To all who shall see these presents : Be it Known, Cæsar Augustus Rodney, John Graham, and Theodorick Bland, three distinguished citizens of the United States, and enjoying, in a high degree, the confidence and esteem of the President, are about to visit, in a national ship, on just and friendly objects, and at the special desire of the President, divers places and countries in South America. These are therefore to request that, whithersoever they may go, they, with their suite, may be received and treated in a manner due to the confidence reposed in them, and each of them, as aforesaid, by the President of the United States, and to their own merit. Given under my hand, and the seal of the Department of State, this twenty-fourth day of Novem[L. S.] ber, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen. JOHN Q. ADAMS, H. OF R. boldly as the mission had been devised, that Mr. C. rose to object; it was the Constitutional point it involved that made it obnoxious; and he read the clause of the Constitution which requires the consent and concurrence of the Senate to all appointments not specifically provided for by law, to show that these Commissioners should have been nominated to that body-taking it for granted, that they had not been submitted to the Senate. The President had not only made these appointments without the authority of the Constitution, or of any law recognising them, but There was an act of Congress fixing the grade in derogation from a positive act of Congress. of the only Ministers we sent abroad, and it provided for two cases only, that of Minister Plenipotentiary and that of Chargé des Affaires. To the first it assigned a salary of $9,000, to the last a salary of $4,500. Here were Commissioners. then, sent with a salary fixed by the sole authority of the President, and not conformable to that prescribed by the law in either of the two grades. If he might assign $6,000, what was there to prevent his allowance of 50,000? It might be said in that case this House would afford a remedy; but gentlemen would perceive how difficult it would be, to withhold from an agent an appropriation, which had been promised and pledged by the Executive. There was a contingent fund of $50,000 allowed to the President by law, which he was authorized to expend without rendering to Congress any account of it-it was confided to his discretion, and, if the compensation of the Commissioners had been made from that fund, Mr. C. said, it would not have been a proper subject for inquiry; but, under present circumstances, in opposition to the Constitution, he could not be going too far, in giving at least his protest to this appropriation. It was not his intention to make any motion on the subject, and he made none. Mr. CLAY rose, not, he said, to make any objection to the three respectable citizens for whom this appropriation was intended-that was not his object; but to enter his protest to this kind of appropriation by Congress. As to the object of the commission, he thought it of very little use for the expenditure of public money; he referred to the views avowed, and the directions to touch at Buenos Ayres, &c., and said, if the object of the commission was to acquire information of the actual state of affairs in the Southern provinces, it was the most unfortunate mode that could have been adopted for that purpose. What, asked Mr. C., was this mode? Three distinguished citizens are selected, their appointment and intentions are announced by the newspapers, months before their departure, then declared by the President himself, and made known to the whole world, and they depart with all the paraphernalia of public Ministers; information of their object precedes them wherever they go. As soon as they arrive at a South American port they are surrounded by all the factions in the Mr. FORSYTH said, the Constitution vests the country; royalists, if there were any, as well as Executive with the powers to make appointments republicans; who strive to prejudice them in fa- in the recess of the Senate. Whether these were vor of their respective interests, to mislead their such as required the confirmation of the Senate, judgments and prevent the getting correct infor- had been or would be submitted for that purpose, mation of the real condition of things. Mr. C. to that body, he did not know, nor was it necesdescribed the extent of the interior provinces of sary to inquire. He presumed what ought to be Buenos Ayres, to show that the time allowed to done would be done, and he was disposed to leave the Commissioners (if they were acquainted with the subject to the Executive and to the Senate, to the language, manners, and habits, of the coun- whom it more properly belonged. If the idea of try) was inadequate to enable them to make any the Speaker was correct, and these were officers material addition to our stock of information; requiring a nomination to, and the appropriation but, even if they could, were they to range the of the Senate, yet, as they were appointed in the whole continent, and visit even the armies, whe-recess, no Constitutional wrong had been done in ther successful or not, of the different parties, still, their appointment. But the Speaker had objected their object being known, they would everywhere to this commission because it was useless, if it be liable to the same deception and imposition. Correct information they would not obtain. The proper course to have adopted, Mr. C. said, was to despatch an individual unknown to all parties; some intelligent, keep, silent, and observing man, of pleasing address and insinuating manners, who, concealing the object of his visit, would see and hear everything, and report it faithfully. was information they went for. Was it not proper and necessary, Mr. F. asked, for the Government to have information of the state of the South American provinces-of their actual political condition, their prospects of success, &c.? If so, this information could be obtained only in two ways-by the newspapers, or by agents sent out for the purpose. The vague and uncertain reBut it was not to the object of the appropriation, I ports given in the newspapers could not be relied H. OF R. Spanish American Provinces. MARCH, 1818. validity? As to the object of the commission, Mr. C. again asked, how these gentlemen were to acquire this information respecting the independence of the South American provinces? The fact of their independence was not to be established by a dedimus potestatum sent out to take depositions. The independence of some of these States was matter of history-was too notorious to require the evidence of those Commissioners. And Mr. C. referred to the condition of some of the South American States, on which the knowledge was complete, and contended that they had been sent to parts, with regard to which (Venezuela and Buenos Ayres, for example) our information was most perfect, and were not to visit all those parts (Mexico and New Grenada) from which we most wanted it. Mr. C. again adverted to the manner in which the Commissioners had been was the more improper, as they had not sailed till after the meeting of Congress, when it would have been scarcely any detention to have waited the concurrence of the Senate, which was in session when they departed. on, and the President had thought proper to send intelligent agents to obtain the knowledge desired. It was probable that a private man might have obtained this information better; but there was another point to be considered-the importance of this information to the Government was such, that it would be necessary that this individual should be an American, and the kind of information to be acquired might have subjected him to the fate of other Americans in the Spanish provinces; he might have been thrown into a dungeon. The opposite party might adopt this course to prevent his communicating the information he should have acquired. This had been done; American citizens had been thrown into dungeons. In whatever aspect this subject was viewed, Mr. F. could see no impropriety in voting this appropriation. It was true the President might have taken it out of the secret ser-appointed, which being done not according to law, vice fund, and no inquiry would have been made about it; but, in order to meet all the expenses of the mission, it might have been necessary to ask a further appropriation for this fund, and then the inquiry would have been made, for what it was wanted. The present course, he thought, Mr. HOPKINSON observed, that he did not rise was more honorable and fair. It would have to express any opinion upon the object or utility been necessary nearly to double the ordinary of the mission in question-he was willing to contingent fund, and it would have been a con- agree in both; but he desired to express distinctly clusive objection to the appropriation, that Con- his dissent to the appropriation, because he be gress was ignorant of the object to which it was lieved the appointment of these Commissioners to be applied. Would the House have been wil was of a kind, under the provision and spirit of ling to vote an addition to the secret service our Constitution, to require the approbation and fund, for what might have been considered the assent of the Senate, and because he had no reaemployment of spies throughout the world? son to believe such assent had ever been given This objection to such an appropriation, he be- by the Senate, or asked by the Executive. He lieved, would have been made with effect; and thought it more important for us, as the Repreit was much better for the Executive to proceed tatives of the American people, to attend to and in the present open and frank manner. Mr. F. guard our own Constitution, than to send abroad took occasion, in reply to an allusion of Mr. CLAY, to inquire into the form of government of other to say, that it was true he did not find fault with people. Mr. H. said, that being up, he would the Executive quite as often as the honorable take occasion to say that he saw little or no difSpeaker had latterly done, but still he was not the ference between sending a Minister without condefender of all Executive measures. The Com-sulting the Senate, in a case when their assent is mittee would do him the justice to recollect that he sometimes differed from the Executive, and never failed to censure what he believed censurable. admitted to be necessary, and sending him just on the eve of the meeting of that body, without any known urgency, and afterwards submitting the appointment to the Senate. Nobody can be lieve the Senate can exercise that free and unembarrassed judgment upon the nomination which the Constitution intended they should have, after the Minister had actually embarked and sailed for his destination, with his outfit and other expenses of the mission. Mr. CLAY said, in reply, that Mr. FORSYTH had not controverted the objection that these appointments had not been submitted to the Senate. But these agents were to be provided for, either in the quality of Ministers or Chargés des Affaires; and, considered in either capacity, the House was called on to make a larger appropriation than On the suggestion of Mr. LOWNDES this approwas authorized by law for officers of that charac-priation was passed by for the present, that in ter. As to a private agent being liable to the the meantime the additional information which fate mentioned by Mr. FORSYTH, what, he asked, had been asked for by the Speaker might be were the immunities of the present Commission- obtained from the Department of State. ers? Nothing more, he said, than those of a pri- Mr. CLAY rose, and moved to insert in the bill vate man. It had even been decided, in the a provision to appropriate the sum of eighteen affair of the Russian Consul at Philadelphia, that thousand dollars as the outfit and one year's salConsul Generals were not entitled to the immu-ary of a Minister to be deputed from the United nities of Ministers. But, could not the President States to the independent provinces of the River have given the same commission to one man, sent Plata, in South America. privately to obtain information, as to those three Commissioners, and with the same effect and This proposition Mr. C. followed up by entering into a discussion of the question, involved in MARCH, 1818. Distribution of Documents-Executive Papers. his motion, of a formal recognition of the independence of the South American States mentioned. He had spoken something more than an hour, when (having given way for a motion to that effect) the Committee rose, about half-past four o'clock, and the House adjourned. WEDNESDAY, March 25. On motion of Mr. MARR, the Committee on the Public Lands were instructed to inquire whether any, and, if any, what further provisions of law are necessary for preventing waste and trespass on that portion of the public lands which have been, or may hereafter be, reserved for the use of schools. The bill from the Senate, entitled "An act regulating the pay and emoluments of brevet rank," was read the second time and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. The bill from the Senate, entitled "An act authorizing a subscription for the 11th volume of State Papers," was read the second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole. > H. OF R. Resolved, That unless otherwise specially directed by the House, 600 copies shall be struck, of all such matter as may be directed to be printed, except bills and amendments. That the said 600 copies shall be disposed of, and distributed in the following manner, to wit: Two hundred copies shall be retained in the printing office, and, at the close of each session, be disposed of and distributed, conformably with the provisions of the resolution of the 27th December, 1813. ited by the printer, in the post office of the House, The remaining four hundred copies shall be depos from time to time as the work may be executed, pursuant to his contract, and shall be promptly distributed by the Doorkeeper of the House, as follows, to wit: To the President of the United States To the Secretary of the Navy A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed bills of this House of the following titles, to wit: "An act respecting the district courts of the United States within the State of New York," and "An act to To the Commissioners of the Navy Board alter the time of holding the circuit court in the To the Auditors of the Treasury, 5 copies each southern district of New York, and for other pur-To the Register of the Treasury To the Comptroller of the Treasury poses," with amendments to each; in which they To the Postmaster General ask the concurrence of this House. The amendments to each of the said bills were read, and severally referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. An engrossed bill, entitled "An act in addition to the act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and to repeal the acts therein mentioned," was read the third time, and passed. An engrossed bill to alter the flag of the United States was read the third time, and passed. Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, from the Committee on Military Affairs, to which was referred the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act regulating the pay and emoluments of brevet rank," reported the same without amendment, and the bill was committed to the Committee of the Whole, to which is committed the bill of this House to repeal so much of an act as allows pay and emoluments to brevet renk. Mr. JOHNSON, from the same committee, also reported the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act for the relief of Ashael Clark," without amendment, and the bill was committed to the Committee of the Whole, to which is committed the bill for the relief of Birdsall & Foster. DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. On motion of Mr. SPENCER, the House took up and proceeded to consider the resolution submitted by him on the 19th instant, providing for the distribution of the documents printed by order of the House, and agreed thereto, amended to read as follows: To the Commissioner of the General Land Office To the Public Printer To the Librarian The residue to be bound up, at the end of the session to be deposited in the Clerk's office as heretofore EXECUTIVE PAPERS. Several Messages were received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The first of the said Messages was read, and is as follows: WASHINGTON, March 24, 1818. In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 7th instant, I now transmit the report of the Secretary of State, with a statement of the expenses incurred under the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th articles of the Treaty of Ghent, specifying the items of expenditure in relation to each. JAMES MONROE. The second of the said Messages was read, and is as follows: To the House of Representatives of the United States: In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th of December last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with a copy of the documents which it is thought proper to H. of R. Spanish American Provinces. that resolution. In the communications received from Don Manuel H. de Aguirre, there are references to certain conferences between him and the Secretary of State, which appear to require some explanation. The character in which Mr. Aguirre presented himself was that of a public agent from the Government of La Plata, and of private agent of that of Chilihis commissions from both simply qualified him as agent; but his letter from the Supreme Director Pueyrredon, to the President of the United States, requested that he might be received with the consideration due to his diplomatic character. He had no commission as a public Minister of any rank, nor any full power to negotiate as such. Neither the letter, of which he was the bearer, nor he himself, at his first interviews with the Secretary of State, suggested that he was authorized to ask the acknowledgment of his Government as independent-a circumstance which derived additional weight from the fact, that his predecessor, Don Martin Thompson, had been dismissed by the Director Pueyrredon for having transcended his powers, of which the letter brought by Mr. Aguirre gave notice to the President. MARCH, 1818. into a negotiation for conducting a treaty; though admitting that he had no authority to that effect from his Government. It may be proper to observe, that the mode of recognition by concluding a treaty had usual, but merely as that which had been adopted by not been suggested as the only one practicable or France with the United States, and as offering the most convenient means of designating the extent of the territory acknowledged as a new dominion. should be acknowledged as independent, others of the The remark to Mr. Aguirre, that if Buenos Ayres contending Provinces would, perhaps, demand the The inquiry was, whether General Artigas might not same, had particular reference to the Banda Oriental. advance a claim of independence for those Provinces, conflicting with that of Buenos Ayres for the whole sion of Montevideo was noticed in reference to a simVice Royalty of La Plata? The Portuguese possesilar question. It should be added, that these observations were connected with others, stating the reasons upon which the present acknowledgment of the Government of La Plata, in any mode, was deemed by the President inexpedient, in regard as well to their interests as to those of the United States. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. The following are the list of papers transmitted to the President: 1. Don Yono Alvarez, to the President of the United States, dated Buenos Ayres, January 16, 1816. 2. Declaration of Independence of the United Prov inces of La Plata, dated at Tucuman, July 9, 1816, communicated by Don Manuel H. de Aguirre, to the Department of State, December 24, 1817. 3. Don J. Martin de Pueyrredon, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, to the President of the United States, dated January 1, 1817 4. The same to the same, dated March 5, 1817. 5. Commission granted by the Supreme Director of the State of Chili, to Don Manuel H. de Aguirre, dated March 8, 1817. 6. Commission granted to the same by the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of South America, dated at Buenos Ayres, March 28, 1817. 7. Don Bernardo O'Higgins, Supreme Director of the State of Chili, to the President of the United States, dated April 1, 1817. 8. Commission granted by the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, to Don Manuel H. de Aguirre, as agent of that Government, dated April 28, 1817. It was some time after the commencement of the session of Congress that he made this demand, as will be seen by the dates of his written communications to the Department. In the conferences held with him on that subject, among other questions which it naturally suggested, were those of the manner in which the acknowledgment of his Government, should it be deemed advisable, might be made? and what were the territories which he considered as forming the State or nation to be recognised? It was observed, that the manner in which the United States had been acknowledged as an independent Power by France, was, by a treaty concluded with them, as an existing independent Power, and in which each one of the States, then composing the Union, was distinctly named; that something of the same kind seemed to be necessary in the first acknowledgment of a new Government, that some definite idea might be formed, 9. General Don Jose de San Martin, Commandernot of the precise boundaries, but of the general ex-in-chief of the army of the Andes, to the President tent of the country thus recognised. He said the of the United States, without date. Government of which he desired the acknowledgment was of the country which had, before the revolution, been the Vice Royalty of La Plata. It was then asked, whether that did not include Montevideo and the territory occupied by the Portuguese-the Banda Oriental, understood to be under the government of General Artigas, and several provinces, still in the undisputed possession of the Spanish Government. He said it did; but observed, that Artigas, though in hostility with the Government of Buenos Ayres, supported, however, the cause of independence of Spainand that the Portuguese could not ultimately main13. Don Manuel H. de Aguirre to the President tain their possession of Montevideo. It was after this of the United States, dated Washington, October 29, that Mr. Aguirre wrote the letter, offering to enter | 1817. 10. Don Cactano Bezares, Secretary of State ad interim of the Executive Department of the confederated States of Venezuela, to the Secretary of State of the United States, dated Pampatar, May 22, 1817— 7th-transmitting 11. The act of the re-establishment of the Congress of Venezuela, at the city of San Felipe de Cariaco, on the 8th of May, 1817. 12. General Don Jose Artigas to the President of the United States, dated Headquarters at Purificacion, September 1, 1817. MARCH, 1818. Spanish American Provinces. 14. The same to the Secretary of State, dated December 16, 1817. 15. The same to the same, December 26, 1817. 16. The same to the same, December 29, 1817. 17. The same to the same, January 6, 1818. 18. The same to the same, January 16, 1818. The last of the said Messages was read, and is as follows: To the House of Representatives of the United States: I now lay before Congress all the information in the possession of the Executive respecting the war with the Seminoles, and the measures which it has been thought proper to adopt for the safety of our fellow-citizens on the frontier exposed to their ravages. The enclosed documents show that the hostilities of this tribe were unprovoked, the offspring of a spirit long cherished, and often manifested towards the United States, and that, in the present instance, it was extending itself to other tribes, and daily assuming a more serious aspect. As soon as the nature and object of this combination were perceived, the Major General commanding the southern division of the troops of the United States, was ordered to the theatre of action, charged with the management of the war, and vested with the powers necessary to give it effect. The season of the year being unfavorable to active operations, and the recesses of the country affording shelter to these savages, in case of retreat, may prevent a prompt termination of the war, but it may be fairly presumed that it will not be long before this tribe, and its associates, receive the punishment which they have provoked and justly merited. H. of R. SPANISH AMERICAN PROVINCES. The House having again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the annual general appropriation bill; and Mr. CLAY'S proposition to amend the bill by inserting a clause for apry of a Minister to Buenos Ayres, yet pending, propriating $18,000 for the outfit and year's salaMr. CLAY concluded, in a speech of three hours in length, the observations he yesterday commenced in support of his proposition; the whole of which is given entire, as follows: Mr. CLAY said he rose, under feelings of deeper regret than he had ever experienced on any former occasion, inspired, principally, by the painful consideration that he found himself, on the proposition which he meant to submit, differing from many highly esteemed friends, in and out of this House, for whose judgment he entertained the greatest respect. A knowledge of this circumstance had induced him to pause; to subject his own convictions to the severest scrutiny; and to revolve the question over and over again. But all his reflections had conducted him to the same clear result; and much as he valued those friends, great as his deference was for their opinions, he could not hesitate, when reduced to the distressing alternative of conforming his judgment to theirs, or pursuing the deliberate and matured dictates of his own mind. He enjoyed some consolation, for the want of their co-operation, from the persuasion that, if he erred on this Ás almost the whole of this tribe inhabits the coun- occasion, he erred on the side of the liberty and try within the limits of Florida, Spain was bound, by the happiness of a large portion of the human the Treaty of 1795, to restrain them from committing family. Another, and, if possible, indeed a greater hostilities against the United States. We have seen source of the regret to which he referred, was the with regret that her Government has altogether failed to fulfil this obligation, nor are we aware that it made do anything like adequate justice to the great utter incompetency which he unfeignedly felt to any effort to that effect. When we consider her utter inability to check, even in the slightest degree, the cause of American independence and freedom, movements of this tribe, by her very small and incom- whose interests he wished to promote by his humpetent force in Florida, we are not disposed to ascribe ble exertions, in this instance. Exhausted and the failure to any other cause. The inability, how-worn down as he was, by the fatigue, confineever, of Spain to maintain her authority over the ter-ment, and incessant application incident to the ritory and Indians within her limits, and in consequence to fulfil the treaty, ought not to expose the United States to other and greater injuries. When the authority of Spain ceases to exist there, the United States have a right to pursue their enemy, on a principle of self-defence. In this instance the right is ceptions, if any existed, in regard to his opinions. He begged, in the first place, to correct misconmore complete and obvious, because we shall perform He was averse from war with Spain, or with any only what Spain was bound to have performed her Power. He would give no just cause of war to self. To the high obligations and privileges of this great and sacred right of self-defence, will the move-any Power-not to Spain herself. He had seen ment of our troops be strictly confined. Orders have enough of war, and of its calamities, when even been given to the General in command not to enter successful. No country upon earth had more inFlorida, unless it be in pursuit of the enemy, and interest than this in cultivating peace, and avoiding that case to respect the Spanish authority wherever it is maintained, and he will be instructed to withdraw his forces from the province as soon as he shall have reduced that tribe to order, and secure our fellow-citizens, in that quarter, by satisfactory arrangements, against its unprovoked and savage hostilities in future. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 25, 1818. The said Messages and their accompanying documents were ordered to lie on the table. 15th CoN. 1st SESS.-47 arduous duties of the honorable station he held, during a four month's session, he should need all that kind indulgence which had been so often extended to him by the House. war, as long as it was possible honorably to avoid it. Gaining additional strength every day; our numbers doubling in periods of twenty-five years; with an income outstripping all our estimates, and so great as, after a war in some respects disastrous, to furnish results which carry astonishment, if not dismay, into the bosom of the States jealous of our rising importance, we had every motive for the love of peace. He could not, however, approve, in all respects, of the manner in which our negotiation with Spain had been con |