are open to the vessels of the United States on the same terms and conditions as their own vessels. On motion of Mr. STORRS, the House proceeded to consider the resolution, submitted by him yesterday, to annul the eighteenth rule of the standing rules and orders of this House; and the said resolution being again read, was agreed to by the House. The said eighteenth rule, as annulled, is in the words following, viz.: "Business referred to committees of the whole House shall be called for consideration in the following order: 1. Private bills which have passed the Senate, and have been reported favorably by a committee of the House. 2. Private bills reported by committees of the House. 3. Bills and resolutions of a public nature. 4. Bills which have passed the Senate, and have been reported against by a committee of the House. 5. Reports unfavorable to petitioners." Mr. MALLARY submitted the following resolution for consideration: Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to lay before this House information respecting the progress made by the Commissioners under the Treaty of Ghent, in establishing the boundary line between the United States and the Canadas; whether any part of the boundary line is settled; whether the Commissioners of the United States and Great Britain have met during the present year; and how much money has been drawn from the Treasury for the purpose aforesaid; and how much each Commissioner, Agent, or any person on their account, has drawn; the names of each person employed by the said Commissioners and Agents, in their respective sections; the purposes for which each person was employed, the length of time employed, and the compensation each person has received for his services; a statement of all the items of account rendered by each of said Commissioners and Agents, and the particular purposes for which the moneys drawn by them have been expended; the amount of compensation each Commissioner and Agent has received since his appointment; and whether any money has been allowed to, or retained by, said Commissioners and Agents, except the sum of $1,444 44 per annum. The resolution was agreed to nem. con., and a committee was appointed to present it to the President. WEDNESDAY, November 22. NOVEMBER, 1820. district court in Alabama," reported the same without amendment, and it was ordered to be read a third time to-day; and was accordingly read a third time, and passed. Mr. Cook, from the Committee on the Public Lands, made a report on the petition of William McIntosh, accompanied with a bill for his relief; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole. Mr. Cook, from the same committee, also made a report on the petition of Nicholas Jarrott, accompanied by a bill for his relief; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole. On motion of Mr. FULLER, it was Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to inform this House what naval force has been stationed for the protection of the commerce of our citizens in the West India islands, and parts adjacent, during the present year, and whether any depredations by pirates, or others, upon the property of citizens of the United States engaged in such commerce, have been reported to our Government. Messrs. FULLER and WENDOVER were appointed the President of the United States. a committee to present the foregoing resolution to On motion of Mr. Scort, the bill which originated at the last session, supplementary to the several acts for the adjusting of land claims in the State of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri, was taken up and referred to the Committee on Public Lands. After a number of remarks from Mr. FORD, to show why favor ought to be shown in this case, the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, of the last session, unfavorable to the petition of Perley Keyes and Jason Fairbanks, was taken up, and, on motion of Mr. F., recommitted to the same committee. Mr. LINN moved to proceed to the consideration of his motion directing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of reducing the compensation of members of Congress, and of the officers of Government generally, to the rates at which they stood in 1809; but the House refused to consider the same. Mr. Foot, of Connecticut, remarked that several propositions had been already made, looking to a reduction in the expenditures of the Government, none of which exactly corresponded with his views; to exhibit which he offered for consideration the following resolution: Another member, to wit, from South Carolina, CHARLES PINCKNEY, appeared and took his seat. Mr. KINSLEY presented a petition of sundry per- Resolved, That the Committee on Public Expendisons interested in commerce, inhabitants of Bel-tures be instructed to prepare and report a system of fast, in the State of Maine, praying that no alteration may be made in the existing tariff of duties on foreign goods imported into the United States, injurious to the commercial interest, for the purpose of extending further protection to the manufacturing interest of the country; which was re ferred to the Committee on Manufactures. Mr. SERGEANT, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act to alter the terms of the retrenchment in the expenditures in the various departments of the Government, (not inconsistent with the public interest,) which will restore that rigid economy and simplicity becoming our Republican institutions, and which the present stagnation of commerce, and the embarrassments attending every branch of domestic industry, imperiously demand. And the question being put that the House do now proceed to consider the said resolve, it was decided in the negative. REDUCTION OF EXPENDITURES. Mr. COBB, of Georgia, presented to the Chair the following series of propositions: 1. Resolved, That it is expedient that the annual expenses of the Government should be reduced; that, for the accomplishment of this object, it is further 2. Resolved, That such offices as are not immediately necessary for the transaction of public business, and the abolition of which would not be detrimental to the public interest, shall be abolished. 3. Resolved, That the salaries of all civil officers whose compensation has been increased since the year 1809 shall be reduced to what they were at that period. 4. Resolved, That it is expedient to reduce the Army to the number of six thousand non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, preserving such part of the corps of engineers, without regard to that number, as may be required by the public interest; and including such reduction of the general staff as may be required by the state of the Army when reduced as herein proposed. 5. Resolved, That it is expedient that the appropriations for the erection of fortifications shall be so made as to require a less sum annually, by extending the time within which they shall be completed. 6. Resolved, That the act making an appropriation of one million of dollars per annum for the increase of the Navy be so amended as to extend the time within which such increase shall be made, and to reduce the annual appropriation to the sum of five hundred thousand dollars. 7. Resolved, That it is expedient to recall from active service one-half the naval force now employed, and to place the same in ordinary. 8th Resolution refers the subjects of the preceding resolves to the proper standing and select committees, to bring in bills pursuant thereto. The House having agreed to consider these resolutions Mr. COBB said, he had no intention to bring on the discussion of them at this time, having presented them by way of notice to members, that they might be prepared to discuss and decide on them when called up. He was not even himself prepared at this moment to give his views of the subjects embraced in these resolutions; nor did he know that the House ought to proceed to act on them, until it should have received, first, the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and, secondly, a report from the Secretary of War, required by a resolution of the House at the last session, of a plan whereupon a reduction of the Army might be advantageously made. To place these resolves in a situation which would enable him to call them up at any time, he moved their reference to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. Which motion was agreed to. THURSDAY, November 23. Mr. CUSHMAN presented the petition of the trustees of the Somerset Agricultural Society, in the county of Somerset and State of Maine, praying that the bill pending before Congress at the last session, establishing a new tariff of duties on goods imported into the United States, may be passed 16th CoN. 2d SESS.-15 H. OF R. into a law, so as to extend further protection to the manufacturing interest of the country. Mr. JONES, of Virginia, presented a memorial of the merchants and other inhabitants of the town of Petersburg, in that State, in opposition to the passage of the said bill.-Referred to the Committee on Manufactures. Ordered, That the Committee on the Public Lands be discharged from the further consideration of the bill, supplementary to the several acts for the adjustment of land claims in the State of Louisiana, and Territory of Missouri, and that it be referred to the Committee on Private Land Claims. On motion of Mr. BUTLER, of New Hampshire, Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to report to this House the regulations which he has adopted in the administration of the act of Congress of May 1st, 1820, entitled "An act in addition to an act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the Uni18, 1818." Whether any person except paupers, ted States in the Revolutionary war, passed March or such as have been partially supported by public or private charity, have been continued on the pension roll; and, if any, whether the value of their property, as returned on their schedule, in any case exceeded two hundred dollars, and how much. Whether debts, which the applicants owed, have been or are considered in the estimation of their circumstances, income, or means of subsistence; and how many are continued on the pension roll under said act. The bill to provide for the preservation and repair of the Cumberland road having been called up, the House voted not to go into Committee thereon. On motion of Mr. KENT, the Committee of the Whole was discharged from the consideration of the bill "to repeal part of an act to authorize the President and Managers of the Washington (Georgetown) Turnpike Company in Maryland, to extend and make their road to and from Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, through the said District, to the line thereof," and it was recommitted to the Committee on the District of Columbia. ELIAS PARKS. The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Claims on the petition of Elias Parks. [The case of Mr. Parks is substantially this: The petitioner had chartered a boat, on the morning of the attack on Oswego, (on Lake Ontario,) in May, 1813, for the purpose of transporting merchandise to a place of safety. The boat had departed from Oswego in pursuit of that object, when she was ordered back by Colonel Mitchell, who commanded the post, was taken possession of by Captain Romayne, under that order, for the use of the troops, and the goods placed on the wharf, and, with the boat, put under the charge of sentinels. Afterwards, the fort being stormed, and the town taken, the goods fell into the hands of the enemy. The petitioner prays indemnification for H. of R. Military Road in Maine-Public Lands. his loss. The report of the Committee of Claims is, that his petition ought not to be granted.] Mr. STORRS moved to reverse the report, so as to allow the petitioner the value of the goods in the boat at the time of its seizure. This motion gave rise to considerable debate; in the course of which, the motion of Mr. STORRS was supported by Messrs. STORRS, GROSS, of New York, and STEVENS; and opposed by Messrs. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, and McCoy. The result of the debate was, that Mr. STORRS's motion was agreed to, and, the decision having been reported to the House, was then concurred in; and, on motion of Mr. STORRS, the report was recommitted to the committee who reported it, with instructions to bring in a bill pursuant to the amended report. Croix. MILITARY ROAD IN MAINE. NOVEMBER, 1820. the policy of those times, in our beloved parent State, but Maine has washed her hands from that pollution; she expects justice, magnanimity, and remuneration, from the General Government, in some way or other. He hoped, therefore, the resolution would pass. The question being taken on agreeing to said resolution, it was decided in the affirmative-52 to 41. PUBLIC LANDS. The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill to provide for paying to the State of Illinois three per cent. of the net proceeds asising from the sale of the public lands within the same. Mr. COBB having inquired on what grounds the merits of the bill rested Mr. Cook, of Illinois, briefly explained that the for this bill, under the impression that it proposed Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, hesitated about voting to divert this fund from the purposes of making roads within the State, to a different purpose, viz: the encouragement of schools and colleges. If that were the object, he said he could not vote for it, because it would violate the compact. least doubt of the propriety of passing the law, Mr. CAMPBELL, of Ohio, said he had not the and he thought the gentleman from Maryland would be of the same opinion with him when the clause of the compact by which Illinois was admitted into the Union, was read. Mr. C. then read that clause, in the following words: Mr. HILL submitted for consideration the follow-object of this bill was to obtain the payment to ing resolution: the State of Illinois of the three per cent. reserved Resolved, That the Committee on Roads and Canals for her use out of the moneys accruing to the be instructed to inquire into the expediency of opening Treasury of the United States for the sales of puba military and post road from some place on the Pen-lic lands in that State; the Secretary of the Treasobscot river, in the State of Maine, to the river St.ury not feeling himself authorized to pay over the Mr. H. in introducing this resolution, said, that ilar law had already been passed in relation to the money without express authority by law. A simMaine was a frontier State, bordering on the Brit-State of Indiana, and the passage of this bill was ish Provinces, for a distance of more than five little more than a matter of course, it being to hundred miles. The distance from the Penobscot carry into effect a compact with the State of river to the British lines is not short of one hun-Illinois. dred and twenty miles. The road, for the greatest part of the distance, is impassable for any kind of carriages. The towns of Eastport and Lubeck, with several others near the boundary line, are very fast rising into consequence. At Eastport and Lubeck there is one of the finest harbors in the United States, and it is defensible. It was of great importance, he said, that there should be a good carriage road to the extremities of Maine, whereon to transport the mail; for, in case of another war with Great Britain, which he hoped would never happen, it will be a war, not on our territories, but on the ocean and in the English provinces. Mr. H. said, he was aware that a celebrated military Sovereign of Europe remarked, that "he had no idea of making roads for his enemies;" but, said Mr. H. we have no fear of an invasion in Maine by land. In the late war, there was physical, moral, and mental strength enough in Maine, if we had been masters of our own fortunes, to have driven the enemy from Castine headlong into the sea. Moreover, there are no national vessels built in Maine, although possessing a seacoast of two hundred and fifty miles, containing more than a hundred spacious harbors, having a population of three hundred thousand, owning about one-ninth of the whole tonnage of the United States, and can furnish timber and ship-builders inferior to none in America; and yet we have no dock-yards, nor patronage from the nation. We have been patriotic and dutiful children, always ready to shoulder our muskets in the defence of our country's rights. Massachusetts expended a million of dollars in the late war which has not been refunded. One-third thereof belonged to Maine. She deplores land lying within such State, and which shall be sold "3d. That five per cent. of the net proceeds of the by Congress from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved for the purposes following, viz: Two-fifths to be disbursed under the direction of Congress, in making roads leading to the State, the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university." From this it appeared that the proposed bill was a mere legislative form for accomplishing an act already binding on the United States. Mr. ANDERSON, of Kentucky, said there was no difficulty at all in this subject, well understood. In most of the ordinances for the admission of States into the Union, the stipulation is, that, of the five per cent. reserved from the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, two per cent. shall be applied to the construction of roads leading to the NOVEMBER, 1820. Admission of Missouri. H. OF R. States, and three per cent. shall be applied by the gives to the citizens of each State the privileges and State itself to making roads within the State. immunities of citizens of the several States; there is But, in the case of Illinois, an exception was made, not one, an attention to whose spirit is more necessary on the representation of her then Delegate, that to the convenient and beneficial connexion of the the fund would not be required for roads within States; nor one of which too large a construction the State, and the Legislature was authorized to would more completely break down their defensive apply the three per cent. to schools and colleges power, and lead more directly to their consolidation. instead of roads. The Secretary of the Treasury, lished constitutions of States in every section of the This much, indeed, seems to be settled by the estabin obedience to that caution which always gov- Union; that a State has a right to discriminate between erns him, declined paying over this money to the the white and the black man, both in respect to politState authorities without the authority of an actical and civil privileges, though both be citizens of of Congress; and the object of this bill was to another State; to give to the one, for instance, the give that authority. right of voting and of serving on juries, which it refuses to the other. How far this discrimination may be carried, is obviously a matter of nice and difficult inquiry. The committee do not propose to engage in it. They believe it best, whenever a case occurs which must necessarily involve the decision of it, that it should be remitted to judicial cognizance. Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, professing himself entirely satisfied with these explanations, withdrew his opposition; and the bill was reported to the House, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading. ADMISSION OF MISSOURI. Mr. LOWNDES, from the select committee to whom was referred the constitution formed for their government by the people of Missouri, delivvered in the following report: In this view (which narrows their inquiries and duties) the committee are confirmed, by a consideration of the embarrassments and disasters which a different course of proceeding might sometimes produce. When a people are authorized to form a State, and do so, the The committee to whom has been referred the contrammels of their Territorial condition fall off. They stitution of the State of Missouri respectfully report: have performed the act which makes them sovereign That they have not supposed themselves bound to law, and we leave it, as we should that of another and independent. If they pass an unconstitutional inquire whether the provisions of the constitution referred to them be wise or liberal. The grave and dif- State, to the decision of a judicial tribunal, the illegal ficult question as to the restraints which should be with which we are familiar. The control of the Genact is divested of its force by the operation of a system imposed upon the power of Missouri to form a constitu-eral Government is exercised in each particular case, tion for itself was decided by the act of the last session, in support of individual right, and the State retains and the committee have had only to examine whether the condition which it has just acquired, and would the provisions of the act have been complied with. In But a decision by Congress the opinion of the committee, they have been. The not easily renounce. propositions, too, which were offered in the same act to against the constitutionality of a law passed by a State the free acceptance or rejection of the people of Mis- which it had authorized the establishment, could not souri, have all been accepted by them. But there operate directly by vacating the law; nor is it believed that it could reduce the State to the dependence of a remains a question too important to be overlooked. sion into the Union to such a State, is to refuse to Territory. In these circumstances, to refuse admisextend over it that judicial authority which might vacate the obnoxious law, and to expose all the interests of the Government within the territory of that State, to a Legislature and a Judiciary, the only checks if Congress shall determine neither to expound clauses on which have been abandoned. On the other hand, which are obscure, nor to decide Constitutional questions which must be difficult and perplexing, equally interesting to old States, whom our construction could not, as to the new, whom it ought not to coerce, the rights and duties of Missouri will be left to the determination of the same temperate and impartial tribunal which has decided the conflicting claims, and received the confidence, of the other States. We know that cases must often arise in which there may be a doubt whether the laws or constitution of a State do not transcend the line (sometimes the obscure line) which separates the powers of the different governments of our complex system. It appears to the committee, that, in general, it must be unwise in Congress to anticipate judicial decisions by the exposition of an equivocal phrase, and that it would be yet more objectionable, by deciding on the powers of a State just emerged from territorial dependence, that it should give the weight of its authority to an opinion which might condemn the laws and constitutions of old, as well as sovereign States. The committee are not unaware that a part of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of Missouri, by which the Legislature of the State has been directed to pass laws "to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, and settling in, the State," has been construed to apply to such of that class as are citizens of the United States, and that their exclusion has been deemed repugnant to the Federal Constitution. The words which are objected to are to be found in the laws of at least one of the Middle States, (Delaware,) and a careful examination of the clause might perhaps countenance the opinion that it applics to the large class of free negrocs and mulattoes who cannot be considered as the citizens of any State. But, of all the articles in our constitution, there is probably not one more difficult to construe well than that which The committee recommend the adoption of the following resolution : This report having been read by the Clerk, the resolution therein referred to was read, as follows: Whereas, in pursuance of an act of Congress passed on the sixth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, entitled "An act to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain Territories," the people of said Territory did, on the nineteenth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty, by a convention called for the purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government, which constitution and State government, so formed, is republican, and in conformity to the provisions of the said act: NOVEMBER, 1820. unfavorable report on the petition of John Stipp; which was concurred in. Mr. SMITH, from the same committee, made an unfavorable report on the petition of Samuel Peckham, Jr., Inspector of Customs for the district Be it therefore resolved by the Senate and House of Vermont, stating that he obtained a judgment of Representatives of the United States of America, against Nathaniel Tuft for goods illegally imin Congress assembled, That the State of Missouri ported, in 1812, to the amount of three thousand shall be, and is hereby declared to be, one of the Uni-six hundred dollars, and that by an act of Conted States of America, and is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever. The resolution was then read a second time. Mr. LOWNDES moved to refer the resolution to a Committee of the Whole, on the state of the Union, which would put it in the power of the House to act upon it at any time it thought proper. He need not say, that there was no disposition to act upon this subject without full notice to all parties concerned; and if no other person did, he should himself, when proposing to call for the consideration of the report, give a day or two notice of his intention to do so. Whilst up, he took occasion to say, that this report, as indeed all reports of committees, must be considered as the act of a majority of the committee, and not as expressing the sentiments of every individual of the committee. The reference was agreed to. FRIDAY, November 24. Two members appeared and took their seats, viz: from Maryland, THOMAS CULBRETH, and from Virginia, JOHN TYLER. Mr. TYLER presented the memorial of the merchants and other citizens of Richmond and its vicinity, against an increase of the tariff of duties on imports; a discontinuance of the credit now granted on said duties; the abolition of drawbacks of duties and other restrictions on the commerce of the United States; which was referred to the Committee on Manufactures. Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, from the Committee of Ways and Means, presented a report on the petition of Daniel Lathrop, late a postmaster at Waterbury, in New York, praying relief from the loss of a sum of money received by him for postages, the same having been wasted by a person in whose care it had been placed for the use of the General Post Office; which report was concurred in by the House. Mr. SMITH, from the same committee, presented the following report: The Committee of Ways and Means, to whom was referred the memorial of the inhabitants of Salem, report That the memorialists pray Congress to exempt from duty all imported books in the learned and foreign languages, whether reprinted in this country, and all works of science, in the English language, which shall not be reprinted here within the term of one year from their original publication. The committee submit the following resolution: Resolved, That it is inexpedient to grant the prayer the memorialists. The same was read, and concurred in. gress said Tuft and his security were released from confinement for the debt, whereby he lost his one quarter part of the amount of said seizure, and which report was read, and concurred in. praying that the same may be allowed to him; Mr. SERGEANT, from the Committee on the Judiciary, made a report on the petition of Curtis Lewis, of Mobile, that the object of the memorial falls properly within the scope of the authority of the district court of Alabama, as regulated by an act of the present session; which report was agreed to. Mr. SERGEANT, from the same committee, reported a bill for the relief of Andrew Kennedy; which was twice read and committed. Mr. ANDERSON, from the Committee on the Public Lands, reported a bill for the relief of Daniel Seward; which was read a first and second time, and committed. The engrossed bill to provide for paying to the State of Illinois the amount of three per cent. of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands within the State of Illinois, was read a third time, passed, and ordered to be sent to the Senate for concurrence. CLAIM OF JOHN COWAN. The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Claims unfavorable to the petition of John Cowan. [Mr. COWAN prays the allowance of four hundred and sixty dollars for shoeing, at their own expense, the horses of a company of cavalry in the service of the United States, from September 28, 1814, to March 28, 1815, and of fifty-two dollars paid for forage, in consequence of the United States failing to supply the same. The committee report against the claim, as well because the allowance of forty cents per day ought to cover the expense of shoeing, as because of the informality of the evidence in support of the claim.] Mr. JONES, of Tennessee, moved to reverse the report in this case, so as to declare that the claim ought to be allowed. This motion gave rise to debate, being supported by Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, and Mr. RICH, of Vermont. In the end, the motion to amend the report was negatived-55 to 41; and this being reported to the House, was there concurred in, and the original report was agreed to. The House adjourned to Monday. MONDAY, November 27. Another member, to wit: from Mississippi, Mr. SMITH, from the same committee, made an CHRISTOPHER RANKIN, appeared and took his seat. |