A Constitutional Lesson From Davy Crockett

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"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 to so 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 bills 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 was lost.
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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.

Sounds like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mod Edit: All Caps Title

[edit on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:55:52 -0500 by MemoryShock]

[edit on 12-3-2009 by imd12c4funn]

[edit on 12-3-2009 by imd12c4funn]

reply to post by imd12c4funn


This is called NOT YOURS TO GIVE and it is much bigger than what you posted, and it wasn't Davey Crockett that figured it out. It was one of his voters.

Read the whole thing here

Originally posted by theindependentjournal
reply to post by imd12c4funn

 

This is called NOT YOURS TO GIVE and it is much bigger than what you posted, and it wasn't Davey Crockett that figured it out. It was one of his voters.

Read the whole thing here

Mod..feel free to change this thread title if it is inaccurate.

reply to post by imd12c4funn


I wasn't flaming ya, it's a good find. You only published the end of the story though where Col. Crockett does stand up and say what you quoted. But the whole story shows that he had to be remembered what his oath was too, by a voter. The whole story is much better than the bottom half, that's why I posted it here for everyone to read.

I hope you read it and liked it, I wish our Representatives still actually did what they said and talked to the people like ole Col. Crockett did back then. So I hope people read the whole thing and I hope you didn't feel flamed or slighted, I was just trying to inform to more nuggets of knowledge..

I love Davey Crockett. Here is my favorite line that he gave to Congress: "Y'all can go to hell; I am going to Texas."