If you read my blog (which I'm not sure why you would since it is dreadfully boring and practically pictureless), you are going to be further disappointed. The people and time period of the mid to late 1800's in America is fascinating. Probably, for me, because I never learned this stuff the first time in school. When J. Davis was presenting a bill he supported in the Senate (prior to the Civil War, obviously), a fellow Senator, with his own pet project, asked if he would vote for 'Lake appropriations'. You know, the usual political compromise that takes place. And here was Davis' response:
"Sir, I make no terms. I accept no compromises. If when I ask for an appropriation, the object shall be shown to be proper and the expenditure constitutional, I defy the gentleman, for his conscience' sake to vote against it. If it shall appear to him otherwise, than I expect his opposition, and only ask that it shall be directly, fairly, and openly exerted. The case shall be presented on its single merit; on that I wish to stand or fall. I feel, sir, that I am incapable of sectional distinction upon such subjects. I abhor and reject all interested combinations."
"Sir, I make no terms. I accept no compromises. If when I ask for an appropriation, the object shall be shown to be proper and the expenditure constitutional, I defy the gentleman, for his conscience' sake to vote against it. If it shall appear to him otherwise, than I expect his opposition, and only ask that it shall be directly, fairly, and openly exerted. The case shall be presented on its single merit; on that I wish to stand or fall. I feel, sir, that I am incapable of sectional distinction upon such subjects. I abhor and reject all interested combinations."
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