Census of the Territory of Louisiana. No. 4.-Census of the districts or posts of Louisiana and West Florida. San Bernardo, or Terre au Bœufs, on a creek running from the English City of New Orleans and suburbs, as per detail No. 1 Bayou St. Jean and Chantilly, between the city and Lake Pontchartrain Coast of Chapitoulas, or along the banks of the Mississippi, six leagues Valenzuela, or settlements on the Basin de la Fourche, running from 2,388 Iberville parish, commencing at about thirty leagues from Orleans, and ending at the river of the same name Galveztown, situated on the river Iberville, between the Mississippi and Government of Baton Rouge, including all the settlements between the Iberville and the line of demarcation Pointe Coupée and False river behind it, fifty leagues from Orleans, on the west side of the Mississippi Attakapas, on the rivers Teche and Vermilion, &c. to the west of the Opelousas, adjoining to, and to the northeast of the foregoing 530 1,447 808 2,454 Avoyelles, on the Red river, about leagues from the Mississippi Natchitoches on the Red river, about seventy-five leagues from the Concord, an infant settlement on the banks of the Mississippi, opposite Unk'n. Arkansas, on the river of the same name, about twelve leagues from its mouth Spanish Illinois, or Upper Louisiana, from La Petite Prairie, near New MEMORANDUM.-This census is taken from the latest returns, but is manifestly incorrect-the population being underrated. From some places there have been no returns for the last seven years; and, from those made this year, it is easy to see that certain causes induced the inhabitants to give in short returns of their slaves and of their own numbers. The Spanish Government is fully persuaded that the population at present considerably exceeds fifty thousand souls. No. 5.-Statement of the population of the settlements of Upper Louisiana, with the births, marriages, deaths, stock, and productions of the year 1799. Census of the Territory of Louisiana. MEMORANDUM. St. Louis is situated on the Mississippi, five leagues below the mouth of the Missouri. MEMORANDUM. All the fine furs are shipped to Canada, as well as a great quan. tity of deer and bear skins, where they bring a better price than in St. Fernando, or Harissaret, is three or four leagues from St. Louis, in a valley, on one of the roads from St. Louis to St. Charles. New Orleans; and this being a Marais des Liards is four leagues from St. Louis, and about a league to the west of the foregoing. Maramee is on the river of the same name. St. Andrews is situated about five leagues above St. Charles, on the Missouri. St. Genevieve is opposite Kaskaskias, and on the banks of the Mississippi. New Madrid is on the Mississippi, fifteen leagues below the mouth of the Ohio. contraband trade, no notice is taken of it in the above account of exports, which is the official one. Writs of Error to the Supreme Court. No. 6.-Census of the city of New Orleans, exclusive of seamen and the garrison. N. B. This census appears to be incorrect, as, by some unaccountable mistake, the number of free people of color in the second quarter is not included; and, on the whole, the population is thought to be underrated. [Communicated to the House, Dec. 29, 1803.] Mr. BOYLE, from the committee to whom was referred a resolution directing an inquiry into the expediency of vesting the powers usually exercised by a court of equity in the judges of the United States, within the Indiana and other Territories, and also into the expediency of allowing writs of error and appeals from the judgments and decrees of said judges to the Supreme Court of the United States, made the following report: The courts without equitable jurisdiction will inevitably, in some instances, become the instruments of iniquity, instead of the administrators of justice. Fraud, accident, and hardship, ingredients in many of those transactions of human life, which constitute the basis of litigation; entrenched within legal forms and veiled with specious, but deceitful appearances, are many times not within the reach of a tribunal, vested with common law powers only. To develop, and relieve against them, an equitable jurisdiction is necessary. It may be proper also to observe, that persons may avail themselves of the powers of a court of equity to obtain more complete relief, by coercing the specific execution of contracts fairly made, and rescinding those that are bottomed upon deceit, than a court of law is competent to grant; add to that, trusts, which frequently become sources of forensic controversy, are matters properly cognizable in courts of equitable jurisdiction. The committee, therefore, have agreed respectfully to submit to the consideration of the House the following resolution: Resolved, That it is expedient to vest the powers usually exercised by a court of equity in the judges of the United States in the Indiana and other Territories. As to the second matter referred to them for their inquiry, the committee beg leave to observe, that the attainment of a uniformity of decision in any section of country subject to the same laws and usages, is one of the principal objects of the institution of a Supreme Court, with appellate jurisdiction. Where there are many courts dispersed over a country, though subject to the same laws and usages, yet, without one common tribunal, which shall have power to revise and correct the judgments and decrees of the inferior courts, their decisions will be various and contradictory. But to attain this uniformity of decision in each Territorial Government, it is not necessary to allow writs of error or appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States, because each Territory has a supreme court (relatively speaking) within itself, which is composed of three judges and has, or may have, appellate jurisdiction over all others erected in the Territory, whereby it may preserve that uniform rule of decision so desirable. Correctness, or propriety of decision, is the only other object the attainment of which can be aided by allowing writs of error and appeals from the Territorial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States. The committee are not informed, nor do they believe, that there is any unusual want of confidence in the courts of the Territories. They are aware that hardship and injustice will result to individuals in some instances from the erroneous decisions of those courts, but it has not occurred to them that an appeal will insure infallible relief. Infallibility is not the attribute of any earthly tribunal. So vast is the distance from the Territorial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, that the mischief resulting from the necessary delay, expense, and inconve nience of prosecuting or defending writs of error and appeals cannot, in the opinion of the commit Direct Tax. tee, be compensated by any advantage to be derived from the revision of the courts of the Territories by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is obvious to those who have had an opportunity of observing the spirit which often prevails with litigants, that the right of appeal would sometimes be made use of as an instrument of vexation and oppression, where the distance is so great from the inferior to the superior court. The committee, therefore, upon the second matter referred to them, agree to submit the following resolution: Resolved, That it is inexpedient to allow writs of error and appeals from the judgments and decrees of the courts of the Indiana and other Territories to the Supreme Court of the United States. DIRECT TAX. [Communicated, to the House, Dec. 22, 1803.] Documents accompanying "A bill further to amend the act, entitled 'An act to lay and collect a direct tax within the United States." NOVEMBER 12, 1803. SIR: I am instructed by the Committee of Ways and Means to submit the enclosed petition to you, and to request such observations upon it as you may deem material. I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN RANDOLPH. Hon. ALBERT GALLATIN, Secretary of the Treasury. or slaves, should deliver to the assessor within whose assessment district they resided. separate written lists specifying such houses, lands, and slaves, owned by them respectively in each and every assessment district of the State, or of any other State, and designating the State, county, parish, township or town where the property laid, the quantity of land, name of the owner, &c. And it was further provided, by the 12th section of the same act, that all lists of property, taken with reference to any other assessment district than that in which the owner or possessor resided, should be immediately transmitted to the commissioner superintending the district, and from him to the principal assessor of the district within which such property was situated. From thence it appears that, except in the case of sickness, or absence from his assessment district at the time fixed for delivering the lists, the uncertainty of the descriptions of lands is principally chargeable to the neglect of the owner himself, whose duty it was to prepare and deliver correct and descriptive lists of his property either lying in his own or any other assessment district. For it was only in the case when no such list had, in the manner provided by the act, been transmitted to the principal assessor of a district, that it became the duty of the assessor of such district to prepare themselves, in conformity with the section of the act, lists of houses, lands, and slaves, situated in the district, and not owned or possessed by any person residing within the same. In that case, the assessors must have prepared the lists and described the lands in the best manner they could from the information they were able to obtain. In many instances, they may have TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 5, 1803. mistaken the names of the owners, and when the SIR: I have the honor to return the petition of a owners were altogether unknown they have designumber of owners of unoccupied lands in the nated the land only by the number of the lot and State of New York, together with remarks there-by the name of the township or original patent. on, in which the propriety of some further modifications of the laws laying a direct tax is submitted to the Committee. I have the honor to be, &c. ALBERT GALLATIN. JOHN RANDOLPH, Esq., Chairman Committee Ways and Means. Remarks on the petition of sundry inhabitants of New York, complaining of the operation of the law for levying a direct tax. The inconveniences complained of by the petitioners apply to unoccupied lands, and relate either to the assessment or to the payment of the tax. It is urged that the vague and uncertained descriptions of the lands assessed, with the omission of the names of the owners in many instances, render it difficult, and sometimes impracticable, to identify the estate to which the tax was attached. It will be recollected, on that head, that it was enacted by the ninth section of the act "to provide for the valuation of lands and dwelling-houses, and the enumeration of slaves within the United States," that all persons in the United States owning or possessing any dwelling-houses, lands, And it cannot be doubted that, either from want of information or from other causes, many vague, incorrect, and inapplicable descriptions of land are to be found in the lists of unoccupied lands, which have been or may hereafter be sold for non-payment of the tax, as well in the State of New York as in all other States which contained large tracts of such lands. It is, however, evident that, it is impracticable, at present, and especially in cases where the land has already been sold, to rectify the mistakes or incorrect descriptions of the assessment: and, however injurious the result may be to the parties, it does not seem, for the abovementioned reasons, that they have, in that respect, a right to expect redress from Government. It must also be observed, that when the description of the land, without any mention of the owner, did not apply to the tract intended to be taxed; either (as has happened in many instances) the land could not be sold, and the tai is lost to the United States; or, the sale could vest, in the purchaser, but a precarious title to the real tract; and in cases where lands were assessed in the name of other persons than the owners, it has been expressly provided by the 5th section of the act "to amend an act entitled “An act to lay Sale of the Public Lands. and collect a direct tax within the United States," that copies of the lists of property assessed, statements of the amount of taxes due thereon, and notifications to pay the same should, before the collectors could proceed to sell, be published for sixty days in four gazettes of the State, if there were so many. From which last provision it appears that when such publication has been omitted, the sale was illegal, and that when it has taken place, the original proprietors may have recourse to it, in order to ascertain the amount of their taxes, even when, as is suggested, the collectors refuse to communicate lists of the lands sold by them. The petitioners, in the next place, complain that they cannot avail themselves, by a timely repayment of the tax, costs, and interest, of the right reserved to them by law of redeeming, within two years after the sale, those lands which may have been sold for non-payment of the tax; because the collectors to whom that payment was directed to be made, allege in some instances that their office no longer exists, and sometimes refuse to exhibit their lists of lands sold; and because the supervisor has no means whereby to compel such collectors to transmit transcripts of those lists, in conformity with their instructions. The law appears to be defective as well in that respect as in that no mode has been provided for conveying the lands sold and remaining unredeemed; and although the mode of redress pointed out by the petitioners may not afford complete relief in all cases, nor perhaps be adapted to its full extent consistent with the rights already vested in bona fide purchasers, its general principles do not seem objectionable, and will enable the original proprietors in many instances to redeem their lands. The following provisions are suggested to effect that object. 1. That the supervisor or officer to whose office the duties of supervisor have been annexed, and, in those States where no such officer may exist, the marshal, should alone be authorized to make deeds for lands sold for non-payment of taxes and remaining unredeemed. 2. That the collectors should within months after passing the proposed act, when the land has been previously sold, and within months after the completion of sales made subsequent to the date of such act, transmit to the supervisor, officer acting as supervisor, or marshal, as the case may be, correct transcripts of the lists of lands sold for non-payment of taxes; specifying the land as described by the assessment, the quantity of land sold, the amount of tax, charges and costs for which it was sold, and the name of the purchaser; and designating also such tracts of said lands which may have been redeemed, in conformity with the law, by the original proprietors, or for their benefit; and that they should also, within the same time, pay over to the said officer the amount of moneys paid by or for such proprietors, and which shall not by the collectors have been already repaid to the purchasers; under penalty of dollars in case of failure on their part either of transmitting such transcripts or of paying over such moneys; and that a reasonable allowance, to be repaid in case of redemption by the original proprietor, should be made to them for transcribing and transmitting those lists. 3. That no deeds should be executed to the purchasers of lands thus sold, unless such lands are stated in the transcripts received from the collectors, or unless the purchaser shall have delivered within a limited time to the officer authorized to make deeds, a receipt from the collector for the purchase money, dated within not more than subsequent to the sale, and specifying distinctly the original description of the land assessed and the quantity sold. 4. That deeds should be executed to the purchaser by the officer authorized to do the same, provided that the preceding provision shall have been complied with, unless the original proprietor, or some person in his name and for his benefit, shall within - after passing the act (or after the date of the sale, or after the receipt either of the transcript, from the collectors, or of the collector's receipt from the purchaser) have either repaid to the officer the amount of the tax, charges, costs and interest, as directed by law, or produced to him a receipt from the collector for such repayment, dated within not more than subsequent to the passing of the proposed act: in which case the purchaser shall be entitled to receive the said amount from the officer or collector accountable for the same. The three first provisions do not appear to be liable to any well grounded objection; but, in order to fix the details of the last, it is necessary previously to decide the question whether under the terms of the existing laws, a right to the land absolutely vests in the purchaser at the expiration of two years after the sale, so as to preclude Congress from extending the time of redemption beyond that term. The modifications of which the provision, fixing the time when deeds, for lands unredeemed may be made, is susceptible, must necessarily depend on the opinion which shall be formed by the committee on that subject. Respectfully submitted. ALBERT GALLATIN. PUBLIC LANDS. [Communicated to the House, January 23, 1804.] Mr. NICHOLSON made the following report: The committee appointed to inquire into the expediency of amending the several laws providing for the sale of the public lands of the United States, and to whom were likewise referred several petitions from sundry persons residing in the State of Ohio, on the same subject; submit an additional report, in part, and recommend to the House the adoption of the following resolutions: 1. Resolved, That from and after the day of next, the public lands of the United States lying north of the river Ohio, shall be sold on payment of one-twentieth part of the purchase-money at the time of |