CHAPTER XXVI.

EXTRACTS from Various Speeches - Extravagance in Public PrintingContingent Expenses of Members of Congress - Cost of their Snuff, and Horse Hire, etc. - Speech on the Safe Keeping of the Public Moneys - Extracts from it-Its Just Views-Speech on the Land Bill-Speech on the Ohio and Michigan Boundary Line.

As a Senator in Congress, to whom was intrusted, in part, the special interests of Ohio, and the common interests of the country, Mr. Morris felt his responsibilities, and was active and faithful in the discharge of his duties. His manly position and defense of freedom, and his vigilant labors against the aggressions of the slave power, did not exclude from his attention other important interests of the country. As an independent politician and legislator, he acted, and voted, in the Senate Chamber of the United States, on all subjects, in accordance with the matured convictions of his judgment. A Democrat from principle, and not for party - he was always found advocating the doctrines of Democracy, on the great financial questions that came up for examination and settlement. A Southern Democratic Senator, in familiar greeting, said to him - "Morris, you are right on all subjects but slavery."

In this Chapter will be found extracts from various elaborate speeches he made on the Currency of the Country; the Land Bill; the Boundary Line between Ohio and Michigan; and on the Extravagance of the Government, in the use of Public Moneys. They are worthy of the reader's attention.

The first extracts are from a Speech on the Extravagance of Congress in Printing Documents and Books. Mr. Benton, on the 28th of December, 1838, made a motion, that thirty thousand copies of certain voluminous documents, printed by the British Parliament in 1818, in reference to salt duties, be reprinted by Congress, for the use of members, and for information to the country. The motion was carried. Mr. Morris, a day or two subsequent, moved, that the resolutions to print these documents, be rescinded; and offered, among others, the following remarks, on the practice of extravagant printing by Congress :

"He thought the printing of books by order of Congress, a very unjustifiable use of the public money, and if Congress took a few steps more in this business - indeed, if they persisted in the order for printing thirty thousand copies of this book - it might well be said, that instead of a legislative body, Congress would soon convert themselves into a great National Book Concern. A Methodist Book Concern, a Presbyterian Book Concern, or that of any other religious or political association, was a commendable thing; but it was a private affair, by which individuals at their own expense, undertook to promulgate through the country and among the people, their own peculiar opinions and doctrines; and all they asked of the Government in the exercise of this, their undoubted right, was protection and safety for their persons and property, from mobs and unlawful violence. But he had seen with regret and alarm, Congress as a public body, ordering the printing of documents and papers calculated to promote the peculiar views and doctrines of individuals and parties in Congress.

"The fact was, and he well knew it, those Public Documents, printed by order, were seldom read; and if the thirty thousand of these Salt Documents should be printed, not one-third of the members of Congress themselves would read one, and they would be read by a far less proportion of the community at large. There was another objectionable view of this matter.

"These Books and Documents were always made with a professed view of circulating information among the people. And how was this done? We tax the people at large, say two hundred thousand dollars, yet books and papers when printed, become ipso facto, the private property of the members. A fair division of the plunder, he admitted, was always made. The members could either sell them or send them to their friends, as each one thought best; or leave them in their boarding rooms, to be used as waste paper.

"These documents were frequently printed for political effect; for the purpose of advancing the private and political views of individuals, and he did not believe that the people would be willing to be taxed for this purpose. Let any Senator collect together one hundred thousand of his constituents, and inform them that he would lay and collect a tax, to which each should contribute fifty cents, and that with this sum of fifty thousand dollars he would cause to be published, thirty thousand documents-these British documents and that he would select thirty thousand from among the number, to whom, if it should suit his pleasure, he would bestow as a gratuity, and under his own frank too, one copy each, to become the private property of such individual. He did not believe any portion of the American people would consent to be taxed in this manner, and for such a purpose as this; yet such were the facts in the case, and such the results of voting books and documents to ourselves. We tax the whole people, and then put our hands into the public Treasury, apply the tax to the purchase of books to distribute among our friends, which may enable them to sustain us at all future elections. He would much rather let the fifty thousand dollars, which the printing of these books would cost, remain in the pockets of the people, to purchase such books as their judgments or fancy should suggest. There is a still more pressing objection to the printing of these foreign books.

"The extravagance of the Government has become proverbial, and the corruption which such a system was introducing throughout the country was alarming. The astounding defalcations which had lately taken place among collecting and disbursing agents, was a part and parcel of this system of extravagant and improper appropriations; and in these piping times of talking about economy and reform, our declarations were but in mockery of our doings.

"What was the amount of contingent expenses of the other House of Congress, the last session (1838)? $272,245.84! Yes! only two hundred and seventy-two thousand, two hundred and forty-five dollars and eighty-four cents! The contingent expenses of the Senate, for the same session, was $112,992.20-one hundred and twelve thousand, nine hundred and ninety-two dollars and twenty cents! A man of common sense and prudent habits, in looking over the items to make up this enormous amount of expenditure, for the mere contingencies of Congress for one session, must feel amazed at the ingenuity of men in devising means to waste the public money. He had looked hastily over the items, and found one hundred and fifty-two dollars for making pens, thirty-nine dollars and fifty cents for snuff, and one thousand six hundred and forty-one dollars for horse hire for the House of Representatives, and three hundred and fourteen dollars for an hostler; in the Senate for the same hire, one thousand six hundred and thirtythree dollars. It would seem to a plain, upright man, if he were informed that this sum of three thousand two hundred and seventy-four dollars and ninety-two cents for horse-hire, and three hundred and fourteen dollars for an hostler, was expended during one session, that this Congress actually legislated for the greater part of the time on horseback. Sir, it is mockery, cruel mockery, to talk here about favoring the laboring classes, the agriculturists-those from whom you draw all the means for the extravagance around us; some thousands of dollars, Mr. President, for the very drapery over and around your chair, while every part of the Senate chamber presents equal extravagance. The money expended yearly, within your iron-bound enclosures, which surround your Capitol, was more than the yearly expenses of the Government of the State of Ohio, which he had the honor, in part, to represent.

"He did not wish now to look into the expenditures of the public money in the different departments of the Government; that stupendous mass of extravagance, corruption and fraud, which he feared existed; the fault of which was, mainly, if not altogether, in the legislation aud acts of Congress. He had confined his view to the household economy of the body, to their furniture, the dress of their chamber, and their pin-money alone; and he hoped they would begin the work of reformation and retrenchment at home. The people had been "salted" quite sufficient in this branch of the public expenditure, without adding to the amount fifty thousand dollars for printing these British salt documents.

"He hoped Senators would pause, and look back at what they had done. The amount paid for printing had been enormous. The Post Office Report-some thirty thousand copies, or more-had been printed at about fifty thousand dollars cost, with a view of enlightening the people, as to the alleged corruptions of that Department; and what had this printing done? Furnished a fat job for the printer-and the whole story is told. He had heard of their being used as wadding for cannon, fired to celebrate Democratic victories! He thought this an effectual mode