The principal spring of our actions was to have the government of the state in our hands; that our principal views were the conservation of this power; great employments to ourselves. great opportunities of rewarding those who have helped to raise us, and of harming those who stood in opposition to us!-Bolingbroke.

By the theory of our institutions, as well as those of the more monarchical administration of Great Britain, the purse strings of the nation are supposed to rest with the popular branch of the government. The House of Commons, as well as of Representatives, is the immediate agent of the tax-paying people, and these claim the right neither to be taxed without their consent nor, to be taxed to a greater extent than they see proper to permit. The traditional law of the British constitution, and the written mandates of our own, require that all money bills shall originate with the "lower" House. This phrase "lower house" seems to have been borrowed, like many other names and usages among us, from our monarchical ancestors, although they apply but awkwardly to our republican circumstance. In England, where the power comes down from the throne, that class of legislators is the highest, which ranks nearest the seat of power; the representatives of the people are consequently the lowest in the scale, and these are permitted to sit as legislators at all only at the will of the sovereign, and may by him be summoned to the bar of the Lords, reprimanded and dismissed. In the United States the reverse is the case; the seat of power is in the people, for whom the representatives more immediately appear, the senate being in fact rather the representative of state sovereignty than of the people of the United States, in their collective capacity. The House of Representatives, therefore, if rank should be arrogated by either branch of the government, is of the highest grade. The constitution has made it requisite that all bills for raising

*Reports of the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Dec., 1849.
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VOL. XXVI.-NO. CXLI.

revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. This raising of revenue for the economical administration of necessary government is the most important business of the national legislature. It, of course, embraces the whole power over the national purse; no expenditure of the public money can legally be made, unless it has been proposed and determined on by vote in the House of Representatives. The Senate has merely a concurrent option in the matter, and the executive branch, if the bill passes by two-thirds, has only to perform faithfully what is thus ordered. The people themselves, through their representatives, are to consider what expenses may be incurred, and they are bound to find the means of meeting all such as they determine upon. It would appear, however, to be the case, from the nature and tenor of the executive reports made to Congress, that the reverse of all this is true; that the Cabinet Officers and their Beaureaux have to consider how much money they can conveniently expend in the promotion of party schemes through the application of the public money and patronage, and to send in the sum total through the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to Congress, and demand its payment, without in any degree condescending to explain the nature and objects of the expenditure. Such, eminently, is the document offered to Congress by Mr. Meredith. An attempt to remedy this growing evil in some degree was made at the last session of Congress, by the passage of a law, requiring, after the 30th of June, 1849, that the gross amount of all duties collected should be returned to the Treasury without any deduction for expenses. The Secretary was required to send in estimates for the expenses of collecting the revenues, that specific appropriations may be made by Congress for that object. The 4th section of the act was as follows:

"SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That so much money as may be necessary to pay the expenses of collections referred to in the next preceding section, including the first half of the next fiscal year, and until specific appropriations for the objects shall be made by Congress, be, and the same are hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury, to be expended after the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, under the direction of the Secretary thereof, conformably to law and regulation: Provided, That the expenses of collecting the revenue from customs shall not thereafter exceed the sum of one million five hundred and sixty thousand dollars per annum, together with such sums as under the law are paid into the treasury for drayage, cartage, labor, and storage; and in proportion for a less time.”

The expenses for collecting the revenue, $33,034,276, in 1848, reached $2,132,636, which was, as increased by the war, a larger sum than was ever before expended for that purpose. In 1831, the revenue was $36,771,288, and the expense of collection $1,216,009. Congress, therefore, in view of returning peace, had reduced the amount to $1,560,000 per annum. The section of law plainly orders that this reduction shall take effect "thereafter," viz., the thirtieth June, 1849. Now it clearly became the duty of the Secretary to set about making such reductions as would gradually bring the expenses within the amount ordered, without detriment to the service. Instead of doing so, however, he, hoping that the fall elections would give such a complexion to Congress as would sustain his proceedings, construed the law to mean that the reductions were not to take effect until January, 1850; and the Attorney-General consented to that construction. Accordingly he increased the expenditures of the first six months, by sinecure appointments and enhanced salaries, to an amount never before reached for a

similar period. In the meantime the democracy triumphed at the fall elections, and an incorruptible Congress presented itself to scrutinize the conduct of executive officers. When this Congress assembled, the first thing done was for the Secretary to ask for a repeal of the law of March, which he had violated, and for an appropriation of an increased sum, to meet his inordinate outlay.

The want of organization in the House delayed action for a time, but finally the Senate agreed that he should have for the year the same sum as was expended in 1848 in time of war, viz., $2,132,636, but inasmuch as $1,291,897 21 had already been expended in the first half of the year, there would remain of this sum but $840,739 52 for the second half of the year; and although that sum was $60,739 more than the law of March ordered, the Secretary begged daily at the door of the Ways and Means, like Oliver Twist, for "more." Mr. Bayly, the able chairman, in order that the country might not suffer for the misconduct of the officer, in not making timely reduction, agreed to allow him for the last half of the year one-half the sum expended in 1848, viz., $1,066,318. This would make, with the sum already expended, $2,358,215, for the year, or 7 per cent. of the revenue. A few figures will show the whole at a glance:

By law of
March.

Expended.

Senate
bill.

Committee Ways and Means.

1st Six Months.... $780.000....1,291,897 21*...1,291,897 21....1,291,897 21 780,000.. .1,325,000 00t... 840,739 52. .1,066,318 00

2d

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Mr. Bayly possibly in his anxiety for the public weal went too far in allowing this exorbitant sum. If the Secretary did not reduce his expenses in the first six months to the limit of the law, why should he not do so in the last six months? Instead of doing so, the same wasteful and abominable administration of the customs, by inefficient and incapable men who were put in the places of able officers, is continued. While these enormous expenses were persisted in, the Secretary sought, on his own responsibility, to increase the tariff to meet them! This was done by issuing a circular, requiring the importers to pay the expense of weighing, guaging, and measuring goods, subject to duty, with the labor, cartage, storage, and other expenses of appraisement. This was equal, for example, to an increase of 40 cents per ton duty on iron, and ct. per lb. on sugar. An executive officer thus took upon himself to alter the whole revenue system of the country. The order of the people through Congress was, that the expenses should not exceed a certain sum. This was construed into a power to make the people pay the expenses by increasing their taxes, for the benefit of Mr. Meredith's particular friends, the iron masters of his native state. The people who are all consumers of iron, sugar, &c., forbade certain expenses. Mr. Meredith apparently thinks that to continue those expenses, and make the people pay them in the enhanced cost of iron, instead of directly from the Treasury, is obeying the order! This high-handed attempt to alter the revenue system is the more glaring, that only a short time since a favorable treaty with the German states was rejected by the Senate, on the ground, that by stipulating reciprocal duties it was a usurpation by the executive or treaty-making power of the right to "regulate commerce" which belongs to Congress alone. Mr. Meredith is ordered to curtail expenses, and he increases the tariff instead.