OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; BEING THE THIRD SESSION OF THE ELEVENTH CONGRESS: BEGUN AND HELD AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 3, 1810, AND IN THE THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SAID STATES. Printed by order of the Senate of the United States. WASHINGTON: PRINTED BY GALES & SEATON. CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. THE Third Session of the Eleventh Congress, conformably to the constitution of government of the United States, commenced this day; and the Senate assembled at the city of Washington. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1810. PRESENT, From the State of New Hampshire, the Honorable Connecticut, Vermont, the Honorable the Honorable SNicholas Gilman, and the Honorable Michael Leib. the Honorable Maryland, the Honorable Virginia, the Honorable South Carolina, the Honorable Georgia, the Honorable Kentucky, the Honorable Outerbridge Horsey. William B. Giles. John Gaillard. William H. Crawford, and the Honorable Alexander Campbell. The Honorable JOHN GAILLARD, President pro tempore, resumed the chair. On motion, The Senate adjourned to 11 o'clock to-morrow morning. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1810. The Senate assembled; present as yesterday; and the Honorable John Lambert, from the state of New Jersey, the Honorable Elisha Mathewson, from the state of Rhode Island, and the Honorable Philip Reed, from the state of Maryland, severally attended. The credentials of the Honorable Charles Cutts, appointed a Senator by the legis lature of the state of New Hampshire, in place of Nahum Parker, esquire, resigned; also, of the Honorable Samuel W. Dana, appointed a Senator by the legislature of the state of Connecticut, in place of James Hillhouse, esquire, resigned, were severally read; and the oath required by law was, by the President, administered to them, respectively. On motion, by Mr. Smith, of Maryland, Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to business. On motion, Ordered, That Messrs. Smith, of Maryland, and Gilman, be a committee on the part of the Senate, together with such committee as may be appointed by the House of Representatives on their part, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them. VOL. IV.-66 Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives therewith. A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Magruder, their Clerk: Mr. President: I am directed to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled and ready to proceed to business. The House of Representatives have appointed a committee on their part, jointly, with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them. And he withdrew. On motion, by Mr. Smith, of Maryland, Resolved, That each Senator be supplied, during the present session, with three such newspapers printed in any of the states as he may choose, provided that the same be furnished at the usual rate for the annual charge of such papers: and provided, also, that if any Senator shall choose to take any newspapers other than daily papers, he shall be supplied with as many such papers as shall not exceed the price of three daily papers. On motion, by Mr. Smith, of Maryland, Resolved, That James Mathers, Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper to the Senate, be, and he is hereby, authorized to employ one assistant and two horses, for the purpose of performing such services as are usually required by the Doorkeeper to the Senate; and that the sum of twenty-eight dollars be allowed him weekly for that purpose, to commence with, and remain during the session, and for twenty days after. Mr. Smith, of Maryland, submitted the following motion for consideration: Resolved, That two chaplains, of different denominations, be appointed to Congress during the present session, one by each House, who shall interchange weekly. Mr. Giles presented the petition of Larkin Smith, collector of the district of Norfolk and Portsmouth, in Virginia, praying additional compensation, for reasons stated at large in his petition; which was read. On motion, by Mr. Giles, Resolved, That it be referred to a select committee, to consider and report thereon; and Ordered, That Messrs. Giles, Crawford, and Leib, be the committee. Mr. Smith, of Maryland, reported from the joint committee that they had waited on the President of the United States, agreeably to order, and that the President informed the committee that he would make a communication to the two Houses to-morrow, at 12 o'clock. Mr. Smith, of Maryland, gave notice that, to-morrow, he should ask leave to bring in a bill to suspend the second section of the "Act supplementary to the act, entitled An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes." On motion, The Senate adjourned to 11 o'clock to-morrow morning. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1810. The Honorable Timothy Pickering, from the state of Massachusetts, and the Honorable Stephen R. Bradley, from the state of Vermont, severally attended. The following written message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Coles, his Secretary: Fellow-citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of our national affairs. The act of the last session of Congress, concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, having invited, in a new form, a termination of their edicts against our neutral commerce; copies of the act were immediately forwarded to our ministers at London and Paris, with à view that its object might be within the early attention of the French and British governments. By the communication received through our minister at Paris, it appeared that a knowledge of the act by the French government, was followed by a declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would cease to have effect on the first day of November ensuing. These being the only known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a proclamation, bearing date the second day of November. It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by this proceeding on the part of France, to have extended them to all the grounds of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United States. It was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of just dispositions towards them, restoration would have been immediately made of the property of our citizens, seized under a misapplication of the principle of reprisals, combined with a misconstruction of the law of the United States. This expectation has not been fulfilled. From the British government, no communication on the subject of the act has been received. To a communication, from our minister at London, of a revocation, by the French government, of its Berlin and Milan decrees, it was answered, that the British system would be relinquished as soon as the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect, and the commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This pledge, although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude, the intention of relinquishing, along with the orders in council, the practice of those novel blockades, which have a like effect of interrupting our neutral commerce: and this further justice to the United States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades in question, being not more contrary to the established law of nations than inconsistent with the rules of blockade formally recognized by Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than the plea of retaliation, alleged as the basis of the orders in council. Under the modification of the original orders, of November, 1807, into the orders of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades, bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still unrescinded, and to be, in effect, comprehended in the orders in council, was too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not to be comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance with it. The British government was accordingly apprized by our minister near it that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded. On the other important subjects depending between the United States and that government, no progress has been made from which an early and satisfactory result can be relied on. In this new posture of our relations with those powers, the consideration of Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may occur in the exposition, and of difficulties in the execution, of the act above cited. The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore much vexed by licentious cruizers, particularly under the Danish flag, has latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The measures pursued in behalf of our injured citizens, not having obtained justice for them, a further and more formal interposition with the Danish government is contemplated. The principles which have been maintained by that government in relation to neutral commerce, and the friendly professions of his Danish majesty towards the United States, are valuable pledges in favor of a successful issue. Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish monarchy, our attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the United States, had remained in the possession of Spain, awaiting the result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish authority was subverted, and a situation produced exposing the country to ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido, to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws provided for the territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view, the proclamation, of which a copy is laid before you, was confided to the governor of that territory, to be carried into effect. The legality and necessity of the course pursued, assure me of the favorable light in which it will present itself to the legisla ture, and of the promptitude with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into the bosom of the American family. Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears to have been uninterrupted, and to have become more firmly established. With the Indian tribes, also, the peace and friendship of the United States are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to preserve both continues to gain strength. I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and increasing prosperity. To a thriv |