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able investment of money; yet, he acknowledged, there might be canals of such great national importance, that the Legislature would be justly induced to subscribe to them. But, before he enlisted in any project of the kind, he wished to know the extent to which he was going. To afford some time to understand this subject, he moved that the Committee rise and ask leave to sit again.

Mr. BALLARD SMITH inquired whether the Committee on Internal Improvement intended to report any general bill for internal improvement. Whether they did or not, it appeared to him that the House should have before it at one view the several propositions for great national improvements, that the merits of each might be examined and compared, collectively and separately.

Mr. TALLMADGE, of New York, said he believed he was authorized to state that the select committee did contemplate to submit a system of internal improvements for the consideration of the House. He regretted the state of his health had prevented him from taking part in the late debate on the subject, as it was his intention to have pointed out a summary of the plan in his opinion the most proper to be adopted. At this time it was only proper for him to state, that the committee had reported the present bill making provision for repairing the roads therein mentioned, because they deemed it of essential importance to that district of country. The intercourse with Louisiana was greatly dependent upon it, and it was essential to the convenient supplies for the Southern army, now under General Jackson, that the roads mentioned in the bill should be repaired. The situation of those roads, and the necessities of that part of the country, would not admit of delay; and, therefore, the committee had yielded to the pressure, and had reported the present bill in anticipation of the system contemplated by them.

MARCH, 1818.

the South and the East have thus severely suffered from the inability to interchange and relieve each other's wants, we have witnessed a people and an army on the Northern and Western frontier, suffering every privation, and almost naked from the want of those fabrics which the manufactories of the East would gladly have wrought from the products of the South. Thus, in the possession of every means, and with abundance to answer every demand, but without the facilities of interchange and of internal intercourse, our country has experienced the privations of every want and the expenses of every disadvantage. To remedy some of these defects, and to guard against like calamities in future, the committee contemplate to recommend internal improvements on the Atlantic coasts, tending to provide for the common defence, and, by uniting Georgia to Maine, more effectually to consolidate the Union. As a part of this system, they have this day reported a bill to aid in uniting, by a canal, the Chesapeake and the Delaware.

Mr. T. said, the select committee had also viewed the Columbia road as a work of great national importance, and which required provision for its completion, and strongly exemplified the inefficiency of State authority to consummate such objects, and the duty of the Union to secure its completion. He said that road ran through three States, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, all of which were less interested in the road than the District of Columbia, or the Western States, towards which the road pointed; and that its completion was therefore justly considered a subject of great national importance, and upon which the safety and welfare of the Western States, in a military and commercial point of view, materially depended. It also strongly exemplified that class of improvements which were intimately connected with the prosperity of the Union, and justly became objects of national Mr. T. said, he had no doubt that it had now legislation, and as distinguished from transverse become an imperative duty for the committee to roads through towns and counties for local acrecommend, and the country to adopt, a system commodation, and which properly formed a subof internal improvement, calculated to provideject of local legislation and State jurisdiction. for the national defence, and which would, at the Sir, said Mr. T., it is a fact worthy the observasame time, promote commerce between the States, tion of the House, that, while the unanimous and facilitate the progress of the mail. That, in opinion of the nation requires the Government to deliberating upon this subject, the committee had establish forts and defend the Western frontierviewed with anxious solicitude the recent situa-that while the subject of internal improvement tion of the country during the late war; that, has been before us-that while we have been dewith an extensive territory, and possessing within bating upon the power of our Constitution, which ourselves the products and the abundance of al- commands us to provide for the common defence most every clime, our coasts had been under a and general welfare, the War Office is actually blockade, and for the want of the means of inter-settling accounts, and paying at the rate of one nal intercourse our country had suffered many privations. We had seen the Southern planter overloaded with the superabundance of his products, and yet, unable from the state of the country to carry them to market, he was suffering under poverty and want; we had seen the manufactories of the Eastern States shut up and discontinued, and that portion of the people reduced to distress, and almost to ruin, for the want of the raw materials from the South, with which to proceed in their beneficial labors; and while

hundred and twenty-seven dollars per barrel for pork consumed in our Western garrisons. I mention not this fact, said Mr. T., as finding fault with the Administration, or with any department. They have no alternative but to surmount by expenditures the difficulties of transportation. But shall we require the Government to defend the country, and sit here debating and doubting our power to provide adequate means? Shall we witness the necessity of such wasteful extravagance, and yet refuse the remedy by a rational

MARCH, 1818.

Internal Improvements.

H. OF R.

States, he again asked, to become stockholders, and to have no share in the management of the affairs of the canal? Having an interest in the improvement, it ought also to have some share in the management of it. He did not object to the power of Congress to appropriate money for these purposes, but he desired to see a limit to the expenditure, &c.

system of internal improvements? It is but to exhaust the treasures of our country and participate in a political suicide. Sir, said Mr. T., the exigencies of the Western frontier, and the unanimous expression of the nation, have called aloud for the late naval armament on Lake Erie-an armament which produced such important benefits to the country, and reaped for our nation such an abundant harvest of glory. The munitions of Mr. MERCER opposed the motion in a speech of war for that armament were sent from the Seat some length. As to the management of the afof Government. The distance is less than four fairs of this company, he had no apprehension of hundred miles, and yet, from the inability to pass its not being in safe hands, since the charter had from this place direct to Erie, I am informed at been granted by the enlightened Legislature of the Navy Department, that all the articles were one State, and approved by two others, who had transported by the way of Albany, a distance of determined to invest a part of their funds in it. nearly nine hundred miles transportation. The Although he agreed that a general principle cost of a cannon at this place is nearly four hun- should be established for the regulation of future dred dollars, while the expenses of transportation improvements, yet, as a company already exists on this circuitous and protracted route was from for opening this canal, and the work is already one thousand five hundred to two thousand dol- commenced, he thought it might well, considerlars for each gun. Mr. T. said from informationing the great importance of the object, be made that he had derived from the War and Navy De-an exception to the general provision. Although, partments, he was authorized to say, that the ex- he further remarked, he should be well disposed penses of transportation on the Western frontier, to vote for a general system of improvement very during the late war, would have opened turnpike analogous to the system embraced by the bill of roads through the Western States. the last session, which had been referred to, he should be sorry to see the improvement of the country restricted to the narrow limits of that bill; he should be very sorry that the national system of internal improvement should move with no greater celerity than would be produced by the appropriation to that object of the stock of the Government in the Bank of the United States. The objects to be effected were of primary importance; and, if restricted to the tardy pace at which the limited amount of three or four hundred thousand dollars annually would impel them forward, centuries must elapse before even a foundation could be laid of a system of internal improvement commensurate with the extent and resources of the country.

To remedy these and like inconveniences, of which Mr. T. said, he had suggested only a small portion, and with a view to relieve the country from such exorbitant expenses, incident to the present rate of transportation, he was happy to answer to the inquiries that had been made, that the select committee did contemplate to submit for the consideration of this House objects of internal improvement worthy the national attention, and that the committee would proceed as fast as this House should evince a willingness to cherish the subject, and lay aside those Constitutional scruples which had presented such serious obstacles to legislation on this subject.

Mr. FORSYTH made some remarks to show the impracticability of devising any general system Mr. SERGEANT, of Pa., opposed the motion of improvement. To attempt to embrace in one by arguments favorable as well to the particular bill all necessary improvements, would be to de-object before the House, as to canals generally. feat every proposition of that sort, since it was impossible to reconcile all the jarring interests of the various sections of the Union. The House must, therefore, to act with effect, decide on the various propositions as presented to them, on their own merits.

Mr. TALLMADGE again spoke, and added some illustrations of his former observations.

Mr. TUCKER spoke in favor of the bill before the Committee. There was no subject of internal improvement, about which there was a more general assent in favor of it than there was in regard to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Mr. PITKIN again rose, to protest against legislating on this subject, without any precise information of the extent of the system into which it was proposed to enter. When the bill for appropriating the bonus of the Bank of the United States, for the purpose of internal improvement, passed at the last session, a specific sum was proposed as the limit, and Congress knew the extent to which they were to go. Were the United

The canal, from the Delaware to the Chesapeake, being one of unquestionable utility, of great national importance, one to which the nation would apply its resources, if at all, if this bill did not pass, there was no hope of any practical result from the late decision of the House, &c. In regard to a general system of appropriating money, to be expended in the States according to their representation in Congress, Mr. S. showed that that system would not answer; since the proportion of Delaware, for instance, would be wholly inadequate to the completion of this canal, which is to run within the State of Delaware, and yet is more important to Pennsylvania and Maryland than to her, and is of very general importance to the United States, &c.

Mr. PITKIN again spoke of the necessity of a clear view of the magnitude and expense of the undertaking. Our redundant Treasury, on which gentlemen appeared to calculate, would not last a great while, he believed. What was to be the future situation of the country, who would un

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dertake to say? The Spanish negotiation, it appeared, was broken off; the result of that business no one could foretell any more than they could what other uses we may have for money hereafter, &c.

Mr. LOWNDES said, that, before acting on a proposition of this kind, the House ought to have before it ample information, not oral merely, but official, relative to the present pecuniary situation of the company, the value of its property, the amount of debts it owes, &c. While he was disposed to favor internal improvement, he thought that, in relation to any particular project, the House should inquire fully and accurately, and have the facts laid on their table, &c. He did not suppose that any member was so much attached to the cause of internal improvement that he would rush into it blindfold, without being prepared by proper information.

Mr. McLANE said, in reply to the suggestion of Mr. LOWNDES, that the subject had already been before Congress, at different times, and in a variety of forms, and ample reports of all the facts had been made, which were to be found among the records of the House. There would be found all the facts relative to the original amount of stock, the amount subscribed, the amount paid, &c. And, on examining the statutes of Pennsylvania and Maryland, it would be found that such acts had been passed by them respectively, as he had described. In regard to a system, which some gentlemen desire to see, he said that it was not possible to say how far Congress might choose to go, but each gentleman had it in his power to say how far he would go. It was no objection to this proposition, that gentlemen did not know how far Congress might think proper to go hereafter. Mr. McL. showed the great importance of this canal in a national point of view, as connecting military posts, and affording the means of effectual defence. Keeping up but a small military force, it was the duty of Congress to provide the means by which that force and the munitions of war could, when necessary, be transported wherever wanted. The canal could be of little advantage to Delaware in any view, but was of great importance as a measure of national defence. To obviate the objection which some gentlemen had expressed to this appropriation, Mr. McL. read a proviso, leaving the subscription at the discretion of the President, after he shall have satisfied himself, by inquiring into the charter, &c., that the money may be safely invested.

Mr. LOWNDES did not consider it a sufficient answer to his suggestion, that information might be obtained by searching the statutes of the States. The very circumstance that the bill was only this morning reported, was a sufficient reason for deferring a decision on it, He knew of no object of internal improvement more worthy of attention than that in question; but he wished to see further information on the subject. He should, therefore, vote for the Committee's rising, with the hope that, in some shape, there would be spread on the table of the House, that infor

MARCH, 1818.

mation without which they could not prudently act.

The Committee then rose, reported their assent to the bill respecting the Alabama and Tennessee roads bill, and reported progress on the canal bill.

The bill first mentioned was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, by yeas and nays-83 to 55, as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Abbott, Anderson of Pennsylvania, Anderson of Kentucky, Baldwin, Barber of Ohio, Bateman, Bayley, Beecher, Bloomfield, Campbell, Cook, Crafts, Crawford, Cushman, Darlington, Elli cott, Ervin of South Carolina, Forsyth, Hall of Delaware, Harrison, Hasbrouck, Hendricks, Herbert, Herkimer, Heister, Hitchcock, Holmes of Massachusetts, Hopkinson, Hubbard, Jones, Kinsey, Lawyer, Linn, Little, Lowndes, McLane, W. P. Maclay, Marchand, Marr, Mason of Massachusetts, Mason of Rhode Island, Mercer, Middleton, Moore, Morton, Mumford, Murray, J. Nelson, Ogden, Ogle, Owen, Palmer, Patterson, Pawling, Peter, Pindall, Pitkin, Poindexter, Rich, Richards, Robertson of Louisiana, Ruggles, Schuyler, Sergeant, Seybert, Slocumb, Southard, Speed, Spencer, Stewart of North Carolina, Tallmadge, Tarr, Taylor, Terrill, Trimble, Tucker of Virginia, Wallace, Westerlo, Whiteside, Whitman, Wilkin, Wilson of Massachusetts, and Wilson of Pennsylvania.

NAYS-Messrs. Allen of Massachusetts, Allen of Vermont, Ball, Barbour of Virginia, Bassett, Bellinger, Bennett, Blount, Boden, Bryan, Burwell, Butler, Clagett, Culbreth, Earle, Edwards, Floyd, Gage, Garnett, Hale, Hogg, Holmes of Connecticut, Hunter, H. Nelson, T. M. Nelson, New, Porter, Reed, Rhea, Huntington, Johnson of Va., Kirtland, McCoy, Merrill, Rice, Sampson, Sawyer, Scudder, Settle, Shaw, Sherwood, Silsbee, Alexander Smyth, J. S. Smith, Strong, Strother, Tompkins, Townsend, Tucker of South Carolina, Tyler, Upham, Walker of North Carolina, Williams of Connecticut, Williams of New York, and Williams of North Carolina.

TUESDAY, March 17.

Mr. BLOUNT presented a petition of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, praying permission to withdraw the locations of certain lands in that State, heretofore appropriated by the General Government, for the use of colleges and academies, and to be permitted to cause other lands to be located and laid off in the same tract of country for the use of the said colleges and academies, with power to sell the same. As also that they may be authorized to grant or sell any vacant land which may be left within the limits of the country described in the first section of the act of April, 1806, "authorizing the said State to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle the claims to the vacant and unappropriated lands within the same," at such price, and upon such terms, as the General Assembly of the said State deem proper.

may

Mr. MARR presented another petition of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, relating to the subject of land titles in that State, derived from the State of North Carolina, and praying that they may be authorized to proceed

MARCH, 1818.

Rules of the House-Laws in Mississippi.

to perfect titles west of the Elk river line, upon all unsatisfied claims which exist against North Carolina, and which are good and valid.

H.OF R.

culars in which it differed from a similar proposition offered at a former session by Mr. HOPKINSON, its exemption from the objectionable features of the former proposition, &c.

Mr. POINDEXTER, from the Committee on Private Land Claims, reported a bill for the relief Mr. HOPKINSON supported the proposition, and of General Moses Porter, which was read twice briefly recapitulated the unnecessary repetition and ordered to be engrossed and read a third of labor of committees, &c. which it would pretime to-morrow. vent, the expedition which it would produce in Mr. TALLMADGE and Mr. MILLS were appoint-acting on the public business, &c. ed of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the places of Mr. GooDWYN, deceased, and Mr. ORR, who is absent on leave.

The resolution from the Senate "directing the publication and distribution of the journal and proceedings of the Convention which formed the present Constitution of the United States," was read the third time and passed, as amended.

A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed bills of the following titles, to wit: "An act to vest, in trust, certain sections of land in the Legislature of the State of Ohio ;" and "An act allowing additional salary and clerk hire to the surveyor for the Illinois and Missouri Territories, and for other purposes;" in which they ask the concurrence of this House.

The said bills were respectively read twice and referred to the Committee on the Public Lands.

The bill authorizing the election of a delegate from the Michigan Territory to the Congress of the United States, and extending the right of suffrage to the citizens of said Territory, was read twice, and ordered to be engrossed and read a third time to-morrow.

The proposition was then agreed to, without a division, as follows:

"After six days from the commencement of a second or a subsequent session of any Congress, all bills, resolutions, and reports, which originated in the House, and at the close of the next preceding session remained undetermined, shall be resumed and acted on in the same manner as if an adjournment had not taken place."

JAIL IN ALEXANDRIA.

The bill making an appropriation for the erection of a jail, and authorizing the Levy Court to erect, at their own expense, a court-house, &c. in the county of Alexandria, passed through a Committee of the Whole, and was reported without amendment.

On the question of ordering the said bill to be engrossed, some debate arose, in which Messrs. HERBERT, FORSYTH, COBB, and PINDALL, advocated the appropriation, and Messrs. BEECHER, SOUTHARD, and LIVERMORE, opposed it, on different grounds.

Mr. LINN moved to strike out the first section, (making the appropriation for the jail,) which was agreed to; and the remaining sections, after some discussion, were, with the addition of an enacting clause, ordered to be engrossed for a

On motion of Mr. FORSYTH, the Committee on the Judiciary was instructed to inquire into the expediency of altering so much of the laws now in force for regulating the Territorial gov-third reading. ernments of the United States, as requires a freehold property in the Territories respectively as a qualification for office.

The bill for the relief of Abraham Byington, and the bill for the relief of Purley Keyes and Jason Fairbanks, severally passed through Committees of the Whole, and were ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

The House then went into Committee on the bill to suspend the act of limitations, so far as regards certain loan office and final settlement certificates; which, having received sundry amendments, was reported to the House, the amendments concurred in, and the bill ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

The SPEAKER laid before the House, a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting his report on the petition of John Killgore, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.

RULES OF THE HOUSE.

The House then, on motion of Mr. TAYLOR, proceeded to consider the amendment to the rules and orders of the House, submitted by him on the 10th instant.

THE LAWS IN MISSISSIPPI.

The House went next into Committee on the bill providing for the due execution of the laws of the United States in the State of Mississippi.

Some conversation took place on the amount of compensation proper to be allowed to the district judge to be created in the State.

Mr. POINDEXTER moved and advocated the sum of two thousand dollars, in which he was supported by Mr. CLAY, a liberal allowance being contended for on the ground of the peculiar and burdensome duties to be performed, and the sacrifices to be made by the district judge, there acting also as circuit judge.

The motion to fill the blank with two thousand dollars was carried-57 to 55.

Mr. POINDEXTER then moved a salary of five hundred dollars to the United States attorney, in the new State, instead of two hundred dollars, which had been reported by the Judiciary Committee, which motion was disagreed to; also, successive motions to insert four hundred and three hundred dollars.

The Committee then rose, and the House takMr. TAYLOR explained the advantages which ing up the amendments, the sum of two thousand he conceived would result to the business of le- dollars, inserted as the salary of the judge, was, gislation by the adoption of this rule; the parti-after some discussion, concurred in, 64 to 48

H. OF R.

Neutral Relations.

MARCH, 1818.

and the bill ordered to be engrossed for a third in force, and to repeal the acts of 1797 and of reading.

NEUTRAL RELATIONS.

The House went into Committee of the Whole on the bill in addition to "An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States," and to repeal the acts therein mentioned, (to enact into one, with amendments, the several acts heretofore passed to enforce the neutral obliga tions of the United States.)

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1817. Mr. C. concluded by moving to strike out of the second section the words which make it penal for a person to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United States, with intent to be enlisted or entered," in the service of any foreign Prince or State.

Mr. FORSYTH opposed the motion, and observed, that after the great labor which the committee had undertaken on this subject, at the instance of the Speaker, (Mr. CLAY,) they had Mr. FORSYTH rose in explanation of the views some reason to complain of his remarks on the of the Committee of Foreign Relations in pro- course they had taken. A general inquiry into posing this bill, which was the result of the gen- the subject and revision of the acts had been reeral inquiry into the various existing acts on this ferred to them, and the committee had found it subject which had been referred to them, and easier and better to amend and bring into one which it was presumed answered the intentions general bill all the acts, than to adopt any other of the House in directing the inquiry. Mr. F. course. Mr. F. said that, so far from operating briefly recapitulated the history of the several unfairly against the cause of the patriots, this laws passed on this subject, from the act of 1794, bill removed certain provisions of the act of rendered necessary by the French revolution, 1797, which bore exclusively on that cause, deand the want of sufficient power in the Execu-nouncing the severest penalties against those of tive to enforce on our own citizens the observance of neutrality, down to the act of the last session; and concluded by explaining the amendment which the committee had deemed necessary to the strict impartiality of the provisions of the general bill they had reported.

Mr. ROBERTSON, of Louisiana, after submitting his reasons for disputing the propriety of some of the former acts; for believing that the provisions of the present bill exceeded the obligations imposed on us by a just regard to neutral duties, and went further than the neutral acts of any other nation-moved, first, to strike out the following proviso:

"That if any person so enlisted, shall, within thirty days after such enlistment, voluntarily discover upon oath to some justice of the peace, or other civil magistrate, the person or persons by whom he was so enlisted, so as that he or they may be apprehended or convicted of the said offence, such person so discovering the offender or offenders, shall be indemnified from the penalty prescribed by this act."

This motion was agreed to without a division. Mr. CLAY offered some general remarks on the offensive nature of the bill, which, he said, instead of an act to enforce neutrality, ought to be entitled, an act for the benefit of His Majesty the King of Spain. He also expressed his unwillingness thus to be called on to re-enact laws already in force, of which he did not wish to have now the labor of investigating their principles, or the responsibility, if wrong, of renovating and participating in them. Sufficient, he thought, for the day, was the evil thereof; and he was sorry the committee had not contented itself with bringing forward some original proposition, without hunting out and bringing up for re-enaction all the old laws heretofore passed on the subject. There was a great difference between suffering acts to remain unrepealed, and bringing them up for re-enactment, and he gave notice that, after this bill should be made as perfect as its friends could make it, he should submit a single proposition to leave the act of 1794

our citizens who aid them, which this bill would render equal and impartial. Mr. F. adduced some arguments to show the propriety of retaining the provision moved to be stricken out; but, after some conversation between Mr. CLAY and Mr. FORSYTH, the question was taken, and Mr. CLAY's motion agreed to without a count.

Mr. ROBERTSON, of Louisiana, objected to the penalties proposed by the bill, as unreasonably severe, and, instead of a fine of $10,000, and ten years imprisonment which the judge might, at his discretion, impose on the offender-moved to substitute $2,000 and three years.

This motion was opposed by Messrs. FORSYTH, SMITH of Maryland, LIVERMORE, and RHEA, and supported by Messrs. ROBERTSON of Louisiana, CLAIBORNE, and BALL.

The question being divided, the motion to reduce the fine was negatived-ayes 40; and the motion to reduce the limit of imprisonment was carried-62 to 60.

Mr. HOLMES, of Massachusetts, moved to amend the section so as to leave it to the discretion of the judge to inflict both fine and imprisonment, or one only, instead of being obliged, as the bill stood, to impose both, if either.-Negatived-ayes 55.

Mr. HERRICK moved to reduce the fine to $5,000; which was also negatived.

After some other unsuccessful motions of minor importance

Mr. FORSYTH moved to strike from the third section the provision which makes it penal for any citizen to fit out or arm, without the jurisdiction of the United States, any ship or vessel with intent to commit hostilities upon the citizens or subjects of a friendly State-leaving in this section only the provision against such citizens of the United States as shall, beyond our jurisdiction, fit out vessels to commit hostilities against the citizens of the United States.

This motion produced a good deal of debate, principally on the expediency of striking out the whole section, and on the impropriety of still

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