H. OF R. Military Establishment—Internal Improvement. ties in land and extra pay to certain Canadian volunteers, made a report, which was read; when Mr. B. presented a bill to amend an act, entitled "An act granting bounties in land and extra pay to certain Canadian volunteers," passed the 5th March, 1816; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole.-The report is as follows: In examining the act, it appears that no specific term of service is required to entitle the applicant to the benefit of the bounty; that the law is vague and defective, affording an opportunity for numerous claims upon the Government when no essential services have been rendered. It appears by the documents in the War Department, compared with other evidence, that frauds have been and are attempted to be practised by officers and soldiers in support of their claims which had occasioned a partial suspension of the execution of the law, as appears by a communication from the Secretary of War, to which reference is had. The law will admit of an extension to, and embrace cases far beyond what could have been contemplated at the time it was enacted, and such as justice and policy do not demand. In referring to the muster-rolls of the corps called the Canadian Volunteers, it appears to have consisted of nearly the full number of field and staff officers for a regiment, with a very small number of privates-not at any time exceeding thirty-eight mustered as present-and that very little service could have been rendered by them to the Government. In pointing out the defects of this act, we would not lose sight of the object intended by it. It has given relief to some brave men who had suffered a total loss of property, and there are still others belonging to various corps in service in the late war who are equally meritorious, and who have not yet received the intended relief. Your committee are of opinion that an amendment is necessary, and have reported a bill for that purpose. DEPARTMENT OF WAR, Dec. 26, 1816. SIR: In answer to your letter of the 18th instant, I have the honor to state that, immediately after the passage of the law of the last session granting bounty land and extra pay to certain Canadian volunteers, rules were adopted prescribing the evidence which was necessary to entitle the parties interested to the benefits of the act. JANUARY, 1817. the law now stands, one week's voluntary service will entitle the party to land bounty and pay, if the engagement was only for that term. It appears to be impolitic to permit the parties to locate their warrants before the lands have been exposed to public sale. Much inconvenience and loss to the public have been sustained by omitting that restriction. I have also the honor to enclose copies of communications to this Department and to the Paymaster General in relation to frauds attempted to be practised in obtaining testimony. I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, GEORGE GRAHAM, Acting Secretary of War. Hon. M. BROOKS, Chairman, &c. MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. Mr. HAMMOND, of New York, offered for consideration the following resolution: "Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to state to the House the number of the officers and privates belonging to the several corps of the artillery, (including the light artillery,) infantry, and riflemen, now in the service of the United States." Mr. H. said, that from the letter of the Secretary, laid yesterday on the table, transmitting an estimate of the appropriations for the year 1817, it appeared that appropriations were proposed to be made for ten thousand privates-the whole number of troops authorized by law to be kept in service; that, from some remarks made by the honorable Speaker, and from the chairman of the Military Committee, it appeared to be their opinion that the number of troops now in actual service did not much exceed seven thousand. It appeared to him that, in order for the House to act with propriety when they should make appropriations, it was necessary that they should posnumber of troops in the service of the United sess more certain information as to the actual States. It was with this view he had proposed the resolution under consideration. If the nation were at war, or if any danger of a rupture with any foreign Power could be reasonably apprehended, a communication of this sort might be improper. At present, happily, there could be no foundation for objections of such a nature. After some conversation on the subject, the resolution was so modified by the mover as to direct Under these regulations, warrants were regularly the Secretary of War to communicate to the issued where the evidence was conformable to the rules House the number of officers and privates comwhich had been prescribed, until late in the Summer.posing the whole Military Establishment in the About that time information was received from vari ous quarters, stating that frauds had been practised in obtaining evidence in support of several claims which had been allowed. Claims to a considerable extent were presented from Detroit, and others were understood to have been preparing from Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence; to the latter of which fraud was also imputed. Under these circumstances, it was determined to postpone the decision of all claims until after the meeting of Congress, except those whose names were found on the muster-rolls of Colonel Wilcox's corps. It appears to be necessary, to guard the public against imposition, that the term of service entitling the volunteer to the benefits of the act should be defined. As service of the United States, particularizing the strength of each corps and regiment, and in that form agreed to. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. Mr. JACKSON, of Virginia, after adverting to the proceedings had at the last session upon a similar proposition, and the propriety of an appropriation of money for attaining its object, moved the first of the following resolutions. He further stated, he would also present for inquiry another resolution having a similar object, but depending upon a different principle. The first proposed an appropriation of land or money, where none was pledged; the second to make provision for the application of a fund already set apart for making roads. It would be recollected, he said, that, by the compact with the new State of Indiana, the faith of Congress was pledged to expend a certain portion of the money arising from the sales of land in that State for the purpose of opening roads leading to it a principle, he remarked, which was adopted when the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union, and to which we owed the benefits, in possession and in prospect, of the great national turnpike leading from Fort Cumberland to Wheeling. He wished to renew the inquiry into the claims of another section to a portion of money within the control of Congress, and with that view he had purposely limited the operation of his resolution; whilst he admitted the propriety of extending the great road he had alluded to from Wheeling, he believed it was just and proper to open another, leading in a more direct line from the Metropolis of the nation to the newly admitted State. The following are the resolutions moved by Mr. JACKSON: H. of R. country for which so little had been done. He did not know that he should have troubled the House with any remarks on this head, but for a morning puff on the Post Office Establishment, the benefits of which, he intimated, were dispensed with a sparing hand in the district which he represented. The excellence of the establishment there was such, he said, that a broad wheeled wagon, laden with two heavy hogsheads of tobacco, would go from his house to Richmond in a day and a half less time than the mail did, which was besides only weekly. He wished to know of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, whether anything was to be done to remedy this evil. But, with regard to the navigation of the Tombigbee, were the old United States about to play the part of King Lear in the tragedy? Was the whole territory, the whole soil, to enure to the benefit of the Western States and Territories, and were the old States to have no part at all of the common stock? What was to become, then, of the navigation of the waters of the Chesapeake and contiguous waters, and of the navigation of the Catawba and the Yadkin, &c.-objects which, Mr. R. said, he should suppose would interest the gentleman from North Carolina much more than the navigation of the Tombigbee, and the Coosa, and the Tennessee. He saw, he said, with surprise and regret, the Resolved, That the same committee be further in-course the Government had taken and was taking. structed to inquire into the expediency of appropriating that part of the net proceeds of moneys arising from the sale of land in the State of Indiana, which by compact with that State is set apart for opening roads, to making an artificial road from Winchester, in Virginia, to the Ohio river, at or near the mouth of Muskingum river, and from thence, by or near Chilicothe, on the Scioto river, to the said State of Indiana. Resolved, That the Committee on Roads and Canals be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for making an artificial road from Washington, in Pennsylvania, through Charlestown, on the Ohio river, to the river Sandusky, at or near Fort Stephenson. The resolves were agreed to. Mr. PICKENS submitted for consideration the following resolution: Resolved, That the Committee on Roads and Canals be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the making of surveys and levels for several of the most practicable points of communication between the waters of Tennessee river, and those of Coosa and Tombigbee rivers, and also of the shoals and falls on the two last mentioned rivers. Mr. PICKENS made a few remarks in support of his motion. Mr. RANDOLPH suggested, that all the favor of gentlemen of the House appeared to be directed to the new countries, in neglect of the old States. In regard to the part of North Carolina which the gentlemen represented, and the adjoining territory of Virginia, there was no part of the country that had experienced less of the sunshine of Government than they had. But the fact was, they had asked nothing of the Government; they were in the habit of living on their own means, not of quartering themselves on the nation, on the public, or on the parish. No district in the United States, he said, stood so much in the relation of a step-child as the country represented by himself and the honorable gentleman. There was no He did not refer to any Constitutional difficulties whatever; but he saw distinctly that the old United States, particularly that State to which the Government owed almost all its territory east of the Mississippi and west of the Ohio, was not to be benefitted by any expenditure in respect to canals and roads, except such benefit as that State would contingently receive by the road from Fort Cumberland passing through a part of the State. improve the navigation of the Roanoke, the CaWhy, Mr. R. asked, did not gentlemen propose to tawba, and the Yadkin? He could not understand it. He could not see why all the benefits of an expense, equally borne by all, was to enure entirely to the Western States and Territories. To them he paid all due respect, and was desirous they should have their due weight; but he should wish to see something like the principle established that the children of the family should have share and share alike; that some should not be cut off their inheritance, whilst others were bountifully fed at the public breast. If, by the grant of her claim to the United States, Virginia had given away her right, had put it into the common fund, he did humbly conceive, he said, that she had not thereby foreclosed herself from any future advantage from that country, and had as good a right to expect to see the products of it laid out within her own territory as in Ohio, or Indiana, or Illinois. Mr. PICKENS acknowledged, he said, that the State of North Carolina had asked and received little from the General Government; but he was happy to say that, from her own resources, she was progressing in the work of internal improvement as rapidly as any other State. In the last sitting of the Legislature, they had provided for an examination or commencement of every improvement which could be suggested from the Atlantic to the dividing ridge. He trusted, also, that that State, as well as the State which the gentleman represented, would receive an equal share with others of the public attention. As to the navigation of the Atlantic coast, that, he said, was a subject which the Committee of Roads and Canals would certainly embrace in their general plan; and it was merely to call their attention to a point which might otherwise escape it, that he had introduced this motion. Besides, the land in that quarter of the country being the property of the United States, it might be proper to show to the people that the eye of the Government was turned to that quarter as well as to others. JANUARY, 1817. of the advantages. Let gentlemen turn their attention to the sales of land in that country; in one month, if report is to be believed, lands had been sold to the amount of one million of dollars; of which, a very small amount was applicable to making roads. Mr. H. said he should certainly, as a Representative from a new State, be very willing to see Virginia deriving her full share of money appropriated from the Treasury for the purpose of internal improvement. Mr. YANCEY said he was a member of the committee to whom this subject was proposed to be referred. He was opposed to the present motion, not for the reason assigned by the gentleman from Virginia, though he completely subscribed to the declaration of that gentleman, that the General Government had done nothing that it could avoid for the benefit of North Carolina, or the part of Virginia the gentleman represented. But no good could be effected by this motion, because, as he understood the opinion of the committee, it was that the committee should make a general report on internal improvement, and that no particular object should be presented for the consideration of the House, as it would be improper to take up any one improvement distinct from a general system. Mr. PICKENS said he had not been apprized of this determination of the committee, which would make it unnecessary for him to press his motion, which he therefore consented should lie on the table. Mr. RANDOLPH said, the land in that quarter indeed did belong to the United States. But who paid for it? The United States, and not the people of that Territory. The United States had paid the State of Georgia for it, and were all equally entitled to the benefit of it. He should be glad to know why Pennsylvania, New York, and Old Massachusetts, had not as good a right to draw money from the Treasury, let it get in as proceeds of public lands or otherwise, as these new States. He wished to be understood not as speaking disparagingly of those new States; all he wished was, that the elder brethren should not be cut off, with (not the portion of the younger children,) but no portion at all-that the children Mr. T. WILSON said, that though the determiof the second marriage should not sweep away the nation of the committee had been as stated, there whole estate. On this point, he said, the expla- would be no objection to the passage of the resonation of the gentleman was not satisfactory. lution, because it would guide the attention of But he congratulated the gentleman on the pro- the committee, who would be glad to avail themjected improvements of the navigation in North selves of all the lights on the subject, to an imCarolina. How long, he asked, since the naviga-provement that might not otherwise receive their tion of the Roanoke was proposed to be opened? Some twenty years; but there had not yet been one stroke struck towards it. With all his respect for North Carolina, and Mr. R. said, he had great respect for the people, the habits, and even the prejudices of that State, he was afraid the improvements spoken of would be seen for a long time on the face of her statute book, before they could be seen on the face of the country. attention. In regard to the intimation that nothing had been done for North Carolina and Virginia by the General Government, in the way of internal improvement, Mr. W. asked what had been done in any other State? Nothing at all, he said; so that the complaint of gentlemen on that score, was without any just ground. Mr. RANDOLPH made some further remarks, amongst which was this: that, as an individual, he had rather there should not be an acre of public land sold in thirty years-on account of the effect of these sales to drain the old States of their population and wealth. Mr. HARRISON rejoined a few words, and the resolution was then agreed to. VACCINATION. Mr. HARRISON said, the gentleman from Virginia was mistaken, if he supposed the money, from which the expense of making the Cumberland road was defrayed, was taken from the Treasury, to the prejudice of the right of other States. No; the application of a certain part of the proceeds of the sales of public lands to that road, was the result of a fair compromise; by which, in fact, the State of Ohio had sold its in- The House then, on motion of Mr. CONDICT, heritance to the United States for a mess of pot-proceeded to the consideration of the engrossed tage, as every new Western State did. The State of Indiana, he said, had sacrificed an annuity of two or three hundred thousand dollars a year for a gross sum of fifteen thousand dollars, by sacrificing the right to tax the lands of the United States. There was not a road or improvement in the new country from which the Government of the United States did not derive its full share bill (lying on the table) supplementary to the act for the encouragement of vaccination. Mr. ATHERTON observed that the bill had two aspects, one as it respected the Army and Navy of the United States. Another as it respected the people of the United States, exclusive and independent of the Army. As far as the Army were concerned, he hesitated not to say that it was JANUARY, 1817. Vaccination. H. of R. health and lives of their fellow-citizens, and who were desirous that vaccination should not fall into disrepute, it was considered of great importance that the vaccine matter should not be intrusted to rash and unskilful hands. But what, asked Mr. A., does this bill provide? It makes it the duty of this agent of vaccination to distribute the vaccine virus into the hands of every man, woman, and child, in the United States, who can address a request to him for that purpose. Sir, how many thousands and tens of thousands are there in the United States, who, urged by their own temerity, or a disposition to quackery, will imagine that by the vaccine matter and letter of instructions from this agent of vaccination, as if by a magician's wand, they will at once be initiated into all the skill and knowledge necessary to enable them to pronounce that their deluded patients are safe from the small pox, when they have communicated no disease at all, or, if any, a spurious vaccine disease? Sir, I cannot conceive a more direct method of endangering the health and life of the patient, and, if I am not altogether wrong in these views, the bill upon your table, instead of being a bill for the encouragement of vaccination, ought to be called a bill for the encouragement of empirics, and to bring vaccination into disrepute. Mr. A. said that he did not doubt but the bill originated in humane motives-it bore on the face of it something of the appearance of philanthropy. It was on that account he deemed it proper to assign the reasons that would induce him to vote against it. He had assigned them, and hoped the bill would not pass the House. among the first duties of the Government to ex-sicians of reputation, who were tender of the tend the blessings of vaccination to that Army. He said it was essential to the health, security, and efficiency of the Army. But he doubted the expediency of appointing a special agent for that purpose. He said the medical and surgical department of the Army was now very numerous and expensive to the country. He had heard no sufficient reason assigned why they were not adequate to the vaccination of the Army. If they were incompetent to this important part of their duties, he would then say, there had been a monstrous abuse of power in their appointment. He presumed it would not be contended that they were overburdened with business. So far from this being the fact, he imagined, considering their numbers and pay, they had very little to do, and that it would be a mercy to them, as well as very much to the reputation of the Government, if some employ could be found for them. In its aspect towards the people, he said, it involved a question of more serious consideration than that of mere expediency. He believed the people would view it with some degree of jealousy and alarm; they would inquire, with some surprise, what article in the Constitution gave to Congress the power of levying taxes for the support of agents in the different departments of the healing art? This principle the bill recognised and sanctioned. To what extent, Mr. A. inquired, may not this be carried? Congress may be of opinion that the good people of the United States suffer great impositions from the use of spurious and unwholesome balsams, from patent medicines, &c. And, in order to protect us against their frauds and impositions, Congress may appoint an agent for balsams and an agent for patent medicines. And why not as well as an agent for vaccination? Mr. A. observed that in that State of which he was a Representative, New Hampshire, physicians made it a point to preserve the genuine vaccine matter-that they inoculated at little expense and even gratuitously-that if there was an improper inattention to this subject, it was very competent to the Legislature of that State to enact regulations and to appoint agents, which Mr. CONDICT and Mr. WRIGHT replied to this he said they could do with much more intelli-objection-the first inferring the Constitutional gence, much more satisfaction, and with much authority for the act from its connexion with more advantage, to the people of that State, than the Army and Navy; the latter from the charge Congress could do for them. But, said Mr. A., of the general welfare given to Congress, to there is another objection to this bill, which he which this measure certainly would contribute. thought must be very obvious to the House, and particularly to the gentlemen of the medical pro fession in it. He had ever understood that it required skill and experience to determine whether the patient had taken the genuine disease, or the spurious; that it was by certain appearances in its progress the patient was to be pronounced to have had the true preventive disease. He recollected perfectly well that Doctor Waterhouse, who had been called the Jenner of America, had published to the world that some cases were so ambiguous, that, with all his skill and experience, he was not able to determine on which side they fell, whether among the true or the false cases. He said he had ever understood, that, with phy Mr. CONDICT replied to Mr. ATHERTON; the arguments pro and con being of the same character as those previously urged in debate on the subject. Mr. JACKSON, of Virginia, decidedly opposed the bill on the ground of its unconstitutionality, since no part of the Constitution expressly authorized the grant, and no such power could be inferred from the general clause of the Constitution. then decided in the negative-yeas 57, nays 88, The question on the passage of the bill was as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Adgate, Alexander, Baer, Baker, Bassett, Bateman, Bennett, Birdsall, Birdseye, Boss, Creighton, Crocheron, Findley, Griffin, Hahn, Hall, Bryan, Burwell, Chappell, Clendennin, Condict, Harrison, Heister, Henderson, Huger, Hulbert, Jewett, Little, Lowndes, Lyle, McCoy, McLean, Middleton, Miller, Moseley, Murfree, Ormsby, Piper, Pleasants, Powell, Reynolds, Robertson, Ross, Savage, Schenck, Smith of Maryland, Southard, Taylor of New York, Townsend, Wallace, Wendover, Whiteside, Wilkin, Thos. Wilson, Wm. Wilson, Woodward, and Wright. NAYS-Messrs. Archer, Atherton, Barbour, Baylies, H. OF R. Missouri Contested Election. JANUARY, 1817. Betts, Blount, Bradbury, Breckenridge, Brooks, Cady, the said State, of its quota of the direct tax, the So the bill was rejected. MISSOURI CONTESTED ELECTION. On motion of Mr. TAYLOR, of New York, the orders of the day were postponed, in order to take up the further report of the Committee of Elections on the contested election of Mr. SCOTT, Delegate from Missouri. A debate arose on this subject, which continued until the hour of adjournment. The same ground was occupied as in the former debate on the same subject-the questions being, first, the right and duty of the House to inquire into the contested election of Delegates, and the necessity, in a contested election, when required by either party, of scrutinizing every vote at an election. The doctrine was again advanced by Mr. RANDOLPH, that Delegates were rather Diplomatic than Legislative characters, being accredited to Congress, and having a right to sit in either House; and, consequently, that this House had nothing to do but to see that they brought with them a certificate, from the proper authority, of their election. of Connecticut, in opposition to the practice of Mr. PITKIN presented a petition of inhabitants transporting and opening the mails on the Sabbath, which was referred to the committee appointed on a similar petition from inhabitants of Southampton, in Massachusetts. Mr. NELSON, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill to amend and explain the act for designating, surveying, and granting military bounty lands, passed the 6th of May, 1812; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole. Mr. NELSON also reported a bill to explain the act "to authorize certain officers and other persons to administer oaths," approved May 3d, 1798; which was read twice, and ordered to be engrossed and read a third time to-morrow. Mr. JOHNSON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported a bill authorizing the establishment of a National Armory; which was read twice, and committed to the Committee of the Whole, to which is committed the bill for the relief of infirm, disabled, and superannuated officers and soldiers. Mr WRIGHT, Submitted the following resolution, which was read and ordered to lie for one day: Resolved, That gentlemen elected members of either branch of the National Legislature, shall be admitted within the hall of the House of Representatives. from the acting Secretary of War, transmitting a To which, after argumentatively replying, Mr. CLAY, by way of adjusting the present difficulty, humorously suggested to the gentleman, that as there were two persons claiming to represent the Territory as Delegates, one having a seat here, and the other a just claim to it, and the House" having (it seemed) no right to determine between them, as they had a right (as the gentleman contended) to sit in either House, that one should be admitted to a seat on this floor, and the other turned over to the Senate. The sitting Delegate (Mr. ScoTT) having at a late hour intimated his wish to speak in support of his right to a seat, the Committee rose, and the House adjourned. The SPEAKER also laid before the House a letting a report in obedience to the resolution of the ter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitHouse of the 9th of March, 1816, directing him to report whether any, and, if any, what alterations are necessary to equalize the duty on the used in distillation;" which were referred to the capacity of stills, boilers, and other instruments Committee of Ways and Means. MISSOURI CONTESTED ELECTION. The House then resumed the consideration of the contested election of Delegate for Missouri Territory. Mr. SCOTT (the sitting Delegate) defended his right to his seat at considerable length, and with no little ingenuity. The question was at length taken on the first part of the resolution moved by the SPEAKER, Viz: That the petitioner Rufus Easton was entitled to the certificate of being elected-and negatived, 79 to 68; and the remaining part of the |