PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE TENTH CONGRESS, BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1807. A PROCLAMATION By the President of the United States of America. Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday the twenty-sixth day of October next for their meeting at the City of Washington; hereby requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States. In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand. SAMUEL SMITH and PHILIP REED, from Maryland. JAMES TURNER, from North Carolina. BUCKNER THRUSTON, from Kentucky. JESSE FRANKLIN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of North Carolina, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; GEORGE JONES, appointed a Senator by the Executive of the State of Georgia, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of ABRAHAM BALDWIN; NAHUM PARKER, appointed Done at the City of Washington, the thirtieth day Hampshire, for the term of six years, commencing a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand on the fourth day of March last; JONATHAN ROBeight hundred and seven, and in the thirty-INSON, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of second year of the Independence of the Uni- the State of Vermont, to supply the place of ISRAEL SMITH, whose seat has become vacant; and EDWARD TIFFIN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Ohio, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last, respectively took their seats, and produced their credentials, which were read; and the oath prescribed by law was administered to them. [L. S.] ted States. By the President: TH. JEFFERSON. JAMES MADISON, Secretary of State. MONDAY, October 26, 1807. Conformably to the above Proclamation of the President of the United States, of the 30th July last, the First Session of the Tenth Congress commenced this day, at the City of Washington, and the Senate assembled, in their Chamber, in the Capitol. PRESENT: GEORGE CLINTON, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate. NICHOLAS GILMAN, from New Hampshire. BENJAMIN HOWLAND, from Rhode Island. SAMUEL MACLAY and ANDREW GREGG, from SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware. JOHN POPE, appointed a Senator by the State of Kentucky, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth of March last, stated that the Governor and Secretary being absent when he left home, he came to the seat of Government without his credentials; but that he expected they would be speedily forwarded to him: whereupon, he took his seat in the Senate, and the oath was administered to him as the law prescribes. The oath was also administered to Messrs. BRADLEY, GREGG, MILLEDGE, and REED, their credentials having been read and filed during the last session. Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled, and ready to proceed to business. Ordered, That Messrs. ANDERSON and BRADLEY be a committee on the part of the Senate, together with such committee as the House of Rep 281953 On motion, it was Resolved, That two Chaplains, of different denominations, be appointed to Congress during the present session, one by each house, who shall interchange weekly. Ordered, That the Secretary desire the concurrence of the House of Representatives in this resolution. A motion was submitted, by Mr. ANDERSON, for consideration, as follows: Resolved, That a committee be appointed to take into consideration the expediency of authorizing the State of Tennessee to reduce the price of certain lands which were ceded to the said State by the United States, by an act, entitled "An act authorizing the State of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle the claims to vacant and unappropriated lands within the same, to such price as the Legislature of said State may, in their judgment, deem expedient; and that the committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled, and have elected JOSEPH B. VARNUM, one of the Representatives for Massachusetts, their Speaker, and are ready to proceed to business. They have appointed a committee on their part, jointly, with the committee 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. The Senate adjourned to 11 o'clock to-morrow morning. TUESDAY, October 27. Mr. ANDERSON reported, from the joint committee, that they had waited on the President of the United States, agreeably to the resolution of OCTOBER, 1807. yesterday, and that the President informed the committee that he would make a communication to the two Houses this day, at 12 o'clock. The PRESIDENT communicated the petition of Samuel Biddle and others, American citizens, impressed on board His Britannic Majesty's ship Wolverine; and the petition was read. Ordered, That it be communicated to the House of Representatives. BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. The PRESIDENT also communicated the decla ration of the American citizens on the Mobile, with relation to British aggressions; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table. It is as follows: At a meeting of the inhabitants of Washington county, Mississippi Territory, at the court-house in the town of Wakefield, on the 8th of September, 1807, in consequence of the attack by the British ship-of-war Leopard on the United States' frigate Chesapeake, the following declaration of the sentiments of the meeting was unanimously adopted: Situated in a remote corner of the territory of the United States, and unconnected with every other body of American citizens, the people inhabiting the country lying on the waters of the Mobile have at length heard of the outrage which has been committed on our national rights by the arrogant representatives of British despotism. We think and feel on the occasion as every American thinks and feels. We despise the bully and the coward who, as Captain of the Leopard, was the instrument of exhibiting the enormous extent of the claims of the pretended mistress of the ocean. But our attention is in an instant drawn from him to ourselves and our own situation. Is national independence a dream? Shall Great Britain or any other nation come at pleasure into our territory, and lay hold of whomsoever she pleases, under the pretence that this man is her subject, and that man is in her employ; that here there is a felon, and there a deserter? Our national ships are our territory, in whatever quarter of the world they are found; much more so, then, when within our own acknowledged limits and jurisdiction. We care not who the men were that were demanded from the Chesapeake; we care not whence they came, where they were born, nor who claimed allegiance from them. Had they fled from Europe stained with blood, no foreign force had a right to invade our territory; no foreign officer, civil or military, had a right to exercise his functions within our limits, or to transport the supposed offender to the precincts of a distant tribunal. If there be a mutual convention between two na tions reciprocally to deliver up felons, it is well; but no one nation has a right to force another into such a stipulation. And shall the plea, not of a treason, not of a murder, not of a felony having been committed, but the mere plea of desertion from a service, the tyranny and enormities of which are now arming the whole civilized world against it-shall such a plea be ground sufficient for us to stifle our jealousy of national rights, or to surrender our claims to perfect and unqualified independence? England may count upon our divisions. She is mistaken. The violence of her conduct has united all America. We judge not only from what we hear, but from what we see among ourselves. Our own settlement_originally consisted, and still in a great degree consists, of those who adhered to England in the Revolutionary war. They were led by principle; their elders taught them that resistance was sinful; and they imbibed from their infancy a deep veneration for their King. But the delusion lasts no longer. We have since seen that King engaged in almost incessant wars on the liberty and happiness of man; whilst the Government which has succeeded his in America has preserved us in peace with all the world, and been preeminently occupied in promoting our national prosperity. Old factions are forgotten; we all view with the same sensibility any outrage on the honor of our common country; and old Whigs and old Tories will cordially unite in devoting their lives and fortunes to avenge the wounded dignity of America against the insults and oppressions of any Government upon earth. What may be the immediate issue of an appeal to arms we know not. That knowledge is confined to the Lord of Hosts; and on him, trusting to the justice of our cause, we rely with humble confidence. SENATE. ourselves as an advanced guard, destined to defend the immense tract of valuable territory which lies between the settlements on the Mobile and the State of Tennessee. We may perish at our posts, but we shall not slumber there. We have likewise suffered multiplied injuries, inflicted upon us in a regular system by the agents of the Spanish Government. But if we have ever thought ourselves neglected, such thoughts, at the present momentous crisis in our national affairs, shall no longer find a harbor in our breasts. If, when we have been the objects of incessant oppression from the officers of His Catholic Majesty, for a series of years; if, when the produce of our lands, before it could reach a market in even our own territories, has been subjected to a duty of twelve per centum ad valorem to a foreign monarch; if, when we have been constantly the sport of vexatious searches and arbitrary seizures; if, when we have been compelled to pay twelve per centum to the King of Spain on everything which we have imported, even from the next town within the American limits; if when, through the joint operation of revenue systems of Spain and the United States, we have fre But, though the operations and events of war are always uncertain, we can calculate with some confidence that a five years' state of non-intercourse with Great Britain will establish the manufactures of Amer-quently been obliged to pay from forty-two to fortyica on a foundation which no return of peace will ever shake. It will render us forever after in a high degree independent of the British manufactures of wool, and still more so of those of cotton. Our planters, too, will hereafter find their market at home; and the British navy, if Britain and her navy should continue to exist, will at length find that her tyranny on the ocean has given commercial independence to those confederated States which British tyranny on the land first led to political independence. seven per centum ad valorem on the price, when first imported into the United States, of the most essential articles for family comfort; if, when suffering, not yesterday or to-day only, but every day and every year, for a length of time, this series of oppressions, without hearing one clear and decided expression of national indignation, we have sometimes, in the spirit of despondency, been ready to fear that we never should be thought worthy of enjoying the rights and protection of American citizens, the moment has now arrived Had we not been told that in the United States the when we feel ourselves called upon to discard our perpeople are divided into parties, some of whom are viru-sonal jealousies; the moment has now arrived when lent opposers of the system and measures of the present Federal Administration, we should not have deemed it necessary on this occasion to express our full confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of those to whose executive management our. national affairs are entrusted. As to ourselves, we have neither seen nor have we looked for the splendor and pageantry of a monarchy, overstraining the sinews of national strength and industry to support large mercenary armies and unwieldy navies; but we have thought that we have seen the genuine product of republican institutions-a love of peace, a high regard for the ease and happiness of the people, a vigilant attention to public expenditures, and a strong anxiety to promote internal improvements. War will, indeed, open a new theatre for the talents of our rulers; but we have a strong confidence that that intellectual and moral pre-eminence which, amidst the convulsions of the world, has been so conspicuous in peace, will not become extinct on the instant of the appearance of war. As to ourselves and our own local concerns, it is true we have sometimes feared that we were overlooked in the council of the nation. Our population is small; we are surrounded, except on the Spanish side, by the most powerful tribes of Indians existing within the original limits of the United States. The want of land cuts off from us the prospect of having our strength increased. We had hoped that a treaty entered into with the Choctaws, which, by making a valuable addition to our land, would have invited population, and placed us in a state of greater security and respectability, would have been ratified. But we have been disappointed. Yet, few as we are, we consider we shall cease any longer to regard our local grievances, till those of the nation are redressed. We will give to the Spaniard his twelve per centum; we will continue to pay a double price for the commodities of Europe; we will again, if need be, pay sixteen dollars per barrel for the flour of Kentucky, whilst our neighbors at the Natchez, unencumbered by the Spanish obstacles, are paying only four; we will view these things light as compared with a deliberate, and authorized, and systematic violation of our territory by a foreign Power. We will devote ourselves to our country at large, and from this moment cease to seek any other object than permanency to national existence, and reality to national independence. The charter of that independence was drawn up in 1776; it was ratified by the peace of 1783; but it still cries out for the blood of American citizens to seal it and to give it practical validity. Our blood shall be mingled with that of other Americans in offering the solemn sacrifice. Resolved, unanimously, That the chairman of this meeting forward to the President of the United States a copy of this declaration, and that he give it such other circulation as he may deem necessary. PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL MESSAGE. Representatives of the United States: Circumstances, fellow-citizens, which seriously threatened the peace of our country, have made it a duty to convene you at an earlier period than usual. SENATE. President's Annual Message. OCTOBER, 1807. the part of the British commanders, by remaining within our waters in defiance of the authority of the country, by habitual violations of its jurisdiction, and, at length, by putting to death one of the persons whom they had forcibly taken from on board the Chesapeake. These aggravations necessarily lead to the policy either of never admitting an armed vessel into our harbors, or of maintaining in every harbor such an armed force as may constrain obedience to the laws, and protect the lives and property of our citizens against their armed guests. But the expense of such a standing force, and its inconsistence with our principles, dispense with those courtesies which would necessarily call for it, and leave us equally free to exclude the navy as we are the army of a foreign Power from entering our limits. To former violations of maritime rights another is now added of very extensive effect. The Government of that nation has issued an order interdicting all trade by neutrals between ports not in amity with them. And being now at war with nearly every nation on the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, our vessels are required to sacrifice their cargoes at the first port they touch, or to return home without the benefit of going to any other market. Under this new law of the ocean, our trade on the Mediterranean has been swept away by seizures and condemnations, and that in other seas is threatened with the same fate. The love of peace, so much cherished in the bosoms of our citizens, which has so long guided the proceedings of their public councils, and induced forbearance under so many wrongs, may not insure our continuance in the quiet pursuits of industry. The many injuries and depredations committed on our commerce and navigation upon the high seas for years past, the successive innovations on those principles of public law which have been established by the reason and usage of nations as the rule of their intercourse, and the umpire and security of their rights and peace, and all the circumstances which induced the extraordinary mission to London, are already known to you. The instructions given to our Ministers were framed in the sincerest spirit of amity and moderation. They accordingly proceeded, in conformity therewith, to propose arrangements which might embrace and settle all the points in difference between us, which might bring us to a mutual understanding on our neutral and national rights, and provide for a commercial intercourse on conditions of some equality. After long and fruitless endeavors to effect the purposes of their mission, and to obtain arrangements within the limits of their instructions, they concluded to sign such as could be obtained, and to send them for consideration, candidly declaring to their other negotiators at the same time that they were acting against their instructions, and that their Government therefore could not be pledged Our differences with Spain remain still unsettled; no for ratification. Some of the articles proposed might measure having been taken on her part, since my last have been admitted on a principle of compromise, but communication to Congress, to bring them to a close. others were too highly disadvantageous; and no suffi- But under a state of things which may favor reconsidcient provision was made against the principal source eration, they have been recently pressed, and an exof the irritations and collisions which were constantly pectation is entertained that they may now soon be endangering the peace of the two nations. The ques- brought to an issue of some sort. With their subjects tion, therefore, whether a treaty should be accepted in on our borders no new collisions have taken place nor that form could have admitted but of one decision, even seem immediately to be apprehended. To our former had no declarations of the other party impaired our grounds of complaint has been added a very serious confidence in it. Still anxious not to close the door one, as you will see by the decree, a copy of which is against friendly adjustment, new modifications were now communicated. Whether this decree, which proframed, and further concessions authorized than could fesses to be conformable to that of the French Governbefore have been supposed necessary; and our Minis- ment of November 21, 1806, heretofore communicated ters were instructed to resume their negotiations on to Congress, will also be conformed to that in its conthese grounds. On this new reference to amicable dis-struction and application in relation to the United cussion we were reposing in confidence, when, on the 22d day of June last, by a formal order from a British Admiral, the frigate Chesapeake, leaving her port for a distant service, was attacked by one of those vessels which had been lying in our harbors under the indulgences of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding, had several of her crew killed, and four taken away. On this outrage no commentaries are necessary. Its character has been pronounced by the indignant voice of our citizens with an emphasis and unanimity never exceeded. I immediately, by proclamation, interdicted our harbors and waters to all British armed vessels, forbade intercourse with them; and, uncertain how far hostilities were intended, and the town of Norfolk, indeed, being threatened with immediate attack, a sufficient force was ordered for the protection of that place, and such other preparations commenced and pursued as the prospect rendered proper. An armed vessel of the United States was despatched with instructions to our Ministers at London to call on that Government for the satisfaction and security required by the outrage. A very short interval ought now to bring the answer, which shall be communicated to you as soon as received; then, also, or as soon after as the public interests shall be found to admit, the unratified treaty and proceedings relative to it, shall be made known to you. The aggression thus begun has been continued on States, had not been ascertained at the date of our last communications. These, however, gave reason to expect such a conformity. With the other nations of Europe our harmony has been uninterrupted, and commerce and friendly intercourse have been maintained on their usual footing. Our peace with the several States on the coast of Barbary appears as firm as at any former period, and as likely to continue as that of any other nation. Among our Indian neighbors in the Northwestern quarter, some fermentation was observed soon after the late occurrences, threatening the continuance of our peace. Messages were said to be interchanged, and tokens to be passing, which usually denote a state of restlessness among them, and the character of the agitators pointed to the sources of excitement. Measures were immediately taken for providing against that danger; instructions were given to require explanations, and, with assurances of our continued friendship, to admonish the tribes to remain quiet at home, taking no part in quarrels not belonging to them. As far as we are yet informed, the tribes in our vicinity, who are most advanced in the pursuits of industry, are sincerely disposed to adhere to their friendship with us, and to their peace with all others. While those more remote do not present appearances sufficiently quiet to justify the intermission of military precaution on our part. |