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OF THE

DEBATES OF CONGRESS,

FROM 1789 TO 1856.

FROM GALES AND SEATON'S ANNALS OF CONGRESS; FROM THEIR
REGISTER OF DEBATES; AND FROM THE OFFICIAL

REPORTED DEBATES, BY JOHN C. RIVES.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRTY YEARS' VIEW.

VOL. XII.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY.

1860.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of

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TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS.-SECOND SESSION.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.

MONDAY, December 3, 1832.
Election of President pro tem.

At 12 o'clock, the Senate was called to order by the Secretary, Mr. LowRIE, (the VICE PRESIDENT being absent, and the President pro tempore, Mr. TAZEWELL, having resigned his seat in the Senate,) and thirty-two members appearing in their seats, and there being a quorum, Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, moved to proceed to the election of President pro tempore, which was agreed to.

The Hon. HUGH L. WHITE, of Tennessee, having received a majority of all the votes, was declared duly elected President of the Senate, pro tempore, and being conducted to the chair by Mr. TYLER, of Virginia, returned his acknowledgments to the Senate, as follows:

To the members of the Senate I tender my sincere acknowledgments for the distinguished honor conferred by their vote.

No person who has been so long a member of this body could have been selected who has made the rules of its proceedings less an object of his study. This circumstance will make my errors more numerous than might be anticipated, and will throw me oftener on the kind indulgence of the Senate.

Whatever my errors may be, I have the consolation of knowing that they can be revised and corrected at the instance of any member; and I beg every one to believe that so far from feeling hurt at the correctness of my decisions being questioned, it will be matter of gratification that the sense of the Senate may be taken in every instance when it may be supposed I am mistaken.

Whatever industry and attention can do towards removing defects in qualifications I promise shall be done, and I shall take the chair, determined that in anxious desire to do that which is just towards every member, and that which will most promote the correct discharge of the important business we may have to perform, I will not be exceeded by any who have preceded me.

On motion it was ordered that messages communicating the election of Mr. WHITE as President pro tempore, be sent to the House of Representatives, and to the President of the United States.

Messrs. GRUNDY and FRELINGHUYSEN were appointed on the Joint Committee, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the readiness of the two Houses to receive from him any communication.

TUESDAY, December 4.

The sitting to-day was occupied in receiving and reading the President's Message as follows: Fellow Citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives:

It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your return to the seat of Government, for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people of the United States. Although the pestilence which had traversed the Old World has entered our limits, and extended its ravages over much of our land, it has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity, and lessen the number of its victims, compared with those who have fallen in most other countries over which it has spread its terrors. Notwithstanding this visitation, our country presents, on every side, marks of prosperity and happiness, unequalled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. If we fully appreciate our comparative condition, existing causes of discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and, with hearts of thankfulness to that Divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to posterity that liberty and that union which we have received from our fathers, and which constitute the sources and the shield of all our blessings.

The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your view at the open

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