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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Congress to absorb all the reserved powers of 

 the States and to become a centralized despot- 

 ism, if such a construction of these words be 

 admitted. My only hope to arrest consolida- 

 tion is in limiting the power of Congress to 

 the specifications of the grants contained in 

 the Federal Constitution. 



"But gentlemen, despairing of finding any 

 particular clause of the Constitution for their 

 purpose, have asked me how we could build 

 this beautiful dome to the Capitol. Now, if 

 gentlemen will read the Constitution of the 

 United States, and study it, and, as the Prayer- 

 Book says, ' inwardly digest it,' they will find 

 this provision in the sixteenth clause of the 

 eighth section of Article I. of the Constitution : 



To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what- 

 soever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles 

 square) as may, by cession of particular States, and 

 the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the 

 Government of the United States, and to exercise 

 like authority over all places purchased by the con- 

 sent of the Legislature of the State in which the 

 same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, 

 arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings. 



" Thus there is a clear implication of a grant 

 of power to erect a Capitol. But gentlemen 

 say, ' Why did you not build a brick build- 

 ing? Would not that have done?' Well, I 

 might say, Why did you not build it of weather- 

 boards? Somebody else might say, 'Why did 

 you not build merely a log-house ? Why do 

 you not live like the old patriarchs, in tents? 

 What is the use of having any house at all ? ' 

 I answer that the power being given to build 

 ' needful buildings,' the discretion as to what 

 is the necessity of the Government is of course 

 left to Congress. And in reference to that I 

 will answer, as poor old Lear did to his mis- 

 erable daughters when they undertook by 

 reasoning to deprive him of his royal dignities 

 and reduce him to dependence upon the mer- 

 cies of ' a thankless child : ' 



' Oh, reason not the need : . . . 

 Allow not Nature more than Nature needs, 

 Man's life is cheap as beast's,' 



" And when gentlemen ask how these pictures 

 can come here, I will say to them that if they 

 will read the later decisions of the higher 

 courts of Great Britain they will find that the 

 doctrine held by those courts is that pictures 

 and statuary, intended as parts of the general 

 plan of a building, are a part of the realty. 

 Pictures are fixtures, and are as much needed 

 to a public building as a cornice, a portico, or 

 a dome. That is the way in which the picture 

 of George Washington is constitutionally a 

 part of this Capitol this needful building. 



"Somebody has asked about embassadors; I 

 think somebody on the street the other day 

 asked me the question. I do not know that it 

 has nppeared in this debate. What authority 

 was there for expenditures for the entertain- 

 ment of the Chinese and Japanese embassa- 

 dors? I will say to gentlemen that if they 

 will read the Constitution carefully they will 



find that power is given in it to the President 

 of the United States ' to receive public min- 

 isters and embassadors.' Constitution United 

 States, Article II., 3. 



" Then the power is given to Congress 

 To pass all laws necessary and proper to carry 

 into execution the foregoing powers 



" That is, the powers granted to Congress 

 and all other powers vested by this Constitution in 

 the Government of the United States or in any de- 

 partment or officer thereof. 



" So that the power of Congress to pass a law 

 necessary and proper for giving the President 

 authority to receive embassadors in an appro- 

 priate way is clearly within the very letter of 

 the Constitution. 



" Now I look at another point. One gentle- 

 man asked about the exploration of the Polar 

 Sea, the observation of the transit of Venus, 

 and the support of a Government Observatory. 

 These things are clearly done under the power 

 to provide and maintain a navy, because the 

 provision and maintenance of a navy require 

 that these scientific matters as to the geog- 

 raphy of the earth and the celestial mechan- 

 ism, having obvious relation to the navigation 

 of the great deep, may be known, in order 

 that our navy may traverse the seas and 

 oceans of the world safely to itself, and as a 

 security to our vast foreign and home com- 

 merce. The exploration of the Polar Sea is 

 legitimate either under the power to provide 

 and maintain a navy or the power to regulate 

 commerce with foreign nations. Wherever 

 the enterprise of American seamen carries 

 them, there must be safety for the Navy of 

 the United States, and it is the business of the 

 Government to protect the American shipper 

 the world over from the dangers incident to 

 those who do business on the great waters, 



" I wish to remind my Democratic friends 

 that this Government has no mission except to 

 execute its powers and perform its duties under 

 and in subjection to the supreme law of the 

 land, the Constitution of the country. In that 

 connection my friend referred to grants of 

 land for educational purposes. I think the 

 gentleman will find that wherever that has 

 been a conceded power, it has been upon the 

 ground that as the public lands were granted 

 or have been acquired for the common benefit 

 of all the States of the Union, and as the duty 

 is devolved upon Congress of forming out of 

 these Territories new States that they may 

 come into the Union, it is essential that in 

 building up these nurseries of States in train- 

 ing that foster-child of the Government, the 

 Territory, until it shall be a full-grown State, 

 it is essential that there should be grants of 

 public lands to the Territory for purposes of 

 education ; and those grants of public lands 

 being made in the State wherein they lie, I 

 suppose it was considered fair on the part of 

 the Government that there should be grants 

 of land to the old States for like purposes, in 

 order that thus the donations of land should be 



