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"Old Money Bags" was the reputation James McKay of North Carolina won for being frugal. He scrupulously upheld the principle of economy to the point of forgoing a clerk; the Ways and Means chairman did all the work himself. He reported appropriations bills that funded the Mexican-American War, saw by some Northern members as a ploy to extend slavery into territory that Mexico would cede to the United States. However, The Wilmot Proviso of 1846 allayed their fears but resurrected slavery as an issue that would confound Congress in the decade ahead. |
