



                          NOT YOURS TO GIVE

              From THE LIFE OF COLONEL DAVID CROCKETT,
  compiled by Edward S. Ellis (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884)


      One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up
appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished
naval officer.  Several beautiful speeches had been made in its
support.  The Speaker was just about to put the question when
Crockett arose:

     "Mr. Speaker -- I have as much respect for the memory of the
deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if
suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit
our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to
lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living.  I
will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to
appropriate this money as an act of charity.  Every member upon this
floor knows it.  We have the right, as individuals, to give away as
much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of
Congress, we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public
money.  Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground
that it is a debt due the deceased.  Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived
long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his
death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to
him.

     "Every man in this House knows it is not a debt.  We cannot,
without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the
payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to
appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the
right to give as much money of our own as we please.  I am the
poorest man on this floor.  I cannot vote for this bill, but I will
give one week's pay to the object, and, if every member of Congress
will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

     He took his seat.  Nobody replied.  The bill was put upon its
passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally
supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it
received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

     Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the
appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:

     "Several years ago, I was one evening standing on the steps of
the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention
was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown.  It was evidently
a large fire.  We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we
could.  In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned
and many families made houseless, and, besides, some of them had lost
all but the clothes they had on.  The weather was very cold, and when
I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something
ought to be done for them.  The next morning a bill was introduced
appropriating $20,000 for their relief.  We put aside all other
business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.

     "The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the
election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of
my district.  I had no opposition there, but, as the election was
some time off, I did not know what might turn up.  When riding one
day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than
any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road.
I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence.  As
he came up, I spoke to the man.  He replied politely, but, as I
thought, rather coldly.

     "I began: 'Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings
called candidates, and --'

     "'Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett.  I have seen you
once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected.  I
suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste
your time or mine.  I shall not vote for you again.'

     "This was a sockdolager . . . I begged him to tell me what was
the matter.

     "'Well, Colonel, it is hardly worthwhile to waste time or words
upon it.  I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last
winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand
the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness
to be guided by it.  In either case, you are not the man to represent
me.  But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way.  I did not
intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak
so plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding
you.  I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the
Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what,
but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be
honest . . . But 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 in all its
provisions.  The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the
more dangerous the more honest he is.'

     "'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some
mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last
winter upon any constitutional question.'

     "'No, Colonel, there's no mistake.  Though I live here in the
backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington
and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress.  My papers
say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to
some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown.  Is that true?'

     "'Well, my friend; I may as well own up.  You have got me there.
But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like
ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its
suffering women and children, particularly with a full and
overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would
have done just as I did.'

     "'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the
principle.  In the first place, the government ought to have in the
Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes.  But that
has nothing to do with the question.  The power of collection and
disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be
entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue
by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how
poor he may be, and the poorer he is, the more he pays in proportion
to his means.  What is worse, it presses upon him without his
knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the
United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government.
So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are
drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.  If you had
the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of
discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as
$20,000.  If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to
give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor
stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and
everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a
charity, and to any amount you may think proper.  You will very
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. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give
charity.

     "'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they
please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money
for that purpose.  If twice as many houses had been burned in this
county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress
would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief.  There
are about two hundred and forty members of Congress.  If they had
shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one
week's pay, it would have made over $13,000.  There are plenty of men
in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without
depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The congressmen chose
to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them
spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt,
applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by
giving what was not yours to give.  The people have delegated to
Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things.  To do
these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing
else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the
Constitution.'

     "'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in
what I consider a vital point.  It is a precedent fraught 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.  I have no doubt you acted honestly, but
that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally
concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.'

     "I tell you I felt streaked.  I saw if I should have opposition,
and this man should go talking, he would set others to talking, and
in that district I was a gone fawn-skin.  I could not answer him, and
the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not
want to.  But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

     "'Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said
I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution.  I intended to
be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully.  I have heard
many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you
have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than
all the fine speeches I ever heard.  If I had ever taken the view of
it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I
would have given that vote;  and if you will forgive me and vote for
me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I
may be shot.'

     "He laughingly replied: 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that
once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition.  You say
that you are convinced that your vote was wrong.  Your
acknowledgement of it will do more good than beating you for it.  If,
as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote,
and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for
you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I
may exert some little influence in that way.'

     "'If I don't, said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you
that I am in earnest in what I say, I will come back this way in a
week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I
will make a speech to them.  Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for
it.'

     "'No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we
have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to
spare for those who have none.  The push of crops will be over in a
few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue.  This is
Thursday; I will see to getting up on Saturday week.  Come to my
house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very
respectable crowd to see and hear you.'

     "'Well, I will be there.  But one thing more before I say good-
bye. I must know your name.'

     "'My name is Bunce.'

     "'Not Horatio Bunce.'

     "'Yes.'

     "'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before though you say you
have seen me, but I know you very well.  I am glad I have met you,
and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.'

     "It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him.  He
mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his
remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart
brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed
themselves not only in words but in acts.  He was the oracle of the
whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the
circle of his immediate acquaintance.  Though I had never met him
before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is
likely I should have had opposition, and been beaten.  One thing is
very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a
vote.

     "At the appointed time, I was at his house, having told our
conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all
night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a
confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.

     "Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house,
and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I
kept up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of
government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got
all my life before.

     "I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him --
no, that is not the word -- I reverence and love him more than any
living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I
will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian
lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ
would take the world by storm.

     "But to return to my story.  The next morning we went to the
barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there.  I
met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend
introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted -- at
least, they all knew me.

     "In due time notice was given that I would speak to them.  They
gathered up around a stand that had been erected.  I opened my speech
by saying:

     "'Fellow citizens -- I present myself before you today feeling
like a new man.  My eyes have lately been opened to truths which
ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view.
I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more
valuable service than i have ever been able to render before.  I am
here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to
seek your votes.  That I should make this acknowledgement is due to
myself as well as to you.  Whether you will vote for me is a matter
for your consideration only.'

     "I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the
appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong.  I
closed by saying:

     "'And now, fellow citizens, it remains only for me to tell you
that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much
interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your
neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

     "'It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is
entitled to the credit for it.  And now I hope he is satisfied with
his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'

     "He came upon the stand and said:

     "Fellow citizens -- It affords me great pleasure to comply with
the request of Colonel Crockett.  I have always considered him a
thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully
perform all that he has promised you today.'

     "He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout
for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.

     "I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking
then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks.  And I tell you
now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and
the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all
the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of
Congress.

     "Now, sir," concluded Crockett, "you know why I made that speech
yesterday.

     "There is one thing now to which I will call your attention.
You remember that I proposed to give a week's pay.  There are in that
House many very wealthy men -- men who think nothing of spending a
week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when
they have something to accomplish by it.  Some of those same men made
beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country
owed the deceased -- a debt which could not be paid by money -- and
the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so
insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the
nation.  Yet not one of them responded to my proposition.  Money with
them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people.  But
it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and
many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."
