to augment the salaries of the district Judges therein mentioned, reported it without amend ment. The bill concerning the Mint was twice read, by unanimous consent, and passed to the third reading. The bill fixing the compensation of the receivers of public moneys for lands of the United States was twice read, by unanimous consent, and referred to Messrs. MARSHALL, BROWN, and Ross, to consider and report thereon. The bill to discharge Laurence Elb from his confinement was read, and passed to the second reading. Ordered, That the committee who were appointed to take into consideration the letter from the President elect of the United States, of this day, be discharged. A motion was made as follows: SENATE. The bill in addition to the act making provision for the further accommodation of the household of the President of the United States was twice read, by unanimous consent, and passed to the third reading. The Senate took into consideration the amendments reported by the committee to the bill to incorporate the persons therein named, as a Mine and Metal Company, which were agreed to; and, on the question to agree to third reading of the bill, it passed in the negative. The PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a letter from Governor Ogle, with two volumes of the laws of Maryland, and the letter was read. TUESDAY, March 3. Mr. T. FOSTER, from the committee on the bill The President elect of the United States having in-authorizing the remission of duties on certain teas formed the Senate that he proposes to take the oath destroyed by fire, reported it without amendment. The bill to amend the act to establish a general which the Constitution prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the execution of stamp office was read the second time, and referhis office, on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, red to Messrs. Ross, LIVERMORE, and MARSHALL, to consider and report thereon. in the Senate Chamber: Ordered, That the Secretary communicate that information to the House of Representatives; that seats be provided for such members of the House of Representatives and such of the public Ministers as may think proper to attend ; and that the gallery be opened to the citizens of the United States. And the motion was agreed to. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House have passed a bill in addition to the act making provision for the further accommodation of the household of the President of the United States, in which they desire the concurrence of the Senate. They agree to the amendments of the Senate to the bill making appropriations for the support of Government for the year 1801, with amendments, in which they desire the concurrence of the Senate. The Senate took into consideration the amendments of the House of Representatives to their amendments to the bill making appropriations for the support of Government for the year 1801. Ordered, That the committee appointed the 20th ultimo, and who reported the amendments, be revived, and that the amendments be referred to that committee. Mr. MARSHALL, from the committee on the bill fixing the compensation of receivers of public moneys for lands of the United States, reported amendments. The bill to authorize the discharge of Lawrence Elb from his confinement was read the second time, and referred to Messrs. Ross, GREENE, and WELLS, to consider and report thereon. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House agree to the amendments of the Senate to the bill to erect a mausoleum for GEORGE WASHINGTON, with amendments, in which they desire the concurrence of the Senate. They have passed a bill for erecting light-houses and placing buoys on New Point Comfort, Long Island Sound, and other places; and a bill further to amend the act establishing the temporary and permanent seat of Government of the United States; in which they desire the concurrence of the Senate. Mr. BLOODWORTH, from the committee appointed the 24th ultimo, respecting the balances reported by the commissioners for settling the accounts between the United States and the several States, made report, which was read. The Senate took into consideration the amend Mr. LANGDON, from the committee on the bill to prohibit the Secretary of the Navy from carry-ments to the amendments on the bill to erect a ing on any business of trade or commerce, reported it without amendment. And it was agreed that this bill be read the third time. The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill to augment the salaries of the district Judges, in the districts therein mentioned, and it was agreed that the bill pass to the third reading. Mr. TRACY, from the committee on the amendments of the House of Representatives to those of the Senate to the bill making appropriations for the support of Government for the year 1801, reported that the Senate concur in said amendments to the amendments; and the Senate agreed thereto. mausoleum for GEORGE WASHINGTON; and on motion to postpone the further consideration of this bill until the first Monday in December next, it passed in the affirmative-yeas 14, nays, 13, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Anderson, Armstrong, Baldwin, Brown, Cocke, Gunn, Hindman, J. Mason, Morris, Pinckney, Read, Ross, Tracy and Wells. NAYS-Messrs. Bloodworth, Chipman, Dayton, T. Foster, Franklin, Greene, Hillhouse, Howard, Langdon, Livermore, Marshall, Nicholas, and Paine. The bill concerning the Mint was read the third time and passed. The bill, entitled "An act in addition to an act, entitled 'An act making provision for the further accommodation of the household of the President of the United States," was read the third time, amended, and passed. The bill, entitled "An act to augment the salaries of the district Judges, in the districts of Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, and Maryland, respectively," was read the third time and amended. On the question to agree to the final passage of this bill as amended, it passed in the affirmative -yeas 13, nays 12, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Armstrong, Dayton, T. Foster, Gunn, Hillhouse, Hindman, Howard, Livermore, J. Mason, Morris, Nicholas, Tracy, and Wells. NAYS - Messrs. Anderson, Baldwin, Bloodworth, Brown, Chipman, Cocke, Franklin, Langdon, Marshall, S. T. Mason, Pinckney and Ross. So it was Resolved, That this bill pass with amendments. The bill to prohibit the Secretary of the Navy from being concerned in trade or commerce was read the third time and passed. Mr. NICHOLAS, from the committee on the bill providing for a Naval Peace Establishment, reported amendments, which being agreed to, the bill was read the third time by unanimous consent and passed. Mr. MORRIS, from the committee appointed to wait on the President elect of the United States and present him with the answer of the Senate to his Address on taking leave, communicated his reply, which was read as follows: GENTLEMEN: I receive with due sensibility the congratulations of the Senate on being called to the first Executive office of our Government; and I accept, with great satisfaction, their assurances of support in whatever regards the honor and interest of our country. Knowing no other object in the discharge of my public duties, their confidence in my future conduct, derived from past events, shall not be disappointed, so far as my judgment may enable me to discern those objects. The approbation they are so good as to express of my conduct in the Chair of the Senate, is highly gratifying to me; and I pray them to accept my humble thanks for these declarations of it. MARCH 3, 1801. TH. JEFFERSON. Mr. TRACY, from the committee on the resolution respecting Theodosius Fowler, reported that the further consideration thereof be postponed until the first Monday in December next; and the report was agreed to. The bill this day brought up for concurrence, entitled "An act for erecting light-houses on New Point Comfort and on Smith's Point, in the State of Virginia, and on Faulkner's Island, in Long Island Sound, in the State of Connecticut, and for placing buoys in Narraganset Sound," was three times read by unanimous consent and passed. Mr. HINDMAN, from the committee on the bill supplementary to the act respecting the District of Columbia, reported amendments. Mr. PAINE, from the committee on the bill to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to employ certain clerks, reported the bill without amendment; and it was read the third time by unanimous consent and passed. MARCH. 1801. Mr. BROWN, from the committee on the bill, entitled "An act for altering the times and places of holding certain courts therein mentioned, and for other purposes," reported an amendment; which was agreed to, and the bill was read the third time by unanimous consent, and passed as amended. The bill further to amend the act establishing the temporary and permanent seat of Government of the United States was twice read by unanimous consent, and referred to Messrs. TRACY, Ross, and PAINE, to consider and report thereon." Mr. NICHOLAS, from the committee on the bill to amend the act establishing an uniform system of bankruptcy, reported amendments. The Senate took into consideration the amendments reported by the committee to the bill, entitled "An act supplementary to the act, entitled 'An act concerning the District of Columbia;" and having agreed thereto, the bill was, by unanimous consent, read the third time, and passed as amended. The bill entitled "An act authorizing the remision of duties on certain teas destroyed by fire, while under the care of the officers of the customs, in Providence, Rhode Island," was, by unanimous consent, read the third time and passed. The Senate adjourned to 6 o'clock this evening. TUESDAY EVENING, 6 o'clock. AARON OGDEN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, in place of James Schureman, resigned, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat in the Senate. The President laid before the Senate the report of the Secretary for the Department of Treasury, to whom was referred the petition of Philip Sloan, praying to be reimbursed a sum of money stated to have been paid for his ransom from the Algerines; which was read. The Senate took into consideration the amendments reported by the committee to the bill, entitled "An act fixing the compensation of receivers of public moneys for lands of the United States;" and having agreed thereto, the bill was read the third time by unanimous consent, and passed with amendments. Mr. Ross, from the committee on the bill to amend the act to establish a general stamp office, reported it without amendment; and the bill was read the third time by unanimous consent, and passed. The Senate took into consideration the amendments reported by the committee to the bill to amend the act establishing an uniform system of bankruptcy; which being agreed to, On motion that this bill be now read by unanimous consent the third time, it was objected to. So the bill was lost. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House agree to some and disagree to other amendments of the Senate to the bill fixing the compensations of receivers of public moneys for lands of the United States. The Senate took into consideration their amendment, disagreed to by the House of Representatives, to the bill fixing the compensation of receivers of public moneys for lands of the United States; and, Resolved, That they do insist on their said amendment. Mr. GREENE, from the committee on the bill for the relief of William Arnold, reported that the further consideration of this bill be postponed until the first Monday in December next; and the report being agreed to, the bill was postponed accordingly. Mr. TRACY, from the committee on the bill further to amend the act for establishing the tempoary and permanent seat of Government, made report. SENATE. ment of the two Houses of Congress, and have appointed a committee on their part. And that the House of Representatives, having completed the business before them, are about to adjourn without day. Mr. READ reported, from the joint committee, that they had waited on the President of the United States and that he replied, that he had nothing further to communicate to Congress, except his best wishes for the health and happiness of its members respectively. The Senate then adjourned without day. On motion that this bill be now read the third PROCEEDINGS OF A SESSION SPECIALLY time by unanimous consent, it was objected to. So the bill was lost. CALLED, On WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1801. Mr. Ross, from the committee on the bill to amend the act to retain a further sum on draw-To the Senators of the United States, respectively: backs in lieu of stamp duties on debentures, made report. On motion that this bill be now read the third time by unanimous consent, it was objected to. So the bill was lost. Mr. Ross, from the committee on the bill to authorize the discharge of Laurence Elb from his confinement, reported it without amendment. On motion that this bill be now read the third time by unanimous consent, it was objected to. So the bill was lost. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate be, and he is hereby, authorized to retain to his own use, out of the contingent fund, the sum of three hundred dollars, as a compensation for his additional expenses at the seat of Government, during the present session of Congress. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate be authorized and directed to pay, out of the moneys appropriated to defray the contingent expenses of the Senate, the sum of two hundred dollars each, to the principal and engrossing clerks in his office, and to the Doorkeeper and Assistant Doorkeeper of the Senate. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate be, and he is hereby, authorized to pay to Hugh McKinley, out of the contingent fund, the sum of two dollars and a half per diem, as a compensation for his labor and attendance on the Senate during the present session of Congress. Ordered, That Messrs. READ and WELLS be a committee on the part of the Senate, with such as the House of Representatives may join, to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him that, unless he may have any further communications to make to the two Houses of Congress, they are ready to adjourn. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate pay to Bishop CLAGGETT, the Chaplain of the Senate, for the present session, one hundred dollars out of the contingent fund, in addition to the allowance to which he is by law entitled. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House concur in the resolution of the Senate appointing a joint committee to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him of the proposed adjourn SIR: It appearing to me proper and necessary for the public service, that the Senate of the United States should be convened on Wednesday the 4th of March next, you are desired to attend in the Chamber of the Senate on that day, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, to receive and act upon any communications which the President of the United States may then lay before you touching their interests, and to do and consider all other things which may be proper and necessary for the public service, for the Senate to do and consider. JOHN ADAMS, President of the United States. JANUARY 30, 1801. In conformity to the summons from the President of the United States above recited, the Senate assembled in their Chamber. PRESENT: AARON BURR, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate. SAMUEL LIVERMORE, and JAMES SHEAFE, from New Hampshire; DWIGHT FOSTER and JONATHAN MASON, from Massachusetts; THEODORE FOSTER and RAY GREENE, from Rhode Island; URIAH TRACY and JAMES HILLHOUSE, from Connecticut; NATHANIEL CHIPMAN, from Vermont; GOUVERNEUR MORRIS and JOHN ARMSTRONG, from New York; JONATHAN DAYTON and AARON OGDEN, from New Jersey; JAMES ROSS and PETER MUHLENBERG, from Pennsylvania; WILLIAM HILL WELLS and SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware; JOHN E. HOWARD from Maryland; STEVENS T. MASON and WILSON CARY NICHOLAS, from Virginia; JOHN BROWN, from Kentucky; JESSE FRANKLIN and DAVID STONE, from North Carolina; JOSEPH ANDERSON and WILLIAM COCKE, from Tennessee; CHARLES PINCKNEY, from South Carolina; Mr. HILLHOUSE administered the oath of office to the VICE PRESIDENT, who took the Chair, and the credentials of the following members were read: Of Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr. MUHLENBERG, Mr. SHEAFE, Mr. STONE, Mr. TRACY, and Mr. WHITE. And the oath of office was administered to Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr. MUHLENBERG, Mr. SHEAFE, Mr. STONE, and Mr. WHITE, by the VICE PRESIDENT. Exception being taken to the credentials of the Hon. Mr. TRACY, a Senator from the State of Connecticut, a debate ensued; and, on motion that he be admitted to take the oath required by the Constitution, it passed in the affirmative-yeas 13, nays 10, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Chipman, Dayton, Dwight Foster, Hillhouse, Howard, Livermore, J. Mason, Morris, Ogden, Ross, Sheafe, Wells, and White. NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Armstrong, Baldwin, Brown, Cocke, S. T. Mason, Muhlenberg, Nicholas, Pinckney, and Stone. And the oath was accordingly administered to Mr. TRACY by the VICE PRESIDENT. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, attended by the Heads of Departments, the Marshal of the District, his officers and other gentlemen, came into the Senate Chamber and took his seat in the chair usually occupied by the VICE PRESIDENT. The VICE PRESIDENT took a separate seat on the right of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and the Chief Justice of the United States on the left. After a short pause, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES rose, and addressed the audience as follows: Friends and fellow-citizens: Called upon to undertake the duties of the first Executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look towards me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my powers, so justly inspire. A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes, of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly indeed should I despair, did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me, that, in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world. During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on MARCH, 1801. strangers unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which, liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others; and should divide opinions as to measures of safety; but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans: we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know indeed that some honest men fear that a Republican Government cannot be strong; that this Government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a Government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too highminded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellowcitizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and practised in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more; fellow-citizens-a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political: peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none: the support of the State Governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies: the preservation of the General Government in its whole Constitutional vigor, as the sheetanchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad: a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided: absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of Republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism: a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them: the supremacy of the civil over the military authority-economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened: the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith: encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid: the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason: freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment: they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. I repair then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this, the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose pre-eminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love, and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask SENATE. so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional; and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not, if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past; and my future solicitude will be, to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all. Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choices it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. The oath of office was then administered to him by the Chief Justice of the United States. After which the President of the United States retired. The Senate then adjourned till to-morrow. THURSDAY, March 5. WILLIAM HINDMAN, appointed a Senator by the State of Maryland, produced his credentials, and the oath of office was administered to him by the VICE PRESIDENT. Ordered, That Messrs. NICHOLAS and BALDWIN be a committee to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him that the Senate is assembled and ready to receive any communications which he may be pleased to make to them. The VICE PRESIDENT Communicated a letter from RAY GREENE, a Senator from the State of Rhode Island, resigning his seat; which was read. Resolved, That the VICE PRESIDENT be requested to notify to the Executive of the State of Rhode Island, that RAY GREENE hath resigned his seat in the Senate. |