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Friday, November 6

Several other members, to wit: from New Jersey, George C. Maxwell; from Massachusetts, Ezekiel Bacon; from Connecticut, Lewis B. Sturges; and from Pennsylvania, James Milnor, appeared, and took their seats.

George Poindexter, the Delegate from the Mississippi Territory, also appeared, and took his seat.

Monday, November 9

Several other members, to wit: from Massachusetts, Samuel Taggart; from Connecticut, Benjamin Tallmadge; from New York, Ebenezer Sage, and Thomas R. Gold; from Pennsylvania, Roger Davis; from Delaware, Henry M. Ridgely; and from Virginia, John Taliaferro, appeared, and took their seats.

Encouragement to Privateers

Mr. Mitchill presented a petition of sundry owners and agents of privateers in the city of New York, praying for a reduction of the duties on prizes and prize goods; that prize property, on condemnation, may be delivered to them to be disposed of and distributed; that the time necessary to procure condemnations may be shortened; that the fees of the officers of prize courts may be limited to a certain sum, and that prize owners and their agents be authorized to order prizes arrived in one port to any other port, at their discretion, at any time before the actual libelling of such prizes.

Exemption of Soldiers from Arrest for Debt

Mr. Bacon stated that, under the present law, exempting from arrest of privates in the Army of the United States in certain cases of debt, frauds had been, and more extensively might be, committed; inasmuch as a soldier who was tired of the service, by giving his bond for a feigned debt for an amount greater than twenty dollars, could procure himself to be arrested and kept out of service, &c. Mr. B. further illustrated the evasions to which the present law is liable, and concluded by moving the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for exempting altogether from liability to arrest, or being taken in execution for debt, of any non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, belonging to the Army of the United States, or to any volunteer corps, when called into service pursuant to to law.

The resolution was agreed to.

Tuesday, November 10

Another member, to wit, from Virginia, James Breckenridge, appeared, and took his seat.

Mounted Troops

Mr. Richard M. Johnson observed that he had draughted a resolution for the consideration of the House, the object of which was to authorize an expedition of mounted volunteers against the several Indian tribes hostile to the United States. He said the people of the United States had the power and the will to break up and to extirpate those hostile savages, to desolate their country, or compel them to surrender at discretion, as the Miamies had done lately when they beheld the strong arm of the Government uplifted and ready to fall upon them heavily. And it was the imperious duty of Congress so to organize this power, and so to direct this will, as to make it effectual and most destructive to the enemy in the line of its operation. Mr. J. said a winter campaign of mounted men well selected, well organized, and well conducted for sixty days, would close an Indian war, which was restrained on their part by no ties of religion, by no rules of morality, by no suggestions of mercy, by no principles of humanity. Sir, said he, you well know that we cannot so guard any part of our extended line of frontier as to prevent entirely the incursions of savages, so long as they have a place of safety or hiding place upon our borders; by reason of which a few desperate savages, well armed with their rifles, tomahawks, and scalping knives, and paid for the scalps of our citizens, may travel in the night, watch their place of assassination undiscovered, and fall upon our infant settlements thus exposed and massacre them without distinction of age or sex, and not leave even an infant to lisp the sad tale of sorrow to the passing stranger. Such has been the fact in many places on our frontier since the battle of Tippecanoe; and such was the melancholy fact near the Ohio river, in Indiana, when upwards of twenty persons were horribly murdered in cold blood, without the opportunity of resistance; the most of these unfortunate victims were women and children, whose heads were roasted by the fire, and in this cruel mode tortured to death, and under circumstances which would blacken and dye with deeper disgrace the most infamous and abandoned set of beings on earth. Since the defeat of Braddock, Mr. J. observed, the conflict with the Indians had always been an unequal one, and the United States had never carried on such a campaign against them as would bring them to their reason. He observed, that a winter campaign of mounted men would place us on an equality in our contest with the Indians; and he pledged himself for the efficacy of such an expedition, if sanctioned and authorized by Congress, and left to the Executive of Kentucky, so far as the forces were taken from that State. On such a campaign they must meet us in battle, or surrender at discretion; they could not avoid our search nor evade our pursuit – the season would furnish certain means of discovery; their strongholds would be broken up; their squaws and children would fall into our hands, and remain sure pledges against savage ferocity and barbarity. Nothing do they so much fear as to have their squaws taken prisoners. Their winter quarters would be discovered and their stock of winter provisions would be destroyed; and once since the Revolution the friend of his country would enjoy the satisfaction of seeing our savage enemies humbled in the dust and solely at our mercy, notwithstanding all the arts of British intrigue to the contrary. On the contrary, we want no additional evidence, no train of reasoning, nor a particular detail of facts, to convince us that any other kind of force, and at any other period, will only give us a partial remedy. Upon any other principle we give the savage foe every advantage. When threatened and pursued by a force sufficient to chastise them, no warriors can be found – they scatter through the woods like the wild beasts of the forest. Send a small party, and they are immediately surrounded and cut off by superior numbers. In fact, sir, they will not meet at their own doors and firesides equal numbers in honorable combat – they must always have some great and decided advantage. In the several attacks made upon Fort Wayne, Fort Harrison, and Bellevue – at which places our officers and soldiers acted with a firmness and gallantry deserving the highest praises of their country – the Indians retreated at the approach of assistance, and could not be found. We witnessed the same scene when our army penetrated their country from Fort Wayne, who burnt their towns and destroyed their crops. In short, sir, late in the spring, in the summer, and in the fall, every thicket, every swamp – nay, every brush-heap surrounded with weeds furnishes a hiding place; and it is in vain to search after Indians at such a time, if they are not disposed to be seen. Mr. J. said, with this imperfect picture before us, which, however, contained undeniable facts, Congress could not reconcile it to its duty not to take such steps as would speedily terminate the war with the savages. Such steps had been taken as to produce much temporary distress among the Pottawatamies and other tribes, and the destruction of their villages and crops would employ many of their warriors in procuring subsistence for their squaws and children, which consequently gave a correspondent relief to our frontier settlements; that a winter campaign well conducted was indispensable to complete the work which was begun with so much zeal, but which could not produce all the benefit that might be expected from a regular authorized expedition; for it would be recollected that the mounted men had gone out suddenly upon the spur of the occasion, without compensation, with a view to relieve the frontiers from the disasters of Hull's humiliating surrender; and in such voluntary associations many men would consider themselves under less obligations than if employed by the Government, although the party with whom he had the honor to act served beyond the time for which they enrolled themselves, and never quitted the service until honorably discharged. Mr. J. observed, if the savages are unmindful of the many acts of benevolence, of justice and friendship exercised towards them by the United States; if British influence, or British gold, or any other consideration, could induce them to continue the savage practice of imbruing their hands alike in the blood of the warrior in the field, and the infant in its mother's arms; if they will be bound by no obligation however sacred; by no treaty, however solemnly made; by no dictate of nature, no matter how self-evident; the United States are absolved from all acts of further forbearance; and we are called upon by every feeling of duty and honor to disarm them of their fury and put them beyond the power of injury. Mr. J. said he had not intended to trouble the House with so many preliminary remarks, but he had seen in his place the Chairman of the committee to whom the resolution was to be referred, and he was anxious that the design and object of the motion should be known, that the committee might act with despatch if it met with their views:

Resolved, That the select committee to whom was referred so much of the President's Message as relates to military affairs, be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing an expedition of mounted volunteers against the Indian tribes hostile to the United States.

The resolution was agreed to nem. con., without debate.

Thursday, November 12

Another member, to wit, from Kentucky, Samuel McKee, appeared and took his seat.

Friday, November 13

Several other members, to wit: from New York, Thomas B. Cooke; from New Jersey, James Morgan; from Virginia, John Randolph; and from North Carolina, Lemuel Sawyer, appeared, and took their seats.

Monday, November 16

Several other members, to wit: from Massachusetts, William Reed; from Rhode Island, Elisha R. Potter; from Virginia, Daniel Sheffey; from North Carolina, James Cochran; from South Carolina, Richard Wynn, appeared, and took their seats.

Tuesday, November 17

Encouragement to Privateers

Mr. Bassett, from the committee appointed on that part of the President's Message which relates to the Naval Establishment, reported, in part, a bill in addition to the act concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole to-morrow.

The bill is as follows:

A Bill in addition to the act concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all prize property, upon sentence of condemnation, shall, at the request of the owners of the private armed vessel by which the capture shall have been made, or of their agents, be, by the marshal of the district in whose custody the same may be, delivered over to the said owners or their agents, to be by them sold or disposed of at their discretion, and the proceeds thereof distributed by them agreeably to the provisions of law: Provided, That all fees, costs, and charges, arising on the process of condemnation, be first paid, and that the duties accruing on such prize goods, as also two per cent. on the estimated value of such prize property, after deducting all duties, costs, and charges, (which value, as it respects the cargo, shall be ascertained in the same manner as is provided by law for ascertaining the value of goods subject to ad valorem duties; and as it respects the vessel, to be ascertained by appraisers to be appointed in the same manner,) shall be first paid, or secured to be paid, to the collector of the district into which such prize property may be brought for condemnation; which two per cent. shall be in lieu of the two per cent. on the net amount of the prize money reserved by the seventh section of the act to which this act is in addition, and shall be pledged and appropriated to the same fund as is thereby provided for.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all bonds taken for the security of the two per cent. fund before provided for shall be made payable within sixty days from the time of taking such bonds.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the owners of any private armed vessel or vessels, or their agents, may, at any time before a libel shall be filed against any captured vessel or her cargo, remove the same from any port into which it may be first brought, to any other port in the United States, subject to the same restrictions, and complying with the same regulations, with respect to the payment of duties, which are provided by law in relation to other vessels arriving in port with cargoes subject to duty: Provided, That before such removal the said captured property shall not have been attached at the suit of any adverse claimant, or a claim against the same have been interposed in behalf of the United States.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That wherever the proceeds of any prize property has been, or shall be, deposited with the clerk of any district court, pursuant to the orders of said court, upon condemnation, the same shall, at the request of the owners of the private armed vessel by which the capture shall have been made, or of their agents, be paid over to them, to be by them distributed agreeably to the provisions of law.

Wednesday, November 18

Another member, to wit, Josiah Quincy, from Massachusetts, appeared, and took his seat.

Thursday, November 19

Privateer Prize Law

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill in addition to the act concerning prizes and prize goods.

Mr. Bassett, as chairman of the committee who reported the bill, explained its provisions, and enforced the necessity of its adoption. He took occasion to advert to the numerous captures made by our private armed vessels, and their utility as a system of annoyance to the enemy. In every case in which they had come in conflict, they had acquitted themselves in a manner that redounded to their credit.

After some further conversation on the details of the bill, the following section was, on motion of Mr. Bacon, substituted for the fourth section of the bill:

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That in cases of sale of prize property by the marshal of any district, or wherever the proceeds thereof has been or shall be deposited with the clerk of any district court, pursuant to the orders of said court upon condemnation, the same shall, by the said marshal or clerk respectively, at the request of the owners of the private armed vessel by which the capture shall have been made, or of their agents, be paid over to them, to be by them distributed agreeably to the provisions of law: Provided, That all fees, costs, and charges, arising on condemnation, be first paid, and all duties accruing on such prize property, as also the two per cent. fund accruing on such proceeds, be first paid, or secured to be paid, to the collector of the district into which such prize may be brought for condemnation, and that the marshal and clerk shall be allowed for their services respectively, in selling, receiving, and paying over as aforesaid, a commission of one per cent. and no more, on the net proceeds of such prize property, after deducting the duties, the two per cent. and charges aforesaid: Provided, also, That such commission shall not exceed, upon any property included in one condemnation, the sum of one thousand dollars."

The bill as thus amended was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

Retaliation

The engrossed bill "vesting the power of retaliation in the President of the United States in certain cases," was read a third time.

A debate of more than an hour took place on the question of its passage, which was finally determined in the negative, by yeas and nays – 51 to 61.

Friday, November 20

Pay of the Army

The House went into Committee of the Whole on the bill concerning the pay of the Army of the United States, which was read.

Mr. Williams, as chairman of the committee who reported it, rose to explain the provisions of the bill. He said he hoped the consideration of the bill would not involve a discussion of the justice or necessity of the war. War, said he, is now declared; we have thrown ourselves between our country and the enemy; and it becomes us to carry her triumphantly through the war, or be responsible for the disgrace a contrary course would incur. The reason of the introduction of the first provision of the bill, he said, was the palpable fact, that the present pay of the Army, taking into consideration the price of labor throughout the Union, was much below the average rate. The committee, in the investigations of this business, had, with much labor, consulted all sources of information accessible to them, and in no part of the United States did it appear to be conceded by their Representatives, that the fair price of labor was less than nine dollars per month. Even if the price was as low as eight, or say seven dollars, wherefore should the soldier receive less than any other man? This is a subject on which every gentleman could decide by recurring to his own neighborhood, and inquiring, what was there the price of labor. If he could not procure the service of an individual there for less than eight dollars, how can he refuse the soldier that price which I now solicit for him? The ranks are not filled; we know it by too melancholy a proof; and it is our duty to fill them. How shall we best do it? It will not be contended that your population is insufficient; no, sir; the inducement is not adequate. There is no avocation of life, no employment, however hazardous, which fails to be pursued from a want of persons ready to engage in it. No, sir; if you want men to scale the mountains of ice under the Northern pole, or endure the fervid rays of a vertical sun in the hither India, to brave the stormy ocean, or search for mines in the bowels of the earth; only find them adequate compensation, and there are men enough to be found. The compensation for services performed, ought always to be in proportion to the risk incurred. This is a position which cannot be controverted. There is no reason why the ranks of your Army are not filled so forcible, as that you do not give enough to the privates.

Mr. W. then briefly adverted to other provisions of the bill. To the second section he apprehended little objection; it had been found to be necessary, and ample precedent might be found for it. To the third section there might and probably would be some objection. It was founded, he said, on the principle that every man owed to the country which protected him, military service; the same principle, already engrafted in our laws, which obliged the youth of 18 years old to enter into the militia, warranted his retention in the service when he had voluntarily enlisted. The fourth section spoke for itself and needed no explanation.

The second section having been read —

Mr. Wheaton said he conceived this section to involve an infraction of the constitution. Any person who had contracted a debt had certainly given a pledge, not only of his property, but of his body to his creditor. It is the creditor's right to take his body in default of payment, and the creditor was by this section, in the case of those enlisting in the army, completely taken out of his hands. Ample encouragement, Mr. W. said, might be given to enlistments without infringing the constitution. He had no objection to privilege the soldier from arrest after enlistment, but he could not consent to the passage of a law, having an ex post facto operation, which went to exempt him from obligations previously contracted. He therefore moved to strike out the words "before or" from the second section above recited.

Mr. Bacon spoke in support of this provision. It was necessary to guard against fraud. He said, in the village in which he lived, such frauds had been committed, by the creation of fictitious debts, under which a person enlisting had procured himself to be arrested. After this arrest, on giving bail, he was set at large. Whilst going at liberty, his commander had attempted to take him; but a writ of habeas corpus having been taken out, it had been determined by the courts that a man was the property of his bail until the suit was determined. And that determination, Mr. B. said, would never take place so long as the United States had an occasion for the man's services; because, by the same collusion which commenced it, the suit may be continued from term to term of court, until the term of enlistment has expired. He had merely stated facts. He had known an instance of an officer being obliged to move his whole corps over the line to avoid these petty depredations on their ranks; and he would venture to say that the officers would much rather face the enemy in the field, than the host of legal depredators in Massachusetts, on those enlisted for the public service. The principle of this provision was not novel, he said, for it existed already.

The motion to strike out the section was then negatived by a large majority.

The third section was then read.

Mr. Stow rose and said, that the respect he felt for the House, seemed to forbid that he should propose to them any thing not fully matured: but, that at the same time the objections to one section of the bill under consideration, appeared to him so many and so important, that he could not refrain from urging them, though as he feared in somewhat of an irregular and desultory way. In excuse he said, he had supposed the present bill agreeable to the one reported in the Senate, and had not observed the difference till that moment. His objections were to the 3d section, and which he should close by moving that it be stricken out. He arranged his objections principally under three heads: 1st. Its tendency to violate the public morals. 2d. Interference with public economy – and 3d, its violation of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States.

He remarked, that proper instruction and discipline of youth lay at the bottom of all that was valuable in this life, and perhaps of the life to come. That it was of great importance in every Government, but above all that it was infinitely so in ours, where the people were real sovereigns, and where the Government would be ill or well administered, according as the youths were bred in temperance, virtue, and obedience. This section of the bill goes to cut up those qualities by the roots. It says to the uneasy boy in his teens, you may enlist and throw off all parental authority; you may enlist and defraud the parent or master, who has maintained you in your helpless state, of his just reward. The strongest ties of affection and gratitude, you may, by enlisting, dissolve in a moment. Nay, more, we say deliberately and solemnly – we will pay this promoted villain $300 for his iniquity! For such is the amount of the bounty and wages for three years. Who, sir, will be most likely to avail himself of this privilege, or rather of this course? Not the sober, faithful minor, who might be trusted in a camp with some degree of safety, but the fickle, turbulent restless youth, the one of all others who wants the salutary restraint of a parent or guardian. This is the person whom you are about to allow to plunge himself into all the dissipations, into all the seductions, and into all the vices of a camp!

But, sir, said he, it is inhuman, as well as immoral. Humanity calls upon you to take care of and educate the miserable offspring of the poor. Who will take them; who will provide for their infancy, if at the moment they are able to make any remuneration for this humane, this tender care, you offer them $300 to turn ingrate? But, sir, not only the public morals, but the public economy require that you should not enlist minors without the consent of their parents, guardians, or masters. What does public economy require, but that every one should serve the Republic in that capacity in which he can be most useful? And, sir, let me add that patriotism requires the same thing. If the blacksmith or the farmer is most useful in his calling, there is as much patriotism in attending to the anvil and the farm, as to the bayonet and the sword. Men of mature age, by accepting the terms you offer, or not, determine where they can be most useful; but does not every principle of economy forbid that you should go into the private family, the workshops, and the manufactory, regardless of the opinion of the father and superintendent, and seduce the young man from learning some useful and honorable employment, and in lieu thereof, at that tender, at that doubtful period of human life, you plunge him into all the immoralities of a camp, and turn him a vagabond on society. No, sir, true economy requires that children should be well educated, well governed, and faithfully bred to some honest calling. The very principle, notwithstanding all the talk of patriotism, is recognized in the price you offer for soldiers, as well by the former law, as by the present bill. You offered by the former law, five dollars per month, by the present bill eight dollars. That is, you say to the world, that by being a soldier, you render to your country services worth five or eight dollars. Now, sir, for five or eight dollars per month is it prudent, is it economical, to dissolve the all-important relation of governor and governed in respect to youth? To break up your infant manufactories, and to deprive poor children at once of a useful employment, and a home? But, sir, perhaps it will be said that necessity, the safety of the Republic, requires this. When the legions of Britain were upon our shores, when we were struggling for our very existence, the necessity was not then thought sufficiently imperious to warrant such a principle. Can it then be said, that with treble the population, and in an offensive war, necessity requires the dangerous innovation? Certainly not. Again, the law, then and now, allows the soldier to be arrested for a debt amounting to two dollars; and will you say, that the debt in which there can be no deception incurred, for the most necessary of all things, food, clothing, and instruction for infancy, shall be disregarded? I trust, sir, that a principle so unreasonable will never prevail. But, lastly, said Mr. S., I do contend that the clause is contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the constitution. That constitution provides that private property shall not be taken without reasonable compensation. The property which a parent has in the services of his son, of a guardian in the services of his ward, and a master in the services of his servant, though differing widely in degree, is as real and oftentimes more important than the farmer has in his personal estates, or the planter in his slave. It also impairs the force of contract, which is strictly interdicted to the States, and a fortiori not to be done to the General Government. For these and for many other reasons which might be added, Mr. S. moved to strike out the third section of the bill.

Mr. Milnor said that if he understood the third section of the bill under consideration, it allows recruiting officers to enlist minors above the age of eighteen years, without regard to their situation as apprentices to tradesmen, or living under the care and guardianship of their parents; and its object was to hold out to young minds a temptation to desert the useful course destined for them by their friends, for the purpose of becoming soldiers. Now, said Mr. M., whatever may be the necessity of war, on some occasions, and however necessary some might think that in which we are now engaged, which was a question he should not now meddle with, he was desirous that its operations should be so conducted, as to do as little injury as possible to our fellow-citizens; and, as the leading principle in the conduct of all politicians should be a regard to the public good, he hoped for a general concurrence in this sentiment; that, for his own part, he wished the war to be felt as little as possible in the families and occupations of the people. We are not, said he, to be organized into a military Government. However necessary some may deem this war, all will desire a short one. Thank God, no Napoleon has yet risen up amongst us to change our free institutions into a military despotism. Encourage, if you please, a military spirit, that we may be ready for the national defence, when necessary; but let it be done in the spirit of the constitution, by means of a well-regulated militia; let your citizens and your farmers surrender their apprentices and children to be trained and instructed in military tactics, at stated times, that, when arrived at the state of manhood, they may be ready for their country's service. But what is here proposed? To go into the workshop of the industrious mechanic, or into a parent's dwelling, and entice away by the lure of money and military glory, the apprentice and the child. No matter what moneys may have been expended in his education, or how great has been parental exertion to advance the future prospects of the child, any recruiting officer, or even a common soldier, profligate in his principles, and inured to vicious habits, is by this bill encouraged to seduce him from his duty.

Mr. Troup said the objections to this provision were lame in their nature; he only wished they were half as sound as they were novel. It was the result of the experience of men older than themselves in military concerns, that this very description of population, between eighteen and twenty-one, constituted the strength and vigor of every war. What was the fact as respected France? So just was this principle in the contemplation of France, that her whole army is made up of these young men; and yet an attempt is made to deter us from using them by a flimsy pretext, that to employ them would be violating the obligations of a contract and the principles of morality. If our feelings and sympathies be suffered to influence us in favor of the individual who voluntarily enlists, the reasons are much stronger in favor of discharging one-half of those already in your ranks, than the description just spoken of. There is scarcely any man over the age of twenty-one years, between whom and other individuals there is not some strong obligatory moral tie, which we ought not to sever if we could conveniently avoid it. Look at the case of a husband deserting his wife and children, or of a man, above twenty-one, deserting his aged parent, dependent on him for subsistence. Are not these cases equally strong? The doctrine of the gentlemen, whether on the score of morality or expediency, will apply to cases above as well as below the age of twenty-one.