11 nHun Ms H &^ BeHS <888 nooooocx iiilllll ■'...','•;,■' Mill v S88B3 ■nmi II§liiiilii&ill Book ^ <& t A ACaUISITIONOFCUBA SPEECH OF HON. ZACHAKIAH CHANDLER OF MICHIGAN, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 17, 1859. The Senate having resumed the consideration of the bill making appropriation to facilitate the acquisition of Cuba by negotiation — Mr. CHANDLER said: Mr. President: T-his is a most extraordinary B reposition to be presented to the Congress of the r nited States, at this time. With a Treasury bankrupt, and the Government borrowing money to pay its daily expenses, and no efficient remedy proposed for that state of things; with your great national works in the Northwest going to decay, and no money to repair them; without harbors of refuge for your commerce, and no money to erect them; with a national debt of #70,000,000 which is increasing in a time of profound peace at the rate of §,30,000,000 per annum, the Senate of the United States is startled by a proposition to borrow $30,000,000. And for what, sir? To pay just claims against this Government, which have been long deferred ? No, sir; you have no money for any such purpose as that. Is it to repair your national works on the northwestern lakes, to n - pair your harbors, to rebuild your light-houses ? No, sir; you have no money for that. Is it to build a railroad to the Pacific, connectingthe eastern and western slopes of this continent by bands of iron, and opening up the vast interior of the continent to settlement? No, sir; you say that is uneonsti- I 1 """! W1 l at ' then, do you propose to do with tins $30,000,000? Is it to purchase the Island of uba? No, sir; for you are already advised in idvance that Spain will not sell the island. More, «ir; you are advised in advance that she will take a proposition for its purchase as a national insult, ) be rejected with scorn and contempt. The ac- tion of her Cortes and of her Government, on I jje reception of the President's message, proves this beyond all controversy. What, then, I ask again, do y»u propose to do With this $30,000,000? I ask any friend of the measure what he proposes to do with the money? ine question is absurd. There is no man, wo- man, or child, who does not know for what pur- pose this $30,000,000 is intended. It is a great «orrupuon fund for bribery, and for bribery only. 5 7- It is a proposition worthy of its author; it is a proposition worthy of the writer of the Ostend manifesto; a proposition worthy of the brigand; worthy of James Buchanan; but it is unwortW ofthePresidentofthe United States; it is a propo- sition disgraceful to be made to the Con°ress of the United States. ° Again I ask, what do you propose to do with the money? Is it intended that this grand cor- ruption fund shall be used in the purchase of foreign ministers and ministers of State and high Spanish officials ? Is this what the friends of the measure would have us believe it to be? Such, possibly, a email portion of it may be intended for; but, in my estimation, that portion will be found to be infinitesimally small. There are other, and, in the estimation of some, more im- portant, objects to be attained by the use of this money. The Democratic party is damaged, badly dam- aged at the North. Its principles are gone, and even its occupation of public plunder is gone, for there is nothing left to steal; your Treasury is bankrupt, and there is no hope of replenishing it before the presidential contest of 18G0. In This emergency something must be done for the Dem- ocratic party, and here is the proposition to do it. A new issue is to be raised to call off the atten? tion of the country from past extravagant expend- itures and present bankruptcy. Cuba is to be the cry in the next presidential election, and $30,000,000 is to be the inducement to cry loud and long. This is a mere clap-trap broposition to go into the canvass of 1860; and the friends of this measure have no more idea of purchasing Cuba under it thaa I have of buying it on private ac- count. They are to go before the country upon this cry of Cuba, and upon it they hope to float into power again in I860. Vain, fallacious hope. Forty Cubas and $300,000,000 as a bribery and corruption fund, would not save the Democratic party from that annihilation which the Almighty has decreed. ' But, sir, Ictus examine this proposition in ita practical effects upon our constituency. I propose 5 tT 7P 2 to lake a practical view of it. I propose, before we go into a speculation of this kind, to ascertain whether it will pay. The computation which I am about to present, was made before Oregon was admitted, which has one member of the House of Representatives, and this fact would vary my figures a few dollars; but a few dollars only. Of this §30,000,000 bribery fund, each congressional district will pay f 127,118 64. TheSlate of Mich- igan, under the present representation, according to the census of 1850, having four members, will pay $508,474 56. But the population of Michigan has more than doubled since 1850, and she is now entitled, according to her population, to eight Representatives; and will, in 1860, be entitled to eight, at a ratio of one hundred and twenty-five" thousand people to a Representative; so that her presentproportion would be, according to a proper apportionment, $1,016,949 12, the interest upon which, at six per cent, per annum, would be $61,016 94. I name six per cent., because if you go into any such wild scheme as this, borrowing money to buy islands, you will find your national credit below par, according to the present ra interest; and 1 believe six per cent, is the lowest rate at which you can borrow money if you elude to go into this filibustering propositio the campaign of 1860. 1 say, then, you pro to mortgage my State of Michigan for $1,016,949, and to compel her people to pay an annual lax of $61,016. Before 1 vote this mortgage, and this perpetual annual tax upon tli< gan, I desire to consult my constituents; and I have consulted them, even if they should up their minds that this was a should tell them that upon that point 1 diffei them. But, sir, this is not all. You propose to author- ize the President to purchase the Island of Cuba for any price he m ue the S from Ohio, [Mr. Pugh,] has offered an ment placing a limit on I . hut it h been adopted, and if it were 1 do not supposi would have any effect on the What would President Buchanan i -50,000,000, more or less, to lish his darling schen Give him this $30,000,000 to start with and will pay two hundred, or two hundred and fifty, or any other number of millions that it may suit his whim to pay. I care not for your limit—he will not regard it. I will, however, take basis of my call ll aa i the sum which Spain will consent to accept for Cuba; to wit: $200,000,000. Two hundred mil- lion seems 10 be considered, mi all hands, as the minimum price. What the maximum may be, 1 know not. I taki my calcula- tion the minimi. 10,000,000. If that be the amount, each ci onal district in the United States would pay $847,454, and il. i"an, as at present - tinder the census of 1850, would pay $3,389,816; but, as 1 have al- ready stated, her population lias more than doubled since the la s, and is rapidly increasing that her present proportion would be $6,779,' Upon this sum tl '1 perpetual interest would be $41)6,777 92. I call it perpetual, for no sane i lieves that, if this debt be created, it will i paid in the world. It is but the commencement of an irredeema I say, then, you pro, to mortgage the Stale of Michigan for $6,779,632, and to compel her to pay a perpetual annual tax of $406,777 92. Sir, before I vote for any such scheme as that, I want authority from home; and I advise the Sen- ator from Ohio to listen to his constituents before he votes for any such scheme. My word for it, if he has not heard from them, he will in 1861. Mr. PUGH. I will take care of my constitu- ents; let the Senator take care of his own. Mr. CHANDLER. The State of Ohio will have to pay, of this purchase money, $17,896,534, the perpetual annual tax of which, on that State, will be $1,073,791. Of the $30,000,000 appropria- ted by this bill, Ohio will pay $2,669,478, the annual interest on which, at six per cent., will be $160,168. The Senator says he will take care of that. 1 trust he will; and 1 can assure him that if he does not, the people of Ohio will. Now, let us admit for the sake of the argument, that this proposition is brought forward in good faith and will be successfully terminated, what does the State of Michigan gain, what does the State of Ohio gain, what do any of the north- s gain by the purchase of the Island uba? I know something of Cuba, something of its s i thing of its climate, something of its people, their manners and customs, some- heir religion, something of their crimes. nt a winter in the interior of the Island of a few years since, and can th( all from I knowledge. 1 differ in my views i from Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin] My lal oh does not il with his theories. Much of the soil of the ungly productive; but it comparable to the prairies and bot- tom-lands of the Great West. You can go into ist any of your Territories and pal number of acres and you will have a more valu- in you can possibly make out of ha. You have hundreds of millions of acres of land to which you can extinguish the Indian title for a tnd obtain better lands and create r States than you will ever make out of ' a - • ■„• The Island of Cuba contains nineteen million three hundred and fifty thousand acres, and you p ro , pay for it $200,000,000; or in other words, you propose to pay for the Island ol Cuba more than ten dollars an acre for (very acre of land on it, and then you do not acquire an acre. You are selling infinitely better lands, and have millions upon' millions of them, for $1 25; and yet you propose to tax the people of the United States to pay ten dollars an acre for land that you do not get when you pay the money. 1 notice by the report of the honorable Senator from Louisiana, [Mr. Slidell,] that Cuba con- tains, at this time, a population of one mil ion nine thousand and sixty inhabitants, including negroes, old men, and small children. You pro- pose to pay nearly two hundred dollo ad for every man, woman, child, and negro on the island, and then you do not own one of ilieni You pro- pose topay$200,000j000— for what? Forthe right to govern one million of the refuse of the earth. You propose to pay $200,000,000 to bring in a population that you would reject With scorn if they were now to apply for admission into the Union, free of all expense. Do you think that pioposition will pay i Uo /7? you think it will commend itself to the people of the Northwest? Do you think it will commend itself to the people of this Union ? What do you get after you pay your $200,000,000? You ac- quire the right to build fortifications; to send an army to Cuba; to govern i t ; to create a navy to pro- tect it; to expend through all time, from twenty- live to a hundred millions per annum, to take care of it. That is all you get. Do you think it will pav? But, as I said before, I know something of the people of this island, and something of their manners and customs. The white population consistschiefly of Creoles, or native-born Cubans. Of the slave population I should think a large majority are native-born Africans. The honorable Senator from Louis- iana [Mr. Benjamin] spoke the other day of the great mortality among the slaves of Cuba. If he meant to apply his remarks on that point to the Creole slaves, he made a vast mistake; for I never in my life saw a more healthy set of persons than the creole slaves of Cuba. They are not half so hard worked, they are better fed, they live longer than the slaves of Louisiana; and they are not as cruelly treated. This remark was made to me over and over again, " Give me anything but a Yankee master." They do not want an Amer- ican master. He is energetic, he drives, he works his negroes; but the Creoles are so utterly indo- lent themselves, that they allow their negroes to do pretty much what they please. If the Senator meant his remark to apply to the Africans, it was, perhaps correct. At the time 1 was upon the island, the mortality of the native Africans was estimated thus: one fifth of all shipped from the coast of Africa died upon the passage; one fifth more committed suicide within the first year after they were landed on the island; one fifth more died the first year in the process of accli- mation, because they were unaccustomed to toil, unaccustomed to that mode of living. Conse- quently, three fifths of the entire exportation from the coast of Africa were lost in one year from the date of theirexportation. In regard to the remain- ing two fifths, however, after becoming acclima- ted, they live as long as Creole negroes. It will be seen that three fifths being destroyed the first year, in order to get an average of any length of time, you must rate a long life to the rest, unless you shorten the duration, perhaps to the time the Senator mentioned; but the lives of the creole negroes are as long as those of any other people in the world. Now, as to the white population: they are ig- norant, vicious, and priest-ridden. Prior to the administration of General Tacon, there was not a crime on the calendar which had not its fixed value in the Island of Cuba. I had at one time the tarifFof crime there, butat the present moment I only recollect a single item. The price of assas- sination was two ounces of gold, or thirty-four dollars a head ! You could have any man assas- sinated for thirty-four dollars before the adminis- tration of Tacon; and I was informed by many old Cubans you could scarcely walk out in the streets of Havana in the morning without finding- one or more dead bodies, the result of the last night'sassassinations and robberies. My own ex- perience is, that thegibbetwas a common sight — the gibbet, with the human skull rattling in the wind , at the corner of four roads, or at some place where a crime had been committed and the mur- derer met his fate. On the accession of Tacon to office, he in- creased the army to twenty thousand men, and did establish , as the honorable Senator from Lou- isiana [Mr. Benjamin] said, an absolute military despotism, which exists there to this day. But it was not as the Senator said to prevent insurrec- tion; it was to prevent crime, and that only; and if that military despotism had not been estab- lished, and had not been ruled with an iron hand, Cuba would be to-day what-jt was before the ad- ministration of Tacon. As I said before, the peo- ple are ignorant and vicious. They will not labor, and they will resort to any shifts of crime to ob- tain subsistence. Bribery is universal, from the Governor General, who receives two ounces of gold per head forevery slave landed on the island. Leta slave trader land a single negro without paying his two ounces of gold, that negro will be wrested from him within three days. Two ounces of gold per head is the regular established bribe for every slave landed on the Island of Cuba, and it is done as publicly as almost any other trans- action there. I went into the barracoons at Ha- vana, and saw eleven hundred slaves within three days from the time of their landing there from the coast of Africa. They were landed within ten miles of the Moro Castle, and marched di- rectly up to Havana, and placed in the barracoons for sale publicly, under the very eye of the Cap- tain General. Everybody was talking about it, and the ship that brought them over, lay as qui- etly in the harbor of Havana as any merchant ship. If you had seen, as I did, those eleven hundred miserable wretches, you would not be surprised at the mortality among them. The laws of Spain are to-day as severe against the slave trade as those of the United States; never- theless, slaves are continually imported there, and it is done because the Captain General is bribed. It is a well known fact, that every Cap- tain General of Cuba acquires an immense for- tune in two or three years, and it is from the slave trade and that alone. From the judge on the bench, from the priest in the pulpit, to the lowest tide-waiter, bribery is the rule, and there are no exceptions. You cannot remove the dead body of your friend from the Island of Cuba with- out bribing the priest, bribing the captain of the Partero, bribing the judge, and bribing the cus- tom-house officer, through whose hand it passes. I know that, because I have had to pay the bribes. Is not this a beautiful population to bring into the Union as a State — a beautiful population to I take rank with the old States of this Union? But, sir, that is not all. The Catholic religion rules I supreme in the Island of Cuba; no other religion j is tolerated. Even the rites of a Christian burial I are denied to a Protestant upon that island. The I people are superstitious and vicious; and they are bigots as well. They are devout Catholics. The j Catholic Church is true to Spain; the Catholic I Church is true to despotism; and the people , there, to a man, are true to the Church. If the honorable Senator from Louisiana has seen hun- dreds, or if he has seen one hundred, Cubans who were panting for liberty, as he asserts, he has seen every one that that island produced. There are a few creole Cubans, who have been educated in the United States, that are intelligent, that care nothing about their church, who are anxious to get their hands into the Treasury. They are anxious for plunder; they are anxious for positions where they can receive bribes. True patriotism does not exist on the Island of Cuba. They love the very chains that bind them. They Jove their church; they love this very military despotism of which complaint is made. The men of whom the Senator from Louisiana speaks, are men the majority of whom have been ban- ished from the island. Where was the declara- tion of independence which he brought before us written.' Who wrote it? Where was it adopted ? In my opinion, it was adopted in some tavern in .New Orleans. The people of Cuba never adopted a declaration of independence. What was the fate of the gallant Crittenden when he went to Cuba to help to rescue them from oppression? What became of that young man and the fifty associates who were with him, when they went there with arms in their hands prepared to sh their blood for the redemption of the Island of Cuba? Where, then, were the patriots who were thirsting for freedom? If there was one on the island, he kept himself pretty well out of sight; and that gallant young man, ten minutes b he Buffered death, wrote a letter to a friend in the United States, saying: " I did not come In plunder; I came here in good faith to aid these people in acquiring their freedom; I sup; they were thirsting for liberty; but I have deceived. My time has come." In a; be added: " I will die like a man." Where were the liberty-thirsting Cubans then, when as gallant a soul as ever lived on i this earth went to his la? sympathized with " gallant, suffering" Cu Sir, the gallantry is not there. Th thing as a love of liberty there. Do you these people in your Union? Arc you prepared to pay $200,000,000 to bring such a set of crim- inals into tins Union? Do you propos an army of twenty thousand men in a climate where they will be decimated < ir, to gov- ern that island? That is what Spain has to do, and that is what yon will have to do if you to keep the people from cutting each ol ihroats. You will have to keep up a navy there to protect your possession, if you get it. must spend from fifteen to twenty million il a year to govern the island; and in addition to that, you propose to place a perpetual annual tax of $12,000,000 upon the of the l Slates lor the purchase. I ask Senators wli they consider that a game that will pay ? Suppose you get the island: what will you do with il? Your people cannot live their. The im- pression has gone abroad that in the interior of the Island of Cuba the climate is cool and healthy ; but such is not the fact. Tropical disea.-< ways rage there at certain seasons of the ami the foreign population is usually decimated every year. You cannot even sleep on a mat- tress, during the winter, on that island. The heat is so intense that you are obliged to forego the luxury of a mattress, and sleep in a hammock or upon canvas. Besides, there are certain other luxuries that I wish to call to the attention of northern men who may propose to go there. You are compelled to sleep under mosquito bars all the year round; and if you do not find scorpions in your boots in the morning, you will be more fortunate than I was. Lizards run about in every direction; worms annoy youatevery turn. This is a beautiful place to emigrate to ! And yet you propose to pay $200,000,000 for the island. In my opinion, it is not a paying investment. But, sir, as I said before, this bill is not to buy the Island of Cuba, for you are advised in ad- vance that you cannot get it. This is a mere elec- tioneering scheme for 1860. It is to be one of the planks in the Democratic platform in 1860; and I propose very briefly to review a certain other plank which you have in that platform, as it has only two left — this one is not yet in. You have destroyed all your old platforms; they are utterly annihilated. Even the Cincinnati platform of ten- der years has ceased to be; and I am not sur- prised that that platform has been destroyed. There never was a sound plank in it. It said that everything was left " perfectly free, subject to the Constitution of the United Stales;" but the know- ing ones in that convention were perfectly aware at that time that the Constitution of the United s was virtually subverted by a decision which the Supreme Court dared not then make, and whose final enunciation depended upon the result of that election. If President Buchanan had not been elected, the Dred Scott decision would not have been made. I propose now to spend a very in examining this last new platform of the Democratic party. The Supreme C of the <1 States was merciful in its work of destruc- tion. The Cincinnati platform was built precii as boys build cob-houses — to see who could first knock them down; and the missile which the Su- ■ Court threw at the Cincinnati platform, which destroyed it, and which will virtually over- turn tl titution of the United States when it be law; that very missile was itsel fa Dem- ocratic platform, which tie iders made great haste to mount; and at the Nortli ihey found it large enough. There was but one plant to it, but it would hold all the Demi party . They had become infinitesimally small and few in number before that last new platform, and growing beautifully less day by day. I insist that the Dred Scott decision — for it is ss for me to say that it is to that I allude — is the only Democratic platform that now exists; and if any man throughout this broad land, who holds a Government office of any value whatever, doubts it, let him try the experiment. Let him say that lie does not consider the Dred Scott de- cision the Democratic platform, does not consider it binding on him, and, my word for it, he will be shorter by a head within three days after the an- nunciation. Sir, it is the Democratic platform; it is the party test. Any man who does not swear nice to the Dred Scott decision is no Dem- ocrat. I hold in my hand an exposition of that decision, from a Democratic newspaper published in the city of Washington, which I believe is uni- versally admitted to be good Democratic author- ity. It is more than that; the newspaper to which I allude distills the pure- essence, tlie very essen- tial oil of Democracy. I allude to the Union newspaper of this city, some of whose articles are understood to be written by the President of the United States and to be supervised by his Cabi- net, and to send forth the perfectly pure Demo- cratic doctrine. I believe that when this pure Democratic doctrine is seen, it will be offensive not only to the people of the North, but of the South likewise. But, sir, to the article. In the Union of November 17, 1857, appeared a long ar- ticle, prepared with great care, evidently intended as a lasting exposition of the position of the Dem- ocratic party. It says: "Slaves were recognized as property in the British col- onics Dt' North America, by the Government of Great Rrit- ain, l»v the colonial laws, and by the Constitution of the United Stales. Under these sanctions, vested rights have teemed to the amount ol some $1,601) ,000,000. Itis, there- fore, the duty ol' Congress and the State Legislatures to protect that property. " The Constitution declares that ' the citizens of each State ehall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of cit- izens in the several States.' Every citizen of one State comins into another State, has, therefore, a right to the pro- tection of his person, and that properly which is recognized M'urh by the Constitution of the United States; any law of a Siate to the contrary, notwithstanding. So far from any State having a right to deprive him of this property, it ig its bounded duty to protect him in its possession. " If these views are correct, (and we believe it would be difficult to invalidate them.) it follows that all State laws, whether organic or otherwise, which prohibit a citizen of one State from settling in another, and bringing his slave property wild him, and most especially declaring it forfeited, arc direct violations of the original intention of a govern- ment which, as before stated, is the protection of person and property, and of the Constitution of the United States, j which recognizes property in slaves, and declares that ' the Citizens of each Slate shall be entitled to all the privileges i and immunities of citizens in the several States," among the miost essential of which is the protection of persons and i property. " What is recognized as property by the Constitution of the United States, by a provision which applies equally to i all the Stares, has an inalienable right to be protected' in tall the States." There you see the doctrine announced, that the 'States are under obligation to protect slave prop- erty, although it may be brought within their [limits with the intention of keeping it there. The ' free States are compelled to protect slave property , within their limits, although it maybe brought ! there for the purpose of remaining, under the doc- i trine here laid down; and if the Dred Scott de- I cision be law, or if it be hereafter regarded as a law, this reasoning is correct. If the Constitu- tion of the United States carries slave property one inch beyond the jurisdiction of the State lav. r creating or regulating it, it carries it everywhere; j for no person can " be deprived of life, liberty, or I property, without due process of law;" but we deny, in loto, that the Constitution of the United I States does recognize or regulate or acknowledge property in slaves. In this connection, let me allude to a remark of | the Senator from Georgia, [Mr. Iverson.] Some jdays ago he told us what lie would deem a suffi- I cient cause for a dissolution of this Union. That \ I may not misrepresent him, I will read exactly what he said. He declared: " Sir, it is not so difficult a matter to dissolve this Union as many believe. Let the Republican party of the North obtain possession of the Government, and pass a VVilmot proviso; or abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; or repeal the fugitive slave law ; or reform the Supreme Court, and annul the Ured Scott decision ; or do any other act in- fringing upon the rights, impairing the equality, or wound- ing the honor of the slave States; or let them electaPresi- dent upon the avowed declaration and principle that freedom and slavery cannot exist together in the Union, and that one or the other must give way, and be sacrificed to the other, and the Union would be dissolved in six mouths." Now, sir, I propose to do two or three things, which the honorable Senator from Georgia de- clares are good and sufficient reasons for dissolv- ing this Union. I do not speak for the Republi- can party; I speak for myself. I say I do propose the reorganization of the Supreme Court. The present organization of that court is monstrous. Judge McLean has as many causes to try in his circuitas have all the five slaveholding judges put together. When he was appointed justice of that circuit, it was a howling wilderness; now there are a thousand millions of commerce within it. Then v he could hold a court in every State in his circuit; now he cannot reach some of those States once in five years. I propose to reorganize that court, so as to make it conform to the business of the coun- try. I propose that its judges shall be located so that they can at least visit gyery State in the district once or twice a year; and in order to do that, the court must be reorganized. Three fourths of the entire business of the courts of the United States is at the North, where you have four judges of the Supreme Court. One fourth of it is at the South, where you have five. I propose to reor- ganize that court; and, if the Senator from Geor- gia were in his seat, I would ask him how he pro- poses to dissolve the Union after it is done? I ask any Senator, who is blustering in the Senate or elsewhere about dissolving this Union, how he is going to do it? We propose to do more; we mean to elect a President who entertains the same views; and if that be a just cause for dissolving this Union, again I ask, how are you going to do it? I want any man on this floor to tell me how he is going to dissolve this Union, because we, the people of the United States, see fit to exercise our constitu- tional privilege. We mean to annul the Dred Scott decision — no, sir, I take that back; it is no decision. We do not think it is a decision at all. The only point decided in that case was, that ne- groes cannot come into court. That we accept; that we cannot annul; that is decided; but the stump speeches of Chief Justice Taney, and the other judges, were mere fanfaronade, meaning nothing. It was not a decision of the court; and if we elect our President in 1860, as ive are going to do, that decision will never be made. I do not say that that decision would not now be made. I think if a case were before the court now, it would make the Dred Scott decision legal; but the Su- preme Court has always sided with the Admin- istration in power. What did General Jackson do when the Supreme Court declared the United States Bank constitutional ? Did he bow in de- ference to the opinions of the Supreme Court ? No, sir; he scorned the opinion of the Supreme Court, and said that he would construe the Con- stitution for himself; that he was sworn to do it. I, sir, shall do the same thing. I have sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and 1 have sworn to support it as the fathers made it, and not as the Supreme Court has altered it, and I never will swear allegiance to that. But I am not quite through with the Union article. It says further: "The protection of property being next to that of per- son, the most important object of all good government, and property in slaves being recognized by the Constitution of the United States, as well as originally by all the old thir- teen States, we have never doubted that the emancipation of slaves in those States where it previously existed, by an arbitrary act of the Legislature, was a gross violation of the rights of property." There you have it declared that abolition of 6 t slavery in seven of the old thirteen States was un- a constitutional, and, according to the Dred Scott J decision, it was. I ask any man of common f sense — I will not ask a lawyer; 1 am no lawyer f myself— but 1 ask any man of common sense, if 1 he believes that the old thirteen States, seven of 1 which intended lo abolish slavery within a very f the country. In 1790, the whole exp n f the Army amounted, in round numbers, to £917,000; in 1800, £3,272,000; in 1810, £3,107,920; in £4,923,027; in 1830, £5,082,843; in 1840, $6,504,830; in 1850, £6,838,919; and in 1857, £18,614,594. This last sum does not include all Kpenditures of the Army for 1857; for Sena- tors will recollect that one of the first bills we passed at the last session was a bill making an appropriation of £5,700,000 for deficiencies in the expenses of the Army. Thus it will be seen that the Army expenses alone, from 1850 to 1857, al- most quadrupled, and this in a time of profound peace. Does any Senator on this floor believe i here was any necessity for such an enormous increase in the expenditures for the Army ? Does any man believe that a prudent administration of the Government would not cut down the Army expenditures at least one half? Sir, ihe extrava- gance is enormous and outrageous; and it requires something more than the strong hand of the Dem- ocratic party to rectify the evil. We will take it m the strong hand of Republicanism, and then we will remedy it. But, sir, let us look at the Navy. In 1800, the expenditures for the Navy were £3,042,352; i in 1810, $1 ,870,274; in 1820, $2,709,24.*; , in 1830, $3,496,643; in 1840, §7,562,752; in 1850, §9,571,646; in 1857, $14,117,434. Have we any more ships, or any more guns, or any more effi- cient force, to-day, than we had in 1850? 1 am informed that we have not. On the contrary, it is said, I know not with how much truth, that our Navy is hardly as efficient as it was at that time At any rate, we have had no war, no ex- traordinary demand for excessive naval expendi- tures, and yet they have been reaching up until thev are §14,000,000. .... .. There is one other account here, to which 1 wish to call the attention of the Senate. It is headed " miscellaneous expenditures." I do not know- exactly what constitute the miscellaneous expend- itures of this Government, but I notice a most extraordinary increase in them of late. I take it for granted that what cannot be charged anywhere to anything, goes down as miscellaneous. The miscellaneous expenditures of this Government in 1800 amounted to $312,823; in 1810, $650,514; in 1820, 51,386,448; in 1830, $1,436,201; in 1640, $3,243,649; in 1849, $3,595,853; and in 1857, $20,442,860. I should like to know how these miscellaneous expenditures have swollen so enor- mously. There is another remarkable fact con- • nected with the great increase of the miscellaneous expenditures of the Government. 1 notice that when any very great outrage is about to be per- petrated, the miscellaneous expenditures increase enormously. In 1849 they were $3,595,853; and they swelled in 1850. when the fugitive slave bill was passed, to $7,122,970. Again, when the Mis- souri compromise was repealed, I notice they reached the enormous amount of $19,899,000; and a goodly portion of this great increase may be legitimately charged to the negroes. That in- stitution has been a very expensive one to this Government. It has co3t, in my estimation, all it is worth. When any great outrage was to be perpetrated, the expenditures of all branches of this Government have swollen enormously. So when the Lecompton constitution came here to be passed last winter. We have not got the ac- count yet, but you will find an enormous expend- iture in several of the Departments of this Gov- ernment, which, the less said about, the better the parties interested will be satisfied. As I said the other day, we have had a bill under consideration in the Committee on Com- merce to reduce the expenditures for the collec- tion of the revenue over $600,000 a year, and we have not commenced the work of reform even at that. We have lopped off by that bill a thousand useless employes of the Government, scattered over the United States; but we have not probed the wound to the bottom. As I have said, that bill, if it becomes a law, will save $600,000 a year. I propose, for a moment, to call attention to some of the outrageous expenditures connected with that Department. In the Passamaquoddy district, at Eastport, Maine, the whole amount of revenue collected for tlje year ending June 30, 1857, was $14,285 33, and the expense of collecting it was $22,357 71; and nineteen men were employed to collect $14,000 of revenue. In Frenchman's bay district, at Ellsworth, they collected $954 96, and the expenses were $5,032 09; and it took ten men to collect the $954. At Wiscassett, in Maine, you collected $130 93; and it cost $7,359 09, and took eight men to collect $130. These are samples. At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the revenue collected was $5,530 54; the expense of collection was $10,984 49, and twenty-one men were em- ployed to make the collection. At Burlington, Vermont, the revenue was $8,581 70; the expense of collecting was $16,285 47, and thirl y-three men were employed to collect it. At Marblehead, Massachusetts, the revenue was $250 85; the ex- pense of collecting it $2,228 97, and nine men were employed to collect it. At Plymouth, in Massachusetts, the revenue collected was $395 12; the expense of collection was $3,216 04, and six men were employed to make the collection. At Barnstable, Massachusetts, the revenue collected, was $1 ,46275: the expense of collection $11,953,20, and nineteen men were employed to make the col- lection. At Nantucket, Massachusetts, the rev- en ue collected was $95 81; the expense of collecting it was $2,320 73, and three men were employed in the collection. At New London, in Connec- ticut, the revenue collected was $3,223 89; the cost of collecting it was $29,789 48, and seven men were employed in its collection. At Oswego, in New York, the revenue collected was $6,149 09; the cost of collecting it $18,214 58, and twenty- three men were employed in its collection. At Niagara, New York, the revenue collected was $8,284 85; the cost of collecting it $12,296 92, and nineteen men were employed in its collection. At Buffalo, New York, the revenue collected was $10,140 53; the cost of collecting it was $16,896 51, and twenty men were employed in its collection. At Cape Vincent, New York, the revenue col- lected was $2,098 12; the cost of collecting it $7,138 87, and thirteen men were employed in Us collection. 1 might continue the citations; but these will suffice. True, we shall have lopped off these things by that bill, if it shall become a law; but I hold that these extravagant expenditures of the Govern- ment ought never to have been commenced'; and I hold this Administration responsible for the enormous abuses that have crept into the collec- tion of the revenue. The head of the Department had no right, under the law, to appoint inspect- ors; but he could appoint clerks and porters and boatmen, and a thousand other officers, and pay them the highest salary at his discretion; and under the abuse of that power these enormous ex- penditures have sprung up. You may go into any of the Departments of this Government, and you will find the same kind of abuse existing. Go into any bureau in this city, and you will find abuses. It requires an honest Administration of this Gov- ernment; it requires a man who dares to take the responsibility of doing right; and then you may reduce your expenditures, as Mr. Buchanan suggested in the letter I have quoted, in my opin- ion, below $50,000,000; but we have tried the Democratic party; we have weighed them in the balance, and found them wanting. We do not propose to try them again. We propose to thrust out the corrupt, the lavish men, who now control the Government, and put in honest men, who will retrench in good earnest; not men who will write letters recommending retrenchment, but men who will take hold and do the work of retrenchment. I have placed the expenditures of the Govern- ment this year at $95,000,000. 1 know not how much will be appropriated, but I know that if the 8 Government pays its debts this year, and does not leave a deficiency for the next Congress to provide for, the expenses will be $100,000,000; but I take the basis of expenditure to be $95,000,000. Taking it at $95,000,000, without counting the sum of $30,000,000 for Cuba, in this bill, or the $200,000,000 for the purchase of Cuba, but sim- ply taking the regular expenses, the cost of run- ning the institution, and the quota of each con- gressional district would be $405,982; and the State of Michigan, upon **ie present basis of rep- resentation, would have to pay $1,623,928, but in truth the proportion of the State of Michigan is over three millions of 'this enormous expenditure for the support of this Government. The State of Maine pay*- ' 892, upon the present Ik the State of New Hampshire $1,217,846; the I State of Vermont, $1,217,846; the State of Mas- j sachusetts, $4,465,802; the State of Rhode Island, $811,964; the State of Ohio, $8,525,622; the State ! of Indiana, $4,465,802; the State of Illinois, 1 $3,653,838; the State of Iowa, $811,964; and so I on. If this revenue was collected by direct taxa lion— and 1 wish it were tried for once— my word for it, the expenditures of this Govern ment would be reduced more than one half before the expira- tion of twelve months from this day. It is became the people do not see how, and where, and when they are taxed, that the expenses of the Federal Government have increased so enormously. It would create a rebellion in ninety days from this time, if you were to send your tax-collect- ors around to the different congressional districts, to wrench from the pockets of the tax-payers $405,000. They would not stand itforaday; but because you can cover up these extravagances,, because you can borrow money and leave future? generations to pay it, these things are p. ■•■■<>, itt .-.(.■ the expenditures go on, and God only knows where they will end. As I said before, we have tried the Democratic party; we have Weighed it in the balance; we have found it wanting; and we propose, in 1860, to take possession of this Gov- ernment, and not have Cuba, either. Printed at the Congressional Globe Office.