Naval Hospitals of the United States. or other persons, in the wards of the hospital, to disturb the sick. Gaming is strictly forbidden. Any officer or other person who shall disobey any of the established rules of the hospital, or shall refuse to follow the advice of the surgeon, shall, if an officer, be forthwith discharged, on reporting him to the Navy Department; and no allowance shall be made to him for sick quarters or medical aid; but, if a seaman or marine, he shall be confined in a solitary room set apart for that purpose. Any officer, seaman, or marine, who shall strike, or draw, or offer to draw, or raise any weapon, against the surgeon, surgeon's mates, steward, or ward master, while executing the duties of their respective offices, shall, if an officer, be cashiered; and all others confined in a solitary cell for the space of and sent aboard the first public ship that shall arrive at the port where such hospital may be, and shall be mulcted of their pay for months, to be appropriated to the support of the hospital. If any person in the hospital shall waste, embezzle, or fraudulently buy, sell, or receive, any provisions or public stores, every such person shall forfeit all the pay and subsistence then due to him; and if an officer, he shall be cashiered, and the amount deducted from his pay. Any citizen who shall have received the goods thus purloined, on conviction before any magistrate, shall forfeit and pay double the value of the provisions or public property so bought or received, and be subject to a fine of Any person in the hospital who shall be found guilty of stealing the property of his comrades, shall restore the same, or the amount thereof, and be confined, if his health will permit, in a solitary cell, for the space of -, and wear a clog and chain to his leg, as a mark of disgrace, for the space of Any officer in the hospital who shall be guilty of profane swearing, drunkenness, or other scandalous conduct, tending to the destruction of good morals, shall be cashiered, or suffer such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge. Every seaman, ordinary seaman, marine, boy, or petty officer, who shall be guilty of riotous behaviour or drunkenness, shall be confined in a solitary cell for the space of · or as patients or pensioners in, the hospital, which are not specified in this code, shall be punished according to the rules and regulations of the navy. All clothing belonging to the deceased officers or men, which may not have been claimed within six months after public notice has been given of their decease, shall be sold, and applied to the clothing fund of the hospital. Each person employed in the hospital, except surgeon and mates, shall be entitled to receive a naval ration, or equivalent in other articles, not exceeding twenty cents per day. That no person may plead ignorance of the above rules and regulations, they shall be read, at the monthly muster, by the surgeon's mates, and a copy, with such regulations as may hereafter be made, shall be placed in a convenient place, in each ward, that every patient, nurse, and pensioner, may be informed thereof. E. CUTBUSH, GEORGE DAVIS, SAM'L R. MARSHALL, THOMAS EWELL. MONDAY, March 16th, 1812. GEORGETOWN, March 17th, 1812. SIR: The report which we had the honor to transmit to you, under date of the 16th March, was strictly limited to the points contained in your order. There are other subjects of consideration which we beg leave to submit to your discretion. In the report presented, the duty of performing divine service has been omitted, from the desire of limiting, as far as possible, the number of officers, proportioning them according to the quantum of duty to be performed: we are, however, induced to suggest the propriety of attaching a chaplain to the institution, being of high importance, and conducive to good order and the advancement of morality. We presume that this duty would be performed, for the present, (under the invitation of the honorable Secretary of the Navy) with pleasure, by any of the clergy near those places where the hospital may be erected. No provision, as to pay, &c., of hospital surgeons, is contained in the bill passed at the last session of Congress: in the army, an express proEvery person who may have left the hospital vision is made for this class of officers. We would on permission, and who shall not have returned submit the propriety of incorporating in the bill, within twenty-four hours after the expiration of which may contain the rules and regulations of the time specified in his pass, shall be deemed a the hospitals, a clause specifying the rank of surdeserter, and, if a seaman or marine, shall be sub-geons to hospitals, and of their mates, as it reject to such punishment as the articles of the Navy have directed for the crime of desertion; but if a pensioner, he shall be marked run, on the hospital books, and forfeit his pension. spects land and sea officers; also to allow the same pay and einoluments as the hospital surgeons in the army of the United States now receive. No person in the hospital shail quarrel with Under all European Governments, hospital surany other person in the hospital, nor use pro-geons and naval surgeons have a definite rank: it voking or reproachful words, gestures, or menaces, on pain of solitary confinement for the first offence, and, if incorrigible by this mode of punishment, he shall wear a clog and chain, as a mark of disgrace. All crimes committed by persons, belonging to, serves as a stimulus for men of talents, not only to offer their services, but to continue in service when the situation is made as reputable as that of any other class of officers. Our navy has, hitherto, with a few exceptions, been rather as a medical school for young gentlemen, who enter it for prac Annexation of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory. tical knowledge: this is incorrect, as no person toms, and politics. The safety, and, indeed, the should be permitted to take charge of the health political salvation of the Government of the Uniand lives of seamen, in whose capacity his fellow- ted States, entirely depend on the unanimity of citizens cannot confide; those, therefore, who all its parts, which is best insured by combining have not graduated at a respectable college or persons and things homogeneous in their nature. university, should be obliged to submit to an ex- If this be true, and if West Florida and the Teramination before they are commissioned. ritory of Orleans differ in every material respect, (of which there can be no doubt,) it follows that. a coalition of the two countries would be productive of discord, the evil genius of republican Governments. We have not noticed the capacity or the sites necessary for the hospitals; we conceive, however, that from eight to ten acres of ground would be necessary for each hospital, and, to the hospital and asylum, at least fifteen acres, more if convenient. Your petitioners are aware of the policy suggested by some, of adding us, who are all AmerGentlemen intended for the situation of hospi-icans, to the people of the Territory of Orleans, who are chiefly French, in order to counteract the French influence. This may be sound policy, but to make us the instruments of effecting that object, at the same time that it might be advantageous to the United States in general, it would be destructive to our individual happiness; a sacrifice too great, we trust, to be required of us to make by a Government wise in its Constitution, and just in its Administration. tal mates should be examined by those who may be appointed hospital surgeons, to ascertain their ability to perform the duties of their station. We beg leave to submit the propriety of making a distinction between the two hospital mates, as, for example, the senior and the junior; the former to be capable of performing the duties of naval surgeon. We are unacquainted with the extent of your views respecting the hospital establishment; we have, therefore, reported the number of medical officers, &c., for one hundred men; but if for a greater number, it will be necessary to increase the establishment by an addition of medical officers, whose duties must be defined. We have the honor respectfully to submit the above remarks. E. CUTBUSH, If, to counteract French influence, and subvert French politics, by populating the country with Americans, be the policy of the Government, your petitioners conceive that object will be shortly effected by the very great emigration of Americans from all parts of the United States. If those emigrants are subjected to all the inconveniences which we deprecate from a similar connexion, the case is not so hard with them as it would be with us, because they have voluntarily chosen that situation. But, waiving all objection on the score of dissimilarity betwixt us and the people of Orleans, nature herself seems to have thrown a barrier ANNEXATION OF WEST FLORIDA TO THE in the way to oppose the union. The city of MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. [Communicated to the House, November 20, 1811.] To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: We, the inhabitants of West Florida, your petitioners, represent to your honorable body, that, while we rejoice in the late event which has brought about our emancipation from the iron shackles of despotism, or rather released us from the more horrid calamities of anarchy, we still labor under the painful apprehension that your enlightened body will either continue us a separate Territory, or attach us to the Territory of New Orleans, instead of incorporating us with the Mississippi Territory, which we most ardently wish, for the following reasons: The geographical and relative situation of West Florida and the Mississippi Territory plead powerfully in favor of the measure. The climate, the soil, the people, the manners, and the politics of both countries, are the same, being only divided by an ideal boundary. We are all Americans by birth, and in principle; but if we are united with the Territory of Orleans, we will be subjected to all the inconveniences and miseries resulting from a difference of people, language, manners, cus New Orleans is, and in all probability will continue to be, the seat of government of that country; where, of course, all public business must be transacted, and which will, therefore, induce the necessity of the personal attendance of a great proportion of the people within the jurisdiction of that government, at the city of New Orleans; which will be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants of West Florida, on account of the largeness and difficult navigation of Lake Pontchartrain, which completely insulates us from the city of New Orleans. If, however, your honorable body should deem it unadvisable to attach us to the Territory of Orleans, in order to prevent a measure calculated to continue us under a separate Territorial government, we beg leave to state that, owing to the local situation of our country, it is not susceptible of a thick settlement; that, if it were settled with as many persons as the nature of the country will admit, yet we do not believe there would be wealth enough among us to defray the expenses of a government, without operating a very serious injury to us. But, admitting we are able to bear the expenses of a Territorial government, if the Mississippi Territory, and the Territory of Orleans should become States, independent of us, we would forever remain a Territory; for, neither Union Canal in the State of Pennsylvania. in point of numbers, nor in point of extent of sylvania, for the purpose of opening a communicountry, would we ever arrive at the proud mag- cation between the eastern and western parts of nitude of claiming an admission into the Union, the State, by canals and locks, incorporated two as a free, sovereign and independent State. Our companies under the titles of "The Schuylkill only hope of participating with the rest of our and Susquehanna Navigation," and "The Delabrethren on the Continent in the rights and bles-ware and Schuylkill Canal Navigation," with such sings of State sovereignty, is built upon the powers, privileges, and immunities, as were then pleasing anticipation of becoming a part of the deemed requisite for the accomplishment of the Mississippi Territory. By that means, independ- object.. ent of our own individual interests, the Mississippi Territory will derive the advantage of an extensive seacoast, of which she will otherwise be deprived. For the foregoing reasons, we humbly trust that your honorable body will grant our request, by adding all that tract of country now in possession, by virtue of the President's proclamation of 1810, to the Mississippi Territory. There is also another subject in which your petitioners are deeply interested, to which we beg leave to call your attention. Your petitioners have generally emigrated to this country since the cession of Louisiana to the United States. When possession of New Orleans, and that of the country west of the Mississippi was taken, and the Province of West Florida left in possession, and under the exclusive jurisdiction of Spain, we took it for granted that the Government of the United States either did not claim, or, if they did, meant not to insist upon their claim to West Florida; we, therefore, have made settlements on lands, under the rules and forms of the Spanish Government, expecting to hold our lands to ourselves and our heirs forever. We, therefore, pray your honorable body to confirm to us our settlement rights, made between the time of the cession of Louisiana, until the time of taking possession of West Florida, wherever they have been made bona fide, and not with an intention to monopolize unreasonable quantities of lands, under such regulations as may best comport with the wisdom and justice of Congress. We humbly trust that your enlightened body will grant this request, when you take into view all the circumstances which it involves. The consequences to us and our families are all important. If we are deprived of our possessions, we are deprived of our property; and consequently, will be reduced to the extremes of want and wretchedness. GEORGE PATTERSON, And four hundred and ten others. UNION CANAL IN PENNSYLVANIA. [Communicated to the Senate, December 6, 1811.] That a number of citizens (some of whom were greatly distinguished by former services. civil as well as military, rendered to their country in the contest which secured and established her independence,) actuated by a regard for the public good, and by an ardent desire of strengthening and cementing that Union which had then so recently been established, made liberal contributions of their wealth to a large amount, and engaged in the measures necessary to the opening of the contemplated communication, with a spirit of zeal and enterprise worthy of the patriotic undertaking. That large sums of money were expended for the purpose of exploring the country, and deciding on the best route, and afterwards in the purchase of the soil through which the canals were to pass, and in partial openings of them to a considerable extent; and the most sanguine expectations were entertained that the works would proceed rapidly to their completion. Encountered, however, with difficulties which had not been anticipated (many of them arising, doubtless, from the novelty of such an undertaking in this country, and the want of experience in the mode of accomplishing it.) the affairs of the companies became embarrassed. Unfortu nately, too, the allurements of external commerce. promising enormous advantages, (which have since, however, proved so precarious and delusive) fascinated the public attention to such a degree, that the moderate and progressive, though certain and permanent advantages of internal commerce, were, for a season, neglected and forgotten, and the canal companies were left to languish. Many years elapsed; until, at length, the outrages committed by foreign nations upon the property of our commercial citizens taught us the expediency and the necessity of looking at home for those sources of wealth and national greatness which we had persuaded ourselves were to be found exclusively in foreign commerce. Your memorialists regard with inexpressible satisfaction the resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 2d of March, 1807, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to report on public roads and canals. The discussions on that occasion, and the publication of the report of the Secretary, have recalled the public attention to the all-important interests of internal commerce; and your memorialists are impressed with a firm conviction that if the countenance and aid of the Government are, in a due degree, extended to those who have engaged, or are willing to engage, in the execution of canals, the United States That, in the year one thousand seven hundred will, ere long, rival the nations of Europe in and ninety-one and two, the Legislature of Penn-works of this description. PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 19, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled the memorial of the President and Managers of the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania, respectfully showeth : Complaint against Judge Toulmin. COMPLAINT AGAINST JUDGE TOULMIN.' [Communicated to the House, December 16, 1811.] Your memorialists further represent that the Legislature of Pennsylvania, actuated by the same patriotic motives which have produced the measures taken by the Federal Government, and reWASHINGTON, M. T. Nov. 20, 1811. garding those measures as a pledge that its aid SIR: By a resolution of the House of Represenwould not be withheld, by an act of the 2d of April last, united the two canal companies before tatives of the Mississippi Territory, I have the mentioned, and incorporated your memorialists, honor to forward to you a copy of a presentment and the other stockholders therein, under their of the grand jury for the county of Baldwin, present title of "The Union Canal Company of against Harry Toulmin, Esq., Judge of the SuPennsylvania," with increased powers and priv-perior Court for the district of Washington. The ileges; and, to enable them to embrace the object House over which I have the honor to preside, of the Federal Government in its full extent, the deeming the charges therein contained worthy of Legislature have expressly authorized this commit another copy to the Delegate of this Territory further investigation, has required me to transpany to extend the route of their canal so as to communicate with Lake Erie, or other waters of any neighboring State. to be laid before the House of Representatives of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Of the House of Reps. United States. To the Honorable Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Mississippi Territory in General Assembly convened, the presentment of the Grand Jury of Mississippi Territory for Baldwin county to the Legislature of the Territory: Since the incorporation of the Union Canal Company your memorialists have engaged themselves in extricating the affairs of the former companies, in organizing the new one, and in forming such plans as, uniting prudence with a due portion of enterprise, will be best calculated to insure ultimate success. It is their determination to avail themselves of the assistance of practical and scientific engineers; and, having no personal interests to consult in the choice of the route, they will have a single eye to the interests of the publie, which must be the interests of the company. Your memorialists have some ground for be lieving that the desired communication between We, the grand jury in and for the county aforethe lakes and the Atlantic can be effected in Penn said, do represent unto your honorable body, that sylvania with less delay than by any other route, we hold the pure and impartial administration of and at less expense. They feel, however, no justice the firmest bond to secure the cheerful jealousy of canals projected by their neighbors, submission of a free people to their Government; but, on the contrary, are desirous of co-operating and whenever an individual, who has been clothed in the promotion of them, being convinced that, with the office of a judge to effect this object, has by two or more such communications, the pub- betrayed the trust confided to him by the Govlic interests will be better subserved, and no in- ernment, and oppressed the people, it becomes jury or diminution of profit suffered by the indi- the absolute duty of the unfortunate citizens, over viduals or companies who may undertake them. whose lives, liberty, and property, he may ultiYour memoralists will not misuse the time and mately decide, to represent his nefarious conduct attention of your honorable bodies by adducing to that body who can, with the whole voice of facts, or entering into arguments to show the the Territory, call on that tribunal who has the powerful tendency which an easy communica- power, constitutionally placed in them, to examtion, and frequent intercourse with our Western ine the conduct of such officer, and to deprive him brethren, would have "to increase union," insure of that office if found guilty. As such, we, as the domestic tranquillity," and "promote the general grand jury of our country, the guardians of our welfare of the people of the United States;" but, fellow-citizens' lives, liberty, property, and represting the truth of these positions on the broad utation, do most solemnly call the attention of basis of universal opinion, strengthened by what your honorable body to the conduct of H. Toulthey are persuaded is the sentiment of the en- min, Esq., who has presided ever since the year lightened Representatives of the nation, they will eighteen hundred and five, as judge of the Supecontent themselves by praying that your honorarior Court for Washington district. Although ble bodies will give such aid to the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania as in your wisdom shall seem proportioned to the usefulness and greatness of their undertaking, and the extensive means and munificence of this great and growing Republic. And your memorialists will ever pray. CHAS. G. PALESKE. President. he has not scrupled to prostitute his dignity, and betray the sanctity of his office, decency and truth shall guide the way in our presentment. We present the following acts of his mal-administration: 1st. Making decisions in vacation, and at the next term having them made a matter of record. 2d. Uniting in himself the character of judge and party, in making a challenge of a juror. 3d. Acting partially in his office as judge of the Superior Court for Washington district. 14th. For having refused an unfortunate pris Extension of Patent Rights. oner, when on his trial, to consult with his counsel, or his counsel with him, in private; declaring that there should be no secrets, but what advice was to be given should be given in open court. 5th. For having ordered the Attorney General for Washington district to file an ex officio information against a citizen of this country for a capital offence, in violation of the Constitution of the United States. 6th. For having ordered a jury to find a citizen of this country guilty, after they had returned their verdict of not guilty to the court. 7th. For having established a rule of court for the district of Washington, that no person shall dismiss a suit, except in open court, and that with leave of the same. 8th. For having holden a court of examination in the garrison of Fort Stoddart, and examined witnesses at the point of the bayonet. 9th. For having carried on a verbal as well as a written correspondence and intercourse with the Government of Spain, heretofore exercised in West Florida, with intent to influence the conduct of the said Government in relation to the dispute with the United States, as to the sovereignty of West Florida, and to defeat the measures of the Government of the United States. WILLIAM BUFORD, Foreman. REPRESENTATIVES' CHAMBER, Nov. 17, 1811. time, make another contract for building a suitable boat, to be propelled by the said engine, for the better accommodation of passengers between New Jersey and New York. That the said machinery and boat are now nearly completed, at a very great expense, already incurred and to be incurred, in fulfilling the said contracts, all which will be chiefly lost and sacrificed, and a very great public accommodation prevented, if your memorialist shall be precluded from the free use of his boat by any law of the United States hereafter to be passed. That your memorialist has been informed, by persons skilled in this kind of machinery, and himself verily believes, after full examination, that the plan he has adopted will not interfere with any now secured to Mr. Fulton by any patent or patents which he has obtained under the Constitution of the United States; and that if the above patentee should bring suit, under present existing laws, for an interference with any of his said supposed right against your memorialist, that your memorialist believes that he will be able to prove fully at the trial that the thing which may be alleged to be so secured by the patent, and so interfered with, ginally discovered by the said patentee, but that the same had been in use, or had been described in some public work anterior to the said supposed discovery;" under which testimony, agreeably to the express provisions of the law of the United States, on the 21st February, 1793, judgment must be rendered for the defendant. was not ori That, if the bill now before the Senate should pass into a law, it will become necessary, under to prove that such thing had been in effectual use the third section thereof, for a defendant further Resolved by the House of Representatives of Mississippi Territory in General Assembly convened, That the Speaker of this House be requested, without delay, to forward three copies of the presentment of the grand jury of Baldwin county, made to this House against Harry Toulmin, Esq., Judge of the Superior Court for Washington dis-or operation within three years next before the trict, one copy to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, one copy to the President of the United States, and one copy to the honorable George Poindexter, our delegate in Congress, together with a transcript of this resolve, to be by him laid before the House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, for their consideration. Attest: COWLES MEAD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. EXTENSION OF PATENT RIGHTS. [Communicated to the Senate, December 23, 1811.] That your memorialist, having full confidence in certain improvements on Boulton and Watt's steam engine, now patented to Mr. Daniel Dod, of Windham, in New Jersey, did, many months since, make with him a contract for a steam-engine upon his improved plan. That your memorialist did also, about the same time when a steamboat was first brought into lawfully built, and constructed at very great expublic use by Mr. Fulton; whereby steamboats less, and lost both to the public and the owners. pense, and for public benefit, may be totally use Your memorialist will not further transgress, by urging considerations arising from the terms of the Constitution, which, in article 1, section 8, makes provision for the exclusive rights of disthe inferences, in respect to the existing rights of coveries for the benefit of inventors only; from Mr. Fulton, to be drawn from his application for a special law in his favor; from the general nature of retrospective legal provisions; from the public inconvenience in the extension of monopolies; finally, from the prescribing a particular mode of trial and proof in favor of particular persons, differing from the mode prescribed in similar cases by the general law of the land. Your memorialist, entirely confiding that the rights of all the citizens of the United States will be duly considered in regard to the premises, most humbly prays that the bill now before the Senate, and above referred to, may not pass into a law. And your memorialist, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c. AARON OGDEN. |