[IN consequence of the threatening appearance of our affairs
with France, which at one time rendered a war with that nation
probable, congress, at the session of 1836, passed a bill making
large appropriations for building and repairing fortifications
on the Atlantic coast. Mr. Clay opposed the bill on account of
the extravagant amount proposed to be appropriated, as is shown
in the following brief remarks on the subject.]
MR. CLAY thought there was no inconsistency between the two
propositions to amend the bill as proposed by the senator from
South Carolina, with the view of reducing the amount proposed for
fortifications, and to amend it as proposed by the senator from
Delaware, to restrain the issue of money from the public treasury,
except as it should be called for in a course of regular disbursement.
Both might be well adopted, and he hoped would be.
He had, however, risen more particularly for the purpose of calling
the attention of the senate to the enormous and alarming amount of
appropriations which had been actually made, or were in progress,
during this session. He had procured from the secretary of the senate
a statement of such as had been made by bills which had passed one or
both houses up to the twenty-seventh of last month, when it amounted to
about twenty-five millions. Since then, other bills had passed, which
swelled it up to thirty-two or three millions; and other bills were now
in progress, and would probably pass, carrying it up to forty millions,
or beyond that sum. Forty millions of dollars in one year, when we have
no debt, and no foreign war! Will not the country be justly alarmed,
profoundly astonished, when it hears of these enormous appropriations?
Is it possible to proceed with the government on such a scale of
expenditure?
Why, sir, it is a greater amount than is appropriated to similar
objects by the British parliament, since its reform, in one year. The
whole revenue of Great Britain is about forty-two millions sterling,
of which sum twenty-eight millions is applied to the public debt, six
to the payment of pensions, annuities, and so forth, and only about
eight millions to the current annual expenses of the whole of their
vast establishments, military and naval, and the civil government at
home and abroad. Now, forty millions of dollars exceed eight millions
sterling. Who would have supposed that an administration, which came
in upon pledges and promises of retrenchment, reform, and economy,
should, in the eighth year of its rule, have swelled the expenditure of
the government to an amount exceeding that of Great Britain? And this
surprise must be increased, when we reflect that the British parliament
stands to the people of Great Britain in the double relation of the
federal and state governments to the people of the United States.
When Mr. Adams left the administration, the current annual expenses of
the government, exclusive of the public debt, amounted to about twelve
millions. Only a few years ago, a secretary of the treasury under the
present administration, (Mr. McLane,) estimated the ordinary expenses
of the government at fifteen millions annually. Even during the present
session, the able senator from New York, when the land bill was under
discussion, placed them, for a series of succeeding years, at eighteen
millions. And now we propose, in this year, to more than treble the
amount of expenditure during the extravagant administration, as it was
charged, of Mr. Adams!
Mr. Clay hoped the senate would pause. He called upon the friends of
the administration, in no taunting or reproachful spirit, to redeem
the pledges and promises with which they came into power. If the
love of country, if a faithful discharge of duty to the people, if
a just economy, would not animate them, and stay these extravagant
appropriations, he hoped the devotion to party would. Could they
expect to continue in power, (and he candidly confessed, that he
was not particularly anxious that they should,) with such unexampled
appropriations? How can they meet their constituents with these bills
staring them in the face?
And for what purpose shall they be made? Does any man believe, will any
senator rise in his place and say, that these immense appropriations
can be prudently, safely, and wisely disbursed? He had, indeed, heard
that it was not expected they would be. He had heard, what was too
wicked, profligate, and monstrous for him to believe, that it was
intended to withdraw the appropriations from the public treasury, place
them to the credit of disbursing officers, in the custody of local
banks, and thus elude the operation of the deposit bill, which has
recently passed. That bill had been demanded by the people of this
country. It had passed from a profound sense of duty, in consequence
of that demand, by unprecedented majorities in both houses. And he
would not allow himself for a moment to believe, that a sinister design
existed any where, to elude the operation of that great and salutary
measure. What, sir! is the money of the people of this country, to
be held in the deposit banks, one of which, according to a statement
going the rounds of the papers, has made fourteen and a half per centum
dividend for six months?
The annual average appropriations for fortifications heretofore, have
been about seven hundred and fifty or eight hundred thousand dollars;
and by the bill now before us, and that for a similar object which we
have sent to the house, if both pass, we shall have appropriated for
fortifications for one year, four millions and a half. Is it possible
in one year judiciously to expend this enormous sum? When we look at
the price of labor, the demands upon it for an increase of the army,
for volunteers, and for the general avocations of society, does any
body believe, that this vast sum can be judiciously laid out? It
has been said, that, having omitted to make any appropriation last
year, we ought this year to appropriate double the ordinary sum.
But, if you cannot safely expend it, why should that be done? He was
willing to make large and liberal appropriations for the navy and for
fortifications; we ought, however, to look to all our great interests,
and regulate the appropriations in reference to a survey of the whole
country; and he earnestly entreated the senate to fulfil the hopes and
expectations which had been recently inspired in the people of this
country, by checking and putting itself decidedly against this rash,
wild, and ruinous extravagance. He would vote for the commitment, to
reduce the appropriations one half; after which there would remain
an amount equal to double the ordinary annual appropriations, without
including the sum in the bill now before the house.