H. OF R.]

Remodelling the Treasury Department—Surviving Officers, &c., of the Revolution. [Dec. 9, 1834.

The question next recurring on the amendment proposed by Mr. PARKER, to strike out that part of the res olution which required the committee to consist of one member from each State, and also that clause which required the committee to inquire into the expediency of abolishing the school entirely

Mr. HUBBARD demanded that the question be divided. It was divided accordingly; and the questions being put separately, were both negatived.

Mr. MANN, of New York, now moved the amendment he before proposed, for an inquiry into the propriety of abolishing the office of commander-in-chief, and of a more equitable apportionment of the pay and emoluments of the general officers.

Mr. SMITH, of Maine, was in favor both of the resolution and the amendment, but feared that uniting them together might hazard the success of both. He pledged himself to vote for each, if separated; but declared he must vote against the present motion, if pressed as an amendment to the resolution.

Mr. WISE, of Virginia, said he learned from the constitution that the commander-in-chief of the armies and navy of the United States was the President of the United States. Did the gentleman from New York mean that the committee should be ordered to inquire into the propriety of abolishing the office of President?

Mr. MANN replied. He certainly had no intention to propose an inquiry into the propriety of abolishing the office of President of the United States, although he was not unaware that several gentlemen had on some occasions deemed such a measure highly expedient. He used the term as in common parlance it was applied; and as he also believed that such was the official style of the officer to whom his amendment referred, who was one of the major generals in the army. If the gentleman from Virginia was not satisfied with the term used, and would say what it ought to be, Mr. M. would cheerfully adopt his suggestion.

Mr. WISE said he had been aware that it would not very well suit the gentleman from New York, just now, that the office of President should be abolished. The officer to whom the amendment referred was, he believed, styled "general-in-chief."

Mr. MANN so modified his amendment; when, the question being taken, the amendment was negatived without a count. The resolution was then adopted, by yeas and nays, as follows:

lin Pierce, Pierson, Pinckney, Polk, Pope, Potts, Ramsay, Reed, Rencher, Reynolds, Robertson, Schenck, Schley, Augustine H. Shepperd, Shinn, Slade, Sloane; Smith, Spangler, Speight, Standefer, Steele, Sutherland, William Taylor, William P. Taylor, Philemon Thomas, Thomson, Tompkins, Trumbull, Turner, Turrill, Tweedy, Vanderpoel, Van Houten, Wagener, Wayne, White, Frederick Whittlesey, Williams, Wise, Young-182.

NAYS-Messrs. Chilton Allan, Anthony, Ashley, Barnitz, Bockee, Samuel Clark, Cramer, Dickson, Edward Everett, Ferris, Halsey, Hardin, Hathaway, Hazeltine, Howell, Jarvis, Richard M. Johnson, Love, Manning Parker, Dutee J. Pearce, Phillips, William B. Shepard, Francis Thomas, Vance, Vinton, Ward, Wardwell, Whallon, Wilde--27.

REMODELLING THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.

The SPEAKER laid before the House a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, enclosing a report made in pursuance of a resolution of the House at its last session, in relation to the reorganization of the Treasury Department.

Mr. WAYNE moved to refer the report to a select committee of nine; which was agreed to; and, on motion of the same gentleman, 5,000 extra copies were ordered to be printed.

The following gentlemen were announced as the se-
lect committee appointed to reorganize the Treasury
Department: Mr. Wayne, Mr. Mason of Virginia, Mr.
McKennan, Mr. Cambreleng, Mr. Rencher, Mr. Evans,
Mr. Pope, Mr. Jarvis, and Mr. McKay.
Adjourned.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9.

The following gentlemen were announced as the Library Committee of this House: Mr. Edward Everett, Mr. Wayne, and Mr. Loyall.

The following gentlemen were announced as the Committee on the Public Grounds and Buildings: Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Ward, Mr. Watmough, Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. William B. Shepard.

The following gentlemen were announced as the Committee on Mr. HAWES's resolution concerning the Military Academy, viz: Mr. Hawes, of Kentucky; Mr. Smith, of Maine; Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire; Mr. Briggs, of Massachusetts; Mr. Pearce, of Rhode Island; Mr. Young, of Connecticut; Mr. Hall, of Vermont; Mr. Mann, of New York; Mr. Dickerson, of New Jersey; Mr. Laporte, of Pennsylvania; Mr. Milligan, of Delaware; Mr. Carmichael, of Maryland; Mr. Gholson, of Virginia; Mr. A. H. Shepperd, of North Carolina; Mr. Campbell, of South Carolina; Mr. Gamble, of Georgia; Mr. Forester, of Tennessee; Mr. Allen, of Ohio; Mr. Garland, of Louisiana; Mr. Hannegan, of Indiana; Mr. Cage, of Mississippi; Mr. Casey, of Illinois; Mr. Lewis, of Alabama; Mr. Ashley, of Missouri.

SURVIVING OFFICERS, &c., OF THE REVOLU
TION.

YEAS-Messrs. John Quincy Adams, John Adams, Heman Allen, William Allen, Archer, Banks, Barber, Barringer, Bates, Baylies, Beale, Bean, Beardsley, Beaty, Beaumont, Bell, Bouldin, Briggs, Brown, Bull, Bunch, Burd, Burns, Cambreleng, Campbell, Carmichael, Carr, Casey, Chambers, Chaney, Chilton, Claiborne, William Clark, Clay, Clayton, Clowney, Coffee, Connor, Corwin, Crane, Crockett, Darlington, Davis, Davenport, Day, Deberry, Dickerson, Dunlap, Evans, Horace Everett, Ewing, Fillmore, Forester, Foster, Fowler, Philo C. Fuller, William K. Fuller, Galbraith, Gamble, Garland, Gholson, Gillet, Gilmer, Gordon, Graham, Grayson, Grennell, Joseph Hall, Hiland Hall, Thomas H. Hall, Hamer, Hannegan, Hard, Joseph M. Harper, James Harper, Harrison, Hawkins, Hawes, Heath, Henderson, Hiester, Hubbard, Huntington, Inge, William Jackson, Ebenezer Jackson, Janes, Noadiah Mr. CHILTON, of Kentucky, said he rose to submit a Johnson, Cave Johnson, Henry Johnson, Benjamin motion, which he sincerely hoped would be indulged by Jones, Kavanagh, Kilgore, King, Kinnard, Lane, Lan- the House. At the last session of Congress, he said he sing, Laporte, Lay, Luke Lea, Thomas Lee, Lewis, had presented, for the consideration of this body, the Loyal!, Lyon, Abijah Mann, Joel K. Mann, Martindale, claims of a portion of that noble band of patriots who Marshall, Mardis, John Y. Mason, Moses Mason, May, were engaged in the revolutionary struggles of the McCarty, McComas, McIntire, McKay, McKim, McKin- country, and for whom no provision had been made by ley, McLene, McVean, Milligan, Miner, Henry Mitchell, any of the pension laws of the United States. He alluRobert Mitchell, Moore, Morgan, Murphy, Osgood, ded to those who, between the close of the British war, Page, Parks, Patton, Patterson, Peyton, Pickens, Frank-in 1782, and the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, were en

When the usual morning business had been gone through with,

DEC. 9, 1834.]

Presents from Foreign Powers--President's Message.

gaged in defending the western frontier and the western domain of the States from the invasions and butchery of a savage foe. The House will recollect, said Mr. C., that, after a long and labored debate, the resolution of inquiry in regard to the meritorious character of those claims was adopted by a large majority of the members. A select committee was raised, and a report, accompanied by a bill, submitted for the consideration of this body. On the presentation of that report and bill, they were referred to a Committee of the Whole House, on whose calendar, owing to the press of business during the session, they were, at its close, left unfinished and unacted on.

The object of my present motion, said Mr. C., is to discharge the Committee of the Whole House from the further consideration of that subject, that it may be referred to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. I adopt this course with no expectation that it can render the success of the measure more certain, as both the rules of proceeding and the power of the House over the subject will, in either event, be the same. But I resort to it for the purpose alone of securing to the proposition a final determination during the present session of Congress; so that, if those aged veterans are to receive any aid from a country whose liberty they have achieved, or any public testimonial of the gratitude of those who are enjoying the rich inheritance which they purchased with toil and blood; then, that such aid and such testimonials may be speedily offered them, and that their last afflictions may be alleviated, and their last moments cheered by the recollection-nay, the evidencesthat "Republics are not always ungrateful." I therefore move the discharge of the one, and the reference of the subject to the other committee.

Mr. WARDWELL moved to amend the motion by embracing it in the bill, left last session in the Committee of the Whole House, "to extend the provisions of the act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution."

Mr. CHELTON accepted the amendment, and the motion, as modified, was agreed to: Yeas 81, nays 74. On motion of Mr. POLK, the several communications received from the Secretary of the Treasury were referred to the Committee of Ways and Means.

On motion of Mr. CROCKETT, the bill to amend an act entitled "An act authorizing the State of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle the claims to the vacant and unappropriated land within the same," passed 18th April, 1806, (reported at the last session,) was committed to the Committee of the Whole House, and made the special order of the day for Wednesday week.

PRESENTS FROM FOREIGN POWERS. Mr. MASON, of Virginia, rose to remind the House that, at the last session, a message was received from the President of the United States, submitting to the disposition of Congress certain presents from the Emperor of Morocco, (a lion and two horses.) The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which the message was referred, recommended that the presents should be sold, and the proceeds placed in the treasury of the United States. But the Executive thought he was not sufficiently justified without an act of Congress, for taking this course. It was desirable that the subject should be disposed of, and the contingent fund relieved from the expense now charged upon it. He moved a recommitment of the message to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Mr. E. EVERETT wished, he said, that the gentleman would propose a different disposition of the subject. The presents were now in the country, and the disposition of them was no longer connected with the subject of foreign relations. If doubts had arisen in the

[H. OF R.

mind of the Executive as to the legality of the procedure recommended by the committee, he hoped they would be removed. But the Committee on Foreign Affairs was not the proper tribunal for resolving legal doubts. He suggested the propriety of referring the subject to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. MASON was glad, he said, to find that the gentleman was in favor of the object of his motion. Instructions had been given to our agents abroad which would prevent them from accepting, for themselves or for the Government, any more presents from foreign Powers, and it was only necessary for us to dispose of those which we had already received. He considered it more respectful to the Committee on Foreign Affairs to propose a recommitment of the subject to them, than to move its reference to another committee. It was evident, from the admirable report made by that committee at the last session, that they considered their recommendation as sufficient for the object, without an express act. But it seemed that the President was reluctant to act without further authority. As the presents were still in the possession of the State Department, the subject properly belonged to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. CLAYTON moved to amend the motion, so as to instruct the committee also to consider the propriety of disposing, in some manner, of the presents already in the State Department.

The amendment was accepted by the mover, and the motion, as modified, agreed to in the following form:

Resolved, That the message of the President of the United States on the subject of a present received by the consul of the United States at Tangier from the Emperor of Morocco, made to this House at the last session of Congress, be recommitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with instructions to report a bill directing the sale of the lion and horses presented; and such application of the proceeds of such sale as shall be deemed most appropriate. Also, to inquire into the expediency of making disposition of such other presents as have been made to officers of the Government, and deposited in the Secretary of State's office, as being presented contrary to the constitution.

MARBLE COLUMN AT YORK, IN VIRGINIA.

On motion of Mr. WISE, the bill reported at the last session, "to carry into effect a resolution of Congress passed 29th day of October, 1781, to erect a marble column at York, in Virginia,' was made the special order of the day for to-morrow week.

دو

GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

Mr. HUBBARD called the attention of the House to the proceedings at the last session, upon the resolution then reported from a joint committee of the two Houses, for the adoption of suitable measures for paying proper respect to the memory of General Lafayette, and submitted the following resolution, to carry into effect the order adopted by the House at the late session:

Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and report the arrangements necessary to be adopted, in order to carry into effect the last resolution reported on the 24th June, 1834, by the joint committee appointed at the last session of Congress, on the occasion of the death of General Lafayette.

The resolution was agreed to, and the committee ordered to consist of five members.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

On motion of Mr. CONNOR, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the

1 Dec. 9, 1834.]

Relations with France.

[H. OF R.

those who were, without a threat, disposed to do us instantly retaliate, and order reprisals by her citizens; right. But supposing that the question should not have and what must be the consequence? Who did not see been settled, and the message containing the language that the result must be war? Now, he did not believe he had read should arrive on the other side of the water, that, as yet, we had justifiable cause of war with the what would be the effect upon the French Chambers? French nation. He argued this question, and intended Had gentlemen read the debates in that body on the to argue it, as if the recommendation of the President subject of our treaty? Had they seen what a high-mind- was a recommendation of war. He trusted gentlemen ed, proud, lofty spirit pervaded and animated the would not so far deceive themselves as to view it in any speeches of the French orators, so exactly characteristic other light. Indeed, it was very plain that the Secreof that ancient and chivalrous people? Did any man be-tary of the Treasury, in his report, seemed to look tolieve that, if such language was held when no threat ward such an event. The President did the same. The had been uttered, those men would be disposed to yield Secretary says: our claims after the threat had been heard? If the Chambers hesitated now, from their view of the character of our demand, did any man believe that, after this message of the President of the United States had reached them, they would be more disposed to yield us our rights? Mr. C. said he might show, from another portion of the message itself, what might be expected to be the temper and feelings of the French people in such circumstances. The President, speaking of the conduct of the bank, observes:

"To the needless distresses brought on the country during the last session of Congress, has since been added the open seizure of the dividends on the public stock, to the amount of one hundred and seventy thousand and forty-one dollars, under pretence of paying damages, cost, and interest, upon the protested French bill. This sum constituted a portion of the estimated revenues for the year 1834, upon which the appropriations made by Congress were based. It would as soon have been expected that our collectors would seize on the customs, or the receivers of our land offices on the moneys arising from the sale of public lands, under pretences of claims against the United States, as that the bank would have retained the dividends. Indeed, if the principle be established that any one who chooses may set up a claim against the United States, may, without authority of law, seize on the public property or money wherever he can find it, to pay the claim, there will remain no assurance that our revenue will reach the treasury, or that it will be applied, after the appropriation, to the purposes designated in the law. The paymasters of our army and the pursers of our navy may, under like pretences, apply to their own use moneys appropriated to set in motion the public force, and in time of war leave the country without defence. This measure resorted to by the bank is disorganizing and revolutionary, and, if generally resorted to by private citizens in like cases, would fill the land with anarchy and violence."

Here was a parallel case. If such an act as that of the bank, in the case referred to, was felt by the Presi dent to be "revolutionary," and full of violence," what effect would the language he held on the subject of reprisals be expected to exert in France? a proposition, while they were still deliberating on our claims, to take redress into our own hands, and seize at once upon their ships upon the high seas! As men felt, so nations would feel; what was true of the one, would, to a great extent, be true of the other.

"It is not now possible to foresee the contingencies that may check either the present large importations of merchandise or large sales of land, and consequently reduce the revenue derived from them; or that may require an increase in our army or navy expenditures, arising from those unfortunate collisions to which all nations are liable, that feel disposed to sustain the faith of treaties, vindicate their public rights, and protect, efficiently, their commerce and citizens. No further reduction of the tariff, until that already provided for, at the close of the ensuing year, would therefore seem to be prudent."

In fact, the President and his minister had done as it became a judicious Government to do; they had antici pated a possible state of war, and had provided against That such must be the natural consequence of the measure the President had recommended, he believed no candid man would for a moment deny.

it.

war.

Mr. C. said he had no hesitation in declaring his belief that our claims on the French Government were perfectly fair and just; he believed that we had not asked a cent more than was justly due to us; that we ought to have the money; and that, should our demand be definitively refused, the refusal would present just cause of But it had not been definitively refused. Whoever would take the pains to read the French debates, would find that the members of the French Chambers insisted on no other principles than we ourselves did. The French constitution declared that the Chambers must act upon every grant of money required to fulfil the stipulations of a treaty; and their speakers stood upon this constitutional right. [Here Mr. C. quoted copiously from the speeches made in the French Chamber of Deputies.]

Now, if the matter debated there was mainly, or in part, a constitutional question, ought we to proceed to hasty and rash measures because they came to a different conclusion from that which we might think the right one? The question was to this day undecided in our own Government. There were among us, as among them, two opinions as to the obligation of Congress to make appropriations of money to fulfil the stipulations of a treaty. The prevailing opinion was that Congress were not bound, but remained free to deliberate and to decide in view of circumstances. As an illustration of this: were it to be held otherwise, how might the tariff question be at any time unsettled by the stipulations of our foreign negotiators? Should such a principle as this once be sanctioned, what consequences must follow? There would be an end to the power of Congress over the apAnd holding such views ourselves, ought we to complain if similar opinions were maintained in the French legislative halls? The matter was not yet fully settled, either there or here. Should the decision of the Chambers be that they could not appropriate money for the treaty, we should then be re

Gentlemen should not consider this question like that between France and Portugal. Portugal was a small nation, in a state of political distraction, and utterly una-propriations of public money. ble to resist the demand made upon her, or to avenge aggressions on her property. France was a very different thing. She was not to be compelled, as Spain had been, to endure, without resenting it, the language held to her, when the gentleman who now presided over the Department of State was our minister near that Pow-ferred back to the grounds of our original claim before er. Very different consequences must ensue, should language of a similar tenor be addressed to her. Reprisals were, in effect, acts of hostility; so soon as they should be authorized on our part by Congress, France would

any treaty existed: and then Congress must decide whether or not they would go to war to compel the payment of claims which had been left to negotiation for fortyfive years.