CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



143 



raphers and clerks capable of reporting speeches and 

 propositions made in French or Spanish, and of the 

 daily composition and printing of tlie protocols of the 

 session. It is, of course, impossible to say in advance 

 just how much these items will amount to. If the 

 conference remains in session only a few days, it is 

 possible that the sum appropriated, by the resolution 

 of the House of Representatives may be sufficient to 

 defray expenses. But if the sessions are at all pro- 

 tracted, and especially if the discussions should take 

 an extended range, the necessary cost of the most eco- 

 nomical management of the conference might amount 

 to the sum originally suggested by this Department. 

 I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 

 WILLIAM M. EVAETS. 

 Hon. HENRY G. DAVIS, 



Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, 

 Senate. 



Mr. Carpenter, of Wisconsin : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I find myself orice more compelled to sit 

 at the feet of the Democratic doctors on a con- 

 stitutional question. I want to know from 

 them what authority is conferred by the Con- 

 stitution of the United States upon Congress 

 to vote any money out of the Treasury for any 

 such purpose. I want to know, in the second 

 place, whether Congress can appropriate any 

 public money for a cause over which and as to 

 which it has no jurisdiction. I want to know, 

 in the third place, who will vote for an appro- 

 priation of money touching a subject not com- 

 mitted to the Federal Government by the Con- 

 stitution of the United States. I would be 

 very glad indeed if any Senator on any side of 

 this Chamber would furnish me the informa- 

 tion in reply to those three questions, or either 

 one of them." 



Mr. Harris, of Tennessee : " It was my pur- 

 pose to say that I had no hope of being able to 

 give to the Senator from Wisconsin such in- 

 formation as will be satisfactory to him, hav- 

 ing heard the views of the Senator upon pre- 

 vious occasions as well as upon this in respect 

 to this question. 



" If there be a constitutional warrant, as I 

 have believed and still believe there is, for 

 this appropriation and kindred appropriations 

 that have been made, it will be found to rest 

 upon the power to regulate commerce with 

 foreign nations and among the several States." 



Mr. Carpenter: "That would be touching 

 the communication of diseases? " 



Mr. Harris: " It is touching commerce ; and 

 if the Senator will take the trouble to investi- 

 gate the legislation of Congress upon the sub- 

 ject of commerce (which he has doubtless done 

 very many times, and is very much more fa- 

 miliar with it than I am), he will find that 

 there are innumerable instances in which Con- 

 gress has legislated regulating commerce in the 

 interest of health and comfort as well as in 

 other respects, regulations as to what passen- 

 ger-vessels shall carry and what they shall 

 not carry, all of which regulations are in the 

 interest of human health and the safety of 

 human life. 



"But the power to regulate commerce the 

 Senator and I can not possibly differ about. 

 I do not think it probable we can differ very 



widely as to the extent of the meaning of the 

 term commerce, and what is embraced in it. 

 Intercourse, travel, and whatever is connected 

 with the travel of persons as well as the trans- 

 mission of goods, is commerce, and falls within 

 the scope of the general power that Congress 

 has to regulate it. 



" Upon a former occasion, where a similar 

 question arose in respect to the creation of the 

 Board of Health and clothing it with certain 

 powers, the same question arose. Of course I 

 do not pretend that Congress ever had the au- 

 thority to appropriate money to any such pur- 

 pose unless the things to be done, the powers 

 to be exercised, are proper and legitimate 

 regulations of commerce and falling within 

 that clause of the Constitution, but I tjhink 

 that Congress has the power in the regulation 

 of commerce to so regulate it as to strip it of 

 elements dangerous to human health as well as 

 those which are injurious to the pecuniary in- 

 terests of trade or revenue." 



Mr. Carpenter : " Mr. President, nothing is 

 more ungracious and nothing more unpleasant 

 than to be constantly compelled to interpose 

 objections to things which everybody will agree 

 are desirable to have done. Take the subject of 

 agriculture. Everybody says it would be a good 

 thing to improve it, and to improve the con- 

 veniences for carrying it on. So with educa- 

 tion ; so with public health ; so with a thousand 

 things, which in the frame-work of our Consti- 

 tution has been left to the States and not con- 

 ferred upon the General Government. If the 

 proposition were to be submitted to amend 

 the Constitution so as to commit the regulation 

 of education to the General Government, I 

 would vote for it. If the proposition were to 

 be submitted to permit the United States to 

 provide for the public health of the Union, I 

 might vote for that; but when I came into 

 this Chamber I was compelled under the rules 

 of this body to go to the desk and swear to 

 support the Constitution of the United States, 

 by which I understood then, arid understand 

 now, that I took an oath that in any act or 

 thing done by me as a Senator I would ob- 

 serve and obey the Constitution ; I would 

 exercise my best judgment and reason, and in 

 all things act in conformity with the Consti- 

 tution. 



" Upon this question I can see no more pow- 

 er in Congress to enter upon the regulation of 

 the health of the Union, or to invite conven- 

 tions with foreign nations to consult with and 

 advise us, any more than I can see the power 

 to do anything in the world that you can dem- 

 onstrate is desirable to have done by some- 

 body. 



" I believe sincerely that the prosperity of 

 this country depends upon an honest and faith- 

 ful observance of the constitutional distribu- 

 tion of sovereign powers between the great 

 Republic and the States; and although $2,500 

 for this purpose is a mere bagatelle, yet the 

 vote of Congress appropriating any money for 



