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Mr. CARTTER. What is the aggregate amount of the expenses of publication, as made by your investigation?

public advertisements. And yet, when I propose to expend $76,000 among the printers of the whole country-to the most healthy portion of the American press, and for the benefit of the whole people, gentlemen seem to think that it is an exorbitant expenditure. I hold that an expenditure which is for the benefit of the people, is a wise and good expenditure. I hold that the intelligence of the people is the solid basis of the republican institutions of this country, and that any expenditure which is made to disseminate information and light among the people, is a wholesome_and proper expenditure. Show the people your laws and they will see where to apply the knife of retrenchment-they will make good use of the information you give them. The bill before us, I admit, adds a little to the expense of Government, but it will, in the end, lead to retrenchment.

the Blue Book, and I found the expense put down the same there as I have stated. Then I say the whole expense of publication upon this basis, under this bill, would be $76,080, and no more. This would be the whole expense of the publication of the laws in the newspapers under this plan. And now when we are called upon to enact this bill, gentlemen rise up here and complain of the expense. They talk of the great expenditures of Government which will be involved in the publication of these Laws! But, sir, Congress expends a vast deal more money in many other respects. What is the expenditure for the benefit of individuals? This House appropriates annually, for books which go to its members-to the use of the legal profession and officers in this country, a sum exceeding $100,000. So much for expenditures for the benefit of individuals. Now, when you come to the expenditure of merely $76,000 But further: the present publication of the Laws for disseminating information of the most import- of the United States is absurd-totally absurd. ant character among all classes of the people, it || What is it? You provide for the publication of the is thought to be a very extraordinary proceeding. Laws of the United States in two newspapers in I have some facts showing the kind of distribu- each State-in two papers in the great State of tion which is made of the laws of the United Ohio, for instance, and in two papers in the State States. of Delaware. You not only make an arbitrary provision for the equal circulation of the Laws in States with populations greatly varying in amount, but you do more-you confine it to a party. When the Whigs are in power you give the circulation entirely to the Whigs, and when any other party is in power, you give it entirely to that party. I say, then, that the circulation of the Laws of the United States, as at present provided, is totally absurd. Why, what is the circulation of the laws of the State of Ohio, in that State? I have some nformation on that subject, which I suppose is nearly correct, for I obtained it from a gentleman belonging to Ohio. I understand that Ohio publishes her own Laws in two papers in each county. I understand further, that there are some eighty counties in the State, and that the Laws are published in something like one hundred and fifty papers in the State of Ohio alone, at an expense of about $12,000. That is what Ohio does; and if you take her circulation of the Laws as an average, it would cost $125,000 to publish the Laws of the several States of the Union. The States feel it important that their laws should be published; and if Ohio and other States can afford as much as I have stated to publish their Laws, I think the Government of the United States might afford to pay $76,000 for the publication of the Laws of Congress for the benefit of the people.

Mr. SMART. Seventy-six thousand dollars. I wish to call the attention of the House to the distribution of the Laws of the United States, handsomely bound, under the law of 1846. I mean Little and Brown's edition. They were distributed as follows: First, to the President and VicePresident; second, to the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States; third, to the Heads of Departments; fourth, to the Attorney General of the United States; fifth, to Foreign Governments; sixth, to the library of Congress; seventh, to the Law Library; eighth, to Committees of Congress; ninth, to District Judges and Clerks; tenth, to Judges and Clerks of Territories; eleventh, to Collectors of Customs; twelfth, to Surveyors of Customs; thirteenth, to Land Officers; fourteenth, to Foreign Ministers; fifteenth, to Navy-Yards, Naval Schools, and West Point Academy.

Mr. FULLER, of Maine. Do these books become the property of the individuals?

Mr. SMART. I was about to say, if the gentleman had not interrupted me, that these Laws handsomely bound, are distributed to these individuals for their use, while in office, under a law of the United States. And I will add, that they are better able to purchase them than thousands of the people of this country, who hold no office. While you have made this distribution of the Laws in handsome volumes to these officials, will you refuse to send the Laws of the United States, in some proper form, to the people? That is the question I put to the House. Gentlemen seem to think that no publication of the Laws in the public press is necessary. Do they go for placing the Laws only upon the shelves of the profession and the desks of politicians and office holders?

But there is another fact to which I wish to call the attention of the House. How much money, do gentlemen suppose, is expended here upon the printers of this city? Why you expend, on an average, $200,000 annually upon the printers and publishers of this city, exclusive of the amount paid to them for the publication of the laws and

Sir, is it a fact that the laws we make here are of no importance? We come here and sit in grave council; gentlemen come together from all parts of the country to legislate for the good of the country, and then publish the laws they enact in so few papers in the Union as to be almost inaccessible to the people. In my remarks upon this bill some days ago, I spoke of the patronage of Government dispensed to the press and to individuals, and I intend to say something more upon that subject now. I wish gentlemen to under

stand that there is a wide difference between the patronage of the Government and the expenditures of the Government. The Government may make expenditures and still give no patronage. This bill, it is true, slightly increases the expenses of the Government, but it diminishes its patronage. What I wish to speak of now, is the patronage of

the Government-that is, the expenditures upon the dictation of the Executive, and is merely the individuals over whose tenure of office the Admin- emanation of his will. It is true that when istration have control. The patronage of this Gov- the people are in a state of healthy excitement they ernment, it is well known, has become enormous, do their own work, and salaried men are com and I have some facts in relation to that subject ||pelled to stand out of their way. But in times of to which I wish to call the attention of the House. apathy there is always danger from the machinaThe expenditures of the Government, nearly tions of the hundred thousand men who are fed all of which are under the control of the Adminis- from the Treasury of the nation. There are, it is tration, have been for certain periods as follows: true, many honorable exceptions among the men In 1830, $13,229,533; 1840, $22,389,356; 1852, holding office; but the great majority of those $43,816,124; exclusive of payment of the public who receive office from the hands of the Execudebt; showing that the expenditures of the Gov- tive respond with alacrity to his commands. These ernment have nearly doubled in every ten years references to the patronage of the Executive ars since 1830. I ask if this is not an enormous exthis is not an enormous ex-sufficient, I trust, to satisfy all of its magnitudependiture, and if we have not reason to be alarmed to satisfy all that it has increased beyond the inat the increasing patronage of the Government? crease of population-to satisfy all that it is liable In addition to this, you have under the control of to become a dangerous power unless its control is the Administration a large portion of the press of to some extent modified. Shall we, then, allow the the country, by means of the publication of the Executive any longer the power to withhold or laws, and more particularly of the public adver- bestow patronage, so far as the press is concerned, tisements. or shall we pass this bill, which employs printers to do the work of the Government without the intervention of the Executive?

Let us for a moment look at a few items of expenditure over which the President has a direct or indirect control, I read from Mr. Corwin's report: $1,120,663 02 51,408 10

Executive Department...
Governments of Territories
Surveyors and other clerks.
Officers of Mint and branches

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60,680 57 43,300 00 It is proper to state, that part of the amount allowed for governments of Territories goes to members of the Legislature of Territories, over whose tenure of office the President has no control.

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3,432 48 20,428 39

Compensation and Contingent expenses of
Commissioners under treaty with Mexico..
I find that there are upwards of one hundred
collection districts in the United States; and the
Secretary of the Treasury tells us in his annual
report that he will need $2,450,000 to pay the
salaries and other expenses incident to these col-
lection districts. Take this branch of the service
alone, and I ask this House if it does not present
a case of enormous patronage of the Government?
In the cities and towns where this immense sum
is expended by the appointees of the President,
the publishers of leading newspapers are the re-
cipients of favor from the President, and willingly
do his bidding.

Why, sir, when I reflect upon this subject of Executive patronage, I am reminded of what was said in the time of the Revolution, by our fathers, against the mother country, and I have here one or two extracts, which, with the indulgence of the House, I will read.

Our revolutionary fathers fought for the correction of more abuses than it will be necessary for me to mention upon the present occasion. They fought to deliver themselves from unjust taxation, to preserve the principles of habeas corpus, and jury trials from outrageous violation by the British authorities, and TO REFORM ABUSES IN THE

DISTRIBUTION OF OFFICES AND EMOLUMENTS.

These abuses were made the subject of frequent complaint to the British Parliament, and to the people of England, and the American colonies. In an address (October 21, 1774) to the people of Great Britain, from the delegates in General Congress, at Philadelphia, the following language was used:

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"We might tell of dissolute, weak, and wicked governors having been set over us, * of needy and ignorant dependents on great men advanced to the seats of justice, and to other places of trust and importance.”

"Expensive and oppressive offices have been multiplied." Memorial of Continental Congress, 1774.

"Judges of courts of common law have been made dependent on the Crown for their commissions and salaries." Id.

"The charges of usual offices have been greatly increased, and new, expensive, and oppressive offices have been multiplied."—Address to the King by Continental Congress, 1774.

"Öfficers employed in the administration of justice, have been rendered independent of the people with respect both to their salaries and the tenure of their commissions." Address to the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, of Great Britain, by the New York Assembly, 1775.

"He [the British King] has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."-Declaration of Independence.

I repeat, sir, when I reflect upon the enormous increase of the patronage of this Government, the multiplication of officers, and the control of the Government over those officers, I am forcibly reBy such instruments, influence is made in the minded of the complaints of our fathers in the great cities of the Union to control the Union. Revolution. I appeal to gentlemen to say if the This influence exhibits itself in the shape of meet-patronage of the Government is not sufficiently ings, resolves, speeches, &c., and is often called public sentiment, when in truth it proceeds from

large without giving to the Administration, to a great extent, the control of a thousand publishers

and printers? And while I am upon this subject, I cannot perhaps do better than to call the attention of the House to a report made in 1826 by Mr. Benton, as chairman of a select committee of the Senate, recommending a reduction of the patron-law, and with a just regard to the proper efficiency of the

age of the Executive Government, and presenting among other bills to promote that object, one taking the control of the press away from the Executive. ask attention to one or two extracts from that report.

Speaking of the power and workings of the Fedeaal patronage, he says:

"The whole of this great power will center in the President. The King of England is the fountain of honor;' the President of the United States is the source of patronage. He presides over the entire system of Federal appointments, jobs, and contracts. He has 'power' over the support' of the individuals who administer his system. He makes and unmakes them. He chooses from the circle of his friends and supporters, and may dismiss them, and upon all the principles of human action, will dismiss them as often as they disappoint his expectations. His spirit will animate their actions in all the elections to State or Federal

offices. There may be exceptions, but the truth of a general rule is proved by an exception.

"The intended check and control of the Senate, without new constitutional or statutory provisions, will cease to operate. Patronage will penetrate this body, subdue its capacity of resistance, chain it to the car of power, and enable the President to rule as easily, and much more securely, with than without the nominal check of the Senate. * We must look forward to the time when the public revenue will be doubled, when the civil and military officers of the Federal Government will be quadrupled; when its influence over individuals will be multiplied to an indefinite extent; when the nomination by the President can carry any man through the Senate, and his recommendation can carry any measure through the two Houses of Congress; when the principle of public men will be open and avowed: The President wants My vote, and I want his patronage. I will vote as he wishes, and he will give me the office I wish for. What will this be but the government of one man? And what is the government of one man but a monarchy? Names are nothing. The nature of a thing is in its substance, and the name soon accommodates itself to the substance. The first Roman Emperor was styled Emperor of the Republic, and the last French Emperor took the same title, and their respective countries were just as essentially monarchical before as after the assumption of these titles. It cannot be denied or dissembled but that this Federal Government gravitates to the same point." * * "In the country for which the committee act, the Press with some exceptions, the Post Office, the Armed Force, and the Appointing Power are in the hands of the President, and the President himself is not in the hands of the people. The President may, and, in the current of human affairs, will be against the people; and in his hands the arbiters of human fate must be against them also.

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"This will not do. The possibility of it must be avoided. The safety of the people is the supreme law,' and to insure that safety these arbiters of human fate, must change position, and take part on the side of the people."

"The committee must take things as they are. Not being

able to lay the axe at the root of the tree, they must go to pruning among the limbs and branches. Not being able to reform the Constitution, in the election of President, they must go to work upon his powers, and TRIM DOWN THESE BY STATUTORY ENACTMENTS, wherever it can be done by bills enumerated. They do not pretend to have exhausted Government. For this purpose, they have reported the six the subject; but only to have seized a few of its prominent points. They have only touched in four places the vast and pervading system of federal Executive patronage-the Press, the Post Office, the Armed Force, and the Appointing Power. They are few compared to the whole number of points which the system presents; but they are points vital to the liberties of the country. THE PRESS IS PUT FOREMOST, BECAUSE IT IS THE MOVING POWER OF HUMAN ACTIONS; the Post Office is the handmaid of the Press; the Armed Force its Executor; and the Appointing Power the directress of the whole.

Let me say with regard to this bill that I have no pride of opinion about it, but I believe that it has merit, and I ask this House to consider it for its intrinsic merit. I want no triumph for the proposition because I have introduced it, but I ask gentlemen to look at the proposition; examine it carefully, and before they dispose of it by laying it on the table, to see if it is not worthy of consideration.

It has been proposed, as a means of reducing Executive power, to elect officers of the Federal Government by the people-to prohibit the appointment of members of Congress to office during their term of office; but these things can only be accomplished by an alteration of the Constitution, but a divorce of the press from the Government can be brought about at the present time by law. This bill will effect the object, and I hope it will

pass.

Mr. CARTTER, (Mr. SMART yielding the floor,) made a few remarks in favor of the bill.

Mr. SEYMOUR, of New York, expressed a wish to have the bill committed to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. STEPHENS, of Georgia. Will the gentleman from Maine yield in order to allow me to move an adjournment?

Mr. SMÄRT. I will yield for that purpose. Mr. STEPHENS. Then I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. HOUSTON. I withdraw that motion, appeal to the gentleman to I desire to say a few words upon the bill, and it is not likely that it will come up again soon.

Mr. STEPHENS refused to withdraw the motion, and

The House adjourned.

MEMORIAL OF JOHN W. QUINNEY.

TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

FATHERS:

I pray your listening ear. I am a true Native American, descended from one of those characters, whose memory every true American reveres. My Grandfather, David Nau-nau-neek-nuk was a warrior, and he assisted your fathers in their struggle for liberty. (See paper marked A, hereto appended.)

I was born in the year 1797, and while yet a lad, (I gratefully acknowledge it,) received a common English education under the patronage of the United States. The papers hereunto annexed marked B and C, show that there were two other lads educated with me; but I am left alone to tell the story of their death a few years after their return from school. The great Sovereign of the Universe has showed great mercy and enabled me to answer some purpose of my education. My lot was cast among an interesting people, the old friends of the United States, the Stockbridge Nation, who were just emerging from a state of barbarism into civilization, and I was employed by them to impart that instruction I had received, to their youth. By a constant and unwearied attention in this business, I gained the confidence and good will of all, so that when I arrived to years of manhood, I was immediately transferred to attend to the affairs of the nation. Here I would frankly acknowledge, that, although but poorly qualified for public employment, yet, as the tribe lacked educated men, I being young and aspiring for usefulness, consented to undertake and do what I could. I moreover felt under great obligations to my benefactors, who gave me education, and animated me to do something to merit their approbation. I will not trouble you with the history of my life, but humbly ask leave to present to your notice some of my public transactions which have taken place within the period of the last thirty years. I earnestly ask your kind indulgence in this for purposes hereinafter mentioned. I was one of the Deputies from the N. Y. tribes, (so called,) who concluded the noted Treaty of 1822 with the Menomonie Indians at Green Bay, for the purchase of lands, for the future home of the new York tribes of Indians.

In 1824 I procured the passage of a certain law in the New York State. Legislature to give the Stockbridge Tribe full value for their lands, which remained to them in that State; by which alone, the tribe was afterwards enabled to remove itself to Green Bay. At that time, such removal was in accordance with the favorite policy of the general government.

In the fall of 1828, I was deputed by the New York Indians, who were at Green Bay and journeyed to the State of New York, for the purpose of uniting the New York tribes in a petition to Congress for a confirmation or recognition of their rights to the lands purchased by them from the Winnebagoes and Menomonies at Green Bay. The U. S. Commissioners had given occasion for this, by purchasing from the Menomonies at the Treaty of Little Butte des Morts, in 1827, a portion of the very lands the New York Indians had previously purchased.

It is well known that many difficulties have unfortunately befallen the Stockbridge tribe of Indians, in consequence of the United States purchasing their lands from other Indian Tribes, together with various other matters of grievance, all of which, however, I have the pleasure to say, have been finally adjusted by Congress to the entire satisfaction of the Stockbridge tribe. I have adverted to them here, only for the purpose of stating, that I was employed by the Stockbridge tribe to present them before Congress and the Executive Departments for adjustment. In giving my attention to this business, I journeyed from Green Bay to Washington City nine times. (See further particulars given on paper marked D, hereto appended.) I could do no more than to communicate the wants and wishes of my tribe, and urge upon the Government officers and members of Congress to grant relief. Through my representations the United States Senate kindly gave the Stockbridge and Munsee tribes, jointly, two townships of land, on the east side of the Winnebago Lake, in the now State of Wisconsin, in lieu of their location upon Fox River.

In 1846, while I was in attendance, Congress honored the Stockbridge tribe, by passing a law recognizing its tribal character, and appropriated five thousand dollars for the payment of their claims upon the Government of the United States.

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In 1848, the Stockbridge tribe, avowedly for the purpose of ridding themselves from further trouble, sold, by Treaty, to the government of the United States, the balance of their lands at the Winnebago Lake. Here again, the United States Senate, in their constitutional action upon said Treaty, have shown their parental care over their old friends the Stockbridge tribe, by introducing an amendment to said Treaty, authorizing the President of the United States to give them, not less than seventy-two sections of land, wherever they may select, upon the west side of the Mississippi River, $5,000 in cash, and the further sum of $20,000 to be paid in ten annual payments, commencing immediately after their removal into their new home. Both of which, however, are in consideration for all their old claims upthe government of the United States. I will now proceed to state the object for which the above statements are made. I am growing old and poor by attending continually to the business of my people, who are poor and unable to give me adequate compensation. I am, moreover, discouraged with that policy which keeps the tribe in continual mutations-I mean removals. I have not only witnessed its injurious effects upon the people, but have, to my sorrow, experienced it. I feel that I cannot go into the wilderness again and begin anew. I have long striven for a home, but, for my situation in the tribe I have been disappointed. These considerations have led me to approach you in this manner, not in fear, but with full confidence that you will recognize me and appreciate my character, and that, if I have done anything to merit your approbation, I pray your Honorable Body will please pass a law to give me the rights and privileges of a citizen of the United States, and a home, with all my rights in the Stockbridge nation enured to me. I have become so attached to that place, where I have resided for the last eighteen years, and which has become the property of the United States by a Treaty with the Stockbridge tribe as above stated, that it is my earnest wish and prayer your Honorable Body will please grant me that place as my home, where I may spend the few remaining years of my

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