John Ingraham

John Ingraham writes from Bouquet, New York.

Chapter Thirteen of The Life of Colonel David Crockett by Edward Ellis, published in 1884, is taken up with an account by an observer (not the author) of Davy Crockett when he was a congressman from Tennessee. One day he witnessed a speech by Crockett against an appropriation for the widow of a naval officer, arguing that Congress has no right so to give away public money. He advocated private charity, and offered to give her a week's pay if others would (no one took him up). The bill was defeated, and the observer, incensed, went the next day to remonstrate with him, whereupon Crockett tells him this story. Some years earlier there was a fire in Georgetown and Crockett was there, helping. Next morning a bill was passed appropriating $20,000 for the victims' relief, and Crockett voted for it. A few months later, he was back home electioneering when he encountered a forceful character, Horatio Bunce, plowing a field beside the road. The scene is quickly limned: Bunce wants to go on plowing, and Crockett wants to detain him so he can talk himself up. Bunce cuts him short, saying he voted for him the last time, but he's not going to do it again. Taken aback, Crockett asks for his reason and is told that he doesn't understand the Constitution or lacks the honesty and firmness to follow it.

. . . an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is more dangerous the more honest he is. . .

Of course, it is the vote to appropriate money for the Georgetown fire victims Bunce is referring to.

Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity? . . .

The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man . . .

If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all . . . you will easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other . . .

And further:

. . . you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people.

Nuf sed. *

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." --Article II, Section 1, U.S. Constitution