1088 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
any private claim to a general appropriation bill. No claim that this 
was a legal obligation upon the part of the Government or that it was © 
a debt was ever made until it came here to-day; and now, when the ~ 
committee find that it can not be sustained as a donation, they shift 
the premises and say that it is a private claim for services rendered 
and house rent furnished. If we owe to Professor Baird anything for 
house rent, then I agree with the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Har- 
ris] that we should pay it, and I will cheerfully vote for it; but, Mr. 
President, when it comes to say that the Congress of the United States, 
as was said by the Senator from Florida [Mr. Call], can take from 
the Treasury of the United States $50,000, or any other sum of money, 
and donate it to any person whom a majority of members may think 
most worthy, then I say that is a proposition to which I can not and 
will not yield my consent. 
This is money collected from the people by taxation; it is collected 
for public purposes, and, however pleasant it may be to donate money 
to individuals, I conceive that we have no right to donate other peo-_ 
ple’s money, however sympathetic and generous we may feel. If, 
however, it is a claim, let it come in the regular way; let it be proved 
how much the house rent was, and I shall be ready to vote for it, as I 
will vote for the payment of any other debt that the Government owes. 
But the Senator from Kentucky appeals to our sympathies by saying 
that this lady’s income is only $1,200 or $1,500 a year, and therefore | 
the Government of the United States should add to it, although it was 
expressly provided in the law under which Professor Baird served 
that he should not receive any additional compensation to the $6,000 
he received as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. There are 
widows all over this land of ours whose income is not more than $125 
a year—widows of men, too, who rendered service to the Government 
and offered all they had and gave their lives to the country—who are 
receiving certainly not more than $250 a year. 
If we are going into the private donation business; if we are going 
to take the people’s money and give it to whomsoever we please; if 
that be true, it simply comes down to a question as to what persons 
can secure the good will of the greatest number of Senators and mem- 
bers of Congress in order to take not only the money now in the 
Treasury of the United States, but all that can be placed there under 
any system of taxation that can be devised. 
The Senator from Vermont has said that it was a donation, not a’ ~ 
private claim; and if it be not a donation it has no place upon this bill. 
I for one will not vote for the $50,000, nor will I vote for the $25,000 
in the amendment offered by the Senator from Texas. If we have a 
right to donate one dollar, then the right is unlimited, and we will 
soon find that the demands will be such that our generosity will only 
be limited by the capacity of the people to pay taxes. 
