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FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1095 
money shall be paid as the salary of an office” it does not say it shall 
be paid if the incumbent agrees it shall be done. 
It does not say that certain public functions or duties shall be per- 
formed if some particular person shall contract or agree to perform 
them, and that the Government then agrees to pay him so much; but 
it declares that the duties or function shall be performed and that a 
certain sum of money shall be paid. It punishes the failure to obey 
this command and requires in all cases obedience, and not consent. 
It says if you accept of this office we command that you perform 
these duties attached to it; we command that a certain designated offi- 
cer shall pay this money. ‘There is no place.for contracts in the oper- 
ations of government, and it is so recognized everywhere. It is soy- 
ereign power, not consent, not agreement, but the exercise of 
attributes. 
Now, the Senator from Tennessee says if we owe a debt we must 
pay it. The Government owes no debts in the sense in which he uses 
the word; that is, arising from contract, from agreement. Bonds are 
simple declarations that the Government of the United States will pay 
so and so; and the fact that all appropriations of money must be made 
by or subject to the consent of each succeeding Congress every two 
years forbids the idea or obligation of a contract and makes the con- 
tinuance a reenactment of an appropriation dependent on the public 
faith and the sound policy of maintaining it. 
Mr. Harris. Is it not a contract? 
Mr. Cau. No; not a contract in the sense that it arises from con- 
sent and agreement. A debt is an obligation. It may be by contract, 
it may be by virtue of some other consideration ex debito justitie, as 
the obligation of justice, the result of law; but it is not a mere mat- 
ter of agreement between two persons, and does not derive its obliga- 
tion from an agreement between the Government and a person, but 
from the higher idea that the public faith is by law pledged or com- 
mended to be used for some public purpose. 
The Government owes what? The Government owes protection and 
the proper exercise of the powers conferred upon it. It owes the cre- 
ation of a sound policy in the exercise of those attributes of power 
which, by the Constitution, are vested in it. The Government is the 
people, all the people, not a part, requiring with power, not consent, 
policies, public policies, affecting the whole people and generations 
of people, to be declared and carried into effect, and each specific act 
required to be done or forbidden to be done must be in the line of 
and a part of some public policy. 
Now, the Senator from Texas [Mr. Reagan] undertakes to repre- 
sent the people, and he does not allow any other Senator who does not 
agree with him to do so. He asks why not give this money, $100 
apiece, to so many people? Why does not the Senator from Texas 
