that the erection of light-houses and custom-houses might properly be deduced from the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, &c., which are particular grants of power enumerated in the constitution. Because custom-houses are appropriately necessary to the collection of duties, and have always been deemed indispensable for that object, as are light-houses to the due regulation of commerce.