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Read Ebook: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States Congress Benton Thomas Hart Editor
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Ebook has 5858 lines and 802429 words, and 118 pages
Editor: Thomas Hart Benton
Transcriber's Note: A number of obvious printer's errors have been amended. Other than that, the original text remains unchanged.
ABRIDGMENT OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS, FROM 1789 TO 1856.
FROM GALES AND SEATON'S ANNALS OF CONGRESS; FROM THEIR REGISTER OF DEBATES; AND FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTED DEBATES, BY JOHN C. RIVES.
NEW YORK D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1861
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
EIGHTH CONGRESS.--FIRST SESSION.
BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 17, 1803.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,--THOMAS JEFFERSON.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.
LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE SENATE.
MONDAY, October 17, 1803.
The first session of the eighth Congress, conformably to the Constitution of the United States, commenced at the city of Washington, agreeably to the Proclamation of the President of the United States for that purpose; and the Senate assembled on this day.
PRESENT:
SIMEON OLCOTT and WILLIAM PLUMER, from New Hampshire;
TIMOTHY PICKERING, from Massachusetts;
JAMES HILLHOUSE and URIAH TRACY, from Connecticut;
STEPHEN R. BRADLEY and ISRAEL SMITH, from Vermont;
DE WITT CLINTON and THEODORUS BAILEY, from New York;
JONATHAN DAYTON and JOHN CONDIT, from New Jersey;
GEORGE LOGAN and SAMUEL MACLAY, from Pennsylvania;
WILLIAM HILL WELLS and SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware;
ROBERT WRIGHT and SAMUEL SMITH, from Maryland;
JOHN TAYLOR and WILSON CAREY NICHOLAS, from Virginia;
JOHN BROWN and JOHN BRECKENRIDGE, from Kentucky;
JESSE FRANKLIN and DAVID STONE, from North Carolina;
JOSEPH ANDERSON and WILLIAM COCKE, from Tennessee;
ABRAHAM BALDWIN, from Georgia; and
THOMAS WORTHINGTON, from Ohio.
The credentials of the following Senators were severally read, to wit:
The oath was also administered to SAMUEL SMITH, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Maryland, for the term of six years from and after the third day of March last.
The Secretary was directed to give a similar notice to the House of Representatives.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House had assembled, and had elected the Hon. NATHANIEL MACON their Speaker, and is ready to proceed to business.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate, that the House agree to the resolution of the Senate for the appointment of a joint committee to wait on the President of the United States, and have appointed a committee on their part.
The Senate proceeded to the choice of a Chaplain on their part, and the ballots having been collected and counted, the whole number was twenty-eight; of which fifteen make a majority. Mr. GANTT had 15 votes, and Mr. M'CORMICK 13.
Consequently, the Rev. Dr. GANTT was elected.
Mr. CLINTON reported, from the joint committee appointed for the purpose, that they had waited on the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and that he had acquainted them that he would make a communication to the two Houses, by message, immediately.
The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
In calling you together, fellow-citizens, at an earlier day than was contemplated by the act of the last session of Congress, I have not been insensible to the personal inconveniences necessarily resulting from an unexpected change in your arrangements. But matters of great public concernment have rendered this call necessary, and the interest you feel in these will supersede, in your minds, all private considerations.
Congress witnessed, at their late session, the extraordinary agitation produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place having been made according to treaty. They were sensible that the continuance of that privation would be more injurious to our nation than any consequences which could flow from any mode of redress; but, reposing just confidence in the good faith of the Government whose officer had committed the wrong, friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right of deposit was restored.
Previous, however, to this period, we had not been unaware of the danger to which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important a key to the commerce of the western country remained under a foreign power. Difficulties too were presenting themselves as to the navigation of other streams, which, arising within our territories, pass through those adjacent. Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtaining, on fair conditions, the sovereignty of New Orleans, and of other possessions in that quarter, interesting to our quiet, to such extent as was deemed practicable; and the provisional appropriation of two millions of dollars, to be applied and accounted for by the President of the United States, intended as part of the price, was considered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisition proposed. The enlightened Government of France saw, with just discernment, the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best and permanently promote the peace, interests, and friendship of both; and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana, which had been restored to them, has, on certain conditions, been transferred to the United States, by instruments bearing date the 30th of April last. When these shall have received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will, without delay, be communicated to the Representatives for the exercise of their functions, as to those conditions which are within the powers vested by the constitution in Congress. Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States, and an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from collision with other Powers, and the dangers to our peace from that source, the fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise, in due season, important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and property; for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them, and for ascertaining the geography of the country acquired. Such materials for your information relative to its affairs in general, as the short space of time has permitted me to collect, will be laid before you when the subject shall be in a state for your consideration.
The small vessels authorized by Congress, with a view to the Mediterranean service, have been sent into that sea, and will be able more effectually to confine the Tripoline cruisers within their harbors, and supersede the necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter. They will sensibly lessen the expenses of that service the ensuing year.
A further knowledge of the ground in the north-eastern and north-western angles of the United States has evinced that the boundaries established by the treaty of Paris, between the British territories and ours in those parts, were too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution. It has therefore been thought worthy of attention, for preserving and cherishing the harmony and useful intercourse subsisting between the two nations, to remove, by timely arrangements, what unfavorable incidents might otherwise render a ground of future misunderstanding. A convention has therefore been entered into, which provides for a practicable demarcation of those limits, to the satisfaction of both parties.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending 30th September last, with the estimates for the service of the ensuing year, will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, so soon as the receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant States. It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the Treasury for that year has been between eleven and twelve millions of dollars; and that the revenue accrued, during the same term, exceeds the sum counted on as sufficient for our current expenses, and to extinguish the public debt within the period heretofore proposed.
TH. JEFFERSON.
OCT. 17, 1803.
The Message was read, and five hundred copies thereof ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate.
TUESDAY, October 18.
PIERCE BUTLER, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of South Carolina, for the unexpired time for which the late John Ewing Colhoun was elected to serve, produced his credentials, which were read, and the oath required by law was administered to him by the President.
JAMES JACKSON, from the State of Georgia, attended.
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