Not Yours to Give: from The Life of Colonel David Crockett

Compiled by Edward S. Ellis

(Philadelphia: Porter and 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?’