fund' is to be for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become, members of the confederation or federal alliance.' That is as clear as language can express it, for their common use in their united federal character, Virginia being included as the greater, out of abundant caution. "The Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay), and, as I now understand, the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), agree that the revenue from taxes can be applied only to the objects specifically enumerated in the Constitution, thus repudiating the general welfare principle, as applied to the money power, so far as the revenue may be derived from that source. To this extent they profess to be good State Rights Jeffersonian Republicans. Now, sir, I would be happy to be informed by either of the able Senators, by what political alchemy the revenue from taxes, by being vested in land, or other property, can, when again turned into revenue by sales, be entirely freed from all the constitutional restrictions to which they were liable before the investment, according to their own confessions. A satisfactory explanation of so curious and apparently incomprehensible process would be a treat. "When I look, Mr. President, to what induced the states, and especially Virginia, to make this magnificent cession to the Union, and the high and patriotic motives urged by the old Congress to induce them to do it, and turn to what is now proposed, I am struck with the contrast and the great mutation to which human affairs are subject. The great and patriotic men of former times regarded it as essential to the consummation of the Union and the preservation of the public faith that the lands should be ceded as a common fund; but now men distinguished for their ability and influence, are striving with all their might to undo their holy work. Yes, sir, distribution and cession are the very reverse, in character and effect; the tendency of one is to union, and the other is disunion. The wisest of modern statesmen, and who had the keenest and deepest glance into futurity, Edmund Burke, truly said that the revenue is the state; to which I add that to distribute the revenue, in a confederated community, amongst its members, is to dissolve the community that is, with us, the Union as time will prove, if ever this fatal measure should be adopted." |