resolution of the House of Representatives entitled "An Act authorizing
postmasters at county seats of justice to receive subscriptions for
newspapers and periodicals, to be paid through the agency of the
Post-office Department, and for other purposes," beg leave to submit the
following report:
The committee have reason to believe that a general wish pervades the
community at large that some such facility as the proposed measure should
be granted by express law, for subscribing, through the agency of the
Post-office Department, to newspapers and periodicals which diffuse daily,
weekly, or monthly intelligence of passing events. Compliance with
this general wish is deemed to be in accordance with our republican
institutions, which can be best sustained by the diffusion of knowledge
and the due encouragement of a universal, national spirit of inquiry and
discussion of public events through the medium of the public press. The
committee, however, has not been insensible to its duty of guarding the
Post-office Department against injurious sacrifices for the accomplishment
of this object, whereby its ordinary efficacy might be impaired or
embarrassed. It has therefore been a subject of much consideration; but
it is now confidently hoped that the bill herewith submitted effectually
obviates all objections which might exist with regard to a less matured
proposition.
The committee learned, upon inquiry, that the Post-office Department,
in view of meeting the general wish on this subject, made the experiment
through one if its own internal regulations, when the new postage system
went into operation on the first of July, 1845, and that it was continued
until the thirtieth of September, 1847. But this experiment, for reasons
hereafter stated, proved unsatisfactory, and it was discontinued by
order of the Postmaster-General. As far as the committee can at present
ascertain, the following seem to have been the principal grounds of
dissatisfaction in this experiment:
(1) The legal responsibility of postmasters receiving newspaper
subscriptions, or of their sureties, was not defined.
(2) The authority was open to all postmasters instead of being limited to
those of specific offices.
(3) The consequence of this extension of authority was that, in
innumerable instances, the money, without the previous knowledge or
control of the officers of the department who are responsible for the good
management of its finances, was deposited in offices where it was improper
such funds should be placed; and the repayment was ordered, not by
the financial officers, but by the postmasters, at points where it was
inconvenient to the department so to disburse its funds.
(4) The inconvenience of accumulating uncertain and fluctuating sums at
small offices was felt seriously in consequent overpayments to contractors
on their quarterly collecting orders; and, in case of private mail routes,
in litigation concerning the misapplication of such funds to the special
service of supplying mails.
(5) The accumulation of such funds on draft offices could not be known
to the financial clerks of the department in time to control it, and too
often this rendered uncertain all their calculations of funds in hand.
(6) The orders of payment were for the most part issued upon the principal
offices, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, etc., where
the large offices of publishers are located, causing an illimitable and
uncontrollable drain of the department funds from those points where
it was essential to husband them for its own regular disbursements. In
Philadelphia alone this drain averaged $5000 per quarter; and in other
cities of the seaboard it was proportionate.
(7) The embarrassment of the department was increased by the illimitable,
uncontrollable, and irresponsible scattering of its funds from
concentrated points suitable for its distributions, to remote, unsafe, and
inconvenient offices, where they could not be again made available till
collected by special agents, or were transferred at considerable expense
into the principal disbursing offices again.
(8) There was a vast increase of duties thrown upon the limited force
before necessary to conduct the business of the department; and from the
delay of obtaining vouchers impediments arose to the speedy settlement of
accounts with present or retired post-masters, causing postponements which
endangered the liability of sureties under the act of limitations, and
causing much danger of an increase of such cases.
(9) The most responsible postmasters (at the large offices) were ordered
by the least responsible (at small offices) to make payments upon their
vouchers, without having the means of ascertaining whether these vouchers
were genuine or forged, or if genuine, whether the signers were in or out
of office, or solvent or defaulters.
(10) The transaction of this business for subscribers and publishers at
the public expense, an the embarrassment, inconvenience, and delay of
the department's own business occasioned by it, were not justified by any
sufficient remuneration of revenue to sustain the department, as required
in every other respect with regard to its agency.
The committee, in view of these objections, has been solicitous to frame
a bill which would not be obnoxious to them in principle or in practical
effect.
It is confidently believed that by limiting the offices for receiving
subscriptions to less than one tenth of the number authorized by the
experiment already tried, and designating the county seat in each
county for the purpose, the control of the department will be rendered
satisfactory; particularly as it will be in the power of the Auditor,
who is the officer required by law to check the accounts, to approve or
disapprove of the deposits, and to sanction not only the payments, but to
point out the place of payment. If these payments should cause a drain
on the principal offices of the seaboard, it will be compensated by the
accumulation of funds at county seats, where the contractors on those
routes can be paid to that extent by the department's drafts, with more
local convenience to themselves than by drafts on the seaboard offices.
The legal responsibility for these deposits is defined, and the
accumulation of funds at the point of deposit, and the repayment at
points drawn upon, being known to and controlled by the Auditor, will not
occasion any such embarrassments as were before felt; the record kept
by the Auditor on the passing of the certificates through his hands will
enable him to settle accounts without the delay occasioned by vouchers
being withheld; all doubt or uncertainty as to the genuineness of
certificates, or the propriety of their issue, will be removed by the
Auditor's examination and approval; and there can be no risk of loss
of funds by transmission, as the certificate will not be payable till
sanctioned by the Auditor, and after his sanction the payor need not pay
it unless it is presented by the publisher or his known clerk or agent.
The main principle of equivalent for the agency of the department is
secured by the postage required to be paid upon the transmission of the
certificates, augmenting adequately the post-office revenue.
The committee, conceiving that in this report all the difficulties of the
subject have been fully and fairly stated, and that these difficulties
have been obviated by the plan proposed in the accompanying bill, and
believing that the measure will satisfactorily meet the wants and wishes
of a very large portion of the community, beg leave to recommend its
adoption.
REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
MARCH 9, 1848.
Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the
following report:
The Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, to whom was referred
the petition of H. M. Barney, postmaster at Brimfield, Peoria County,
Illinois, report: That they have been satisfied by evidence, that on the
15th of December, 1847, said petitioner had his store, with some fifteen
hundred dollars' worth of goods, together with all the papers of the
post-office, entirely destroyed by fire; and that the specie funds of the
office were melted down, partially lost and partially destroyed; that this
large individual loss entirely precludes the idea of embezzlement; that
the balances due the department of former quarters had been only about
twenty-five dollars; and that owing to the destruction of papers, the
exact amount due for the quarter ending December 31, 1847, cannot be
ascertained. They therefore report a joint resolution, releasing said
petitioner from paying anything for the quarter last mentioned.
REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 29, 1848.
The bill for raising additional military force for limited time, etc., was
reported from Committee on judiciary; similar bills had been reported from
Committee on, Public Lands and Military Committee.
Mr. Lincoln said if there was a general desire on the part of the House to
pass the bill now he should be glad to have it done--concurring, as he
did generally, with the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Johnson] that the
postponement might jeopard the safety of the proposition. If, however, a
reference was to be made, he wished to make a very few remarks in relation
to the several subjects desired by the gentlemen to be embraced in
amendments to the ninth section of the act of the last session of
Congress. The first amendment desired by members of this House had for its
only object to give bounty lands to such persons as had served for a time
as privates, but had never been discharged as such, because promoted to
office. That subject, and no other, was embraced in this bill. There were
some others who desired, while they were legislating on this subject, that
they should also give bounty lands to the volunteers of the War of 1812.
His friend from Maryland said there were no such men. He [Mr. L.] did not
say there were many, but he was very confident there were some. His friend
from Kentucky near him, [Mr. Gaines] told him he himself was one.
There was still another proposition touching this matter; that was, that
persons entitled to bounty lands should by law be entitled to locate these
lands in parcels, and not be required to locate them in one body, as was
provided by the existing law.
Now he had carefully drawn up a bill embracing these three separate
propositions, which he intended to propose as a substitute for all these
bills in the House, or in Committee of the Whole on the State of the
Union, at some suitable time. If there was a disposition on the part of
the House to act at once on this separate proposition, he repeated that,
with the gentlemen from Arkansas, he should prefer it lest they should
lose all. But if there was to be a reference, he desired to introduce his
bill embracing the three propositions, thus enabling the committee and the
House to act at the same time, whether favorably or unfavorably, upon all.
He inquired whether an amendment was now in order.
The Speaker replied in the negative.
TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS.
WASHINGTON, April 30, 1848.
DEAR WILLIAMS:--I have not seen in the papers any evidence of a movement
to send a delegate from your circuit to the June convention. I wish to say
that I think it all-important that a delegate should be sent. Mr. Clay's
chance for an election is just no chance at all. He might get New York,
and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not now, because he must
now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had then, and in addition the
fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. I know our good
friend Browning is a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear he is
favoring his nomination. If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and try
if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment, count the votes necessary to
elect him.
In my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor; and we cannot elect
him without a nomination. Therefore don't fail to send a delegate.
Your friend as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
MAY 11, 1848.
A bill for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union had been passed.
Mr. Lincoln moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed.
He stated to the House that he had made this motion for the purpose of
obtaining an opportunity to say a few words in relation to a point raised
in the course of the debate on this bill, which he would now proceed to
make if in order. The point in the case to which he referred arose on the
amendment that was submitted by the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Collamer]
in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, and which was
afterward renewed in the House, in relation to the question whether the
reserved sections, which, by some bills heretofore passed, by which an
appropriation of land had been made to Wisconsin, had been enhanced in
value, should be reduced to the minimum price of the public lands. The
question of the reduction in value of those sections was to him at this
time a matter very nearly of indifference. He was inclined to desire that
Wisconsin should be obliged by having it reduced. But the gentleman from
Indiana [Mr. C. B. Smith], the chairman of the Committee on Territories,
yesterday associated that question with the general question, which is now
to some extent agitated in Congress, of making appropriations of alternate
sections of land to aid the States in making internal improvements, and
enhancing the price of the sections reserved, and the gentleman from
Indiana took ground against that policy. He did not make any special
argument in favor of Wisconsin, but he took ground generally against the
policy of giving alternate sections of land, and enhancing the price of
the reserved sections. Now he [Mr. Lincoln] did not at this time take the
floor for the purpose of attempting to make an argument on the general
subject. He rose simply to protest against the doctrine which the
gentleman from Indiana had avowed in the course of what he [Mr. Lincoln]
could not but consider an unsound argument.
It might, however, be true, for anything he knew, that the gentleman
from Indiana might convince him that his argument was sound; but he [Mr.
Lincoln] feared that gentleman would not be able to convince a majority
in Congress that it was sound. It was true the question appeared in a
different aspect to persons in consequence of a difference in the point
from which they looked at it. It did not look to persons residing east of
the mountains as it did to those who lived among the public lands. But,
for his part, he would state that if Congress would make a donation of
alternate sections of public land for the purpose of internal improvements
in his State, and forbid the reserved sections being sold at $1.25, he
should be glad to see the appropriation made; though he should prefer
it if the reserved sections were not enhanced in price. He repeated, he
should be glad to have such appropriations made, even though the reserved
sections should be enhanced in price. He did not wish to be understood
as concurring in any intimation that they would refuse to receive such an
appropriation of alternate sections of land because a condition enhancing
the price of the reserved sections should be attached thereto. He believed
his position would now be understood: if not, he feared he should not be
able to make himself understood.
But, before he took his seat, he would remark that the Senate during the
present session had passed a bill making appropriations of land on that
principle for the benefit of the State in which he resided the State
of Illinois. The alternate sections were to be given for the purpose of
constructing roads, and the reserved sections were to be enhanced in value
in consequence. When that bill came here for the action of this House--it
had been received, and was now before the Committee on Public Lands--he
desired much to see it passed as it was, if it could be put in no more
favorable form for the State of Illinois. When it should be before this
House, if any member from a section of the Union in which these lands
did not lie, whose interest might be less than that which he felt, should
propose a reduction of the price of the reserved sections to $1.25, he
should be much obliged; but he did not think it would be well for those
who came from the section of the Union in which the lands lay to do
so.--He wished it, then, to be understood that he did not join in the
warfare against the principle which had engaged the minds of some members
of Congress who were favorable to the improvements in the western country.
There was a good deal of force, he admitted, in what fell from the
chairman of the Committee on Territories. It might be that there was no
precise justice in raising the price of the reserved sections to $2.50 per
acre. It might be proper that the price should be enhanced to some extent,
though not to double the usual price; but he should be glad to have such
an appropriation with the reserved sections at $2.50; he should be better
pleased to have the price of those sections at something less; and he
should be still better pleased to have them without any enhancement at
all.
There was one portion of the argument of the gentleman from Indiana, the
chairman of the Committee on Territories [Mr. Smith], which he wished to
take occasion to say that he did not view as unsound. He alluded to the
statement that the General Government was interested in these internal
improvements being made, inasmuch as they increased the value of the lands
that were unsold, and they enabled the government to sell the lands which
could not be sold without them. Thus, then, the government gained by
internal improvements as well as by the general good which the people
derived from them, and it might be, therefore, that the lands should
not be sold for more than $1.50 instead of the price being doubled. He,
however, merely mentioned this in passing, for he only rose to state,
as the principle of giving these lands for the purposes which he had
mentioned had been laid hold of and considered favorably, and as there
were some gentlemen who had constitutional scruples about giving money
for these purchases who would not hesitate to give land, that he was
not willing to have it understood that he was one of those who made
war against that principle. This was all he desired to say, and having
accomplished the object with which he rose, he withdrew his motion to
reconsider.
ON TAYLOR'S NOMINATION
TO E. B. WASHBURNE.
WASHINGTON, April 30,1848.
DEAR WASHBURNE:
I have this moment received your very short note asking me if old Taylor
is to be used up, and who will be the nominee. My hope of Taylor's
nomination is as high--a little higher than it was when you left. Still,
the case is by no means out of doubt. Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced
his interests any here. Several who were against Taylor, but not for
anybody particularly, before, are since taking ground, some for Scott
and some for McLean. Who will be nominated neither I nor any one else can
tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My prayer is that you let nothing
discourage or baffle you, but that, in spite of every difficulty, you send
us a good Taylor delegate from your circuit. Make Baker, who is now with
you, I suppose, help about it. He is a good hand to raise a breeze.
General Ashley, in the Senate from Arkansas, died yesterday. Nothing else
new beyond what you see in the papers.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN
DEFENSE OF MEXICAN WAR POSITION
TO REV. J. M. PECK
WASHINGTON, May 21, 1848. DEAR SIR:
....Not in view of all the facts. There are facts which you have kept out
of view. It is a fact that the United States army in marching to the Rio
Grande marched into a peaceful Mexican settlement, and frightened the
inhabitants away from their homes and their growing crops. It is a fact
that Fort Brown, opposite Matamoras, was built by that army within a
Mexican cotton-field, on which at the time the army reached it a young
cotton crop was growing, and which crop was wholly destroyed and the field
itself greatly and permanently injured by ditches, embankments, and the
like. It is a fact that when the Mexicans captured Captain Thornton and
his command, they found and captured them within another Mexican field.
Now I wish to bring these facts to your notice, and to ascertain what is
the result of your reflections upon them. If you deny that they are
facts, I think I can furnish proofs which shall convince you that you are
mistaken. If you admit that they are facts, then I shall be obliged for
a reference to any law of language, law of States, law of nations, law of
morals, law of religions, any law, human or divine, in which an authority
can be found for saying those facts constitute "no aggression."
Possibly you consider those acts too small for notice. Would you venture
to so consider them had they been committed by any nation on earth against
the humblest of our people? I know you would not. Then I ask, is the
precept "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them" obsolete? of no force? of no application?
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
ON ZACHARY TAYLOR NOMINATION
TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS.
WASHINGTON, June 12, 1848.
DEAR WILLIAMS:--On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending
the nomination of "Old Rough," (Zachary Taylor) I found your letter in a
mass of others which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it
had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the
deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall
have a most overwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that
all the odds and ends are with us--Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler
men, disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This
is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows.
Some of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain for
Taylor but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot something be done even in
Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It turns
the war thunder against them. The war is now to them the gallows of
Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged
themselves.
Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write that I cannot devote
much time to any one.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
JUNE 20, 1848.
In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the Civil and
Diplomatic Appropriation Bill:
Mr. CHAIRMAN:--I wish at all times in no way to practise any fraud upon
the House or the committee, and I also desire to do nothing which may be
very disagreeable to any of the members. I therefore state in advance that
my object in taking the floor is to make a speech on the general subject
of internal improvements; and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the
chair an opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat.
The Chair: I will not undertake to anticipate what the gentleman may say
on the subject of internal improvements. He will, therefore, proceed in
his remarks, and if any question of order shall be made, the chair will
then decide it.
Mr. Lincoln: At an early day of this session the President sent us what
may properly be called an internal improvement veto message. The late
Democratic convention, which sat at Baltimore, and which nominated General
Cass for the Presidency, adopted a set of resolutions, now called the
Democratic platform, among which is one in these words:
"That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the
power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements."
General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this language:
"I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic national
convention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere
to them as firmly as I approve them cordially."