On motion, by Mr. LLOYD, to postpone the further consideration of the bill to the first Monday in March next, it was determined in the affirmative-yeas 27, nays 2, as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Anderson, Bayard, Bibb, Bradley, Condit, Crawford, Cutts, Franklin, Gaillard, German, Giles, Gilman, Goodrich, Gregg, Horsey, Howell, Hunter, Lambert, Leib, Lloyd, Pope, Reed, Smith of land, Smith of New York, Tait, Taylor, and Turner. NAYS-Messrs. Varnum and Worthington. Mr. WORTHINGTON, from the committee appointed on the subject, reported a bill establishing a land office; and the bill was read, and passed to the second reading.

JANUARY, 1812.

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 volMary-unteers 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 The bill, entitled "An act to continue in force favorite system of the Government; and this he for a further time the first section of the act, en- inferred from their having recommended to the titled 'An act further to protect the commerce other House the raising of ten thousand regulars and seamen of the United States against the Bar-only, and from the Message of the President, sent bary Powers," was read the third time, and passed. in after both Houses had passed the bill for raisThe Senate resumed, as in Committee of the ing twenty-five thousand regulars, and communiWhole, the consideration of the bill, entitled "Ancating the correspondence between Mr. Foster and act authorizing the President of the United States Mr. Monroe, as a ground for urging Congress to to accept and organize certain volunteer military corps," together with the amendments reported thereto by the select committee; and the further consideration thereof was postponed to, and made the order of the day for, to-morrow.

On motion, by Mr. BRADLEY, the bill supplementary to the act, entitled "An act regulating the grants of land appropriated for the refugees from the British Provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia," was recommitted to a select committee, further to consider and report thereon; and Messrs. BRADLEY, FRANKLIN, and GREGG, were appointed the committee.

. WEDNESDAY, January 29,

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

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House have passed the bill, entitled "An act concerning the Naval Establishment," in which they request the concurrence of the Senate.

Mr. LEIB presented the memorial of Matthew M'Connell and others, a committee on behalf of the surviving officers of the Pennsylvania line of the Revolutionary army, praying the immediate decision of Congress on the application of the said officers for remuneration for services during the said war; and the memorial was read.

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.

persevere in the preparations they were engaged
in making. The President must, therefore, have
deemed a volunteer force essential for the con-
templated 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 suffi-
cient importance to press upon Congress the util-
ity 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, be-
fore 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 ac-
tual 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 momen-
tum of force proposed by the other House, but that
proposed by the Executive. The Executive had
asked for ten thousand regulars, and fifty thou-
sand 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 near-
ly to the Executive requisition. But the bill pro-
posed 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 Sec-
retary 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 for-
midable display of armies on paper-a tender of

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 amend-services-which only produced very handsome ment according to the result of further reflections. He believed the bill would be productive of no practical efficacy. It proposed a force which could

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 beg

ged 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.

Mr. G. said, he had been reproached the other day with a preference of regulars to volunteers; and volunteers were said to be more congenial to the Constitution than regular armies. He said that volunteers were not mentioned in the Constitution at all-they had never been recommend, ed by General WASHINGTON, and no law had been passed to raise volunteers, until the year after that great man left the Administration. They were an invention, a theory of modern days. The Constitution had authorized armies without restriction; the only restriction at least, was to the time for which appropriation for their support could be made. And with respect to the assertion that the Constitution never meant to sanction the idea of offensive war, he asked whether it could not, for one moment, be supposed that the wise framers of that instrument, knew that Canada and Florida existed on our borders? He said those virtuous and patriotic men had too much wisdom to restrict Congress to defensive war. The idea was absurd; it was one of the fruitful visionary notions of the day. Mr. G. objected to this bill, because he feared it was intended to supersede the army. Before he proceeded to demonstrate its inefficiency, and the impolicy of short enlistments, he would notice one or two circumstances connected with the proceedings at this session. He knew that the world had been very busy in ascribing to him motives of hostility to the Administration. What was the fact? The measures which he had advocated would protect the Administration. The time was coming when its character would be tested; and surely efficient measures, for trying times, would best bring its real character to light. But the language which had been indulged in abroad, and here too, was calculated to subvert the freedom of discussson and deliberation in this body. If a legislature were of any use at all, it was to exercise its own judgment, and aid the other functionaries of the Government, according to the best result of that judgment, formed upon a mature deliberation. Desert the standard of your own judgment, Mr. President, and where will you find fidelity in any other standard? You are always certain that it is faithful; but you are not so with respect to the judgment of your friends. He disclaimed the idea of subscribing to the infallibility of any men.

SENATE.

himself, and not the measures, constitute the test of their wisdom. He never would abandon himself to such a principle; and in supporting any measure, should follow the dictates of his own judgment, if he stood alone and were certain of being overwhelmed by popular clamor. He could rely upon his own judgment; but he could not upon popular opinion, which was as variable as the wind. But though he had thus condemned the authority of names, he would shelter himself under a great name, on the occasion. In his youthful political days, he did not now hesitate to confess, he had distrusted General Washington as a statesman, he had never doubled his patriotism, or his talents as a soldier. But when he had felt a want of confidence in this great man, as a statesman, he had little experience; he was surrounded by visionary theories; but from further experience, further information, and further reflection, although he was not prepared to subscribe to all the measures of that gentleman's administration, he was fearful that, "take him all in all, we shall never see his like again."

Here Mr. G. made various quotations from "Marshall's Life of Washington," to show that from the commencement to the end of the Revolutionary war, our illustrious Commander-in-Chief was convinced of the fatal impolicy of short enlistments; that he was urgent in pressing upon Congress the necessity ef changing their plan, in this respect; and that he imputed the loss and failure of the expedition of the brave Montgomery against Quebec, and various other disasters, to the same pernicious principle of short enlistments. Indeed, said Mr. G., it appears, from this history, that short enlistments of our regular troops had very nigh strangled our independence in its cradle; nothing but a divine interposition could have enabled us, under all circumstances, to have achieved it. He treated the fears of danger to our liberties, from a regular force of thirty-five thousand men, as perfectly visionary; and all the quotations which had been drawn from history to show the dangers of standing armies were inapplicable to the United States. Of whom could our army be composed? Of officers and men who were born and raised in the love of liberty; but, supposing they should turn their arms against their country, could gentlemen seriously apprehend so much danger, when the United States had a military force of six hundred thousand men, with arms in their hands? Was this the case with the States of Greece; or with France, when Bonaparte usurped the Government? Certainly not. The body of the people in Grecce were slaves. The people of France did not understand what liberty was; they had, besides, seen blood stream from the beginning to the If such doctrine can be adopted it was only ne- end of the Revolution; they therefore made no recessary for this, or that man, to point to his fa- sistance to usurpation and a change of Governvorite measures, and they must be agreed to, ment; they had no arms in their hands; the Pariwhether right or wrong. He had always un-sian mob were only to be gained over to the usurderstood the favorite motto of the Republicans to be "measures and not men," but this doctrine is now inverted. You have only to look at the man, and applaud or condemn the measures. The man

per, and things were settled.

[For a full report of this speech of Mr. GILES, see Supplemental Speeches at the end of the volume.]

ر

FEBRUARY, 1812,

Proceedings.

SENATE.

of justice, and returning reason would insure to the Resolved, as the opinion of this Assembly, That, long violated immunities of the persons and property however highly we value the blessings of peace, and of their citizens an exemption from the war committed however we deprecate the evils of war, the period has upon them. France has paused in her career of hos- now arrived when peace, as we now have it, is distility, and thereby afforded to her rival, England, angraceful, and war is honorable. opportunity of performing her solemn promises with- Resolved, That this Assembly will support the Genout a compromitment of her pride; and it was expect-eral Government in all Constitutional and legitimate ed by the Government and people of the United States measures, which may be adopted in vindication of the that the proofs of this pause, presented in an unques- rights and interest of the people of the United States, tionable shape to the British Ministry, would have and in support of the character and dignity of the been promptly followed by a repeal of the Orders in Government thereof; and, for these purposes, we Council; but fatal experience has produced the pain-pledge" our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." ful conviction that, in this just expectation, they have been mistaken. And, regardless of all principle, the bold avowal has been made by Great Britain, that the permitted admission of her fabrics into the continent of Europe, through neutral vessels, was an indispensa ble preliminary to the termination of her aggressions; a condition wihich the United States have no right to demand in relation to the produce of their own soil or manufactures, and which their honor forbids them to

demand at the instance and for the benefit of another. With a knowledge of this avowal, and the daily evidence that Great Britain executes her orders in their living spirit, which is war upon us, of the most aggravated species, a further indulgence of hope is allied with disgrace, and forbearance becomes criminal; and although this Assembly confide in the patriotism of the Congress and Executive of the United States to assert the rights of the nation, in the manner its honor requires; and, as regards themselves, this expression of their opinion may be superfluous, yet, influenced by the examples of preceding Legislatures, at times less momentous than the present, and apprehensive that their silence will be misconstrued into indifference or distrust, more especially as the Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain, in his correspondence with the Government of the United States, recently published, has opposed, to the act of the Executive, and the evidence on which it was predicated, a presumed disagreement, as to the fact upon which he decided, and the justice of the measure that he had adopted by "all the legal authorities in the United States;" and because we believe the measures of hostility, pursued by the British Government against us, are persisted in, in the belief that we are a divided people, this Assembly declare their conviction to be, that not only "all the legal authorities of this State," but the people also, from whom the former derive their powers, concur in the sentiment of confidence in the Government of the Union, and a firm resolution to support it in the redemption of its plighted faith, "to maintain the rights, honor, and independence of the United States; and, actuated by a sacred regard for the Constitution and liberties of United America, sanctioned by the wisdom of their fathers, and consecrated with their blood, they will not withhold the testimony of their confidence, and the solemn assurance of their co-operation to meet the crisis with the firmness of men, and the determination of freemen: Therefore,

Resolved, That the Executive of this State be requested to transmit the foregoing preamble and resolutions to the Executive and Legislative departments of the General Government.

TUESDAY, February 4.

Mr. SMITH, of Maryland. from the committee to whom was referred the bill, entitled "An act for the establishment of a quartermaster's department," together with the amendments of the House of Representatives thereto, reported that the further consideration of the bill be postponed He also to the first Monday in August next. read, in his place, the draught of a bill in addition to the Military Establishment of the United States; and which was ordered to be printed.

Mr. WORTHINGTON, from the committee to whom was referred the bill, entitled "An act for the revision of former confirmations, and for confirming certain claims to land in the district of Kaskaskia," reported it without amendment.

Mr. LEIB, from the committee appointed on the petition of John Bioren and others, reported a bill authorizing a subscription for the laws of the United States; and the bill was read, and passed to the second reading.

Mr. REED, from the committee appointed on the subject, reported a bill in addition to, and for repealing certain parts of, an act, entitled "An act for establishing rules and articles for the government of the armies of the United States;" and the bill was read, and passed to the second reading.

The bill, entitled "An act to alter the times of holding the district courts within and for the district of Connecticut," was read the second time; and, by unanimous consent, it was read the third time, and passed.

The bill, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of Government for the year 1812," was read the second time, and referred to and Messrs. TAIT, FRANKLIN, and GOODRICH, a select committee to consider and report thereon; were appointed the committee.

Mr. GILMAN, from the committee, reported the Resolved, That this Assembly, speaking, as they bill to promote the progress of science and useful believe they do, the voice of the people of this Common-arts, by securing, for a limited time, to inventors, wealth, have viewed, with approbation, the uniform the exclusive right to their respective discoveries, zeal with which just remonstrances have been made correctly engrossed; and the bill was read the by the General Government, for the purpose of obtain- third time, and passed. ing from Great Britain, by honorable negotiation, a redress of the many wrongs inflicted upon us by her Orders in Council, and other measures equally hostile

to the interests of the United States.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill to incorporate Moses Austin, John Rice Jones, Henry Austin, and others, into a company, by the name of the Louisiana Lead

Company; and, after debate, it was agreed that the further consideration thereof be postponed until to-morrow.

Mr. BAYARD, from the committee to whom was recommitted the bill supplementary to the act, entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," reported the bill with an amendment.

FEBRUARY, 1812.

by Mr. BAYARD, it was agreed that the further consideration thereof be postponed until the first Monday in March next.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the consideration of the bill respecting the enrolling and licensing steamboats; and on the question, Shall this bill be engrossed and read a third time? it was determined in the affirmative.

On motion, by Mr. FRANKLIN, the bill, which originated in the Senate, appropriating a sum of A message from the House of Representatives money for procuring munitions of war, was post-informed the Senate that the House have passed poned until the first Monday in December next. a bill, entitled "An act supplementary to 'An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force," passed on the 12th day of April, 1808; in which they request the concurrence of the Senate. The bill last brought up for concurrence was read and passed to the second reading.

WEDNESDAY, February 5.

The PRESIDENT communicated the report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, stating that the measures which have been authorized by the Board, subsequent to their last report of the 2d of February, 1811, so far as the same have been completed, are fully detailed in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the Board, dated the first day of the present month, and in the statements therein referred to, which are herewith transmitted, and prayed to be received as part of this report; and the report was read.

The bill in addition to, and for repealing certain parts of, an act, entitled "An act for establishing rules and articles for the government of the armies of the United States," was read the second time.

The bill authorizing a subscription for the laws of the United States was read the second time.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill establishing a Land Office; and after agreeing to sundry amendments, the further consideration thereof was postponed to, and made the order of the day for, to-morrow.

THURSDAY, February 6.

The bill, entitled "An act supplementary to 'An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force," passed on the 12th day of April, 1808, was read the second time, and referred to a select committee, to consider and report thereon; and Messrs. REED, ANDERSON, and BRADLEY, were appointed the committee.

Mr. CAMPBELL, of Ohio, submitted the following motion for consideration:

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill to incorporate Moses Austin, John "That a committee be appointed to inquire into the Rice Jones, Henry Austin, and others, into a expediency of ascertaining, surveying, and establishcompany, by the name of the Louisiana Leading, the Northern and Western boundary lines of the Company.

On motion, by Mr. LEIB, that the further consideration thereof be postponed until the first Monday in December next, it was determined in the negative years 11, nays 13, as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Bayard, Bibb, Franklin, Gaillard, Horsey, Lambert, Leib, Lloyd, Smith of Maryland, Turner, and Varnum.

State of Ohio; and that the committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise."

On motion, by Mr. SMITH of Maryland, the bill, entitled "An act for the establishment of a quartermaster's department," together with the amendments of the House of Representatives thereto, was postponed until the first Monday in December next, agreeably to the report of the com

NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Bradley, Condit, Craw-mittee. ford, Cutts, German, Goodrich, Gregg, Howell, Hunter, Smith of New York, Tait, and Taylor.

On motion, by Mr. LEIB, that the further consideration of the bill be postponed until the first Monday in April next, it was determined in the negative.

On motion, by Mr. GREGG, it was agreed that the further consideration thereof be postponed until the first Monday in March next.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the consideration of the bill, entitled "An act for the revision of former confirmations, and for confirming certain claims to land in the district of Kaskaskia ;" and it was ordered to the third reading.

The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill supplementary to the act, entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," together with the amendment reported thereto by the select committee; and, on motion,

The bill in addition to the Military Establishment of the United States, reported as a substitute for the bill last mentioned, was read, and passed to the second reading.

The bill, entitled "An act for the revision of former confirmations, and for confirming certain claims to land in the District of Kaskaskia," was read the third time, and passed.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill establishing a land office; and, after debate, on motion, by Mr. BAYARD, it was recommitted to a select committee, further to consider and report thereon; and Messrs. BAYARD, WORTHINGTON, and GREGG, were appointed the committee.

Mr. GILMAN, from the committee, reported the bill respecting the enrolling and licensing of steamboats correctly engrossed; and the bill was read the third time, and passed.

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the