Mr. Crittenden,
who was returned as Senator by Kentucky, I think seven times, now
sits in the Lower House; and John Quincy Adams appeared as a
Representative from Massachusetts after he had filled the
presidential chair.
And, moreover, the Senate of the United States is not debarred from
an interference with money bills, as the House of Lords is debarred
with us. "All bills for raising revenue," says the seventh section
of the first article of the Constitution, "shall originate with the
House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with
amendments as on other bills." By this the Senate is enabled to
have an authority in the money matters of the nation almost equal to
that held by the Lower House - an authority quite sufficient to
preserve to it the full influence of its other powers. With us the
House of Commons is altogether in the ascendant, because it holds
and jealously keeps to itself the exclusive command of the public
purse.
Congress can levy custom duties in the United States, and always has
done so; hitherto the national revenue has been exclusively raised
from custom duties. It cannot levy duties on exports. It can levy
excise duties, and is now doing so; hitherto it has not done so. It
can levy direct taxes, such as an income tax and a property tax; it
hitherto has not done so, but now must do so.
