CONGRESS, U. S. 



317 



governments, and for the emancipation of their 

 slaves. I met that charge as best I could. I 

 met it by an appeal to the vote of this House, 

 and a two-third vote, too, by which you pro- 

 posed to amend the Constitution of the United 

 States, by declaring that Congress should not, 

 in any shape or form, interefere with slavery 

 in the States, and that the Constitution itself 

 should not be changed so as to authorize Con- 

 gress to interfere with the slave property of 

 the South. You voted an amendment to the 

 Constitution that it never should be changed 

 on this subject. I quoted your own words 

 and your own resolution, in which you declare 

 that there is no party in the North worthy of 

 consideration that has a purpose or design to 

 interfere with the interests of the slave prop- 

 erty of the South. We in the West were 

 not content with this vote alone, and in order 

 to be able to quiet our people, we asked you to 

 pass a resolution in July last, declaratory of the 

 purposes, objects, and intentions of this war, 

 and the time when it should cease. That re- 

 solution was passed unanimously. 



"What do we find is to-day the temper and 

 disposition of a majority of this House ? I call 

 upon the gentleman who seems to be the 

 leader of this measure to tell me if it is the 

 purpose of the Secretary, and whether it is the 

 intention of the Administration, to enter into 

 a crusade by the power of the army; or 

 whether you intend to force the Administration 

 into a crusade, a John Brown raid, upon the 

 negro property of the country ? Is that your 

 purpose ? What does the gentleman mean by 

 saying that we have 'a new problem to 

 solve ?' He says he cannot tell us how much 

 money we owe, or how much it will require 

 to develop the solution of this ' new problem' 

 the problem, I suppose, which has been put 

 upon your record to-day. Not content with 

 letting those who incited this war take the 

 consequences and incidents of war in reference 

 to their property, you propose to send your 

 army and, commissions into that country for 

 the purpose of inviting the slaves of the peace- 

 able and non-combatants into your lines, and 

 free them, arm them, and turn them loose upon 

 defenceless women and children, to commit 

 rapine, murder, and conflagrations of defence- 

 less habitations. When money appropriated 

 for the war has been misapplied, law disregard- 

 ed in its expenditure, I am opposed to giving 

 more to be thus misused. 



"What have you seen done here? The 

 churches of the living God are taken for hospi- 

 tals for the sick and wounded soldiers. I do not 

 object to this if it is necessary. The Govern- 

 ment is now occupying in the city, at high 

 rent, a large tenement, in which are kept and 

 supported four hundred (my friend says eight 

 hundred) runaway negroes at the public ex- 

 pense. [A Voice : Eleven hundred.] Eleven 

 hundred, I am told ; I do not know. They are 

 fed and clothed out of the money appropriated 

 to feed and pay the soldiers." 



Mr. Spaulding, of New York, replied, and 

 then explained the power of Congress : " This 

 bill is a necessary means of carrying into execu- 

 tion the powers granted in the Constitution ' to 

 raise and support armies,' and ' to provide and 

 maintain a navy.' 



" In the present crisis of our national affairs 

 it is necessary that the army should be ' sup- 

 ported,' and the navy 'maintained.' This 

 necessity will not be questioned by any loyal 

 member on this floor. 



"The Constitution provides that 'all the 

 laws necessary and proper for carrying into 

 execution the foregoing powers' may be passed 

 by Congress. 



"If the end be legitimate, and within the 

 scope of the Constitution, all the means that 

 are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to 

 that end, and which are not prohibited, may 

 be constitutionally employed to carry it into 

 effect. 



" If a certain means to the exercise of any 

 of the powers expressly given by the Consti- 

 tution to the Government of the Union be an 

 appropriate measure, not prohibited by the 

 Constitution, the degree of its necessity is a 

 question of legislative discretion, not of judi- 

 cial cognizance. 



"The Government of the United States is 

 not prohibited by the Constitution from issuing 

 Treasury notes on demand, and making them 

 a legal tender in payment of. all debts within 

 its jurisdiction. The Constitution (article one, 

 section ten) prohibits the States from making 

 anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender 

 in payment of debts ; but this does not at all 

 restrict the sovereign power of the United 

 States. Congress has the power to coin 

 money, 'regulate the value thereof, and of 

 foreign coin.' Gold and silver by long practice 

 a practice that has continued for centuries 

 among all nations has become the legal 

 money of the world in all commercial transac- 

 tions. Its real intrinsic value is not as great as 

 that fixed upon it by Governments. All Govern- 

 ments fix the value of gold and silver; and 

 without their Government stamp gold and sil- s 

 ver would be a simple commodity, like other 

 things having intrinsic value. Some Govern- 

 ments fix the value of coin higher, and some 

 lower ; just as each for itself chooses to deter- 

 mine. Any other metal or thing that should 

 be stamped, and its value regulated by all the 

 Governments of the world, would pass equally 

 well in all commercial transactions, as gold and 

 silver, although not intrinsically as valuable. 

 Exchequer bills or Treasury notes, whose value 

 is fixed by Government, and stamped as 

 money, would pass as money in the payment 

 of debts within the jurisdiction of the Govern- 

 ment fixing such value." 



Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, followed in opposi- 

 tion to the bill. He said : " I have examined, 

 Mr. Chairman, with some care, every law au- 

 thorizing the issue of Treasury notes which has 

 been passed from the foundation of the Gov- 



