Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 2.djvu/282

 .7 IECOKI)S OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION Monday MADISON Mr. Govermr. Morris All the arguments suppose the right to originate & to tax, to be exclusively vested in the Senate. -- The effects commented on may be produced by a Negative only in the Senate. They can tire out the other House and extort their concurrence in favorite measures, as well by with- holding their negative, as by adhering to a bill introduced by themselves. Mr (Madison thought) If the substitute offered by Mr. Randolph for the original section is to be adopted it would be proper to allow the Senate at least so to amend as to dimini_h the sums to be raised. Why should they be restrained from checking the extravagance of the other House?- One of the greatest evils incident to Republican Govt. was the spirit of contention & faction. The proposed substitute, which in some respects lessened the objections agst. the section, had a contrary effect with respect to this particular. It laid a foundation for new difficulties and disputes between the two houses. The word revenue was ambiguous. In many acts, particularly in the regulations of trade, the object would be twofold. The raising of revenue would be one of them. How could it be determined which was the primary or predominant one; or whether it was necessary that revenue shd: be the sole object, in exclusion even of other incidental effects. When the Contest was first opened with G. B. their power to regu- late trade was admitted. Their power to raise revenue re- jected. An accurate investigation of the subject afterward proved that no line could be drawn between the two cases. The words amend or alter, form an equal source of doubt & altercation. When an obnoxious paragraph shall be sent down from the Senate to the House of Reps it will be called an origlnation under the name of an amendment. The Sen- ate may actually couch extraneous matter under that name. In these cases, the question will turn on the degree of connec- tion between the matter & object of the bill and the (alteration or) amendment offered to it. Can there be a more fruitful source of dispute, or a kind of dispute more difficult to be settled ? His apprehensions on this point were not conjectural. Disputes had actually flowed from this source in Virga. where

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