or all
money found due to it under the provisions of the bill, and it is
provided that all money still due to the United States on said direct
tax shall be remitted and relinquished.

The conceded effect of this bill is to take from the money now in the
Treasury the sum of more than $17,000,000, or, if the percentage allowed
is not included, more than $15,000,000, and pay back to the respective
States and Territories the sums they or their citizens paid more than
twenty-five years ago upon a direct tax levied by the Government of the
United States for its defense and safety.

It is my belief that this appropriation of the public funds is not
within the constitutional power of the Congress. Under the limited and
delegated authority conferred by the Constitution upon the General
Government the statement of the purposes for which money may be lawfully
raised by taxation in any form declares also the limit of the objects
for which it may be expended.

All must agree that the direct tax was lawfully and constitutionally
laid and that it was rightfully and correctly collected. It can not be
claimed, therefore, nor is it pretended, that any debt arose against the
Government and in favor of any State or individual by the exaction of
this tax. Surely, then, the appropriation directed by this bill can not
be justified as a payment of a debt of the United States.

The disbursement of this money clearly has no relation to the common
defense. On the contrary, it is the repayment of money raised and long
ago expended by the Government to provide for the common defense.

The expenditure can not properly be advocated on the ground that the
general welfare of the United States is thereby provided for or
promoted. This "general welfare of the United States," as used in the
Constitution, can only justify appropriations for national objects and
for purposes which have to do with the prosperity, the growth, the
honor, or the peace and dignity of the nation.

A sheer, bald gratuity bestowed either upon States or individuals,
based upon no better reason than supports the gift proposed in this
bill, has never been claimed to be a provision for the general welfare.
More than fifty years ago a surplus of public money in the Treasury was
distributed among the States; but the unconstitutionality of such
distribution, considered as a gift of money, appears to have been
conceded, for it was put into the State treasuries under the guise of
a d