Speech of William H. Seward, on the President's veto of the land bill for the insane, in the Senate of the United States, June 19, 1854.

  • William H. Seward
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Speech of William H. Seward, on the President's veto of the land bill for the insane, in the Senate of the United States, June 19, 1854. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ting, and are buying up the stock in advance of its maturity, at enormous premiums, and the creditor who complains of this bill may at once receive payment in full. Secondly, that pledge was never understood to prohibit judicious ap- propriations of the public domain; and the ob- jection, if good against this bill, annuls all the laws by which we have given homesteads to the survivors of all our wars, as well as those by means of which we have procured capitalists to cover with a net-work of railroads the broad region which stretches away from the base of the Alleghany mountains to the river Mississippi. The President expresses deep concern lest this contribution by the Federal Government to the States should impair their vigor and independ- ence. But it is not easy to see how a contribu- tion which they are at liberty to reject, and which they are to apply to a necessary and to a proper purpose of Government, in entire independence of the Federal Government, can wound their self- respect, or deprive them of any of their attributes of sovereignty. The President is, moreover, deeply disturbed by an apprehension, that if the policy of this bill should be pursued, its noble purposes would be defeated, and the fountains of charity within the States would be dried up. The President must not needlessly afflict himself in this wise, on the score of humanity. Experience is against his fears. Congress has never manifested a dispo- sition of profuse liberality towards the States. Every community that has received from the Federal territory or property military bounties or pensions is at least as brave and patriotic as it was before. Every community that has re- ceived from the same sources contributions for the purposes of internal improvement is more enterprising than before. Every community that has received aid for its schools of learning has been rendered more zealous and more munificent in the cause of education. Thus, sir, I have reviewed the President's objections. In conclusion, it remains for me to express the opinion, that, as in the early days of the Republic, there was a school of latitudina- rian construction of the Constitution, which school was quite erroneous, so. also, there was a school whose maxim was strict construction of the Constitution, and this school has accumu- | lated precedents and traditions equally caculated | to extinguish the spirit of the Constitution. Circumstances have altogether changed since that school was founded. Tho States were then rich and strong; the Union.was poor and powerless. Virginia lent to the United States a hundred thousand dollars to build their Capi- tol. But the States could not enlarge themselves. They possessed respectively either no public lands at all, or very small domains, and to such domains they have added nothing by purchase or conquest. Charged with all the expenses of municipal administration, including the relief of the indigent, the cure of the diseased, the educa- tion of the people, and the removal of natural obstructions to trade and intercourse, they re- served, nevertheless, only the power to raise revenues by direct taxation, one which always was and always will be regarded with jealousy and dislike, and is therefore never one that can be freely exercised. The Union, on the contrary, by conquest and purchase, has quadrupled its domain, and is in possession of superabundant revenues, derived from that domain and from imposts upon foreign commerce, while it also enjoys the power of di- rect taxation. Contrast the meager salaries of the officers of the States with the liberal ones enjoyed by the agents of the Union. Contrast the ancient narrow and cheerless Capitols of Annapolis, Ilarrisburg, and Albany, with this magnificent edifice, amplifying itself to the north and the south, while it is surrounded by gardens traversed by spacious avenues and embellished with fountains and statuary, and you see at once that the order of things has been reversed, and that it tends now not merely to concen- tration, but to consolidation. I know not how others may be affected by this tendency, but T confess that it moves me to do all that I can, by a fair construction of the Constitution, not to abate the Federal strength, and diminish the majesty of the Union, but to invigorate and ag- grandize the States, and to enable them to main- tain their just equilibrium in our grand but ex- quisitely contrived political system.
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