Kitabı oku: «Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.)», sayfa 51
Saturday, April 28
Reduction of the Navy
The House resumed the consideration of the bill for reducing the Naval Establishment of the United States.
Mr. Smilie's amendment was modified so as to fix the number of officers, &c., to be retained in service, as follows: thirteen captains, nine masters commandant, seventy-two lieutenants, – midshipmen and – seamen, ordinary seamen and boys.
Mr. Mumford again moved to postpone the further consideration of the subject indefinitely – lost, yeas 40, nays 54.
Mr. Randolph moved to strike out the numbers thirteen, nine, and seventy-two, in the amendment, being desirous of reducing the officers, if any part of the establishment. Motion lost, ayes 40, noes 46.
Mr. N. R. Moore called for a division of the question on Mr. Smilie's amendment.
And the question was taken on that part of it which authorizes the President to keep in service so many of the armed vessels as he may think proper, and to lay up the rest in ordinary in convenient ports. This part of the amendment was agreed to – yeas 61, nays 38.
The second clause of Mr. Smilie's amendment being under consideration —
Mr. Smilie moved to fill the blank for the number of midshipmen with "one hundred and fifty" (about half the number at present in service) – Agreed to, ayes 51, noes 37.
The question was stated on filling the blank for the number of seamen to be retained with "two thousand seven hundred and twenty-three," as moved by Mr. Bassett, and rejected, yeas 46, nays 52; also the question was taken on filling with 2,000, and rejected, yeas 39, nays 56; also on filling with 1,400, which was carried; and the House then adjourned.
Tuesday, May 1
General Wilkinson
Mr. Butler, from the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of Brigadier General, James Wilkinson, rose to make a report.
The question on reading the report was taken and carried, 58 to 32.
The report is as follows:
The committee to whom was referred the resolution of the 4th instant, directing an inquiry into the conduct of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, in relation to his having at any time, while in the service of the United States, corruptly received money from the Government of Spain, or its agents, or in relation to his having, during this time aforesaid, been an accomplice, or in any way concerned with the agents of any foreign power, or with Aaron Burr, in a project against the dominions of the King of Spain, or to dismember these United States, and to inquire generally into the conduct of the said James Wilkinson, as Brigadier General of the Army of the United States, report, that they have had under consideration the several subjects of inquiry, and have investigated them to the utmost of their power since the time of their appointment, but from the limited period in which they have acted, and from the extensive and complicated nature of the subjects, they are under the necessity of stating that they have not been able to make any thorough and conclusive investigation of the objects of their inquiry.
Such testimony, however, as they have been able to procure, they beg leave to submit as part of this report, and which may be referred to under the following heads and order:
In relation to the first objects of inquiry, to wit: the receipt of money by General Wilkinson from the Spanish Government or its agents, refer to the
[Here follows a list of papers, 19 in number.]
In relation to the second object of inquiry, to wit: the connection of General Wilkinson with the agents of Spain in a project to dismember the United States, refer to the
[Here follows a list of 11 papers.]
In relation to the third object of inquiry, to wit: General Wilkinson's connection with Aaron Burr, refer to
[Here follows a list of 14 papers.]
In relation to the fourth point of inquiry, to wit: the conduct of General Wilkinson, as Brigadier General of the army of the United States, refer to the
[Here follows a list of 6 papers.]
The committee think proper, also, to submit the following papers relating to tobacco and other commercial transactions in which General Wilkinson was concerned, from the month of – in the year 1788, to the month of – in the year 1790, to wit:
[Here follows a list of 10 papers.]
In making the last preceding statement the committee beg leave to remark, that from an examination of the sentence of the military court of inquiry, ordered at the request of General Wilkinson, and of which Colonel Burbeck was President, it appears that the tobacco transactions of General Wilkinson at New Orleans in 1789 and 1790 constituted a material part of that inquiry, and that a copy of an account current was laid before the said court by General Wilkinson and designated by No. – , and several letters accompanying said account, supposed by the court to be in the handwriting of Philip Noland, the agent of General Wilkinson.
The committee conceiving that the papers collected by the said court would aid them in their investigation, made application for those papers to the Secretary of War, but were unable to obtain them, they having been taken from the office by General Wilkinson, as appears from the deposition of John Smith, chief clerk in the War Office. The committee then directed a subpœna to General Wilkinson, requiring him to send or produce all the papers which had been used or collected by the said court, in obedience to which General Wilkinson sent to the committee a packet of papers which did not contain either the account and letters referred to in the sentence of the court, or the defence of General Wilkinson, nor have the committee been able to procure them, and, consequently, have not had it in their power to compare the accounts herewith exhibited with those which were laid before the military court of inquiry. For the further elucidation, refer to Walter Jones's deposition, marked W. J.
The committee also submit the deposition of Daniel W. Coxe, authenticating the papers to which he specially refers, marked D. W. C.
Mr. Gholson observed that the reading of the documents accompanying the report would take until midnight, at least, and he hoped there would be no objection to dispense with the reading of them.
No one objecting, the reading of the documents was dispensed with, and the whole was ordered to be printed.
Adjournment
A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have appointed a committee on their part, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of this House, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the proposed recess of Congress.
The House proceeded to consider the resolution from the Senate to appoint a joint committee to wait on the President, and acquaint him of the proposed recess of Congress; and the same was concurred in by the House; and Messrs. Crawford and Roane were appointed the committee on the part of the House.
A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate, having completed the legislative business before them, are ready to adjourn.
Mr. Crawford, from the joint committee to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the proposed recess of Congress, reported that the committee had performed that service, and that the President informed them that he had no further communication to make to Congress during the present session.
Ordered, That a message be sent to the Senate to inform them that this House are now ready to adjourn; and that the clerk do go with the said message.
The clerk accordingly went with the said message; and, being returned, the Speaker adjourned the House until the first Monday in December next.
ELEVENTH CONGRESS. – THIRD SESSION.
BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 3, 1810.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE
Monday, December 3, 1810
The third session of the eleventh Congress, conformably to the Constitution of Government of the United States, commenced this day; and the Senate assembled at the city of Washington.
PRESENT:
• Nicholas Gilman and Charles Cutts, from New Hampshire.
• Chauncey Goodrich and Samuel W. Dana, from Connecticut.
• Jonathan Robinson, from Vermont.
• Obadiah German, from New York.
• Michael Leib, from Pennsylvania.
• Outerbridge Horsey, from Delaware.
• Samuel Smith, from Maryland.
• William B. Giles, from Virginia.
• John Gaillard, from South Carolina.
• William H. Crawford and Charles Tait, from Georgia.
• John Pope, from Kentucky.
• Alexander Campbell, from Ohio.
• John Gaillard, President pro tempore, resumed the chair.
The number of Senators present not being sufficient to constitute a quorum, the Senate adjourned.
Tuesday, December 4
John Lambert, from the State of New Jersey, Elisha Mathewson, from the State of Rhode Island, and Philip Reed, from the State of Maryland, severally attended.
The credentials of Charles Cutts, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, in place of Nahum Parker, Esq., resigned; also, of Samuel W. Dana, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, in place of James Hillhouse, Esq., resigned, were severally read; and the oath required by law was, by the President, administered to them, respectively.
Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to business.
Ordered, That Messrs Smith, of Maryland, and Gilman, be a committee on the part of the Senate, together with such committee as may be appointed by the House of Representatives on their part, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled and ready to proceed to business. The House of Representatives have appointed a committee on their part, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them.
On motion, by Mr. Smith, of Maryland,
Resolved, That James Mathers, sergeant-at-arms and doorkeeper to the Senate, be, and he is hereby, authorized to employ one assistant and two horses, for the purpose of performing such services as are usually required by the doorkeeper to the Senate; and that the sum of twenty-eight dollars be allowed him weekly for that purpose, to commence with, and remain during the session, and for twenty days after.
Mr. Smith, of Maryland, reported from the joint committee that they had waited on the President of the United States, and that the President informed the committee that he would make a communication to the two Houses to-morrow at 12 o'clock.
Wednesday, December 5
Timothy Pickering, from the State of Massachusetts, and Stephen R. Bradley, from the State of Vermont, severally attended.
President's Annual Message
The following Message was received from the President of the United States:
Fellow-citizens of the Senate
and House of Representatives:
The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of our national affairs.
The act of the last session of Congress concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, having invited, in a new form, a termination of their edicts against our neutral commerce; copies of the act were immediately forwarded to our Ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its object might be within the early attention of the French and British Governments.
By the communication received through our Minister at Paris, it appeared that a knowledge of the act by the French Government was followed by a declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would cease to have effect on the first day of November ensuing. These being the only known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a proclamation, bearing date the second day of November.
It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by this proceeding on the part of France, to have extended them to all the grounds of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United States. It was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of just dispositions towards them, restoration would have been immediately made of the property of our citizens, seized under a misapplication of the principle of reprisals, combined with a misconstruction of the law of the United States. This expectation has not been fulfilled.
From the British Government, no communication on the subject of the act has been received. To a communication, from our minister at London, of a revocation, by the French Government, of its Berlin and Milan decrees, it was answered, that the British system would be relinquished as soon as the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect, and the commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This pledge, although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude, the intention of relinquishing, along with the Orders in Council, the practice of those novel blockades, which have a like effect of interrupting our neutral commerce: and this further justice to the United States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades in question, being not more contrary to the established law of nations than inconsistent with the rules of blockade formerly recognized by Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than the plea of retaliation, alleged as the basis of the Orders in Council. Under the modification of the original orders of November, 1807, into the orders of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades, bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still unrescinded, and to be, in effect, comprehended in the Orders in Council, was too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not to be comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance with it. The British Government was accordingly apprised by our Minister near it, that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded.
On the other important subjects depending between the United States and that Government, no progress has been made from which an early and satisfactory result can be relied on.
In this new posture of our relations with those powers, the consideration of Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may occur in the exposition, and of difficulties in the execution, of the act above cited.
The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly under the Danish flag, has latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The measures pursued in behalf of our injured citizens, not having obtained justice for them, a further and more formal interposition with the Danish Government is contemplated. The principles which have been maintained by that Government in relation to neutral commerce, and the friendly professions of His Danish Majesty towards the United States, are valuable pledges in favor of a successful issue.
Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish monarchy, our attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the United States, had remained in the possession of Spain, awaiting the result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish authority was subverted, and a situation produced exposing the country to ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido, to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view, the proclamation, of which a copy is laid before you, was confided to the Governor of that Territory, to be carried into effect. The legality and necessity of the course pursued, assure me of the favorable light in which it will present itself to the Legislature, and of the promptitude with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into the bosom of the American family.
Our amity with the Powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears to have been uninterrupted, and to have become more firmly established.
Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people, and while it is evident that the means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, I cannot presume it to be unseasonable to invite your attention to the advantages of superadding to the means of education, provided by the several States, a seminary of learning, instituted by the National Legislature, within the limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which might be defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have accrued to the nation within those limits.
Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the sentiments, and the manners, of those who might resort to this temple of science, to be redistributed, in due time, through every part of the community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted seminary, in the centre of the nation, is recommended by the consideration that the additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and happy system of Government.
Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, and leaving in force my former reference to that subject, it appears that American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity, and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct, will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.
In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the great interests of the United States, prudence requires a continuance of our defensive and precautionary arrangement. The Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy will submit the statements and estimates which may aid Congress in their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces. The statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers of appropriations in the naval expenditures, and the grounds on which they were made.
The corps of engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat fixed by law for the present academy are so far in decay, as not to afford the necessary accommodation. But a revision of the law is recommended principally with a view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships for all the necessary branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of an additional academy at the Seat of Government or elsewhere. The means by which war, as well for defence as for offence, is now carried on, render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction, these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due attainment of the branches of military science which require a regular course of study and experiment. In a Government happily without the other opportunities, seminaries, where the elementary principles of the art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an essential preparation against external danger, with a scrupulous regard to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal efficacy for the public defence be made at so little expense, or more consistently with the public liberty.
Reserving for future occasions, in the course of the session, whatever other communications may claim your attention, I close the present, by expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the judgment and patriotism which will guide your measures, at a period particularly calling for united councils, and inflexible exertions, for the welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and alacrity with which my co-operation will be afforded.
JAMES MADISON.
Washington, December 5, 1810.
