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H. OF R.

Stephen Fellows-Government Loan.

FEBRUARY, 1812.

nays were called, and the question was carried, poses;" in which they desire the concurrence of 86 to 28, as follows: this House.

YEAS-Willis Alston, junior, William Anderson, Mr. LEWIS, from the Committee on the District Stevenson Archer, Ezekiel Bacon, David Bard, Bur- of Columbia, reported a bill authorizing the Preswell Bassett, William W. Bibb, William Blackledge, ident of the United States to lease for a term of Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, Wm. A. Burwell, William years one of the reservations of public ground in Butler, John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Matthew the City of Washington, (the vacant ground lying Clay, James Cochran, Lewis Čondit, William Craw-west of the Capitol.) for the purpose of a botanic ford, John Dawson, Joseph Desha, Samuel Dinsmoor, garden. The bill was twice read and committed. Elias Earle, James Emott, William Findley, James Mr. SEYBERT called up the resolution which he Fisk, Meshack Franklin, Thomas Gholson, Peterson had laid upon the table some days ago, proposing Goodwyn, Isaiah L. Green, Felix Grundy, Bolling to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to emHall, Obed Hall, John A. Harper, Aylett Hawes, ploy a proper person to arrange and digest the Jacob Hufty, Richard M. Johnson, Joseph Kent, Wil-information on the subject of mannfactures, reliam R. King, Abner Lacock, Joseph Lefever, Peter Little, Robert Le Roy Livingston, William Lowndes, Aaron Lyle, Nathaniel Macon, George C. Maxwell, Thomas Moore, Archibald McBryde, William McCoy, Samuel McKee, Alexander McKim, Arunah Metcalf, James Morgan, Jeremiah Morrow, Hugh Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newbold, Thomas Newton, Stephen Ormsby, Israel Pickens, William Piper, James Pleasants, jr., Benjamin Pond, Peter B. Porter, Elisha R. Potter, Josiah Quincy, Samuel Ringgold, John Rhea, John Roane, Jonathan Roberts, Ebenezer Sage, Thomas Sammons, Ebenezer Seaver, John Sevier, Samuel Shaw, John Smilie, George Smith, John Smith, Silas Stow, Uri Tracy, George M. Troup, Charles Tur ner, jr., Pierre Van Cortlandt, jr., Robert Whitehill, William Widgery, and Robert Wright.-86.

ceived from the Marshals of the several States; which, after receiving some little modification from its mover, was read three times, and passed. A bill from the Senate for establishing a Quartermaster's Department, and for other purposes, was twice read, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.

STEPHEN FELLOWS.

Fellows, a wounded soldier of the Revolution, Mr. PITKIN presented the petition of Stephen praying for an increase of pension, owing to his entire disability to earn anything toward a subsistence by labor.

Mr. P. said this petitioner was already allowed NAYS-John Baker, Abijah Bigelow, Elijah Brigham, five dollars a month, the highest degree of penEpaphroditus Champion, Martin Chittenden, John sion provided by the laws of the United States; Davenport, jr., William Ely, Asa Fitch, Charles Golds- but he thought that persons so utterly incapaci borough, Edwin Gray, Richard Jackson, jr., Philip B. tated as he knew this man to be, ought to have a Key, Lyman Law, Joseph Lewis, jr., James Milnor, larger allowance. He moved, therefore, to refer Jonathan O. Moseley, Joseph Pearson, Timothy Pit- the petition to the Committee of Claims, with kin. jr., Henry M. Ridgely, William Rodman, Richard instructions "to inquire into the expediency of Stanford, Philip Stuart, Lewis B. Sturges, Samuel Tag-making provision by law for increasing the pen gart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Laban Wheaton, Leonard sion of non-commissioned officers and soldiers, White, and Thomas Wilson.-28. to a greater sum than is at present allowed, whenever, in consequence of wounds, they have become totally unable to maintain themselves by manual labor.

On motion of Mr. BACON, the House agreed that they would to-morrow take up the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, in relation to the contemplated taxes.

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Messrs. ALSTON and SHAW opposed this motion, as tending to break up all the present regulations in this respect, and to bring in a crowd of appli cants of the same kind; they thought the United States had done enough on this subject. If there were any particularly hard cases, the States in which such persons lived, or the society about them, would doubtless render them the assistance which their situation required. Mr. S. moved that the petition lie on the table. This motion was negatived-41 to 38.

After a few observations against the reference, by Mr. WIDGERY, and in favor of it by Mr. FISK,

the motion was carried-45 to 43.

On the suggestion of Mr. LITTLE, the word "officers" was added before the word

missioned."

GOVERNMENT LOAN.

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The engrossed bill for authorizing a loan for eleven millions of dollars, was read the third time; and the question being put, "Shall the bill pass to its third reading?"

Mr. M. CLAY expressed a wish that the bill might be postponed for a few days. It was pred

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icated upon war, which many still hoped might be avoided. The Constitution had just arrived from France, and had probably brought despatches, which doubtless would be communicated to Congress as soon as they could be got ready. He hoped, therefore, the consideration of this bill would be postponed until Monday next. And he gave notice that he should move a like postponement of the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, in relation to taxes, when that subject shall be called up.

Mr. BACON said, whatever weight the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia might have, in relation to the taxes, he hoped they would not prevail, in postponing the consideration of the present bill. Congress had already authorized very large expenses, which must be provided for; and the Executive ought to have some time allowed him to ascertain whether loans can be obtained upon the terms contained in the bill.

Mr. SMILIE said, it was well known that he had been opposed to a part of the measures of expense which had been authorized; but, as the bills had now become laws, he felt himself bound to provide the ways and means for carrying them into effect. And he was for doing this at once, without waiting for any communications from abroad, which were altogether uncertain.

The motion for postponement was lost. The question then returned on the passage of the bill.

Mr. RANDOLPH did not feel himself bound to vote for this bill because the expenses, for the meeting of which it went to provide a loan, had been authorized. He held himself perfectly absolved from these measures; as he had constantly opposed them in their progress through the House.

But I do not rise, said Mr. R., either to make an apology for my vote, or with an expectation of changing the sentiments of a single individual in this House. It is for the purpose, if it were possible, of being heard by those to whom alone I feel myself amenable for my public conduct. But I well know, from long and tried experience in this House, that this is a desperate hope-that the avenues to the public ear are shut against a small, and not, perhaps, very important description of persons in this House.*

H. OF R.

since the return of Mr. Monroe from his mission to London. And he wished them to know upon what principle this nation, which has hitherto been preserved in peace-this nation, which, with all the vexations and losses she has experienced, is still the freest and happiest nation on earthon what principles she shall be torn from her fast moorings of peace, and launched into the tempestuous sea of European politics-into a sea of blood.

Mr. R. knew he asked in vain. No answer could be given. Such conduct, in his opinion, was in the highest degree wanton, and was enough to call down upon us the chastening hand of Him who rules the Universe. We have it in our power to remain free and at peace. Our firesides are safe. Our ports and harbors may be defended; but we have imbibed a portion of that spirit which lost the angels their seat in Heaven. We are about to throw aside our peaceful state and mingle in the dreadful conflict of European ambition and disorder. His heart was sick within him at the sight. It died at the very idea.

It is not in our power, said Mr, R., to dive into futurity; but we can judge of the past. No man who hears me will say that we have any cause of war now, that we had not eighteen months ago. And let me ask every planter and farmer in this country, and I believe I might add every manufacturer, too, whether, during the last year, in the course of which we have been able to sell our breadstuff at a vast profit, it would have been better for us to have been engaged in war than to have remained in peace? To have been cut off from this market for our produce, and to have had in its stead war, with all its retinue of land taxes, excises, salt tax, stamp tax, &c.?

Were you to ask any yeoman of common sense in this country such a question, he would laugh at you. Whether, during the past year, he would choose to have had his sons fighting battles on the plains of Abraham, in which he had no interest, with his produce rotting in his barn, or let the year pass away as it has done in peace, affording an excellent price for grain of every kind? This, said he, is an unanswered and unanswerable argument.

If our Treasury be empty, said Mr. R., it is owing to our own acts. Repeal your non-imporMr. R. wished the American people to know tation act. Do away your whole restrictive syswhat new cause of war had accrued since the ac- tem-put the two countries, in point of fact, upon cession of the present President to the Chair-the same footing, and, my life upon it, you will

find no difficulty in arranging all your present Mr. Randolph certainly had no allusion to the Na- differences. And, rather than do this, will this tional Intelligencer in this remark, because, as to this House plunge this nation into a foreign war, conpaper, such an imputation as is here conveyed, would trary to the public sentiment? Contrary to the be utterly and notoriously without foundation. What- wishes of many of those who are within the ever may be our errors of omission or commission, Mr. hearing of my voice, who may be pushed into a Randolph and his friends (the description of persons, vote which they wish, if possible, to avoid? Is we presume, to whom the orator adverts) have neither right nor reason to complain; they certainly have here- this a state of things which will authorize Contofore occupied, in our columns, their full share of pub-gress to put the nation into a state of war? If lic attention. We have, therefore, thought proper to caution our readers against falling into the error, from the generality of the honorable gentleman's phraseology, of supposing him to have alluded to this paper. Note by the Editor of the National Intelligencer. 12th CoN. 1st Sess.-35

war were absolutely necessary, there would be no necessity for individuals to act under such excitements-so that one-half would enter into it reluctantly, and the other half would be ashamed of entering into the measure-like some hapless

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individual, precipitated into single combat against his own will, under the lash of the press, and the busy talk of the coffee-house saunterers of the day.

But, said Mr. R., has it been taken into consideration, that these two great belligerents, who for twenty years have been disturbing the repose of mankind-during which period we have had the wisdom and the virtue, under men acknowledged on all hands to be great under Mr. Jefferson, the idol of one description of the people; under Mr. Adams, the idol of an opposite description; and under General Washington, the idol of all, to steer clear of any connexion with them-may make peace? And if we are now to take leave of our peaceful course, under what auspices are we about to do so? Who are the statesmen to plan, or the military chief to execute? But, as he had said, these belligerents may make peace, and peace is always made at the expense of a weaker Power. May not Great Britain and France, after, perhaps, we shall have taken possession of Canada, find it to their advantage to make peace, and in that case we may be compelled to surrender Canada, to England, or Louisiana to France; or to enter into any other condition, no matter how much it may affect our interest, if it produce, what these Powers always keep in view, their own aggrandizement?

Are we going to war on the faith of the duration of the life of the present Emperor of France? Are we prepared to rest our whole hopes on the existence of that man? Or, what is worse, to attach ourselves to his cause, and number ourselves among those he calls his allies? and for

what?

Mr. R. said, it was six or seven years since this question was first incidentally touched on in this House, on a motion of a member from Pennsylvania, since translated to the other branch of the Legislature. He had lately looked into the opinions which he entertained and expressed on that occasion, and he found them precisely to agree with his present sentiments; and it was satisfactory to himself to find this agreement; but he regretted also to discover that the forebodings of that day had been unhappily realized in respect to our Government.

Mr. R. said, it was not his intention, when he came to the House this morning, to have spoken on this subject. He came to enter his protest against the system which is patronized by those who call themselves the friends of the people, who style themselves Republicans.

And, if he thought it would have any effect, he would call upon the advocates of those measures to pause upon this fearful abyss-this labyrinth of war, into which whomsoever has entered, except the two great devourers of mankind, the tiger and the shark, have most assuredly died.

With respect to the taxes in question, though they should be voted in shoals, he should never believe that the people of the United States will ever submit to pay them. He wished not to be misunderstood. They will submit to them as long as they are enforced by law; but the people of the

FEBRUARY, 1812.

United States are the law-givers of this land, and they will take care that these laws shall not long exist. Indeed, they would be traitors to themselves and their children, if they suffered their last shilling to be taken from their pockets, and their blood to be spilled in a war which they did not approve.

The bill passed its third reading-yeas 92, nays 29, as follows:

YEAS-Willis Alston, jr., William Anderson, Stevenson Archer, Ezekiel Bacon, David Bard, Burwell Bassett, William W. Bibb, Harmanus Bleecker, Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, William A. Burwell, William Butler, John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Matthew Clay, James Cochran, Lewis Condit, William Crawford, Roger Davis, John Dawson, Joseph Desha, Samuel Dinsmoor, Elias Earle, James Emott, William Gholson, Thomas R. Gold, Peterson Goodwyn, Isaiah Findley, James Fisk, Meshack Franklin, Thomas L. Green, Felix Grundy, Bolling Hall, Obed Hall, John A. Harper, Aylett Hawes, Jacob Hufty, Richard M. Johnson, Joseph Kent, William R. King, Abner Lacock, Joseph Lefever, Peter Little, Robert Le Roy Livingston, William Lowndes, Aaron Lyle, Nathaniel Macon, George C. Maxwell, Thomas Moore, William McCoy, Alexander McKim, Arunah Metcalf, Samuel L. Mitchill, James Morgan, Jeremiah Morrow, Hugh Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newbold, Thomas Newton, Stephen Ormsby, Israel Pickens, William Piper, James Pleasants, jr., Benjamin Pond, Peter B. Porter, Elisha R. Potter, Josiah Quincy, William Reed, William M. Richardson, Samuel Ringgold, John Rhea, John Roane, Jonathan Roberts, EbeSevier, Adam Seybert, Samuel Shaw, John Smilie, nezer Sage, Thomas Sammons, Ebenezer Seaver, John George Smith, John Smith, Silas Stow, Wm. Strong, Uri Tracy, George M. Troup, Charles Turner, junior, Widgery, Richard Winn, and Robert Wright. Pierre Van Cortlandt, jun., Robert Whitehill, William

YEAS-John Baker, Abijah Bigelow, James Breckenridge, Elijah Brigham, Epaphroditus Champion, Martin Chittenden, John Davenport, jun., Asa Fitch, Charles Goldsborough, Edwin Gray, Richard Jackson, junior, I.yman Law, Joseph Lewis, jun., James Milnor, Jonathan O. Moseley, Joseph Pearson, Timothy Pitkin, jun., John Randolph, Henry M. Ridgely, William Rodman, Daniel Sheffey, Richard Stanford, Philip Stuart, Lewis B. Sturges, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Laban Wheaton, Leonard White, and Thomas

Wilson.

WAR TAXES.

Mr. BACON called for the order of the day on the report of the Committee of Ways and Means on the subject of the contemplated taxes.

Mr. CLAY moved that this subject be postponed till Monday week, for the reasons which he had already stated.

Mr. TALLMADGE could see no good reason for this delay. The report of the Committee of Ways and Means has been some time before the House. The House had, from day to day, passed upon objects of great expense, and it was certainly necessary to provide the ways and means to meet them. We have just passed a bill for borrowing eleven millions of dollars; but this will fall far short of what will be wanted. Expenses have been authorized to the amount of twenty millions. Why do gentlemen wish to

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postpone this question of peace or war? It cannot be, after authorizing the preparatory measures, they are afraid to meet it. He wished to see the question before the House, and to hear it fully discussed. It will be of no use that armies have been authorized, except the sinews of war be provided. He was against a postponement.

Mr. Fisk was in favor of postponement; not because he was afraid to meet the question of peace or war at a proper time. He was not willing, however, to vote for taxes, or war, until every hope of accommodation had disappeared, nor did he see any necessity for doing so. Were the subject to be taken up at present, some members would be placed in difficulty as to their vote; when, some days hence, there would be no difference of opinion among those who have uniformly voted for putting the nation in a state of defence. He knew there were taxes among those proposed which had been used as instruments against those who had laid them, and which might again be so used; but, if they become necessary, this consideration, he presumed, would be lost sight of.

Mr. POTTER spoke against the postponement. Mr. BACON was not particularly anxious on the subject, though he could see no objection to entering upon it at present. The Committee of Ways and Means had thought it their duty to make their report as soon as they were able; and, having done this, the responsibility lies with the House. If the House showed an unwillingness to enter upon this subject, it might have an unfavorable effect upon the loan which had been authorized,

Mr. NEWTON wished the House to go into a Committee on this subject, if it were only to take up that part of the report which has reference to an increase of duties on imports, as the manufacturers in different parts of the United States, who had expended large sums in erecting works, are anxious to know the determination of Congress on this subject.

Mr. CLAY, from the considerations suggested by the gentleman last up, withdrew his motion.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Ways and Means; when the first resolution, proposing an increase of 100 per cent. on impost duties being under consideration

Mr. BACON rose and said, that he should perhaps be very readily excused by the Committee, should he refrain altogether from claiming their attention to any further expositions of the views which had governed the Committee of Ways and Means, in the general report which it had been deemed their duty to present to the House, and which was now the subject of consideration; and were he to be governed solely by his own feelings or inclinations, he certainly should not be disposed to add to the long list of unwelcome taxes, whose adoption was recommended to the House-one which in his view had long since become to them and to the nation the most injurous and burdensome of all others-the tax of words. Presuming, however, that some more particular explanation of the various topics em- I

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H. OF R.

braced by the report, might be conceived to be due from him as a member of the committee, and desirous that his own views, at least, of this very important subject, should not be misunderstood, he would, as briefly as he could, proceed to such further elucidation of the grounds on which the report was predicated, as it was in his power to offer.

In addition to the general duty at all times incumbent upon the Committee of Ways and Means, to see that the credit of the Government should at no time be permitted to suffer for the want of pecuniary means, commensurate with its exigencies, their attention, it would be recollected, had been at a very early period of the session particularly drawn to this subject, by that portion of the Message of the President of the United States which had been especially referred to their consideration, and in which the necessity of producing a revenue "sufficient at least to defray the ordinary expenses of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including that on 'new loans which might be authorized"-was strongly enjoined it was for the purpose of carrying into effect this provident recommendation of the Executive, that the earnest attention of the committee had been bestowed upon the present and future state of our financial concerns. Under the expenditures already authorized by law, and in the event of the war, which the acts of every branch of the Government gave us the highest reason to expect was likely to occur within a period not very distant, the amount of those expenditures, both ordinary and extraordinary, were detailed at large in the report. Those of the former description, which fall upon the present year, have already been provided for from the revenues which will be receivable during the year, and from the moneys remaining in the Treasury at its commencement, and no further provision is necessary on this account.

In relation to the extraordinary expenditures, on which the estimates of the committee were founded, and for the defraying of which the House had just now authorized a loan of eleven millionsit might, perhaps, be supposed that some of the heads of expenditure authorized might be rather nominal than real, and at any rate were much larger than could in all probability be expended during the present year. This was probably truebut he found that in the event of actual war during a considerable portion of the year, and on that basis the committee grounded their estimates, there were other branches of expenditure which would turn out much higher than had as yet been calculated; and it would be recollected that a bill had within a few days passed the House, by which an additional annual expenditure of $400,000 was authorized for arming the militia, which had not been brought into the estimates of the committee. For the expenditures of the present year, both ordinary and extraordinary, (excepting only the sums necessary for the annual reimbursement of the principal of the old debt, and which remained thereafter to be provided for by a new loan,) provision had thus been

H. of R.

War Taxes.

FEBRUARY, 1812.

provided for by the Government-leaving us for the present year the principal of the old debt reLimbursable, to be provided for by a prolongation of the old or the contracting of a new loan. This requisition is evidently so moderate in itself, and so clearly sanctioned by the example of every Government which is influenced in its financial concerns by the dictates of a wise and prudent policy, that, had the committee been governed only by their own views of propriety, they might, perhaps, have thought an apology was due to the House and the nation, for having proposed a system which suffered so large a portion of the current annual expenditures to remain unprovided for, except through the medium of a debt irredeemable for perhaps twelve years to come; and it might seem to reasonable men a waste of time and argument, to endeavor to enforce the propriety or necessity of providing a revenue at least commensurate to the objects before stated. Such novel and strange ideas had, however, of late, apparently obtained a currency in political circles out of doors on this point, and he feared had not been entirely without their proselytes even within these walls; and so much had been thrown out as to our capacity of obtaining loans upon eligible terms and to an almost unlimited extent, both for defraying our current charges, and even the interest on the loans themselves, through the medium of some magical paper machinery, that he deemed it important to bring these doctrines to an early test, before they had acquired a too fatal ascendency either here or elsewhere in our country.

already made by the House. The next question is in relation to the provision necessary for the two succeeding years. The committee have estimated both the ordinary and extraordinary expenditures of those years, at about the same as are contemplated by the appropriations for the present year, adding for the year 1813, the interest on the loan authorized for the present year, and for the year 1814, the additional interest accruing on the expected loan for the service of the previous year. This estimate, calculating the receipts into the Treasury from present sources of revenue at but a little more than three millions, left a deficit of more than seven millions for the payment of ordinary expenses and interest for 1814, and more than six and an half millions for 1813. It was true that the estimates of the revenue from present sources for those years, was and must be almost entirely conjectural; and most gentlemen, it was believed, were disposed to estimate it considerably higher. We are all apt to be disposed in times of difficulty to look rather upon that side of the picture which was least discouraging. Nothing confident could certainly be predicated on a state of things which was altogether so new to us of late years as an active war with Great Britain; but, so far as we can calculate upon any known data, he had much reason to fear, that this conjectural estimate was not greatly underrated. We have no document which gives us the respective amount of our actual importations of articles on which impost duties are collected from different foreign countries for the two or three years past-but, from information laid before the House in the year 1805, it appears, that, on an average of the years 1802, 3, and 4, our importations from all parts of the world were as follows: from the British dominions. $35,970,000; Northern European Powers, $7.094.000; Holland, France, Spain, and Italy, $25,475,000; Portugál $1,083,000; China and other native Asiatic Powers, $4 856 000; all other countries $738,000; total $75,094,000. When, therefore, it was considered that nearly half of the whole amount of our impost duties accrued on importations from Great Britain, which, throwing out of view such illicit trade as might take place in a state of war, must be entirely suspended; the general exclusion which it was to be feared we must be subjected to from The market value of public stocks or funds the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Asiatic trade; he depends again upon the proportion between the did not know from what sources of legitimate interest which they bear, and the profit which commerce we could flatter ourselves with the can be made by investing individual capital in prospect of a much greater revenue from external some private enterprise or employment which sources than the amount which had been assumed the situation and circumstances of the country by the committee, especially when we contem- affords. It is influenced by the plenty or scarcity plate the increased interruptions to which all our of money or capital in the country, by the credit other branches of foreign commerce must be ex- of the Government itself, and by the quantity of posed by capture and the general hostilities of its stock which shall be circulating in the market. the enemy. These are principles which are neither novel or It is assumed by the committee, that the extra-original, they are founded on universal experiordinary or war expenditures of the two succeed-ence, and require, it is presumed, no illustration ing years should also rest upon further loans; and to establish them in the mind of any man who it is proposed that revenue sufficient to pay only has at all reflected upon the subject. Let us then the ordinary expenses, and the interest on the old

The ability of a Government to obtain any considerable suns by way of loans upon eligible terms, Mr. BACON said, depended, he apprehended, mostly upon the market value which the public funds or stocks of the country bore in the market. Since no prudent capitalist could be expected to loan his money to a Government for this security at par, if that security would in all probability immediately fall in his hands below the nominal value which it expressed to be worth; when this was the case the only mode of obtaining the use of such capital must be by allowing to the lender an extra interest, or in some other way afford him a premium therefor beyond the ordinary rate of legal interest in the country.

debt and on new loans, should be immediately apply them to the circumstances and case of our own country. In the first place, it is well known

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