PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. cluded from New-Orleans, and the right of The attention of Congress was early called to a "violation, on the part of Spain, of the treaty between the United States and the King of Spain." To understand this business, you will recollect, that Spain holding the territory on the west of the Mississippi, extending to the Gulf of Mexico, and on the east of the Mississippi, south of the southern boundary of the United States, in the 31 deg. N. latitude, is consequently proprietor of both sides of the mouth of the river. The great difficulty, and in fact the impossibility at some seasons of ascending the river Mississippi in sea vessels, to a height convenient to receive the produce of our Western States, had convinced the United States of the necessity of obtaining from Spain the right to deposit our produce on their territory, from whence it was conveniently accessible by our ships; and also of securing to them the free use of this high-nour and interest of the United States, not way to market. These objects were ob tained by the treaty concluded with Spain the 27th day of October 1795, by the 22d article of which it stipulated, "That His Catholic Majesty will permit the citizens of the United States for the space of three years to deposit their merchandize and effects in the port of New Orleans, and to export them from thence without paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores, and his Majesty promises either to continue this permission, if he finds during that time that it is not prejudicial to the interest of Spain, or if he should not agree to continue it there, he will assign to them on another part of the banks of the Missis "Resolved, That the President of the sippi an equivalent establishment." It was United States be requested to direct the pronow suggested that our ships had been ex-per officer to lay before this house copies of VOL. III. to merit the earliest and most serious consideration. The claim of this subject to attention was rendered peculiarly strong, as connected with the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France, placed within the notice of | Congress by the President's mention of it in his message as making a change in the aspect of our foreign relations, and entitled to just weight in deliberations of the legis lature connected with that subject." To enable Congress to act with understanding on this subject, and to judge what measures if any were necessary to be taken, Mr. Griswold, on the 5th January, moved the following resolution: such to be communicated.” such official documents as have been received | objection on the ground that negociation by this government, announcing the cession was about commencing, let it be conceded of Louisiana to France, together with a re- that the direction of the negociation belongs port, explaining the stipulations, circum- solely to the executive, does it result, or can stances, and conditions under which that it be seriously contended, that under our province is to be delivered up, unless such government the determination of the execu documents and report will, in the opinion tive to negociate, takes from the legislature of the President, divulge to the House par- their constitutional power of considering ticular transactions not proper at this time what measures are necessary for the public welfare? Such a doctrine can consist only with a supremacy in the executive-a doc. trine at variance with the fundamental principles of our government. If the cession of Louisiana was a subject not proper for the consideration of Congress, why was it mentioned in the message? And if this consideration was rendered improper by the intention to negociate, why was that intention never communicated? The belief that there were yet other objections to this resolution not advanced by its opponents, forces itself on the mind, and is strengthened by the circumstance, that in their own resolution of 17th Dec. the transactions of New-Orleans were, without fear to irritate, openly and This resolution was opposed-That the province of Louisiana had been ceded by Spain to France-that this cession, if carried into effect, would change the aspect of our foreign relations, and therefore entitled to weight in legislative deliberation, were facts too deeply interesting to the United States to have escaped notice, even though they had not been pressed into the view of the legislature, and recommended to their attention by the high authority and solemn sanction of the President. An opposition, therefore, to a call for information-a call respectful in its terms, submitting the extent of the communication to the judgment of the President, was not to have been ex-properly called "a violation of our treaty pected. The majority of the House discovered strong jealousy of this resolution, and after various unsuccessful attempts to have it considered, it was at length taken up and rejected. In discussing this resolution much extraneous matter was introduced; the only arguments which I could discover against the adoption of the resolution were, that such an enquiry implying a suspicion of unfriendly or improper conduct on the part of Spain towards us might irritate that nation; and that negociations were about commencing between our government and Spain and France. The doctrine advanced on this occasion, that although the transactions of a foreign nation shall be solemnly mentioned by the President in an official communication, as changing the aspect of our foreign relations, and entitled to weight in our deliberations; and although measures highly injurious to our rights and interest, and probably a consequence of this transaction, have been adopted, yet that a fear to irritate shall oblige us to forbear from enquiry; to shut our ears to any information on the subject, lest we discover a suspicion of unfriendly designs, that in fact (for it amounts to this) we shall never prepare to meet a hostile design until it is "known to us by its execution," is a doctrine not only novel but too palpably dangerous to te admitted as the real objection to this resolution. As to the on the part of Spain." Surely, too, the President would not have hazarded the public safety by pressing on our notice in a public communication a transaction deeply interesting to our rights and interests, but which was covered with a veil not to be raised but with danger or indelicacy. The President knew it to be his duty to acquire information on the subject---to presume that he has not done so, would be to reproach him with reprehensible indifference to, and neglect of, our interests. Yet, improbable as the sug gestion might otherwise be, the circumstances go far towards compelling a belief, that the President had neither sought nor obtain. ed any official information on the subject, or that his enquiries had not been treated with that respect which is due to the American nation; and that a rejection of the resolution was resorted to as the only mode of shielding him from the mortifying disclosure. Mr. Griswold also moved the following resolutions : "Resolved, That the people of the United States are entitled to the free navigation of the Mississippi. "Resolved, That the navigation of the river Mississippi has been obstructed by the regulations recently carried into effect at New-Orleans. Resolved, That the right of freely navigating the river Mississippi ought never never to be abandoned by the United | can pursue without the authority of conStates. "Resolved, That a committee be appointed to enquire whether any, and if any, what legislative measures are necessary to secure to the people of the United States the free navigation of the river Mississippi." These were not acted upon, the majority refusing to take the motion into consideration. The following resolutions on the same subject were afterwards agreed to with closed doors: gress,) when the interest and safety of the United States may render such delay dangerous, and demand measures, if not of action, at least of preparation. - Nothing urged in answer to these objections had the effect of obviating them in my mind. A separate question was taken on the different members of this resolution. Although many thought them liable to the objections I have stated, and would have preferred the adoption of those moved by Mr. Griswold, yet they united in the vote in favour of such principles as accorded with their own. The "Resolved, That this House receive with great sensibility the information of a dispo-declaration of a sense of the wrong; the dissition in certain officers of the Spanish government at New-Orleans, to obstruct the navigation of the river Mississippi, as secured to the United States by the most solemn stipulations. position to adhere to that humane and wise policy which should always characterize a free people, and by which the United States had always professed to be governed; and the determination to maintain the rights of "That adhering to that humane and wise boundary, and the free navigation of the policy which ought ever to characterize a river Mississippi, were unanimously agreed free people, and by which the United States to. It was moved to strike out the declarahave always professed to be governed; will- tion of perfect confidence in the wisdom and ing at the same time to ascribe this breach vigilance of the executive, and the deter of compact to the unauthorized misconduct mination to wait the issue of such measures of certain individuals, rather than to a want as that department shall have pursued. On of good faith on the part of his Catholic this question I voted in the affirmative, beMajesty and relying with perfect confi- cause the solemn vote of perfect confidence on dence on the vigilance and wisdom of the an occasion where no such expression was executive, they will wait the issue of such necessary, and on a subject where the lanmeasures as that department of the govern- guage of compliment or servility should not ment shall have pursued for asserting the be heard, is only due to the exertion of those rights, and vindicating the injuries of the qualities in measures known and approved: United States; holding it to be their duty, whereas in the present case, so far from meaat the same time, to express their unalter-sures being known and found to merit approable determination to maintain the bounda-bation, we were left to conjecture whether ries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the river Mississippi, as es. tablished by existing treaties." any had been taken. Indeed the rejection of the call for information regarding Louisiana, ascribable only to the neglect of the To these resolutions it was objected, that executive to procure any; the want of offi the soft language of "sensibility" was in. cial information what measures had been adequate to the expression, by the represen-adopted, and the appointment of a minister tatives of a free people, of the national extraordinary to negociate on this subject sense of a great national wrong. That the not until after these proceedings in the resolution discovered a timid disposition in house, warrant the opinion, that at the time calling that a disposition to violate" our of this vote of confidence, the executive had treaty which was proved to us to be an ac- not even taken those measures which his own tual and avowed, not a contemplated or sus- judgment suggested to be necessary. In pected, infraction of the treaty. That it support of this blindfold vote of confidence contained a declaration of "perfect confidence it was argued, that it was the theory of our in the wisdom and vigilance" of the execu- constitution to ascribe "wisdom and vigitive, and determination to wait the issue of lance" to the executive in the exercise of measures pursued by that department, at a powers confided to that department. Pertime that we had no knowledge whether any mit me here to remark, that it is the theory measures had been taken, and that it pledged of the British government to attribute such the United States to wait the result of ne. "perfect wisdom and vigilance" to their gociation, (the only measures the executive king that it has become the maxim of their out 80,000 militia, if circumstances should render it necessary...they suspended, for a time by embargo, all commercial inter course...they adopted and acted upon the opinion of their wise and vigilant President, That to avoid insult we must be prepared to repel it." constitution" that the king can do no enfeebled the mind of that great man, he wrong." If the theory of our constitution would have withheld until called for the inbe as advanced on this occasion, it differs formation of the injury done us. But with but in sound from the deformity of the the firmness which marked his character and British; and under ours, as under that "the which elevated the American character under theory and practice will frequently be at his administration, he communicated the invariance." I prize our constitution, as the formation uncalled for: Not afraid to trust rock of our safety. The obligation of an 'the national council with a constitutional oath adds not to my disposition to support participation in devising measures for the it but neither my attachment or duty can, preservation of our rights, he communicated induce me to ascribe "perfect wisdom and also the instructions he had given for de vigilance" to a branch of the government manding redress. Just, as was the claim of in particular where the evidence rather this President to approbation, the legislature militates against, than supports the claim. forebore from adulation. But with the in-The motion to reject this part was lost. | dependence of freemen and a promptness beUpon the question to agree to the whole re- coming the guardians of the rights of their solution, those whose objections had not fellow-citizens, they trusted not the safety been obviated: who thought their vote of and honour of their country to soft expres perfect confidence improper; having recorded sions of "sensibility"-they acted. They their votes in favour of such parts of the re-authorised the President to embody and call solutions as were necessary or proper; and believing that the resolutions submitted by Mr. Griswold, were preferable, and that no injury could arise, if those under consideration were rejected, voted against them. I concurred in this vote. To shew that those who differed from the majority in the preference of the resolutions adopted, to those moved by Mr. Griswold, were not, as malice or ignorance may suggest, necessarily advocates for immediate me ures of hosti. lity; and that on an occasion similar to the present, under an administration meriting and possessing the perfect confidence of the people, a line of conduct was pursued cor. responding to that which it was the object of Mr. Griswold's resolution to obtain, I beg leave to recail to your recollection the proceedings of Congress in consequence of the unjustifiable order of the King of England to his naval commanders to capture our ships in the year 1793. At the opening of the session of Congress the President (Wash. ington) communicated the subject to Con-year gress, accompanying his communication with a copy of his instructions given by him to our Minister at the British Court for demanding redress.-The language of Wash. ington on this occasion was: "There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be prepared to repel it. If we desire to preserve peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." Had a fear to irritate those who had done us wrong, On the 7th of January, the President nomirated to the Senate James Monroe, as Minister Extraordinary to the Courts of the King of Spain and First Consul of France, to act in conjunction with our Ministers at these Courts to negociate, it is presumed, respecting the shutting the port of New Orleans, and the cession of Louisiana. This gentleman was formerly our Minister to France, and was recalled by Washington for mis or duct. From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, it appears that there was in the Treasury of the United States, on the 30th September 1802, in cash, dollars 4,439,075. The receipts of the United States for the ending the 30th Sept. 1802, was, doliars 15,258,459, which was derived from the following sources: Duties on impost and tonnage, Direct tax, Sales of public lands, Dividends on bank stock, Internal taxes, Dolls. Ctr. 12,298.938 6 226,804 19 179-575 52 50,00 1,28:,600 399960 212,342 83 31,943 22 806,765 65 124,028 64 Dolls. 15,268,158 II The The payments into the Treasury from duties on imports and tonnage being derived from bonds due for duties accruing before the late peace, the President reminds us "that the effect of peace is not yet fully ascertained."-This effect, though not fully ascertained, has yet evinced its operation. It appears from the statements from the Treasury Department, that the amount of duties on goods imported and tonnage secured in the last year, and which will form the receipt of the next, is dollars 2,256,895 less than the year preceding. "The funds annually appropriated to the discharge of our debt, are, by act of Congress, under the direction of the Vice Pre-. sident, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Chief Justices of the United States, who are styled the "Commissioners of the Sinking Fund." Of these commissioners the Secretary of the Treasury is the agent, the power of the others is barely nominal. The commissioners have laid before Congress at the present session, a report of the Secretary of the Treasury made to them, containing a detail of the measures pursued in the year 1802, in relation to their duty It does not appear that the Chief Justice of the United States had been consulted on these proceedings: his name does not appear report....1 This report of the Secretary to the of the Treasury states, "That during the year 1802, there has been drawn from the Treasury of the United States, on account of principal and interest of the domestic debt, the stiv. 9,372,752 28 sum of be added the last sum, stated to be in viz. dolls. 3,483,711 77 hands, 114,740 44 "From these facts I am led to remark, that the act of last session placed among the proudest plumes of the present administraredemption of the whole public debt of the tion, entitled "An Act providing for the United States," makes it expressly the duty of the commissioners of the sinking fund to apply annually the sum of 7,300,000 dolit appears the sum of dollars 6,699,638 47 lars to the discharge of the debt...and that only has been applied in the year 1802--leaving a deficit of dollars 600,261 55. As to the large sum of 3,483,711 dollars drawn from the Treasury, and not applied, it would have been more satisfactory to “ that jealousy which, however detestable in private, is the loveliest trait of political character,' had we been informed in whose hands as agents this immense sum was resting. As to myself, I should be glad to have been in925,538 40 formed what necessity induced the drawing so large a sum from the Treasury, so long before it was to be applied? Why money was remitted to Europe (if the fact be so) to meet a debt not yet due, at a time that a balance of 600,000 dollars remained, as it still does, unpaid of the sum expressly re dolls. 4,065,738 47 quired to be paid in each year. And I can "That of the money drawn from the Treasury in the year 1801, which remained unapplied at the expiration of that year, and was applicable to the Dutch debt, there was 2,313,846 guilders 10 stivers, equal at 40 cts. each guilder to Forming the sum in their hands in account: "1. That to the payment of interest on the debt accrued in the year 1802, there has been applied "2. To the reimbursement of prin cipal of domestic debt, Dutch debt, due in 1802 1,290,000 1,344,000 not repress the expression of my astonishment and alarm, that the Secretary of the Treasury in an official report, professing to account for the due application of dollars doils. 6,699,738 47 10,298,190 68, after vaguely stating dol. lars 3,488,711 77, to be unapplied and in Making the sum actually applied to the discharge of the debt, in the year 1802, the |