THE SUB-TREASURY PLAN. 349 



that no more than that amount should be expended, and that the whole assets of this 

 corporation, after the current expenses from day to day are paid, shall be held sacred 

 to pay this $1,000,000 to the government ; provides for a bond, which is conditioned 

 as the act states, and the setting apart of the surplus after the payment of current 

 expenses, to indemnify the government. 



"'MR. KELLEY. An exhibition such as is proposed to be held at New Orleans, 

 at which shall assemble the world in its best mechanical and commercial power, and 

 in which convocation the American people shall be the active and predominant ele- 

 ment, will pay the American people at a minimum estimate $100 for every dollar that 

 may be lost, even if the government shall never receive back one dollar it may loan it. 



" ' MR. HENDERSON of Iowa. Iowa is knocking at the door of Congress to-day, 

 and I am but voicing her feeling when I ask that the government shall loan from its 

 vast surplus in the treasury enough to put this great exhibition grandly, solidly, and 

 successfully upon its feet. [Applause.] 



" ' MR. SUMNER of California. As I am clear in my opinion that this is a con- 

 stitutional proposition, I do not hesitate, but cheerfully and eagerly improve this two- 

 minute opportunity to commend the bill. 



" ' MR. LANE. I do this for this reason : I recognized the propriety of the loan 

 to the Centennial Exhibition; it was the centennial year, and was designed as a 

 celebration of our one hundredth national anniversary. This, however, is not for 

 that purpose. 



"'MR. CANNON. I was a member of Congress when the act passed authorizing 

 a loan by the United States to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. 



" MR. HORR. When the loan, as I understand it, was made to the Centennial 

 Exposition at Philadelphia, it was for a million and a half of dollars, I believe; is 

 that correct? 



" ' MR. BLANCHARD. That was the amount. 



" ' MR. HORR. Then we required a bond of only $500,000. Now, the bond is 

 fixed here at $300,000 for a loan of $1,000,000, which, I take it, is about equivalent 

 to what we did in the other case; and that bond is not to secure the repayment of 

 the million of dollars, but, as the bill itself will show, is for the purpose of securing 

 the honest and efficient action of the people in charge of it, and a careful expendi- 

 ture of the funds intrusted to them; and it is fully as large as the bonds which are 

 usually required under our form of government, for any such purpose. 



" ' MR. McCoRD. I favor this bill, and I am not deterred from supporting it by the 

 constitutional question. It seems to me that gentlemen who question the power of 

 Congress to legislate in this way could easily satisfy themselves by finding warrants in 

 two or three of the granted powers delegated to Congress. The one which provides 

 for the general welfare certainly has been constructed broadly enough to cover this. 



" ' MR. BRECKENRIDGE. Mr. Chairman, in regard to the proposition now before 

 the Committee of the Whole, it simply involves the requirement of security for the 

 repayment to the government of this loan of $1,000,000, and the question of con- 

 stitutional power in the premises. The amendment proposed is a hard exaction ; it 

 is an unprecedented exaction. This appropriation is not only justified by precedent, 

 but it is also, in my opinion, clearly within the purview of the Constitution and the 

 province of the Congress. That clause about which some gentlemen here stickle so 

 much gives Congress power to raise revenue, and what does it say you may do with 

 that revenue? It says you may pay the public debt, and you may provide for the 

 general welfare by appropriations of that revenue. 



