CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



195 



would stop to calculate tho cost of preserving 

 tin :_ r '>"d name of his country. Millions of 

 iin'iioy li.-ivo been promptly voted, and lives, 

 of fur moro value than ull those millions, have 

 been freely given in various wars to preserve 

 tin- dignity and integrity of the nation; and 

 there can be no extremity of financial distress 

 which will cause a Congress of the United 

 State-; to falter in appropriating money to save 

 the Government from reproach. National 

 unity is valueless without national honor. 

 Would it not be better that these States should 

 be dismembered, that this great and beautiful 

 fabric of government should crumble into utter 

 and irretrievable ruin, than the Union should 

 be preserved unbroken and be subject to the 

 well-deserved sneers of sister-nations? Are 

 we liable to stand dishonored before tho world 

 by the failure of the centennial exposition? 

 To answer that question we must examine the 

 history of the enterprise. 



" The first legislative act relative to this ex- 

 hibition was passed March 3, 1871, and from 

 the title to the concluding section the General 

 Government is recognized as its sponsor and 

 the guarantor of its success. The act is en- 

 titled 'An act to provide for celebrating the 

 one hundredth anniversary of American Inde- 

 pendence by holding an international exhi- 

 bition of arts, manufactures, and products of 

 the soil and mine in the city of Philadelphia 

 and State of Pennsylvania in the year 1876.' 



" Here the object and the method are clear- 

 ly indicated. The object is national, the mode 

 of celebrating it is international. No act of 

 Congress was needed to cause a spontaneous 

 outburst of patriotic enthusiasm upon the part 

 of American citizens during this eventful year. 

 But in the exuberance of our pride we wanted 

 all the nations of the world to come and com- 

 pare their products and their progress with 

 ours, and then go home filled with amazement 

 and admiration. That seems to be the spirit 

 which pervades this act. The very nature of 

 the contemplated celebration made it subject 

 to governmental control and entitled to Gov- 

 ernment aid. 



"The first section of the act provides 



That an exhibition of American and foreign arts, 

 products, and manufactures shall be held under the 

 auspices of the Government of the United States. 



''Here, again, the international character 

 of the celebration appears ; and it is distinctly 

 stated under whose auspices it will take place. 



" Section 2 provides for commissioners ' to 

 prepare and superintend the execution of a 

 plan for holding the exhibition.' 



" Sections 8, 4, and 5, provide that these 

 commissioners ' shall be appointed by the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, and shall hold their 

 meetings in the city of Philadelphia.' 



"Section 6 enacts that this commission shall 

 report to Congress, among other things, 4 a 



flan or plans of buildings' for the exhibition, 

 (ere, then, we have a commission created by 

 Congress, required to report to Congress, ap- 



pointed by the President, and charged with 

 the duty of preparing buildings and regulations 

 for the reception and exhibition of foreign as 

 well as domestic products. In addition to all 

 this, the President is directed to notify all na- 

 tions of the time and place for holding the ex- 

 hibition. 



" It seems to me that it would be impossible 

 to frame a statute whereby the United States 

 Government could be more fully identified with 

 and made responsible for any enterprise than is 

 done by the language of this act. 



" Nor is its force weakened by the only 

 section to which I have not yet referred. It is 

 therein provided with amazing inconsistency 

 that ' the United States shall not be liable 

 for any expenses attending such exhibition or 

 by reason of the same.' This act, in a spirit 

 of exultation which was natural and proper, 

 had declared in its preamble that it ' behooves 

 the people of the United States to celebrate, 

 by appropriate ceremonies, the centennial anni- 

 versary of this memorable and decisive event 

 which constituted the 4th day of July, A. D. 

 1776, the birthday of the nation ; ' and, having 

 determined what would be a fitting celebration 

 of the great event, having appointed agents to 

 prepare a world's fair, and having secured to 

 the Government exclusive control thereof, it 

 reaches this feeble and petty anti-climax that 

 the Government shall bear none of the burden. 

 All of the glory, but none of the expense ! A 

 national anniversary to be celebrated within 

 our borders by all the nations of the earth, and 

 this great Government inaugurating and con- 

 trolling it, and yet refusing to contribute to 

 the necessary expense 1 The spectacle is in- 

 deed humiliating. 



" Following up the history of this celebra- 

 tion, we find an act relative to the centennial 

 international exhibition was passed on June 

 1, 1872, by which a board of finance was in- 

 corporated. The Secretary of the United States 

 Treasury was required to prepare certificates 

 of stock for this corporation, and counterfeit- 

 ing these certificates was made a crime of equal 

 enormity with counterfeiting the currency of 

 the United States. This act also requires that 

 reports of the progress of the work, from timo 

 to time, shall be made to the President of the 

 United States. Here again we encounter the 

 guardian angel of the Treasury, with drawn 

 sword, declaring that we shall have an inter- 

 national celebration of a national event, but 

 that no money shall be taken from the nation- 

 al Treasury to defray the necessary expense 

 thereof. The Government will sanction this 

 enterprise, gotten up for its glory and for its 

 benefit, but not a dollar of its funds shall be 

 expended in the cause. It seems impossible to 

 reconcile such inconsistencies and harmonize 

 such parsimony with a spirit becoming to this 

 great commemoration. 



" The act of June 5, 1874, contains this same 

 inharmonious provision, which is made utterly 

 nugatory by the context. That act directs the 



