enacted previously, and are consequently binding under the Constitution. It cannot be controverted, that they were wisely adopted, and have been salutary in their operation. They were framed by the Congress of '87, composed of men whose integrity was incorruptible, and judgment almost infallible. These articles, from that time to this, have remained unaltered, and carried the Territories through difficulties, almost insuperable, to prosperity. And now, for the first or second time, an alteration is proposed, the consequence of which cannot be foreseen, without any evidence that it is either necessary or expedient.

The population of every new country must necessarily be composed of a heterogeneous mixture of various tempers, characters, and interests. In a population thus composed, it would be highly ridiculous to expect that love of order and obedience to law would always predominate. Therefore the old Congress wisely reserved to itself the right to control them; to give the Governor power, when a Legislature became disorderly, to dissolve them; and for the exercise of this power he is accountable to the General Government.

The gentleman from Mississippi wishes us not to treat the Territories as children, whose wild extravagancies may require correcting by the indulgent hand of their parents, but as the equals of the States, without any other reason than that which he states to be the situation of the people of his Territory. They will next wish us to admit them into the Union before their population will authorize it; tell us that that Territory does not grow fast enough, and we must demolish the system for their convenience.

Mr. T. adverted to the representation made by Mr. POINDEXTER, of the state of things now existing in the Mississippi Territory. If such were the situation of the Territory, and Mr. T. said he sincerely regretted it, he could put the gentleman in a way of settling the dispute in a regular and Constitutional way, and which would be the most prudent and advisable. Certainly, in this dispute, one of the parties must be right and the other wrong. They had nothing to do but prefer their complaints before the proper authority, and, if they were there substantiated, they would obtain redress of their wrongs. If, on the contrary, the people were wrong and the Governor right, the wisdom of this part of the ordinance would be proved beyond question.

Mr. POINDEXTER observed that the gentleman from Georgia had set out with telling the House that if the Legislature were made independent of the Governor, they could pass any law they pleased respecting land titles. The gentleman could not have looked at the ordinance, for there was an express provision that the Legislature should "never interfere with the primary disposal of the 'soil by the United States in Congress assembled, 'nor with any regulations Congress may find neเ cessary for securing the title in such soil," &c. Independent of this, it is control sufficient if the Governor have a veto on the laws. The gentleman has told you, said Mr. P., that these articles are unalterable but with common consent. When

NOVEMBER, 1808.

up before, I read that part which is unalterable. It is the articles of ordinance and not the form of government; and to this Judge Tucker refers when he speaks of it. The gentleman has said, that the situation of the people would not be bettered by taking away the power, if the veto were left. In my opinion it would be ameliorated. Let the Governor retain his veto, but let them remain in session, and pass laws, that the General Gorernment may see whether such laws are worthy of rejection or of approbation. Now, if the Governor discovers them about to pass a law or do an act he does not like, he sends them home. Lop off a little of this Executive power, and let the Legislature pass laws which he may negative, and the General Government will have an opportunity of seeing that the Governor will not consent to proper laws. Trust your Executive and distrust the people, and you sap the foundation of the Government. Whatever leads to the conclusion that the people are always wrong and the Executive right, strikes at the root of republican institutions.

The gentleman has spoken of the wildness and extravagance of the people of the Mississippi Territory. Does he recollect the invasion of the Spaniards two years ago? That, at a few days' notice, at the requisition of the Commander-inChief, a detachment of two hundred and fifty militia were sixty miles on their march? When an arch traitor from the East designed to sever the Union, the people of the Territory, without call, assembled near the city of Natchez, and arrested the traitor. These proceedings cannot be exceeded even by the spirit or prudence of the State of Georgia. I hope the indignation of this House will be displayed at these insinuations against the motives of people who have manifested the greatest patriotism. In respect to the late measures of the General Government, no people feel them more severely than the people of Mississippi, and no people better support them. There may be symptoms of wildness and extravagance, but they show a submission to the laws and measures of the Union.

The gentleman talks of tender parents. If he considers the State of Georgia as one of our tender parents, I protest against it. Although she be one of our parents, there has been no proposition ever made on this floor, for the good of the Territory, which has not met the opposition of that State. But these are subjects on which I will not dwell.

The gentleman has stated that a number of people have gone over to the Mississippi Territory to settle lands, against the express provisions of the law. That, under the pretext of a purchase from an Indian, named Double Head, people have gone over to settle lands, is true; but from where? From Georgia. They are citizens of Georgia; people nurtured by this tender parent into a state of manhood, and unwilling to participate longer in the tender cares of the State of Georgia. They have been, very properly, ordered to be driven off by military force, because they have infringed a law of the United States.

But these things do not touch the present question. I now propose to take away a power which has been, by mistake, incorporated into the Constitution of a free people.

Mr. BIBB said that the State of Georgia had never undertaken to legislate for the Mississippi Territory; but there was a compact existing between the United States and Georgia, and he called upon the United States to adhere to it. They dared not violate it, except they could violate the most solemn compact-the Constitution. Mr. TROUP observed that, it had been said this power of the Governor was a badge of slavery copied from the British constitution. That in many things they had been copied too far, he agreed; but as to this prerogative, it was no such badge of slavery, and was found not only in the articles of the ordinance, but in the constitutions of various States, qualified in a greater or less degree. Mr. T. quoted the constitutions of New York and Massachusetts, both which States had been considered republican. Massachusetts, to be sure, was a little wavering now, but he hoped she had not quite gone over to the enemy yet. These constitutions gave a qualified prerogative to the Governor of the State.

The Committee now rose-58 to 36. Mr. TROUP moved that the further consideration of the bill be postponed indefinitely-[equivalent to rejection.]

Mr. POINDEXTER calling for the yeas and nays on the motion, it was decided-yeas 57, nays 52,

as follows:

H. OF R.

ah K. Smith, John Smith, Samuel Smith, Richard Stanford, Clement Storer, John Thompson, Archibald Van Horn, Jesse Wharton, Isaac Wilbour, and Alexander Wilson. So the bill was postponed indefinitely.

MONDAY, November 21.

Another member, to wit: JOHN BOYLE, from Kentucky, appeared and took his seat in the House.

Mr. HOWARD presented a petition of sundry inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, stating that the King of Great Britain having, by his proclamation of the sixteenth of October, one thousand eight hundred and seven, claimed the allegiance of all persons who may have been born in his dominions, and were not inhabitants of the United States of America at the period of their Revolution, and disregarding the laws of naturalization in other countries, hath authorized the impressment into his service of his pretended subjects, and treated as traitors such as may have taken up arms against him in the service of their adopted country; the petitioners being, at the present time, precluded from the privilege of following commercial pursuits on the high seas in safety, therefore pray that such measures be adopted by Congress as may effectually resist the unjust assumption of power claimed and exercised by a foreign nation; and pledging themselves to support with their lives and fortunes whatever steps may be taken, or acts passed, by the General Government, for the welfare of the Union.Referred to Mr. HOWARD, Mr. JOHN MORROW, and Mr. HARRIS, to examine the matter thereof, and report their opinion thereupon to the House.

Mr. LEWIS presented a petition of the Common Council of the town of Alexandria, in the Territory of Columbia, praying that the petitioners may be invested with power to establish and regulate, by law, such inspections of articles of the growth, produce, or manufactures of the United States, offered for sale or exportation within the said town, as they may, from time to time, deem advantageous; also, that certain regulations relative to debtors and judicial process, in the town of Alexandria, may be adopted, for the convenience and benefit of the inhabitants thereof.

The said petition was read and ordered to be referred to the Committee for the District of Columbia.

An engrossed bill to authorize the conveyance of papers and documents by the mail, free of postage, was read the third time, and passed.

Mr. JEREMIAH MORROW, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred, on the eighth instant, a memorial of the House of Representatives of the Mississippi Territory, made a report thereon; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table.

On a motion made by Mr. DANA, that the House do come to the following resolution:

Resolved, That it is expedient to provide for regu

agreement of the respective owners, may sail in concert for mutual assistance and defence, in cases which may be allowed by law; and also for settling, according to the course of proceeding in Courts of Admiralty, the respective rates of contribution to be made between them, on account of any loss or damage which may be thereby incurred:

The resolution was read, and referred to the Committee of the Whole to whom was committed a resolution moved by Mr. CHITTENDEN, on the tenth instant.

Mr. NEWTON, from the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures, presented a bill authorizing the President to employ twelve additional revenue cutters; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to

morrow.

On motion of Mr. J. G. JACKSON,

Ordered, That the memorial of Return Jonathan Meigs and others, witnesses against Aaron Burr, attending the circuit court for the Virginia district, presented the ninth of November, one thousand eight hundred and seven, be referred to Mr. JACKSON, Mr. HEISTER, and Mr. N. WILSON, to examine and report their opinion thereupon to the House.

MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION.

Mr. Love, from the committee to whom was referred, on the sixteenth instant, the petition of thirty-six citizens of the United States now confined at Carthagena, in South America, under sentence of slavery, made a report thereon; which was read, and ordered to be referred to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow. The report is as follows:

NOVEMBER, 1808.

that they were to be employed in the service of the United States, and under the authority of the Government. For the truth of their statement, and a confirmation of the charges they make against certain persons of having thus deceived and betrayed them into an involuntary co-operation in the design of fitting out an armament against a nation in amity with the United States, they refer to the testimony of several persons, said to be inhabitants of the city of New York, and to have had proposals made to them similar to those by which the petitioners were induced to engage on board the Leander.

The petitioners also state that no opportunity was offered them of escaping from the service of the said Miranda and his associates; that they were restrained under the most rigorous discipline, and at Jacmel, the only place where an opportunity of escape might have been probable, they were strictly guarded to prevent it. For the truth of this they refer to certain captains of vessels then at Jacmel belonging to the ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore.

The committee further report that the foregoing statements of the petitioners are unaccompanied by any competent testimony in support of them, and, at the same time, are uncontradicted by any opposing circumstances; they are of opinion that a very strong probability of the petitioners not having been guilty of the crime of wilfully engaging in the unlawful expedition of Miranda attends their application: first, because the petitioners have made a detailed statement of facts relative to the deception practised on them, referring to such species of evidence as to render their contradiction easy, if not founded in truth, and thus lessen their claim on their country, and diminish their hopes of liberation; second, because it is presumed they were proven to the Spanish tribunal before which they were convicted to have been offenders in a sec

That, from New York, the said ship sailed to Jacmel, where the said Miranda procured two schooners, on board which the petitioners were placed, which, together with the Leander, sailed, under the command of Miranda, about the last of March, in the same year, for the northern parts of South America, and arrived on the coast of Terra Firma in the latter part of April following.

That, upon their arrival on the said coast, the two schooners, on board which the petitioners were embarked, were captured by two Spanish armed vessels; the ship Leander, with Miranda on board, having made her escape.

That the petitioners, together with ten others, were convicted by a Spanish tribunal, at Porto Cabello, of the crime of piracy, from the circumstances of suspicion which attached to their situation, and not from any act of that kind committed on the high seas; that the ten others abovementioned were sentenced to death, and the petitioners some to eight, others to ten years' slavery, which they now are suffering; some chained together, others closely confined under heavy irons and a guard, destined to other places and to similar pun

ishment.

The petitioners state that they were entrapped into the service of the said Miranda, on the said expedition, by assurances, made at the time of their engagements,

The committee, however, are of opinion that, should the petitioners have been guilty of a crime against the United States by a voluntary or otherwise culpable infraction of its laws, the dictates of humanity, no less than the principles of justice, ought to influence the Legislature of the United States to adopt the proper means of restoring them to their country, in order that they may expiate the offence by a punishment suited to but not transcending the magnitude of their

crime.

The committee, therefore, beg leave to submit the following resolution for the consideration of the House:

Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to adopt the most immediate and efficacious means in his power to obtain from the Viceroy of Grenada, in South America, or other proper authority, the liberation of thirty-six American citizens, condemned on a charge of piracy, and now held in slavery in the vaults of St. Clara, in Carthagena, and that the sum of dollars be appropriated for that purpose.

THE EMBARGO.

On a motion made by Mr. CHITTENDEN that the House do now resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on a resolution submitted by him on the tenth instant, relative to a repeal of the several acts laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the Uni