Mr. Breckenridge's Mr. Breckenridge's speech of July 16th, elabo- | enough, refer to the extrarated the points already ur- ordinary circumstances surged by his colleague (Pow-rounding the Presidentell,) and by the two Missouri Senators, (Johnson and Polk.) He declared against the constitutional right of one branch of the Government to indemnify another branch for an unconstitutional or doubtful exercise of authority. His argument, on this head, was very strong. He assumed that the powers conferred on the Government by the people of the States are the measure of its authority. These powers are confided to different departments, and their boundaries are determined. The President has rights and powers conferred, and the Legislative Department its powers, and the Judicial Department its powers, and he denied that either can encroach on the other, or indemnify the other for usurpations of the Conpower conferred by the Constitution. gress has no more right to make constitutional the unconstitutional acts of the President than the President to make valid the acts of the Supreme Court encroaching on the Executive power, or the Supreme Court to make valid an act of the Executive encroaching on the Judicial power. The resolution of indemnity substantially declared that Congress may add to the Constitution or take from it in a manner not provided by that instrument; that a bare majority can by resolution make that constitutional which | is unconstitutional by the same authority; hence, in whatever view, the power granted by the resolution was utterly subversive of the Constitution. to the danger of the total subversion of the Government-to the repudiation of that precious Constitution by those for whom he then claimed its protection: all these did not enter into his technical disquisition. It was enough that the Constitution did not provide for its own preservation for him to demand that its powers could not be exceeded. His words were: He proceeded to point out the several acts which he regarded as clearly unconstitutional. They were: 1st. The blockade. 2d. The enlisting of men for the war. "Let Congress approve and ratify these acts, and there may occur a necessity which will justify the President in superseding the law in every State in this Union; and there will not be a vestige of civil authority left to rise against this usurpation of military power. But I deny this doctrine of necessity. I deny that the President of the United States may violate the Constitution on the ground of necessity. The doctrine is utterly subversive of the Constitution. It substitutes the will of one man for a written Constitution. The Government of the United States, which draws its life from the Constitution, does not rest upon an implied consent. It rests upon an express and written consent, and the Government may exercise such powers and such only as are given in this written form of Government. The people of these States conferred on this agent of theirs just such powers as they deemed necessary. All others were retained. The Consti tution was made for all contingencies-for peace and for war; and they conferred all the power they deemed necessary, and more cannot be assumed. If the powers be not sufficient, still none others were granted, and none others can be exercised. Will this be denied? Is the idea to be advanced that all Constitutional questions are to be made subordinate entirely to the opinions and ideas that may prevail at the hour with reference to political unity? It has been held heretofore, and I thought it was axiomatic, and received by the world, that the terms of the Constitution of the United States were the measure of power on the one side, and of obedience on the other. Let us take care how we establish a princi 3d. Increasing the regular (standing) army.ple that, under any presumed stress of circumstan4th. Increasing the navy. 5th. Suspension of the habeas corpus act. 6th. The promulgation of martial law. 7th. The suppression of the freedom of speech and freedom of the press. ces, powers not granted may be assumed. Take care and do not furnish an argument to the world and history that it shall not respect that authorl ty which no longer respects its own limitations.” These words served as a To the substantiation of his opposition he text for all the treasonable threw himself entirely upon the constructive declamation afterwards utunconstitutionality of these several acts, and tered in the Northern States; and instances therefore denied the President's right to en- were not rare where this plea of the Constiforce them. The Senator did not, singularly | tutional inability of the Government to pro "Constitutional" Rights of Traitors. CHAPTER II. ABILITY OF THE LOYAL STATES TO SUSTAIN A STATE OF WAR. Opposition to Opposition to Taxation. The Tariff. For two generations prior to the year 1862, the people knew little or nothing of national taxes save by the slightly enhanced prices of foreign importations; yet these goods, manu LONG-CONTINUED pros- polity, with which to make perity under the benign in-party issues, and to divert fluences of peace had not the people, in the absence rendered the American people indifferent to of more exciting subjects for the canvass. taxes and public burdens. On the contrary, with growth in wealth the study of legislators has been to impose as few direct assessments as possible; and, at the hustings, he was the most favored candidate who pro-factured by the half-paid labor of English claimed as his "platform" a reduction of taxes and fiscal economy in the management of public affairs. Most unfortunate was it for the political standing of the office-seeker, if his name had been associated with any enterprise which should add, for its consummation, to the tax lists of the year. ernment. and French soil, were supplied to our people, even with the tariff duty added, at such prices as rendered them cheap for all. The woman of 1860 must have been poor, indeed, who could not sport her gown of silk and mantle of lace. When, therefore, the question of providing for the enormous expenditures of war came to be discussed, increase of the tariff duty was deemed a feasible mode of securing fifty millions per annum-a sum which, if used to pay interest, might represent five hundred millions and a sinking fund for its redemption. But, this representative sum was only the first conception of our national wants. While it might do to issue notes and bonds based upon duties, it became a question if the tariff would produce, under the depressing influences of war, sufficient to meet the rapidly maturing principal and interest of the old debt, much less provide for the large semi-annual per centum of new obligations. And, after awhile, when the rebellion dragged its slow length along, and was not suppressed—when five hundred millions per year represented the cost of the Union, Americans, for the first time in the history of the Republic, had to meet the dreaded responsibility of a great national debt. In view of this sensibility on the question of direct taxes, our economists have tenaciously adhered to the tariff principle, in providing for the expenses of the General GovThe amounts annually required were comparatively easy to obtain by this indirect mode of subtraction; whereas, if the tariff were abrogated and free trade proclaimed, there would be no inconsiderable trouble for the National Government to secure its means of sustenance. In that event, the expense account of every vessel in the navy would be overhauled by the people; every army ration would pass under their scrutiny; every Government employee would have his hours of labor and his wages promptly regulated by the trades' standard; accountability would be affixed to every contract and contractor; in fact, Government would be crippled by a system of economy, which, though having its virtues, would soon restrict the energies and paralyze the presThe old adage-"misery loveth company" tige so necessary in every commanding —was verified, in this case; for our people and power. The tariff offered all the revenue re- journalists were not long in discovering that, quired, while it encouraged several petty ques- should the debt accumulate at the rate inditions in political, commercial and industrial | cated, we still should find other Governments THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 243 more The Public Debt. Spain. Portugal. Turkey Receipts. Expenses. 498 75 78 20 20 165 168 8,784 7,953 Multiplying each amount by 200,000, (the number of dollars deeply indebted than ourselves, with vastly less resources to draw upon than here Greece.. were available. This, though offering a consoling thought, did not bring relief from the apprehension growing in strength daily, viz.: in a million of francs,) we have the sum reduced to dollars. that the country must become burdened with These are current receipts and expendia debt which it would require years of exactures, not providing for the standing indebttion and depression to discharge. This ap-edness of each Government. The same auprehension, though not groundless, still af- thority fixes this indebtedness at these figures: forded no just cause for alarm. Alarmists in 1861-62 consisted of two classes, namely: secret sympathizers with the South, and those who, professing loyalty, filled the ears of their constituents with exaggerated estimates of evils to flow from the war, thus repressing enthusiasm and, in various ways, giving Government but a qualified support. It will be well for us to recur to the question of our ability to sustain a war of magnitude, in order to demonstrate the actual strength of the country, and thus to prove how groundless have been the fears of bankruptcy and ruin which afforded a sounding theme to the two classes named above. Public Debt of ForeignGovernments. A comparative statement of the indebtedness of other countries will not be unin teresting, while it will offer us the strength of the inferential proposition, viz.: that, if those countries, with their resources, can sustain their loads of indebtedness, the United States, with its almost boundless means, is prepared to carry an equal or greater burden of debt with less assistance from home and foreign capital. M. Kolb, a German statist, gives us, in his work on the condition of Europe in 1860, the following table of the receipts and expenses of the several Kingdoms (the figures representing millions of francs): of Great Britain alone affords data for useful estimates. In spite of the enormity of her indebtedness, and her increasing annual expenditures, that Government is steadily and effectually clearing off its old obligations. It is being done by taxation, of course; in the wealth and energies of a people lie all the resources of recuperation. McCullough estimates the amount of burdens imposed upon the British people to be so admirably levied as to consume one fifth of the income of every inhabitant of the three countries—a Expenses. statement which would seem incredible were 1,703 it not placed beyond question. The secret 1,800 of the success in obtaining the enormous amount yearly required, without exciting the 494 people to revolt, is found in the nicely535 balanced dissemination of the tax over the field of available wealth. But a small portion of the revenue is obtained from assess168 ments on property. Of the taxes of all kinds collected for 1860, amounting to £70,809,977, 26 land and assessed taxes produced only 1,114 788 517 25 145 48 37 £3,241,107; leaving £67,568,870 raised upon consumption, chiefly of luxuries. Of this sum the customs produced £23,396,395; excise, £20,070,000; stamps, £8,267,258; postoffice, £3,370,000; income tax, £3,012,935. This, be it mindful, was drawn not from the Great Britain of to-day, but from a population of 9,187,176 in the year 1800, 12,609,864 in 1811, and 15,000,000 in 1815. In 1811 the proportion of tax to incomes was equivalent to 42 per cent. of the gross incomes of the entire population of the kingdom! In 1815 the proportion had fallen to 35 per cent. A people who would submit to such a drain upon their earnings may well be deemed invincible. As a specimen of the distribution made, to obtain these amounts, we append the schedule list of taxes collected in 1814: Excise.... Land and Assessed Hackney coaches and hawkers... This system of taxation originated with the elder Pitt. During the first four years, 1793-97, of the war with France, the budget was chiefly sustained by loans; but, as the war called for the exercise of more vigor, the Prime Minister at once resolved to throw upon the people the burdens of the war. At that time the population of Great Britain numbered but eight and a half million of souls; but, from that body, the gigantic re- Stamps sources necessary to fight Napoleon were drawn. Having matured his plans, Pitt proceeded to inaugurate them; and the secret of that twenty-three years' struggle is found in the ready response of the people to the Minister's demands. What those demands were may be inferred from the fact that the tax for 1801 was equal to thirty per cent. of the incomes of the people! Were the people of America to reflect on this fact they would realize that, in England, they have an antagonist who may safely defy numbers because her people submit cheerfully to unlimited taxation in order to sustain the power and prestige of their Government. Cost of War with In order more fully to impress the minds of our readers with the vastness of the expenditures made by Great Britain to sustain her supremacy over France, during the twenty-three years referred to, we append the following table, explanatory of itself : War Expense. Interest Cost of Army of Debt. and Navy. War Income. ... .$116,850,275| Hereditary revenues $866,335 76,137,500 1,570 1,639,035 1,300,815 A Lesson in These fruitful figures we do well to repeat, since the American people are slow to realize how favored they have been in their comparative immunity from taxes for the support of their National establishment; and when, out of the boundless abundance of their resources-rendered boundless by the beneficent nature of the Government-they are asked to contribute a mere fraction of their resources to sustain the Republic, they should find their lips forever sealed to complaint in view of what Englishmen have done for England. A writer on this period of Great Britain's history says: “During the whole period from 1793 to 1835, the energies and resources of the British people were put to the severest trial. A large proportion of the wealth-producing classes was sent abroad in the army or navy, or employed in unproductive labor. Subsidies and loans were advanced to foreign Powers. The home markets 1793.....$48,556,190 $67,555,000 $22,500,000 $85,352,000 1794..... 51,983,225 101,235,000 55,000,000 86,544,056 1795..... 63,499,655 143,755,000 90,000,000 89,292,270 were not, as in our present struggle, benefited 1796..... 73,825,475 160,825,000 127,500,000 93,638,860 1797... 77,876,650 138,030,000 162,500,000 103,273,250 by the war funds being spent in the country. 1798..... 84,436,995 129,910,000 85,000,000 151,014,525 Commerce was for years preyed on by hostile 1799... 87,800,635 136,285,000 92,500,000 176,149,840 1801..... 99,099,195 134,990,000 140,000,000 170,754,800 1803.....104,064,810 105,530,000 76,014,625 188,345,316 1800... 92,914,750 148,065,000 102,500,000 169,482,320 cruisers. English goods were prohibited 1802.....100,342,755 115,605,000 125,000,000 186,201,065 from entering the continent of Europe. Yet, 1804.....108,294,450 154,270,000 100,521,105 226,297,210 amidst much individual suffering, and in spite 112,841,795 181,095,000 139,657.410 249,291,405 of all that a Napoleon, wielding the strength 1807.....116,865,460 186,088,000 119,446,285 291,051,125 of the twenty-eight millions of France, could 1809.....121,461,380 210,365,000 117,023,455 317,026,470 do for its destruction, the British nation pros1810. .122,715,810 216,230,000 112,214,394 333,406,830 1811. .127,423,835 239,840,000 137,084,145 323,819,350 pered and grew rich with a rapidity and 1812.....134,269,230 248,695,000 201,28,445 315,829,175 steadiness seldom seen in the history of na 1813.....149,468,685 274,360,000 270,134,110 334,629, 75 1814... 155,028,220 301,195,000 235,798,485 348,420,960 tions. The war cry seemed to rouse the en 1815.... 163,228,090 216,410,000 230,448,015 352,017,210 |