HISTORY

OF

THE PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES

OF THE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, AT THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FIRST CONGRESS, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA,

TUESDAY, December 7.

Mr. BOUDINOT, from the Joint Committee to wait on the President, reported that the President would attend to make a communication to both Houses to-morrow, at twelve o'clock, in the Senate Chamber.

WEDNESDAY, December 8.

ELBRIDGE GERRY and JONATHAN GROut, from Massachusetts; ANDREW MOORE and ALEXANDER WHITE, from Virginia; and TнoMAS TUDOR TUCKER, from South Carolina, appeared and took their seats.

A message from the Senate informed the House, that they are ready to meet the members of this House in the Senate Chamber, to receive the usual communication from the President of the United States.

DANIEL HEISTER and THOMAS SCOTT, from this House, then withdrew to the Senate ChamMr. SPEAKER, attended by the members of Pennsylvania; RICHARD BLAND LEE, from Vir-ber, for the purpose expressed in the above mesginia; and DANIEL HUGER, from South Carolina, appeared and took their seats.

WILLIAM B. GILES, from Virginia, returned in the place of THEODORIC BLAND, deceased, also appeared, produced his credentials, and took his seat.

sage.

the House a copy of the Speech, delivered by And being returned, the SPEAKER laid before the President, (which will be found in the Proceedings of the Senate, page 1770.)

Which being read, it was, on motion, com

A quorum of members being now present, amitted to the consideration of a Committee of message was received from the Senate, by Mr. the whole House to-morrow. Oris, their Secretary, informing the House that a quorum of the Senate is assembled, and ready to proceed to business.

A message was returned to the Senate, informing them that a quorum of this House is assembled, and ready to proceed to business. Messrs. BOUDINOT, LAWRENCE, and SMITH,

117

On motion,

Resolved, That two Chaplains, of different denoHouse, who shall interchange weekly. minations, be appointed to Congress, one by each

Ordered, That a committee be appointed to Post-office and post roads of the United States, prepare and bring in a bill for establishing the

Proceedings.

and that Messrs. SHERMAN, CLYMER, and WIL-representation, it will be worth while for a prinLIAMSON form said committee.

JAMES JACKSON and GEORGE MATTHEWS, from resolution; which being put, was carried in the Mr. LIVERMORE said, he should vote for the Georgia, appeared and took their seats. affirmative-22 to 15.

Mr. WILLIAMSON supported the motion. He tion was to be set to the number of newspapers, begged gentlemen to consider, that if no limitawhat the expense might amount to. He did not know the exact number printed in the city, whether ten or fifteen; but if Congress made it a rule to take all that was, or might be printed, they may be increased to a hundred; and after the increase of the House, by the addition to the JONATHAN

Eulogium on Dr. Franklin.

DEC. 11, 1790.]
WORTH, from Connecticut; THOMAS SINNICK-
SON, from New Jersey; and WILLIAM SMITH,
from Maryland, appeared and took their seats.

MR. PRESIDENT-GENTLEMEN:

[H. OF R.

The news has reached our ears-FRANKLIN is no more!--FRANKLIN the citizen of the world!-All nations are indebted to him for instruction in every

branch of science. They are all bound to participate in the grief occasioned by this common loss. But the Assembly of the Representatives of the Commonalty of our Capital, thinking it their duty, in addition to the general mourning, to pay to his memory a further tribute of honor, have ordered, by a public decree, that the virtues and talents of this great Philosopher should be perpetuated to distant ages, in a public and solemn Eulogy--the first of the kind, ever bestowed by our Nation, on civic worth.

May the approbation of your Assembly attend as well the present itself, as the fraternal and respectful sentiments, with which

ELECTORS FOR ELECTING PRESIDENT. Ordered, That a committee be appointed to prepare and bring in a bill or bills for determining, agreeable to the provision in the first section By order of the Assembly, I transmit it to your of the second article of the Constitution, the hands; and with the most lively sensations of pleatime when the Electors shall, in the year which sure, embrace the opportunity of paying due homwill terminate on the third of March, one thou-age to a body of men, who not only possess, but are sand seven hundred and ninety-three, and so in justly entitled to enjoy the sweets of Liberty. every fourth year thereafter, be chosen, and the day on which they shall give their votes for declaring what officer shall, in case of vacancy I am, Mr. President--Gentlemen, both in the office of President and Vice PresiYour most obedient humble servant, dent, act as President; for assigning a public BENIERE, office, where the lists mentioned in the second Doctor of the Sorbonne, Suppletory Member paragraph of the first section of the second arof the National Assembly, and President ticle of the Constitution, shall, in case of vaof the Commonalty of Paris. cancy in the office of the President of the Se-To the PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS nate, or his absence from the seat of Government, be in the mean time deposited; and for directing the mode in which such lists shall be transmitted; and that Messrs. BENSON, HUNTINGTON, HEISTER, MOORE, and Partridge, be of the said committee.

UNIFORM MILITIA.

Ordered, That a committee be appointed to prepare and bring in a bill or bills more effectually to provide for the national defence, by establishing a uniform militia throughout the United States; and that Messrs. BOUDINOT, P. MUHLENBERG, GILMAN, FLOYD, GROUT, WADSWORTH, SMITH, of Maryland, BLOODWORTH, GILES, SMITH, of South Carolina, and MATTHEWS, be of the said committee.

EULOGIUM ON FRANKLIN.

of the United States.

The letter accompanied twenty-six copies of the Eulogium on Dr. FRANKLIN, delivered by the Abbé Fauchet, pursuant to a decree of that body.

Mr. BOUDINOT proposed that thirteen copies of the Eulogium be returned to the President of the United States and the Senate, which was

done.

be proper to request the President of the United Mr. SMITH (of S. C.) observed, that it would States to return an answer to the President and Commonalty of Paris, or that a Joint Committee of the House and Senate should be appointed for the purpose. He was not tenacious of any particular mode, but supposed it highly proper that some notice should be taken of the polite A message from the Senate conveyed to the attention shown the Government, by the PresiHouse, a letter from Monsieur Beniere, President of the Commonalty of Paris. The business dent of the Commonalty of Paris, addressed to the President and Members of Congress of the A letter was received from the Commissioners United States, with twenty-six copies of a Civic of the city and county of Philadelphia, giving an Eulogium on Benjamin Franklin, pronounced account of the measures taken to accommodate the twenty-first of July, one thousand seven the Federal Legislature, during their residence hundred and ninety, in the name of the Com-in Philadelphia, by preparing the new Courtmonalty of Paris, by Monsieur the Abbé Fauchet. house in the best manner the size of the building would permit, and appropriating the same to their use.

ADDRESS TO THE PRESIDENT.

Mr. MADISON, from the committee appointed, presented an Address to the President of the United States, in answer to his speech to both Houses of Congress, which was read, and ordered to be committed to a Committee of the whole House to-morrow.

SATURDAY, December 11.

A translation of the Letter from the President of the Commonalty of Paris, addressed to the Federal Legislature, was read as follows:

was specially committed to the SPEAKER.

Agreeably to the order of the day, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the whole, to take into consideration the Address to the President of the United States, in answer to his speech to both Houses, as reported yesterday. Mr. LIVERMORE in the chair.

The Address was read by the Clerk, and then discussed by the committee in paragraphs.

On reading the clause respecting the Western expedition against the Indians,

H. OF R.]

Address to the President.

[DEC. 11, 1791.

The paragraph respecting encouraging our own navigation being read,

Mr. JACKSON rose and observed, that he was He said, he would not at present engross any as fully impressed with the importance of an In- more of the time of the House, only to give nodian war, and of extending the protection of tice that, at a future opportunity, he should move Government to our defenceless frontiers, as any that the President of the United States be reman whatever; and had no doubt of the neces-quested to lay before the House, for their consisity of the measures taken to chastise the ban-deration, the Treaty with the Creek Indians-· ditti on the Ohio; but as a Representative from not excepting the secret articles. the State of Georgia, he should think himself inexcusable were he not to express his astonishment that no notice is taken in the President's speech of the Treaty with the Creek Nation; a treaty which has spread alarm among the people of that State-a treaty by which more than three million acres of land, the property of the State of Georgia, guarantied to that State by the Constitution of the United States, are ceded away without any compensation. Mr. J. then adverted to several articles of the treaty, which he said controverted the plainest principles of the Constitution, particularly those parts which secure to every citizen the rights of property. He contrasted the present situation of the inhabitants of Georgia, with what it was under the British Government, and said this treaty placed them in a less eligible situation, in respect to the Indians. It had been said, exclaimed he, that there are secret articles in the treaty. Good God! at this early period, are there to be secret articles existing between the United States and any other Nation under heaven! Treaties by the Constitution are to be considered the supreme law of the land; but will Congress permit the laws of the United States, like those of Caligula, to be placed where they cannot be read, and then punish the people for not obeying them? The people will never submit to be bound by secret articles.

[Here the Chairman interrupted Mr. JACKSON, by inquiring whether his observations were intended as introductory to any motion on the paragraph just read.]

Mr. J. replied, that it was his intention, at a future day, to introduce a motion, that the President be requested to lay before this House the treaty with the Creek Indians-not excepting the secret articles. He then expatiated on the sufferings of the people of Georgia, and asked what must be their feelings, when they reflect on the preparations made to chastise the Wabash banditti, while the exertions of Congress have not been called forth to their relief. The President sent three Commissioners to Georgia (not one of whom was a citizen of that State) they investigated the truth of her representations, and made a report favorable to her claims, that the lands in dispute were fairly purchased, and as fully obtained as the Confederation, or the nature of the case would admit; but what has been the result? The treaty, so far from recognizing the rights of Georgia, has sacrificed them-the Report of the Commissioners does not appear to have been attended to. On the other hand, a savage of the Creeks has been invited and brought to the seat of Government, and there loaded with favors, and caressed in the most extraordinary manner.

Mr. SMITH (of S. C.) observed, that he did not rise to propose any alterations in the style of the Address, the language was such as might be expected from the acknowledged abilities of the gentleman who drafted it. The paragraph just read, he conceived, pledged the House to take measures in respect to our own navigation, which may, in the issue, prove injurious to the agricultural interests of the United States. At this early period of the session, it appeared extremely improper for the House to commit itself, especially as few, if any of the States, are fully represented on the floor. He was afraid that the mode of expression adopted in the Address would conduce to the exclusion of foreign bottoms altogether. If the opinion of the committee should be adopted by the House, he conceived it would be anticipating a decision to the precluding future discussions of the subject. He foresaw that this paragraph would be called up at some future period, and brought as an argument against any different propositions that might be offered-and thus the question be determined without any debate. He thought the Address went into too minute a consideration of the several parts of the speech, and could have wished that more general terms had been used. As a substitute for the paragraph under consideration, he moved the following amend ment in substance:

"We shall consider with attention the best means of guarding against the embarrassments you mention, and will take such measures as may remove every obstruction to the prosperity of the commerce and agriculture of the United States."

Mr. WILLIAMson observed, that he saw no material difference between the paragraph in the Report, and the amendment proposed. The mode of expression adopted by the committee is in so general terms, that he hoped it would have met the full approbation of every member of the committee. The President proposes that the commerce of the United States should be relieved from all injurious restrictions; nothing can be more just and reasonable; and this is perfectly compatible with supporting the agricultural interest of the country; the promotion of the former involves that of the latter. He touched on the impositions of Great Britain on our commerce, and observed, that reason and justice point out the propriety of seeking redress. He, however, saw no opposition in the two propositions; but as the obvious design in bringing forward the substitute is to preclude such an inquiry as the exigency of the case seems to require, he hoped it would not be adopted.

DEC. 11, 1790.]

Address to the President.

[H. OF R.

Mr. JACKSON observed, that he had seconded ing the fact, he inquired, what could be done the motion of the gentleman from South Caro- with the Southern produce, in case of the exlina, because he thought there was an obvious clusion of foreign bottoms? It must rot in the difference in the two modes of expression. He planter's hands. With respect to the amendthen entered into a discussion of the subject ge- ment's being as positive as the clause in the Renerally; and enlarged on the injurious conse-port, as had been asserted, if that is the case he quences which would result to the Southern could see no objection to its being adopted. States particularly, by enhancing the duties on Mr. TUCKER said, he thought it improper that foreign bottoms. He said, that the tonnage was in an Address on this occasion the committee at present so high as to prevent foreigners from should go into a particular detail on every subbecoming our carriers; several instances of this ject; much less commit their judgment without had been mentioned to him from good authori-a previous discussion. The President may ty; and while the American shipping was in- have maturely considered the subject during competent to the object, and he called on gen- the recess-but the committee cannot be suptlemen to show that it was, the exclusion of fo- posed to be prepared for a decision. The thinreign ships from our ports must be ruinous to ness of the House was a further objection, in South Carolina and Georgia; therefore, he his opinion, to entering into a discussion of the hoped, the amendment would take place. question. He was not pleased with the paragraph in the Report, as it seemed to imply that nothing had been done for the encouragement of our own navigation, the reverse of which was fact. The posture of affairs in Europe suggested no stronger reasons for giving further encouragement to our own navigation than what was presented last session; the expediency of the measure is not therefore apparent from any change of circumstances. Though he was dissatisfied with the Report, the amendment proposed fell short of his wishes. It did not recognise what had been done for the encouragement of American shipping. He would, therefore, propose a substitute by leave of his colleague; which he did to the following purport: "The encouragement of our own navigation has at all times appeared to us highly important, and has employed a large share of our deliberations; we shall continue to pay due attention to the subject, and consider by what means our commerce and agriculture may be best promoted."

Mr. SHERMAN said, that the words in the Report appeared to him less exceptionable than those in the proposed amendment, even on the principle supported by the gentleman in favor of the amendment. In the Report it was only said, we should consider what ineans, &c. but the amendment declared we should take effectual measures. The words in the Report only binding us to consider-those in the amendment obliging us to act. He thought the answer should be general, and was therefore against the amendment.

Mr. SMITH (of S. C.) observed, that the member last up had confined his observation to the first words in the paragraph objected to. If he will take the trouble of reading a little further, he will see, that as the Report stands we give it as our opinion, that foreign bottoms ought to be excluded, which would be severely felt by the States of South Carolina and Georgia. We cannot wholly depend upon our own vessels for the exportation of our produce; they are not sufficiently numerous, nor will they be for many years; therefore, let us not at this time, in a hasty manner, declare, that all articles exported shall be carried in our own bottoms. To settle this important question, Mr. S. thought that some time should be given to reflect, and a day fixed for discussion; in the mean time, he thought it improper at this stage of the session, that the opinion of the House should be given.

Mr. WILLIAMSON remarked, that the Report did not say that we should have no dependence on foreign bottoms; but that we should not depend altogether upon them for the exportation of our produce. He had no idea of excluding foreign bottoms. He was for making provision in case that resource should fail.

Mr. SMITH withdrew his motion, to admit Mr. TUCKER'S.

Mr. SENEY said, he could not conceive what ground of apprehension there was in the Address, to lead gentlemen to suppose that the opinion of the House would be committed by its adoption. He thought it couched in the most general and unexceptionable terms. The amendment proposed he did not think essentially variant from the paragraph under consideration; but as the original was well expressed, he saw no reason for expunging the clause; it contained an assertion, the truth of which he supposed would not be controverted. As to the objection against going into a detail of particulars, it was fully justified by precedent in the last AdMr. JACKSON. To show the importance of dress; the gentleman from South Carolina, he foreign shipping to the Southern States, and the will recollect, was on the committee who framed inadequacy of our own, to transport their pro-it; that Address more pointedly committed the duce, notwithstanding the low duty on American shipping, Mr. J. read a statement of the ton- Mr. MADISON thought proper to take some nonage duties paid by each, in the State of Geor- tice of the objections that had been made to the gia, for the same period; the foreign tonnage Report. There were two modes of proceeding, amounted to eight thousand two hundred and which might be adopted in drawing up the antwenty-seven dollars, the American to six hun-swer. The first method was generally to dedred and twenty-nine dollars only. This be- clare, that the House would take into their

House than the present.