[1] This paragraph is entitled to the careful consideration of all who aspire to a practical knowledge of the principles of our Government, and an intimate acquaintance with its early working. Louisiana had been ceded to the United States by the French Government: the treaty for the cession was now to be submitted for the ratification and the legislation which were necessary to carry it into effect: and the President sets out with showing that he had legislative authority for what he had done—that the sanction of Congress had been given to the acquisition beforehand—before the negotiation had been instituted. It was Congress—the legislative authority—which had given that previous sanction, held so vital by Mr. Jefferson: and, notwithstanding that previous sanction, the treaty, after ratification by the Senate, was to be submitted to the legislative power, for the exercise of their functions, as to those conditions which the constitution had vested in Congress. What these functions were, in the understanding of Mr. Jefferson’s political school, was to give, or refuse the appropriation according to the dictates of their own discretion, uncontrolled by the treaty stipulation.

[2] Boundaries of the Province of Louisiana, as contained in a paper communicated by Mr. Jefferson to Congress.

The precise boundaries of Louisiana, westward of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at present involved in some obscurity. Data are equally wanting to assign with precision its northern extent. From the source of the Mississippi, it is bounded eastwardly, by the middle of the channel of that river, to the thirty-first degree of latitude; thence, it is asserted, upon very strong grounds, that, according to its limits, when formerly possessed by France, it stretches to the east as far, at least, as the river Perdido, which runs into the bay of Mexico, eastward of the river Mobile.

It may be consistent with the view of these notes to remark, that Louisiana, including the Mobile settlements, was discovered and peopled by the French, whose monarchs made several grants of its trade, in particular to Mr. Crozat, in 1712, and some years afterwards, with his acquiescence, to the well-known company projected by Mr. Law. This company was relinquished in the year 1731. By a secret convention, on the 3d November, 1762, the French Government ceded so much of the province as lies beyond the Mississippi, as well as the island of New Orleans, to Spain; and, by the treaty of peace which followed in 1763, the whole territory of France and Spain, eastward of the middle of the Mississippi, to the Iberville, thence, through the middle of that river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great Britain, during our Revolutionary war, they were confirmed to her by the Treaty of Peace of 1784. By the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, of the 1st of October, 1800, His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to cede back to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations therein contained, relative to the Duke of Parma, “the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States.” This treaty was confirmed and enforced by that of Madrid, of the 21st of March, 1801. From France it passed to us by the Treaty of the 30th of April last, with a reference to the above clause as descriptive of the limits ceded.

[3] The bill thus passed was in these words:

From the terms of this act, and especially of the second section, it is seen that the Spanish system of government was continued in the ceded territory after it became the property of the United States, and that the military, the civil, and judicial powers of the Spanish Intendants (for France never took possession of the country except to deliver it to the United States), were transferred by law to such persons as the President should appoint. The powers of the Spanish Intendants, as all know, were an emanation of the despotic power of the kings of Spain, and wholly incompatible with our constitution—a very clear declaration of Congress that the constitution did not extend to the territory, and that its inhabitants could claim no rights under it: and this declaration was in consonance with all the previous acts for the government of territories, all of which were inconsistent with the constitution.

[4] The practice of pronouncing eulogiums on deceased members, adjourning the two houses, and attending the funeral in procession, had not then been adopted. A mourning for thirty days (which was the length of time which the children of Israel wept for the death of Moses in the Valley of Moab), was the simple and expressive sign of respect.

[5] The following is the act:

That the act of Congress passed on the fourth of April, one thousand eight hundred, entitled “An act to establish a uniform system of Bankruptcy throughout the United States,” shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed: Provided, nevertheless, That the repeal of the said act shall in no wise affect the execution of any commission of bankruptcy which may have been issued prior to the passing of this act, but every such commission may and shall be proceeded on and fully executed as though this act had not passed.

[6] This act, as passed, asserted full power in Congress to legislate upon slavery in the Territories without regard to the constitution, or any of its provisions in relation to the States, or the rights of the States within themselves, or between each other. Thus: 1. It prohibited the foreign importation of slaves into the Territory at once, which, with respect to a State, could not be done before 1808. 2. It prohibited the domestic importation of any slave into the Territory which had been imported from abroad since the year 1798. 3. It prohibited the carrying of any slave whatever into the Territory, except by a citizen of the United States removing into it for actual settlement, and being at the time the bona fide owner of such slave. These were three provisions which could not be adopted towards the States; and for their violation a fine was incurred by the importer, and freedom attached to the slave—penalties which Congress could prescribe within no State.

The following is the section containing these prohibitions and penalties:

This section applied to Lower Louisiana, called the Territory of Orleans. No provision on the subject of slavery was made in the act for the government of Upper Louisiana, afterwards called the Territory of Missouri. And thus, by legislating fully on the subject in one Territory, and not at all in the other, Congress asserted its right to do as it pleased with slavery in such places, uncontrolled by any power but its own will.

[7] At the time of passing the second bankrupt act in 1841—that is to say, after the lapse of forty years—it was shown that there was still property of bankrupts in the hands of assignees, the estate being so administered as to pay expenses, yielding nothing to the creditors, and leaving nothing to the debtors.

[8] There are three grades of Territorial government, all based upon the idea of pupillage in the Territory, and of sovereignty and guardianship in the Federal Government. The first grade, as in the case of mere children, allowed the inhabitants no voice in their own government: a Governor and Judges, appointed by the Federal Government, adopted laws from the codes of the States, and executed them. The second grade, as in the case of children advancing towards the years of discretion, (to whom a father allows some latitude of will,) admitted the inhabitants to some share in their government, by giving them a Council composed of their own citizens, (but appointed by the President,) to act with the Judges in adopting the laws. The third grade, as in the case of children arrived at the years of discretion, but not yet of full age, allowed them a Territorial Legislature, consisting of a House of Representatives, elected by themselves, a Council appointed by the President, and liberty to originate and enact laws; but all their acts as in those of the two other grades, subject to the approbation of Congress. From this grade the Territory, on attaining the population which would give a right to one Representative in Congress, would pass into the class of States, on an equal footing in all respects with the other States, and entitled of right to all the benefits of the federal constitution. Before this transition, the Territories had no rights under the constitution. They were governed independently of the constitution, and contrary to it. They had no benefits from it, except such as Congress, in its discretion, chose to extend to them. They were governed as property: the soil, as a sovereign owner would govern his property; the inhabitants, as a father would take care of his children, looking to their ultimate equality with himself, and preparing them to enjoy that equality as soon as prepared for it. It was this graduated form of Territorial government, in its three regular degrees, to which Mr. Macon was so much attached. It was devised by the “Old Congress,” as he called it—the Congress of the confederation—and received its features from the organizing mind of Mr. Jefferson when he was a member of that Congress in 1784. Neither under the Articles of the Confederation, nor under the Federal Constitution, had the Territories had any rights: they were governed as property according to the will of Congress, uncontrolled by any authority, except the limitations and conditions expressed in the deeds of cession from the States, or in the treaties with foreign powers by which they were ceded. All this is abundantly evident in all the legislation of Congress upon the subject, and in none more so than in the government of Lower Louisiana.

[9] The judicial power of the Territory remained as provided for in the 4th section, in judges appointed for four years, and without the right of jury trial in civil cases. The legislative power was vested in a Governor and council appointed by the President, and their acts subject to the approval or disapproval of Congress. The following is the section:

[10] The yeas and nays were so nearly the same on every question that one set will answer for the whole.

[11] Of the 21 who voted against this bill, almost the whole were from the non-slaveholding States.

[12] The object of this bill was, not to increase the amount of duty, but to increase the list of specific duties by transferring ad valorems to it as a means of diminishing frauds and the expenses of collection.

[13] This was the whole ceremony. No eulogium was pronounced, nor any adjournment moved, and in the House of Representatives the event was not noticed. And this was the custom at that early time.

[14] This was the commencement of Mr. Gaillard’s long Senatorial service, terminated only by death, and during which, from vacancies and absences in the Vice Presidential office, he was almost continually President pro tempore of the Senate.

[15] This was after the duel of Col. Burr with General Hamilton, which event probably influenced the negative vote.

[16] A more beautiful or more patriotic address was never delivered. How little could the hearers have supposed that, in three years, the author would be on trial for High Treason.

[17] The interference of the Internal Revenue officers with the politics of the country, was one of the reasons for preferring the system of Custom House Duties to direct taxes; it may be a question whether the concentration of the revenue officers in the Custom Houses, and the vast number which the ad valorem system admits of, may not have given to that evil a more dangerous form.

[18] Roads, rivers, canals—their construction or improvement so long the vexed question of Federal power, have been superseded as national questions by the progress of science, and the force of individual enterprise. Railroads have put an end to that question, and with it, all the old maxims of preparing for war in time. They are the largest, cheapest, and most effective preparation for war, that the world ever saw, being the realization of the whole art of war; to wit: The concentration in the shortest time of the greatest number of troops. By these roads the United States would throw millions of citizen soldiers, if needed, on any one point in a very few days.

[19] We understand, that in correspondence with the Parliamentary practice of England, no chair was, previously to the introduction of Mr. Chase, assigned him; but that an informal intimation was made to him, that, on his requesting it, it would be allowed.

[20] During these proceedings, neither the managers nor the House of Representatives were present.

[21] The argumentative parts of the answer are omitted as being reproduced in the pleadings.

[22] Mr. Jefferson.

[23] These words, used by Mr. Randolph as a quotation,—they were quoted from Lord Chatham,—afterwards (during the Mexican war) were repeated as original in the American Senate.

[24] On the 7th February following, Mr. Granger addressed the annexed explanatory letter to the Speaker:—

[25] An act of Congress has since passed to prevent members from taking government contracts; but the act did not extend to their sons, brothers, and nephews, and the spirit of it has been often eluded.

[26] Mr. Randolph was the great opposer of these claims in Congress, and General Jackson their great opposer in Georgia. It was he who roused the feeling which overthrew the General Assembly who made the grant, and elected the legislature which annulled their act, and burnt the record of it. He was in the Senate of the U. S. with Mr. James Gunn, the Senator alluded to in the debate as being engaged in the fraud, and lost his life in the last of the many duels which his opposition to this measure brought upon him.

[27] With this session ended the first term of Mr. Jefferson’s administration, and the end of that term presents a natural occasion for reviewing the working of the Government in its point of chief contact with the people—receipts and expenditures. These were kept at the lowest point. The internal taxes had been repealed: the custom house duties had not been increased. For, though the change of many articles from the ad valorem to the specific list, had the effect of increasing the revenue, yet it did not increase the duty, the object being to prevent frauds and to simplify and cheapen the collection. The duties themselves, both the specific and the ad valorem, remained at the low and moderate rates which characterized the early periods of our Government. The average of the specifics, on the leading articles, were: on spirits, 29 cents per gallon; on wines, 32 cents per gallon; on teas, 16 cents per pound; on coffee, 5 cents per pound; on sugars, 2½ cents per pound; on molasses, 5 cents per gallon. The ad valorems were simplified to three rates, which in fact were but two, the third and highest rate only applying to luxuries, which were but little imported; and the lowest rate applying to the bulk of the importations. Thus the highest rate (20 per centum) in an importation of near forty million dollars worth of merchandise paying ad valorem duties, only fell upon $425,000 of that quantity, while the 15 per cent. fell upon $7,640,000 worth, and the 12½ per cent. rate fell upon 31 millions of dollars worth. The average of all the ad valorems was about 13 per centum; and such was the cheapness of this simplicity of impost, that the cost of collection was only about 4 per centum, and the revenue cutter service almost null. The net revenue yielded was twelve millions and a quarter, of which there went to the principal and interest of the public debt, about eight millions; to the army and navy, about two millions; miscellanies, about half a million; tribute to Algiers, near $200,000; diplomatic intercourse, $60,000; and about $600,000 to the civil list—comprehending the entire support of the Government in all its branches—executive, judicial, and legislative. And thus the moderate duties of that time, upon the moderate importation of that time, with the economy of that time, produced nearly twenty times the amount of revenue which the support of the Federal Government required.

[28] Okefonokee Swamp, covering one-fourth of Georgia, 15,000 square miles—the great refuge of fugitive slaves, white outlaws, and depredating Indians.

[29] The whole object of the bill was the purchase of Florida, but it not being desirable to avow that purpose, the object was covered up in the vague phrases of extraordinary expenses in foreign intercourse. The following is the act as passed:

[30] The Marquis de Casa Yrujo. He was recalled.

[31] This expunging was so complete that no vestige of the expunged matter appears in the Journal; but it is otherwise well known what it was. The two named persons had presented memorials, which had been received and read, stating that they were under a criminal prosecution, now depending in the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of New York, for an alleged offence against the laws of the United States, in which, if guilty, they have been led into error by the conduct of officers of the Executive Government, who now intend to bring upon the memorialists the penalties of the laws, to sacrifice their characters, fortunes, and liberty, in expiation of their own errors, or to deprecate the vengeance of foreign Governments, by offering the memorialists as victims to their resentment: that they have also experienced great oppression and injustice in the manner of conducting the said prosecution; and praying such relief therein as the wisdom of Congress may think proper to grant.

The prosecution was for an alleged breach of the neutrality laws, in fitting out a vessel from New York against a Power with whom the United States were at peace, to wit, the King of Spain. The vessel was the Leander, and built for General Miranda, then engaged in his South American expedition. The implications of the Executive Government which the memorials charged, were voted, by the House of Representatives, to be unsupported and reprehensible, and ordered to be returned to the parties from whom they came. The following was the resolve, adopted nearly unanimously, on the motion of Mr. Early:

[32] The constitutional power of Congress to prohibit the importation of slaves into States, did not accrue till the year 1808; but Territories not being States, the constitutional prohibition had no application to them.

[33] This was the public commencement of Mr. Randolph’s separation from the Administration of Mr. Jefferson; but his dissatisfaction had begun before, at the retention of Mr. Granger, Postmaster-General, in the Cabinet, after it was known that he was the agent of the New England Mississippi Land Company.

[34] Since the statute of 13th William the Third, the British Judges are removable upon the joint address of the two Houses of Parliament, notwithstanding they are commissioned, since that statute, during good behaviour—quamdiu se bene gesserint. Before that time they were commissioned during the royal pleasure—durante bene placito: and it was usual, during profligate reigns, when convictions of obnoxious persons were required, to remove such of the judges as could not be relied on, and appoint a subservient set in their place. The act of William the Third made them independent of the King, but not of the Parliament representing the country. Their independence of the crown was completed by the statute 1 George III., which prevented the vacation of their commissions on the demise of the sovereign.

[35] This is the true view of the constitution, and of our policy, and the motive to the confederation of 1778, and to Union of 1787. Defence was the object, and the policy—so declared in the instruments of confederation and of Union, and so proclaimed by every consideration of policy. And for defence, the United States are the strongest power in the world. Her railroads in a few days would place a million of volunteers, if needed, on any point of land attack: her privateers would clear the seas of the enemy’s commerce. And these two great means of defence would be as cheap as effective; superseding the old expensive policy of “preparing for war in time of peace.”

[36] The practice of pronouncing funeral eulogiums over deceased members had not been yet adopted. Attending the funeral, and wearing the badge of mourning, were deemed the adequate honor; and well worthy was General James Jackson of it. He was a man of marked character, high principle, and strong temperament—honest, patriotic, brave—hating tyranny, oppression, and meanness in every form; the bold denouncer of crime in high as well as in low places; a ready speaker, and as ready with his pistol as his tongue, and involved in many duels on account of his hot opposition to criminal measures. The defeat of the Yazoo fraud was the most signal act of his legislative life, for which he paid the penalty of his life—dying of wounds received in the last of the many duels which his undaunted attacks upon that measure brought upon him.

[37] The item for contingent expenses of the Navy, comprises commissions to agents to foreign countries and in the United States, officers’ travelling expenses, expense of conveying seamen from one port to another, as for instance where seamen are entered in Philadelphia or Baltimore to join a vessel fitting out at Washington, the expense of nautical instruments, such as compasses, quadrants, spy-glasses, &c., charts, books, models, drawings, signals, lanterns, oil, candles, clamps, fuel, hammocks, trumpets, glass, cisterns, cases, mess kids, axes, gridirons, tea kettles, galleys, shovels, tongs, charcoal, sulphur, saltpetre, fire engines, fire buckets, bread bags, and an infinite variety of other such articles, not expressly provided by law.

[38] Two frigates.

[39] The item for ordnance comprises cannon, carronades, swivels, blunderbusses, muskets, pistols, swords, boarding-pikes, cutlasses, cannon ball of every description, musket and pistol ball, cannon, musket, pistol and priming powder, powder horns, priming horns, flannel and paper cartridges, cartridge boxes, slow match, lint stocks, worms, rammers, sponges, wads, gun-locks, screw-drivers, flints, cartridge thread, &c.

[40] The error which now prevails (with so many) on the subject of the fishing bounties and allowances, is one which strongly illustrates the evil in our legislators, of not being sufficiently acquainted with our early Congressional history. They are now held by many—by enough to prevent their repeal—to be bounties out of the Treasury for the encouragement of the fisheries as a nursery of seamen, when their whole history proves that they were denied when asked on that ground, (bounties out of the Treasury to any branch of industry being equally unconstitutional and impolitic,) and only granted on the principle of drawback—as a refunding of duty paid on foreign salt exported on fish; and as such applied at first to all salted provisions, both beef and pork as well as to fish. And as such drawback these bounties and allowances rose and fell with the salt tax as long as national legislation was under the control of our earlier generation of statesmen; but since near thirty years this dependence of the bounties and allowances upon the salt tax has ceased to be known, and, while the duty has been undergoing reductions, the bounties and allowances have remained at the highest rate they ever attained when the salt duty was at its highest rate. The want of this knowledge has cost the public treasury some millions of dollars; and is still costing it some hundreds of thousands annually.

[41] The application of steam power to the propulsion of boats on water and cars on land, under the enterprise of private individuals, has superseded all the old ideas of federal internal improvement by roads, rivers, and canals.

[42] This is the first appearance of Mr. Clay in either House of Congress.

[43] The following are the letters:

[44] With this agreed the practice of all the free States at that time, and the laws of several of them—as New York and Pennsylvania—in the former of which nine months, and in the latter six months, was allowed to the sojourner and traveller to depart with his slave, with the alternative of taking the character of a resident if he remains longer, and thereby subjecting his slave to the emancipation laws of the State.

[45] The bill was passed through the House with only five dissenting votes, and through the Senate with nearly equal unanimity. The following is a copy of the act:

? Throughout the entire debate on the bill, there was not a word of objection to the bounties and allowances falling with the salt tax.

[46] The motion to “reject” a bill is one of indignity to it. It is equivalent to declaring that it is unworthy of consideration, and therefore to be driven out of the House on learning what it is from the first reading, (which is only for information,) without going to the second reading, which is for consideration.

[47] Only five dissentients, and they both from free and slave States, and dissenting upon matters of detail. So that the prohibition of the trade itself may be considered unanimous.

[48] The bill from the Senate to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus had been rejected in the House, and this movement was for the better securing the privilege in future. Although prospective in its terms and object, the debate upon it was chiefly retrospective, looking back to the arrest of persons in New Orleans as accomplices of Burr; and thus possesses a double interest, as connecting itself with history while discussing a question of the greatest interest to the liberty of the citizen.

[49] This alludes to the early conspiracy to separate Kentucky from the Union, while the Spaniards held the mouth of the Mississippi, and, with it, a check upon the exports of the West. The conspiracy existed—the Spanish Governor General at New Orleans, and some leading citizens of Kentucky, the parties. Spanish money was paid to some of these citizens—some were even stipendiaries, receiving annual sums for their treacherous service to Spain. General Wilkinson had the misfortune to be implicated in this conspiracy, but the proof of it was never made out.

[50] He had been tried at Richmond, Va., (Chief Justice Marshall presiding,) on two indictments—one, for high treason, in levying war against the United States; the other, for a misdemeanor in setting on foot, within the United States, a military expedition against a power with whom the United States were at peace, to wit, Spain; and had been acquitted on both trials, under instructions from the Court. First. That the acts proved under the treason indictment, did not amount to levying war against the United States. Second. That the military expedition against Spain was set on foot in Ohio, and not in Virginia, and therefore not triable in Virginia. Col. Burr was recognized to appear and answer to this charge in Ohio, but forfeited the recognizance, and the United States for many years.

[51] It was dated 29th July.

[52] Joseph Hamilton Daviess, of Kentucky, the able lawyer, brilliant pleader, and ardent patriot, killed at Tippecanoe at the head of a night charge upon the Indians.

[53] Yeas.—Messrs. Adams, Anderson, Bradley, Breckenridge, Brown, Cocke, Condit, Dayton, Gaillard, Jackson, Mitchill, Moore, Smith of Maryland, Smith of New York, Smith of Ohio, Smith of Vermont, White, and Wright—18.

Nays.—Messrs. Baldwin, Ellery, Franklin, Hillhouse, Howland, Logan, Maclay, Olcott, Pickering, Plumer, Stone, Sumter, and Worthington—13.

[54] In consequence of this vote Mr. Smith withdrew from the Senate, and resigned his place in a letter (affirming and arguing his innocence) to the Governor of Ohio.

[55] This contested election, as involving a point of constitutional law, to wit, whether a State Legislature can add to, or diminish, the representative qualifications which the constitution prescribes? rises above a question between individuals, and becomes an exception to the general rule of this abridgment, to omit reports, debates, and proceedings on contested elections. The report of the committee, after extended debate, was agreed to by the House, almost unanimously—89 to 18.

[56] This is a sensible speech, and its recommendations have since been adopted in practice by all the States, except in the classification of the militia and the estimate of volunteers. Experience—that of the war of 1812, and the late war with Mexico—has since proved that volunteers may be relied upon for all active service in the United States, either at home or abroad; and that, with the facilities of railroad transportation, such accumulated masses may be thrown upon any point as to crush any invading force. In fact, with railroads and volunteers, the idea of invasion has become obsolete, and the word never mentioned except from habit and past associations.