Subject:  [Scooplist] OPINION RELEASE: Davy Crockett vs. Welfare
Date:  Sun, 18 Sep 2005 10:50:44 -0600
Rick Stanley
Constitutional Activist
Phone: 303-329-0481
E-mail: rick@stanley2002.org


We the People Scoop 09/18/05

=========================================================
WE THE PEOPLE SCOOP - TO EXPOSE!                       **
**  Visit the website: http://www.stanley2002.org      **
**  Like the Scoop? Forward it to everyone you know!   **
=========================================================

OPINION RELEASE:  Davy Crockett vs. Welfare

STANLEY NOTE:  I have posted this many times over the years.  It keeps coming up
appropriate to the issues of the day.

----- Forwarded message from dukesgloballinks@msn.com -----

  Subject:   Davy Crockett vs. Welfare


DAVY CROCKETT VS. WELFARE

   From /The Life of Colonel David Crockett[1]/,
by Edward S. Ellis (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884)

   Crockett was then the lion of Washington. I was a great admirer of his
character, and, having several friends who were intimate with him, I found no
difficulty in making his acquaintance. I was fascinated with him, and he seemed
to take a fancy to me.

   I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when 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 –
rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for
display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that
everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question when
Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of
his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced:

   "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. This government can owe no debts but for services rendered, and
at a stipulated price. If it is a debt, how much is it? Has it been audited, and
the amount due ascertained? If it is a debt, this is not the place to present it
for payment, or to have its merits examined. If it is a debt, we owe more than
we can ever hope to pay, for we owe the widow of every soldier who fought in
the War of 1812 precisely the same amount. There is a woman in my neighborhood,
the widow of as gallant a man as ever shouldered a musket. He fell in battle.
She is as good in every respect as this lady, and is as poor. She is earning
her daily bread by her daily labor; but if I were to introduce a bill to
appropriate five or ten thousand dollars for her benefit, I should be laughed
at, and my bill would not get five votes in this House. There are thousands of
widows in the country just such as the one I have spoken of, but we never hear
of any of these large debts to them. Sir, this is no debt. The government did
not owe it to the deceased when he was alive; it could not contract it after he
died. I do not wish to be rude, but I must be plain. 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 of our own money 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.

   Like many other young men, and old ones, too, for that matter, who had not
thought upon the subject, I desired the passage of the bill, and felt outraged
at its defeat. I determined that I would persuade my friend Crockett to move a
reconsideration the next day.

   Previous engagements preventing me from seeing Crockett that night, I went
early to his room the next morning and found him engaged in addressing and
franking letters, a large pile of which lay upon his table.

   I broke in upon him rather abruptly, by asking him what devil had possessed
him to make that speech and defeat that bill yesterday. Without turning his
head or looking up from his work, he replied:

   "You see that I am very busy now; take a seat and cool yourself. I will be
through in a few minutes, and then I will tell you all about it."

   He continued his employment for about ten minutes, and when he had finished he
turned to me and said:

   "Now, sir, I will answer your question. But thereby hangs a tale, and one of
considerable length, to which you will have to listen."

   I listened, and this is the tale which I heard:

   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. When we got there, I went to work, and I
never worked as hard in my life as I did there for several hours. But, in spite
of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made
homeless, 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, and everybody else seemed to
feel the same way.

   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. I said everybody felt as I did. That was not quite so; for, though they
perhaps sympathized as deeply with the sufferers as I did, there were a few of
the members who did not think we had the right to indulge our sympathy or
excite our charity at the expense of anybody but ourselves. They opposed the
bill, and upon its passage demanded the yeas and nays. There were not enough of
them to sustain the call, but many of us wanted our names to appear in favor of
what we considered a praiseworthy measure, and we voted with them to sustain
it. So the yeas and nays were recorded, and my name appeared on the journals in
favor of the bill.

   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, and I thought it was best to let the boys know that I had not
forgot them, and that going to Congress had not made me too proud to go to see
them.

   So I put a couple of shirts and a few twists of tobacco into my saddlebags,
and put out. I had been out about a week and had found things going very
smoothly, 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, and was about turning his horse for another furrow when I said to him:
"Don't be in such a hurry, my friend; I want to have a little talk with you,
and get better acquainted."

   He replied: "I am very busy, and have but little time to talk, but if it does
not take too long, I will listen to what you have to say."

   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 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 Constitution to speak
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?"

   "Certainly it is, and I thought that was the last vote which anybody in the
world would have found fault with."

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

   Here was another sockdolager; for, when I began to think about it, I could not
remember a thing in the Constitution that authorized it. I found I must take
another tack, so I said:

   "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 collecting 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 wealthy 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."

   I have given you an imperfect account of what he said. Long before he was
through, I was convinced that I had done wrong. He wound up by saying:

   "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 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 full. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the
powers of Congress, but what you have said there 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 acknowledgment 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 it 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 here. 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. You must let me shake your hand before I go."

   We shook hands and parted.

   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
very likely I should have had opposition, and had 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 him 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 told you Mr. Bunce converted me politically. He came nearer converting
me religiously than I had ever been before. He did not make a very good
Christian of me, as you know; but he has wrought upon my mind a conviction of
the truth of Christianity, and upon my feelings a reverence for its purifying
and elevating power such as I had never felt 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 everyone 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 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 acknowledgment 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 as I
have told it to you, 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 of 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 the 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 honors I have received and 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. I
have had several thousand copies of it printed and was directing them to my
constituents when you came in.

   "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,
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."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html[2]

    Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of
nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent
of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish
governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were
established. Jefferson Davis' First Inaugural Address: Alabama Capitol,
Montgomery, February 18, 1861[3]

   _The Revolutionary Coalition; _Uniting the third parties, the independent
voter and the non-voter into a single coalition![4]

   Duke's Global Links a directory of web sites like no other[5]

   It's All Good! Or Is It?

   W. Duke

   If you wish not to get news e-mails from me like the news story above just
send me a reply letting me know & I will take you off my news e-mailing list.

Links:
------
[1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1410217663/lewrockwell/
[2] http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html
[3] http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/resources.cfm?doc_id=1508
[4] http://www.therevolutionarycoalition.org/
[5] http://dukesgloballinks.com/

=========================================================
Disclaimer: Information shared in the Stanley Scoop is not
necessarily the opinion of the editor or staff.  It is shared
for information purposes only and it is recommended that you
come to your own conclusions.
=========================================================
Live Free or Die! Liberty in our Lifetime!
We the People Scoop
http://www.stanley2002.org
Reply to: rick@stanley2002.org

Listen to: Standing Up for America Radio Show with Rick Stanley
Every Sunday, 6pm MST for 1 hour
On Truth Radio Network
to listen, click here: http://www.truthradio.com
Sponsored by:
Stanley Fasteners and Shop Supply http://www.stanleyfasteners.com

Also check out The Revolutionary Coalition!
This group is working to unite all third parties (making up 60% of
Americans) into one SUPER THIRD PARTY!

On Yahoo groups at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheRevolutionaryCoalition

This group has a single line platform: "To defend our (Natural)
God-given, unalienable, Constitutionally protected and guaranteed
rights."

Subscribe by sending email to:
therevolutionarycoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Also see our main website at:
http://www.therevco.org


If you wish to unsubscribe from We the People Scoop,
change your email address, or add an email address,
please visit the automated list management at:
http://lists.stanley2002.org/mailman/listinfo/medialist
or
http://lists.stanley2002.org/mailman/listinfo/scooplist
or for personal attention, please send a message to
webmaster@stanley2002.org with the subject "unsubscribe" from the email
address you received it at.
Be aware that you may be receiving mail forwarded from a group,
in which case you may have to visit http://groups.yahoo.com to unsubscribe.
Please also note that mail sent to our "reply to:" address,
scoop@stanley2002.org are usually ignored....