FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1525 
natural than that they should come and ask that they be given some 
also. 
Mr. President, these ladies are no doubt worthy of every considera- 
tion, but there are thousands of widows and orphan children in my 
State who are as much entitled to $10,000 out of the Treasury of the 
United States as these ladies are. If you can vote this money, why 
can you not vote it for the poor, struggling, starving widows who have 
eight or ten children and are unable to support them? 
Mr. Buacksurn. Will the Senator from Arkansas allow me to ask 
him a question ? 
Mr. Berry. Certainly. 
Mr. Buackspurn. Would he undertake to deny the power of Con- 
gress to appropriate money to erect a monument or a statue to Abra- 
ham Lincoln or Andrew Jackson within the reservations and parks of 
this city? 
Mr. Berry. I would not. 
Mr. Buacksurn. Then I will ask the Senator, with his permission, 
another question. If he would not, I assume that his want of objec- 
tion is predicated upon the services that those men rendered to their 
country. How will he draw the line that will enable him to offer an 
objection to this amendment which the Committee on Appropriations 
propose ? 
Mr. Berry. Mr. President, the case is by no means similar. In 
the District of Columbia whatever tends to beautify it in the way of 
building monuments or otherwise, or whatever may. be erected in the 
way of monuments here to commemorate the services of those who 
have rendered distinguished services to the country, within this Dis- 
trict, in the control of Congress, that power has always been exercised 
and has never been denied. That stands upon a different principle 
from taking money out of the Treasury and donating it, to use the 
Senator’s own language, as a mere gratuity to whomsoever a majority 
may choose to give it. 
Mr. Birackpurn. Will the Senator in his amiability permit me to 
ask him another question ? 
Mr. Berry. Certainly. 
Mr. Biackpurn. Would he grant to Congress the power to build 
monumentsand erect statues to those of the country’s citizens who had 
rendered distinguished service and at the same time send the wives 
and children of those citizens to the poorhouse? Is that his idea of 
constitutional limitation ? 
Mr. Berry. Mr. President, as to whether I would vote for a monu- 
ment to be erected to Mr. Abraham Lincoln or any other person I will 
determine when the question arises. I will state to the Senator I 
never have voted a dollar for one yet for anybody. 
Mr. Buacxpurn. Well, I have never failed to do it. 
