Chapter I: A. Coles (23)

The disposition of Bonaparte towards us rests not alone on his acts of aggression, rapine, and plunder; the imprisonment of our citizens, the burning and sequestration of our property. He has heaped upon this devoted country all the epithets which malice could suggest or tyranny dictate; he has exhausted the cup of bitterness, and made us drink the dregs of humiliation; he has declared his decrees should suffer no change, and that the Americans should take the positive character of allies or enemies. As long ago as the 15th of January, 1808, he issued a declaration of war for us against Great Britain; an unconditional surrender of your rights is demanded, or an obedience to his dictates. And are we not in the act of yielding obedience? Sir, the nation which pretends to dictate laws to another offers chains. With more than Christian charity do we seem to forget and forgive the indignities offered to our national character; and the unkind, the severest cut of all to the present Administration, contained in the letter of the Duc de Cadore to General Armstrong, of the 17th of February, 1810, in which we are told that His Majesty could place no reliance on the proceedings of the United States. We are advised to tear to pieces the act of our independence; declared to be more abject than the slaves of Jamaica; that we are men without honor, energy, or just political views; that we will be obliged to fight for interest, after having refused to fight for honor. Our present rulers are there contrasted with the brave and generous heroes of our Revolution, and they are declared to be fit for the yoke which had been thrown off by their ancestors. This letter had scarcely reached our shores, the ink was scarcely dry, it was fresh in our memories, when the letter of the 5th of August was received; which, like a Lethean draught, threw the shade of oblivion over our insults and our wrongs; we sipped the poison as it fell, and I fear it is fast spreading through the body politic.

Mr. Speaker, I turn with disgust from those polluted pages before me--this history of our wrongs, this tyrant's love--would to God they could be blotted from our memories; or, if remembered, let it be with abhorrence and detestation.

I deprecate the course of policy, if policy it may be termed, which is now about to be forced upon us. I protest against it as a measure injurious to ourselves; weak, temporizing, and partial in its operation on foreign nations; unauthorized by the actual state of things; and calculated to hasten the period of our union with the destinies of France.

Sir, unless we turn from this wayward course, this highway to ruin, the time cannot be very distant when your deserted ports, your uninhabited cities, your oppressed people, and even your firesides and your altars, will only exhibit the sad signs of what they were. And I fear, sir, the period is fast approaching when it will not again be said, "that we are a people with whom the fierce spirit of liberty is stronger than among any other people on earth; whose institutions inspire them with lofty sentiments; who do not judge of an ill principle only by an actual grievance; but who anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle; who snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."

When Mr. P. had concluded, the House adjourned to six o'clock this evening.

_Six o'clock, P. M._

The House was called to order, and resumed the unfinished business.

A motion was made by Mr. RANDOLPH to postpone the subject to Friday next, and lost--ayes 36, noes 36.

A motion was then made by Mr. R. to postpone it until to-morrow.

On this motion a debate, which from its nature caused irritation, took place, in which Messrs. RANDOLPH and EPPES were the principal speakers.

Much warmth was excited, and frequent calls to order made.

The question on postponement till to-morrow was decided by yeas and nays. For postponement, 44; against it, 74.

Mr. Pitkin spoke more than an hour against the bill generally, and in support of the particular proposition which he was about to make. He contended that the Emperor of France had not fulfilled his engagement to the United States, inasmuch as the decrees, if revoked, which he denied, had not been revoked on the day on which he had engaged to revoke them. He quoted the history of the connection of Spain with France as evidence of the perfidy of Bonaparte, from whom, he said, no compliance with his promises could be expected, &c. In supporting his amendment, Mr. P. contended for its beneficial effects to our merchants: and it would not, he said, be more a breach of our contract with France than the first section of the bill now before the House. The one was, in fact, as much a departure from the engagement with France as the other. The following was the amendment offered by Mr. PITKIN:

_Provided_, _also_, That nothing in this act, or the act to
which this is a supplement, shall be construed to affect any
vessels owned wholly by a citizen or citizens of the United
States, or the cargoes of any such vessels which shall have
cleared out from any port in the West Indies within ---- days
after the 2d of February, 1811.

The yeas and nays on the motion were, 46 yeas; 58 nays.

Mr. MACON addressed the Chair on the merits of the bill at some length. He believed the President to have been justified in issuing his proclamation by the Duc de Cadore's letter; but as subsequent information had been received from France, the question appeared to him to resolve itself into this: Was the sequestration of our vessels from the 1st November to the 2d of February a violation of our neutral rights or not? Had the decrees been so modified, under present circumstances, as that they had ceased to violate our neutral commerce? He conceived not, and should therefore vote against the bill. He deprecated the course of debate, and the irritation which prevailed in the House, as tending to bring this body into disrepute, &c.

Mr. P. B. PORTER then said that, for the purpose of coming to a decision on the bill, and putting an end to a scene which was, to say the least of it, disreputable to the House, he moved for the previous question on engrossing the bill.

The previous question was taken and decided in the affirmative, and the bill ordered to a third reading--65 to 9.

The bill was then read a third time.

The previous question was required on its passage, and carried in the affirmative.

Mr. RANDOLPH twice successively moved an adjournment. Motions negatived; the first 65 to 10, the second 66 to 8.

The question on the passage of the bill was then decided in the affirmative--yeas 64, nays 12, as follows:

YEAS.--Lemuel J. Alston, Willis Alston, jun., William Anderson,
David Bard, William T. Barry, Burwell Bassett, William W. Bibb,
Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, William A. Burwell, William Butler,
Joseph Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Matthew Clay, James Cochran,
William Crawford, Richard Cutts, Joseph Desha, John W. Eppes,
William Findlay, Meshack Franklin, Barzillai Gannett, Gideon
Gardner, Thomas Gholson, Peterson Goodwyn, James Holland, Jacob
Hufty, Richard M. Johnson, Thomas Kenan, John Love, Aaron Lyle,
Samuel McKee, William McKinley, Pleasant M. Miller, Samuel L.
Mitchill, John Montgomery, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore,
Jeremiah Morrow, Gurdon S. Mumford, Thos. Newbold, Thos.
Newton, John Porter, Peter B. Porter, John Rea of Pennsylvania,
John Rhea of Tennessee, Matthias Richards, Samuel Ringgold,
Erastus Root, Ebenezer Sage, John A. Scudder, Ebenezer Seaver,
Adam Seybert, Samuel Shaw, Dennis Smelt, John Smilie, Geo.
Smith, John Smith, Uri Tracy, George M. Troup, Charles Turner,
jr., Robert Weakley, Robert Whitehill, and Robert Witherspoon.

NAYS.--Abijah Bigelow, Barent Gardenier, Richard Jackson,
jr., William Kennedy, Nathaniel Macon, Elisha R. Potter, John
Randolph, Richard Stanford, Jacob Swoope, Archibald Van Home,
Laban Wheaton, and Ezekiel Whitman.

The House then adjourned to meet again at one o'clock.

The following is the bill as it passed this House:

A Bill supplementary to the act, entitled "An act concerning
the commercial intercourse between the United States and
Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for
other purposes."

_Be it enacted, &c._, That no vessel, owned wholly by a citizen
or citizens of the United States, which shall have departed
from a British port, prior to the 2d day of February, 1811,
and no merchandise owned wholly by a citizen or citizens of
the United States, imported in such vessel, shall be liable to
seizure or forfeiture on account of any infraction or presumed
infraction of the provisions of the act to which this act is a
supplement.

SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That, in case Great
Britain shall so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they
shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United
States, the President of the United States shall declare the
fact by proclamation; and such proclamation shall be admitted
as evidence, and no other evidence shall be admitted of such
revocation or modification in any suit or prosecution which may
be instituted under the fourth section of the act to which this
act is a supplement. And the restrictions imposed, or which may
be imposed, by virtue of the said act, shall, from the date of
such proclamation, cease and be discontinued.

SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That, until the
proclamation aforesaid shall have been issued, the several
provisions of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,
ninth, tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act, entitled "An
act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United
States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies,
and for other purposes," shall have full force and be
immediately carried into effect against Britain, her colonies,
and dependencies: _Provided, however_, That any vessel or
merchandise which may, in pursuance thereof, be seized, prior
to the fact being ascertained, whether Great Britain shall,
on or before the second day of February, one thousand eight
hundred and eleven, have revoked or modified her edicts in the
manner above mentioned, shall, nevertheless, be restored, on
application of the parties, on their giving bond with approved
sureties to the United States, in a sum equal to the value
thereof, to abide the decision of the proper court of the
United States thereon; and any such bond shall be considered
as satisfied if Great Britain shall, on or before the second
day of February, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, have
revoked or modified her edicts in the manner above mentioned:
_Provided, also_, That nothing herein contained shall be
construed to affect any ships or vessels, or the cargoes of
ships or vessels, wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of
the United States, which had cleared out for the Cape of Good
Hope, or for any port beyond the same, prior to the tenth of
November, one thousand eight hundred and ten.

SATURDAY, March 2.

_Bank of the United States._

Mr. P. B. PORTER, from the committee to whom was referred, on the twenty-fifth ultimo, the memorial of the Stockholders of the Bank of the United States, made the following report, which was read:

"The committee to whom was referred the memorial of the
Stockholders of the Bank of the United States, report:

"That they have carefully examined the various matters set
forth in the said memorial, and attentively listened to the
representations of the gentlemen who have appeared in behalf
of the said petitioners. The object of the memorialists is to
obtain extension of their corporate powers beyond the period
limited for the expiration of their charter, so as to enable
them to prosecute for their debts, and to arrange, liquidate,
and close the various concerns of the company.

"The committee are of opinion that a law of Congress, granting
the powers prayed for, would facilitate the final adjustment of
the affairs of the bank, although they do not think such a law
indispensable to that object. But believing, as your committee
do, that, in granting the original charter to the stockholders,
Congress transcended the legitimate powers of the constitution;
the same objection now presents itself to the extension of any
of their corporate capacities.

"If the committee had time to go into the investigation, and to
present to the House the various reasons which have conduced
to this opinion, it would be more than useless to divert its
attention from the important concerns of the nation, at this
late period of the session, to a subject which, but a few days
since, was so fully and elaborately discussed.

"They therefore beg leave to introduce the following resolution:

"_Resolved_, That the prayer of the memorialists ought not to
be granted."

The House agreed to meet to-morrow, (being Sunday.)

The House then adjourned to six o'clock this evening.

March 2--_6 o'clock, p.m._

_Adjournment._

On motion of Mr. SMILIE,

_Resolved_, That the thanks of this House be presented to JOSEPH B. VARNUM, in testimony of their approbation of his conduct in the discharge of the arduous and important duties assigned to him while in the Chair.

The SPEAKER then made his acknowledgments to the House in the following words:

_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I acknowledge, with grateful sensibility, the aid you have
afforded me in the discharge of the duties of Speaker. Your
approbation of my conduct in the important office you have
been pleased to assign me, affords me very great consolation;
and permit me to assure you, gentlemen, that you have my most
ardent wishes for your individual prosperity and happiness.

At this moment, Mr. GARLAND, from the committee appointed for the purpose, reported that they had waited on the President and informed him that they proposed to adjourn, and had received for answer that he had no further communication to make.

A message was received from the Senate, and reciprocated, that they were about to adjourn; a motion was then made to adjourn, and carried.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Thus terminated the existence of the first Bank of the United States; but there was a fatal defect in terminating it in not providing a general currency in place of its notes, by reviving the gold currency and in not creating an independent treasury for keeping the public moneys. Those who terminated the existence of the second bank avoided these errors, and thereby avoided all the evils and embarrassments which followed the termination of the first one.

TWELFTH CONGRESS.--FIRST SESSION.

BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 4, 1811.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.[12]

MONDAY, November 4, 1811.

The first session of the Twelfth Congress commenced this day at the city of Washington, conformably to the proclamation of the President of the United States, of the 24th of July last, and the Senate assembled in their Chamber.

PRESENT:

GEORGE CLINTON, Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.

NICHOLAS GILMAN and CHARLES CUTTS, from New Hampshire.

CHAUNCEY GOODRICH and SAMUEL W. DANA, from Connecticut.

STEPHEN R. BRADLEY, from Vermont.

JOHN SMITH and OBADIAH GERMAN, from New York.

JOHN CONDIT and JOHN LAMBERT, from New Jersey.

ANDREW GREGG and MICHAEL LEIB, from Pennsylvania.

OUTERBRIDGE HORSEY, from Delaware.

SAMUEL SMITH and PHILIP REED, from Maryland.

WILLIAM B. GILES, from Virginia.

JESSE FRANKLIN, from North Carolina.

JOHN GAILLARD and JOHN TAYLOR, from South Carolina.

WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD and CHARLES TAIT, from Georgia.

JOHN POPE, from Kentucky.

JOSEPH ANDERSON, from Tennessee.

THOMAS WORTHINGTON, from Ohio.

GEORGE M. BIBB, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, for the term of six years, commencing on the 4th day of March last; _George W. Campbell_, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Tennessee, in place of Jenkin Whiteside, resigned; JEREMIAH B. HOWELL, appointed a Senator, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last, by the Legislature of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; JOSEPH B. VARNUM, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; respectively produced their credentials, which were read, and the oath prescribed by law was administered to them, and they took their seats in the Senate.

The oath was also administered to Messrs. CONDIT, CRAWFORD, GILES, GILMAN, and TAYLOR, their credentials having been read and filed during the last session.

_Ordered_, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to business.

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled, and have elected HENRY CLAY, Esq., one of the Representatives from the State of Kentucky, their Speaker, and are ready to proceed to business. They 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.

The Senate concurred in the appointment of a joint committee on their part, agreeably to the resolution last mentioned; and Messrs. ANDERSON and GAILLARD were appointed the committee.

The Senate then adjourned.

TUESDAY, November 5.

RICHARD BRENT, from the State of Virginia, attended.

_Annual Message._

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_Fellow-citizens of the Senate
and House of Representatives_:

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your
homes would otherwise have been required, I yielded to
considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs;
and in fixing the present, for the time of your meeting, regard
was had to the probability of further developments of the
policy of the belligerent powers towards this country, which
might the more unite the National Councils in the measures to
be pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress, it was hoped
that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the
French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce,
would have induced the Government of Great Britain to repeal
its Orders in Council, and thereby authorize a removal of the
existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.

Instead of this reasonable step towards satisfaction and
friendship between the two nations, the Orders were, at a
moment when least to have been expected, put into more rigorous
execution; and it was communicated through the British Envoy
just arrived, that, whilst the revocation of the edicts of
France, as officially made known to the British Government, was
denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition
of the repeal of the British Orders that commerce should be
restored to a footing that would admit the productions and
manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by neutrals, into
markets shut against them by her enemy; the United States being
given to understand that, in the mean time, a continuance of
their non-importation act would lead to measures of retaliation.

At a later date, it has indeed appeared that a communication
to the British Government, of fresh evidence of the repeal of
the French decrees against our neutral trade, was followed
by an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British
Plenipotentiary here, in order that it might receive full
consideration in the depending discussions. This communication
appears not to have been received; but the transmission of
it hitherto, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of
the orders, or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will
not permit us to rely on any effective change in the British
Cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory
proofs of such a change, and to proceed, in the mean time, in
adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed
through that Minister, will best consult our whole duty.

In the friendly spirit of those disclosures, indemnity and
redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld; and our
coasts, and the mouths of our harbors, have again witnessed
scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our national
rights, than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.

Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships
of war hovering on our coasts, was an encounter between one of
them and the American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers,
rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter, by a fire,
commenced without cause, by the former; whose commander is
therefore alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed
in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The proceedings
of a court of inquiry, requested by Captain Rodgers, are
communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the
occurrence between the Secretary of State and His Britannic
Majesty's Envoy. To these are added the several correspondences
which have passed on the subject of the British Orders in
Council; and to both, the correspondence relating to the
Floridas, in which Congress will be made acquainted with the
interposition which the Government of Great Britain has thought
proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.

The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part
of the United States towards France, both before and since
the revocation of her decrees, authorized an expectation that
her Government would have followed up that measure by all
such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as
dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet
given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done to the
United States, and particularly to restore the great amount
of American property seized and condemned under edicts which,
though not affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not
entering into questions between the United States and other
belligerents, were, nevertheless, founded in such unjust
principles that the reparation ought to have been prompt and
ample.

In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that
nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied
with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions to which their
trade with the French dominions has been subjected; and which,
if not discontinued, will require at least corresponding
restrictions on importations from France into the United States.

On all those subjects, our Minister Plenipotentiary, lately
sent to Paris, has carried with him the necessary instructions;
the result of which will be communicated to you, and by
ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French Government
towards the United States, will enable you to adapt to it that
of the United States towards France.

Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes.
With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The
ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions
towards our commerce in the Councils of that nation also. And
the information from our special Minister to Denmark, shows
that the mission had been attended with valuable effects to our
citizens, whose property had been so extensively violated and
endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.

Under the ominous indications which commanded attention, it
became a duty to exert the means committed to the Executive
department in providing for the general security. The works
of defence on our maritime frontier have accordingly been
prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for the
completion of the most important ones; and, as particularly
suited for co-operation in emergencies, a portion of the
gunboats have, in particular harbors, been ordered into use.
The ships of war before in commission, with the addition of
a frigate, have been chiefly employed as a cruising guard
to the rights of our coast. And such a disposition has been
made of our land forces, as was thought to promise the
services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
is included a force, consisting of regulars and militia,
embodied in the Indiana Territory, and marched towards our
Northwestern frontier. This measure was made requisite by
the several murders and depredations committed by Indians,
but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence
and direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With
these exceptions, the Indian tribes retain their peaceable
dispositions towards us, and their usual pursuits.

I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from
the Legislative guardians of the national rights a system of
more ample provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding
the scrupulous justice, the protracted moderation, and the
multiplied efforts, on the part of the United States, to
substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of the
two countries, all the mutual advantages of re-established
friendship and confidence, we have seen that the British
Cabinet perseveres, not only in withholding a remedy for other
wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the
execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory,
of measures which, under existing circumstances, have the
character, as well as the effect, of war on our lawful commerce.

With this evidence of hostile inflexibility, in trampling on
rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress
will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor
and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with
the national spirit and expectations.

I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made
for filling the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the
regular troops; for an auxiliary force, to be engaged for a
more limited term; for the acceptance of volunteer corps, whose
patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent services;
for detachments, as they may be wanted, of other portions of
the militia; and for such a preparation of the great body as
will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. Nor
can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of those
military seminaries which, in every event, will form a valuable
and frugal part of our Military Establishment.

The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with
due success; and the stock and resources of all the necessary
munitions are adequate to emergencies. It will not be
inexpedient, however, for Congress to authorize an enlargement
of them.

Your attention will, of course, be drawn to such provisions
on the subject of our naval force as may be required for the
services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to Congress
the seasonableness also of an authority to augment the stock of
such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may not
at once be attainable.

In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous
epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention, it is
impossible to overlook those developing themselves among the
great communities which occupy the Southern portion of our
hemisphere, and extend into our neighborhood. An enlarged
philanthropy, and an enlightened forecast, concur in imposing
on the national Councils an obligation to take a deep interest
in their destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of
good will, to regard the progress of events, and not to be
unprepared for whatever order of things may be ultimately
established.

Under another aspect of our situation, the early attention
of Congress will be due to the expediency of further guards
against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws.
The practice of smuggling, which is odious every where, and
particularly criminal in free Governments, where the laws
being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on
every individual as well as on the State, attains its utmost
guilt when it blends, with a pursuit of ignominious gain, a
treacherous subserviency in the transgressors to a foreign
policy, adverse to that of their own country. It is then that
the virtuous indignation of the public should be enabled to
manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the most
competent laws.

To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag, and to the
honest interests which it covers, it is expedient also that
it be made punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from
foreign Governments for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them
to other American citizens; or to trade under false colors or
papers of any sort.

A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance, by
our citizens, of special licenses to be used in a trade with
the United States; and against the admission into particular
ports of the United States of vessels from foreign countries
authorized to trade with particular ports only.

Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be well bestowed on
the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the
success they have attained, and are still attaining, in some
degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent; and to our
navigation the fair extent of which it is at present abridged
by the unequal regulations of foreign Governments.

Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufacturers from
sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring on them,
the national interest requires that, with respect to such
articles at least as belong to our defence and our primary
wants, we should not be left in unnecessary dependence on
external supplies. And whilst foreign Governments adhere to the
existing discriminations in their ports against our navigation,
and an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed by their
navigation in our ports, the effect cannot be mistaken,
because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests;
and in proportion as this takes place, the advantages of an
independent conveyance of our products to foreign markets, and
of a growing body of mariners, trained by their occupation
for the service of their country in times of danger, must be
diminished.

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the
thirtieth of September last, have exceeded thirteen millions
and a half of dollars, and have enabled us to defray the
current expenses, including the interest on the public debt,
and to reimburse more than five millions of dollars of the
principal, without recurring to the loan authorized by the act
of the last session. The temporary loan obtained in the latter
end of the year one thousand eight hundred and ten, has also
been reimbursed, and is not included in that amount.

The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our
commerce and the extraordinary expenses which have and
may become necessary, must be taken into view, in making
commensurate provisions for the ensuing year. And I recommend
to your consideration the propriety of insuring a sufficiency
of annual revenue, at least to defray the ordinary expenses
of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt,
including that on new loans which may be authorized.

I cannot close this communication without expressing my deep
sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence
in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and
assurances of the faithful zeal with which my co-operating
duties will be discharged; invoking, at the same time, the
blessing of Heaven on our beloved country, and on all the means
that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing
its welfare.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _November 5, 1811_.

WEDNESDAY, November 6.

JAMES LLOYD, from the State of Massachusetts, took his seat in the Senate.

FRIDAY, November 8.

On motion, by Mr. SMITH, of Maryland,

_Resolved_, That Mountjoy Bayly, Doorkeeper and Sergeant-at-Arms 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.

MONDAY, November 11.

JAMES TURNER, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of North Carolina, for the term of six years, commencing on the 4th day of March last, produced his credentials; which were read, and the oath prescribed by law was administered to him, and he took his seat in the Senate.

TUESDAY, November 12.

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, from the State of Ohio, took his seat in the Senate.

THURSDAY, November 14.

_Reparation for the attack on the frigate Chesapeake._

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between
the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Great
Britain and the Secretary of State, relative to the aggressions
committed by a British ship of war on the United States frigate
Chesapeake, by which it will be seen that that subject of
difference between the two countries is terminated by an offer
of reparation, which has been acceded to.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _Nov. 13, 1811_.

The Message and papers therein referred to were read, and ordered to lie on the table.

FRIDAY, November 22.

JONATHAN ROBINSON, from the State of Vermont, took his seat in the Senate.

MONDAY, November 25.

WILLIAM HUNTER, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in place of Christopher Grant Champlin, resigned, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat in the Senate.

FRIDAY, November 29.

The oath prescribed by law was administered to Mr. BAYARD, his credentials having been read and filed during the last session.

THURSDAY, December 19.

_Battle of Tippecanoe._

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:

I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor
Harrison, of the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars
and the issue of the expedition under his command, of which
notice was taken in my communication of November 5th.

While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have
been lost in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo,
Congress will see, with satisfaction, the dauntless spirit
and fortitude victoriously displayed by every description of
the troops engaged, as well as the collected firmness which
distinguished their commander, on an occasion requiring the
utmost exertions of valor and discipline.

It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this
critical defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages,
which appears to have been spreading to a greater extent, will
be experienced not only in a cessation of the murders and
depredations committed on our frontier, but in the prevention
of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been apprehended.

The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have
fallen in this severe conflict, will doubtless engage the
favorable attention of Congress.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _Dec. 18, 1811_.

The Message and letters referred to were read, and ordered to lie on the table.

FRIDAY, December 20.

Mr. GILMAN, from the committee, reported the bill to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, correctly engrossed; and the bill was read the third time, and the blanks filled. On the question, Shall this bill pass? it was determined in the affirmative--yeas 26, nays 4, as follows:

YEAS.--Messrs. Anderson, Bibb, Bradley, Campbell of Ohio,
Campbell of Tennessee, Condit, Crawford, Cutts, Franklin,
Gaillard, German, Gilman, Gregg, Horsey, Howell, Leib, Lloyd,
Pope, Reed, Robinson, Smith of New York, Tait, Taylor, Turner,
Varnum, and Worthington.

NAYS.--Messrs. Dana, Goodrich, Hunter, and Lambert.

_Rangers for the Frontier._

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill authorizing the President of the United States to raise certain companies of spies or rangers for the protection of the frontier of the United States; and the bill was amended; and the President reported it to the House accordingly.

On the question, Shall this bill be engrossed and read a third time as amended? it was determined in the affirmative.

TUESDAY, December 24.

_Hudson River and Lake Ontario Canal._

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the Legislature
of New York, relating to a canal from the great Lakes to
Hudson's River. In making the communication, I consult the
respect due to that State in whose behalf the commissioners
appointed by the act have placed it in my hands for the purpose.

The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It
is not less certain, that scarcely any country offers more
extensive opportunities for that branch of improvements than
the United States; and none, perhaps, inducements equally
persuasive to make the most of them. The particular undertaking
contemplated by the State of New York, which marks an honorable
spirit of enterprise, and comprises objects of national as
well as more limited importance, will recall the attention of
Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United
States from a general system of internal communication and
conveyance; and suggest to their consideration whatever steps
may be proper, on their part, towards its introduction and
accomplishment. As some of those advantages have an intimate
connection with arrangements and exertions for the general
security, it is at a period calling for these that the merits
of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1811_.

The Message and documents therein referred to were read; and referred to the committee last mentioned, to consider and report thereon.

FRIDAY, December 27.

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:

I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the
Legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me,
with that view, by the Governor of that State, in pursuance of
one of the said resolutions.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _December 27, 1811_.

_Oliver Evans' claim for different applications of Steam Power._

Mr. LEIB presented the memorial of Oliver Evans, stating that the memorialist verily believes himself to be the original proposer of steam-boats and steam-wagons in the United States, (Doctor Franklin only excepted;) and that he conceives his patent, dated February 14, 1804, secured to him the right to use his engine for boats, mills, and land carriages, and praying to be left in full possession of those rights, for reasons stated at large in the memorial; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table.

MONDAY, December 30.

_Burning of the Richmond, Va., Theatre._

Mr. BRADLEY submitted the following motion for consideration:

_Resolved_, That the members of this House will wear crape
on the left arm for one month, in testimony of the national
respect and sorrow for the unfortunate persons who perished in
the city of Richmond, in Virginia, on the night of the 26th of
the present month.

TUESDAY, December 31.

Mr. BRADLEY called up the motion made yesterday on the subject; and, on his motion, it was amended and agreed to as follows:

_Resolved_, That the members of this House will wear crape on the left arm for one month, in testimony of the condolence and sorrow of the Senate for the calamitous event by which the Chief Magistrate of the State of Virginia, and so many of her citizens, perished by fire, in the city of Richmond, on the night of the 26th of the present month.

THURSDAY, January 16, 1812.

_Hostile policy of Great Britain._

The following message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to Congress a letter from the Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the Secretary
of State, with the answer of the latter.

The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence, of the
hostile policy of the British Government against our national
rights, strengthens the considerations recommending and urging
the preparation of adequate means for maintaining them.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1812_.

The Message and documents enclosed were read, and referred to the committee to whom was referred, on the 8th of November last, so much of the Message of the President of the United States as concerns the relations between the United States and France and Great Britain, to consider and report thereon; and five hundred copies thereof ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate.

FRIDAY, January 17.

_Incorporation of a Mining Company in Upper
Louisiana._

Mr. BRADLEY, from the committee appointed on the petition of Moses Austin and John R. Jones, reported a bill to incorporate Moses Austin, John Rice Jones, Henry Austin, and others, into a company, by the name of the Louisiana Lead Company; and the bill was read, and passed to the second reading.

WEDNESDAY, January 29.

The bill establishing a land office was read the second time.

_Additional Military Force._

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the consideration of the bill, entitled "An act authorizing the President of the United States to accept and organize certain volunteer military corps," together with the amendments reported thereto by the select committee.

Mr. GILES rose and opposed at length the bill as it came from the House, reserving to himself the privilege of acting on the proposed amendment according to the result of further reflections. He believed the bill would be productive of no practical efficacy. It proposed a force which could not be raised; and if raised, from the short period of its service, in the event of serious hostilities, would be utterly incompetent to effect the objects of those hostilities. The bill would be inoperative, because, in the States of Massachusetts and Vermont, (and he presumed in other States,) no power or provision existed by which these volunteers could be commissioned, so as to perform the contemplated service; and if the Government were deprived of the volunteers in Massachusetts and Vermont, he did not know where they could obtain volunteers for the object which he believed all branches of the Government had in view. He presumed that the system of volunteers was the favorite system of the Government; and this he inferred from their having recommended to the other House the raising of ten thousand regulars only, and from the Message of the President, sent in after both Houses had passed the bill for raising twenty-five thousand regulars, and communicating the correspondence between Mr. Foster and Mr. Monroe, as a ground for urging Congress to persevere in the preparations they were engaged in making. The President must, therefore, have deemed a volunteer force essential for the contemplated service. And here he observed he thought, if his correspondence with the British Envoy, which afforded evidence of "continued hostility" towards us, furnished matter of sufficient importance to press upon Congress the utility of hastening their measures of preparation, that the other business of the Department of State might have been allowed to repose long enough for a reply to have been made to Mr. Foster, before nearly a month had elapsed after the date of his letter. He did not advert to this circumstance from any want of respect to this Government: he should always treat them with the highest respect. He should prefer the reduction of the number of the volunteers to twenty-five thousand, rather than the retention of the fifty thousand, because it would increase the momentum of actual force, and decrease the expenses, about which so much has been said. Surely, he said, he did not mean that it would not increase the momentum of force proposed by the other House, but that proposed by the Executive. The Executive had asked for ten thousand regulars, and fifty thousand volunteers--in all, sixty thousand men. The other House had agreed to give him eighty-five thousand. The proposed amendment would, therefore, bring the quantum of force down nearly to the Executive requisition. But the bill proposed a force which would be utterly inefficient, as all other volunteer bills had been. The returns under the thirty thousand volunteer law, passed two or three years ago, were so few, that the Secretary of War did not register them. He asked, how efficient could that species of force be, of which the Chief Magistrate did not think it worth while to have a record kept? It was only a formidable display of armies on paper--a tender of services--which only produced very handsome replies from the President. He did not censure the Secretary of War or the President; very far from it; the defect had been in the law. He begged gentlemen to look seriously at the subject. If a war should ensue, it must be a serious one. The responsibility attached to Congress of placing an adequate force in the hands of the President for the war. But if they passed a law which would give the President only a nominal force, totally incompetent to effect any desirable object, he, for one, should be unwilling to take any share of responsibility on himself.

THURSDAY, February 27.

_Increase of the Navy._

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the consideration of the bill entitled "An act concerning the Naval Establishment," together with the amendments reported thereto by the select committee.

Mr. LLOYD.--Mr. President, the amendments proposed by the committee to whom this bill has been referred, having been gone through with, I now beg leave to offer a new one, by an additional section to the following effect:

"_Be it further enacted_, That the President of the United
States be, and he hereby is, authorized to cause to be built as
speedily as may be, on the most approved model, ---- frigates,
not exceeding thirty-six guns each; and that a sum not
exceeding ---- dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated
for building the said frigates, out of any moneys in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated."

It is my intention, sir, to move for twenty new frigates; but the number I have left blank in order, should the Senate be favorably disposed to an increase of the Navy, and disagree with me as to the degree of that increase, they might regulate the number at their pleasure.

Sir, I have been induced to offer this amendment from an impulse of duty towards my more immediate constituents, and also from a sense of the obligation imposed upon me, however feebly I may be able to respond to it, in the honorable station in which I am placed, to endeavor to the extent of my ability to support the dignity, protect the rights, and advance the best interests of the United States. Sir, I trust the amendment under consideration, if adopted, would have a relation, and a favorable relation, to all these objects.

If it be not the determination of the Government to engage in an open, actual, efficient war; to place the nation in such a complete state of preparation as to avert war, from our state of readiness to meet it; then the measures of the present session, those of filling up the existing Military Establishments, and thereby adding to it between six and seven thousand men, that of enlisting a standing army of twenty-five thousand men to serve for five years, unless sooner discharged--of providing for the employment of fifty thousand volunteers, and of holding in readiness one hundred thousand of the militia, would be not only inexcusable, but nearly treasonable; as they would in such case, without any adequate object, impose severe and heavy burdens upon the people of the United States, from which years of the highest degree of prosperity would not relieve them. But, sir, I am bound to believe, that unless redress be obtained, it is the determination of the Government of the United States to enter into an actual, vigorous, real war, or at any rate to put the nation into a perfect State of readiness to commence it, should it be necessary; and in either of these cases, an efficient naval force is as indispensable, nay much more indispensable, than a land force.

In the year 1793, when Great Britain depredated upon your commerce, you had a man at the head of your Government who fought no battles with paper resolutions, nor attempted to wage war with commercial restrictions, although they were then pressed upon him. He caused it to be distinctly and with firmness made known to Great Britain, that if she did not both cease to violate our rights, and make us reparation for the wrongs we had sustained--that young and feeble as we then were, just in the gristle, and stepping from the cradle of infancy, we would try the tug of war with her. What was the consequence? Her depredations were stopped--we made a treaty with her, under which we enjoyed a high degree of prosperity. Our claims were fairly heard, equitably adjudged, and the awards were honorably and punctually paid to the sufferers. In this instance you did something for commerce.

Next came the war with Tripoli--the Barbary States preyed upon our commerce--you determined to resist, and despatched a small squadron to the Mediterranean: this ought to have been considered as the germ of your future maritime greatness: the good conduct and bravery of that squadron, and the self-immolation of some of its officers, spread the renown of your naval prowess to all quarters of the civilized globe. What did you in this instance? At the moment when victory had perched upon your standard--when you might have exhibited the interesting spectacle of the infant Government of the United States holding in subjugation one of the Powers of Barbary, to whom all Europe had been subservient--at this moment when conquest was completely within your grasp--civil agency stepped in--the laurel was torn from the brow of as gallant a chieftain as ever graced the plains of Palestine, and we ignominiously consented to pay a tribute, where we might have imposed one.

After this you had the Berlin decree, the Orders in Council, the Milan decree, the Rambouillet decree, the depredations of Spain, the robberies even of the renegado black chief of St. Domingo, and the unprovoked and still continued plunder of Denmark, a nation of pirates from their origin. What cause of complaint has Denmark, or ever had Denmark, against us? Her most fond and speculative maritime pretensions we have willingly espoused, and yet she continues daily to capture and condemn our vessels and cargoes, and contemptuously tells us that the Government of the United States is too wise to go to war for a few merchant ships. And this we bear from a people as inferior to the United States in all the attributes of national power or greatness, as I am inferior to Hercules. Yes, sir, commerce has been abandoned, else why prohibit your merchants from bringing the property, to a large amount, which they have fairly purchased and paid for, into the ports of our country, else why, by this exclusion, perform the double operation of adding to the resources of the enemy you are going to war with and impoverishing your own citizens.

Yes, sir, commerce has been abandoned, "deserted in her utmost need by those her former bounty fed." Yes, sir, she has been abandoned. She has been left as a wreck upon a strand, or as a derelict upon the waters of the ocean, to be burnt, sunk, or plundered, by any great or puny assailant who could man an oar or load a swivel for her annoyance.

What was the leading object of the adoption of the Federal Constitution in the northern parts of the Union? Most emphatically, it was for the protection of commerce. What was the situation of some branches of our commerce then? And what is it now? Look at the statement which was laid upon our tables about a fortnight past, and taken from the returns of the Treasury. What effect has it had upon our fisheries, which were so nobly and successfully contended for by the American Commissioners who settled the Treaty of 1783; which for a time suspended that Treaty; and which, both the duplicity and intrigue of France and the interest of England strove to deprive us of--of our fisheries, which were then considered, and still ought to be considered, as a main sinew of our strength, and a nursery for our seamen?

MONDAY, March 2.

_Increase of the Navy._

Mr. CRAWFORD.--The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. LLOYD) thinks that nothing has been done by the Government for commerce, whilst commerce has done every thing for the nation; that commerce has paid into the public Treasury $200,000,000. If it is contended that this sum has been paid exclusively by commerce, nothing can be more incorrect. The money collected from imposts and duties is paid by the consumer of merchandise upon which the duties are imposed. It is collected immediately from the merchant, and ultimately from the nation. The only money paid into the Treasury which can justly be placed to the exclusive credit of commerce, is the sum retained by the Government upon debentures, which is only 7-10ths of one per cent. upon goods paying a duty of twenty per cent. ad valorem, and has never amounted to $400,000 in any one year. The export of foreign productions from the United States in the year 1807, exceeded $59,000,000, and the sum paid into the Treasury that year on account of drawbacks was about $390,000, which is the greatest amount received from that source of revenue since the organization of the Government.