JUNE 21, 1834.]

General Appropriation Bill.

[SENATE.

rooms, before I took my oath or seat in this hall, at the first when it can be procured, and by separate action when session of the last Congress. If I had been a non-commit-no other can be obtained, from the Treasury, to pay tal before, in relation to the purchase of books, the inten- those who have been engaged in the work of deceiving tion was, that I would not set out in my Senatorial career the people by poisoning the fountains of knowledge; and a non-committal; and the language to me was, immediate- this, too, while a vast majority of the same people has ly, "Having partaken of the plunder, you have no right repeatedly declared against them. to complain of the robbery."

ment.

Mr. CHAMBERS replied to the remarks of Mr. KING. But, Mr. President, it is not the cupidity of mem- He considered the time as gone by, when the constitubers of Congress—it is not their desire to add to their li- tionality of such acts was denied. He adverted again to braries at home without expense to themselves-that alone the value of the work, the labor which had already been prompts to these glaring abuses. For whose benefit bestowed upon it, the researches which had been carhave these publications been procured? For the benefit ried on, the intelligence of those who conducted them, of partisan printers of newspapers in this District. We and the interest which the work was calculated to prohave heard abundance of complaint from the other side, duce in the public mind. The price for which this work of printers being patronised by the Post Office Depart- was to be furnished, was not at all adequate to the imHas that Department ever patronised and paid portance and labor of the work. In reference to someany printer for other service than what the exigencies of thing which had fallen from Mr. HILL, on the subject the Department required? Has that Department ever of rewarding printers, &c., Mr. C. said he would tell a thrown away hundreds of thousands to printers for pub-story. He was once travelling over the Alleghany mounlishing its own history, or to furnish a library for each of tains, when he stopped at a hut, kept by a respectable the officers in its employ? old gentleman, who entertained men and horses ConWho are the favorites intended to be benefited by the versing with the old gentleman on the subject of rattlevotes of the Senate at the last session? First, we have snakes, which abounded there, he (Mr. C.) made some Messrs. Gales and Seaton, editors of the National Intelli- inquiries, and gained some information as to their natural gencer, who, as printers of Congress, had already receiv- history. "I don't know how they live," said the old man, ed more than a million of the public money; and, so far "but I know how they die. There is an old stump a from being satiated with that, are still receiving from little from the hut, where an old rattlesnake lived for a fifty to a hundred thousand dollars as publishers of the great many years, and died, at last, from the poison of his Congressional Documents, besides an equal or greater own venom." amount as printers of the House of Representatives-and Mr. MANGUM moved to strike out, in the amendment nobody but themselves and Nicholas Biddle can tell how to the amendment, the words "to remunerate," and to much for printing the millions of speeches in favor of the insert the words "to settle with," and to strike out bank, that have been gratuitously circulated; and all this $15,000 and insert $20,000. in the present year. Then we have the printer of the Senate, General Duff Green. His Telegraph cannot possibly be supported without all the extra jobs the Senate can give him. I cannot but admire the ingenuity with which gentlemen make it appear necessary to have so Mr. CHAMBERS suggested that the publication of much public printing. The printing of the Land Laws was one volume would cost little more than was now proposed ordered; and we then had minute calculations that the to be given for nothing.

Mr. FORSYTH accepted the amendment. He then explained that he did not mean to destroy the contract, but to leave that to be decided on when Congress should have more leisure.

expense should not exceed eight or nine thousand dol- Mr. FORSYTH did not wish to do any thing to justify lars; it is swelled up, before the work is done, to about a further expenditure than was already incurred. He forty thousand dollars. Then the report on the Post Of disclaimed any desire to do injustice to the individuals. fice must be printed; and members in the confidence of They were not to be blamed for making as much as they the printer seem well to understand that the price of could out of an act of Congress. But he desired time to printing will not be as high as is supposed. The printing look into the law, and to obtain a report from the Deof this session, in which less business has been done in partment.

the Senate of value to the nation than was ever done in Mr. POINDEXTER read an amendment, which he any former session, is as enormous in quantity as it has would move, by way of addition to the original clause, been unimportant to the transaction of business. This should the present amendment fail. He recommended to principally has rendered necessary two amendments to the person who had read a tract this morning on the subthe appropriation bill, adding more than ninety thou-ject of payment to printers, to dedicate it to Edward Liv. sand dollars to that bill. Even this job of Clarke and ingston and Andrew Jackson, and it would doubtless have Force, which seems to be without limit or end, was start- a good effect upon their future action. He thought the ed in part payment for partisan services of the opposition contract an improper one, but there was a moral obligapress against the administration. Mr. Force, as editor tion on Congress to fulfil it. and proprietor, had labored against this administration in the National Journal, with not less zeal than his seniors of the National Intelligencer. Money had been sunk in that establishment; and the expedient of publishing a Documentary History was resorted to for the purpose of stroy the contract. If the facts could be known, remunerating Mr. Force. Mr. WEBSTER said that the object was to disaffirm there is little doubt in my mind, that the party had pro- the contract, and the Senate had no right to do so. He vided this means of payment of debts which had been in- was himself disposed to go on with the contract, deemcurred in publishing one of the vilest of the vile news-ing the work a valuable one, and the terms fair. papers that has opposed the present administration.

Mr. WEBSTER said his objection was, that this was a contract, which could not be violated, and the object of the gentleman from Georgia was to buy off this contract. Mr. FORSYTH explained that he did not desire to de

He

made, and the Secretary of State could then report, before another appropriation was asked, if any modifications should be made.

could have no objection to the proposition of the gentleMr. President, let this unlimited printing job be called man from Mississippi. The appropriation ought to be by its right name. Let the fact be known, that it is one of the many expedients of the present time to reward those who have for years slandered the Chief Magistrate of the people's choice and abused the people themselves. Let it be understood, that hundreds of thousands are annually drawn, by joint action of both Houses of Congress, VOL. X.-129

Mr. PRESTON having asked if any printing had been actually done under the contract

Mr. WEBSTER expressed an opinion that no printing

SENATE.]

General Appropriation Bill.

[JUNE 21, 1834.

had been done, but there had been great expenses in. Mr. BIBB said he would never give his vote to violate curred. The subject had been looked into by the Com-a contract. But here was a question as to the constitumittee of Ways and Means, and he thought the appropriation should be made.

tional right of Congress to make such a contract, and then as to what the contract required to be done. Error had been produced by the generality of the terms of the contract, and Congress had been thus induced to sanction so heavy an expenditure. He concluded by moving a proviso to the amendment, that nothing therein contained should be taken as a sanction of the contract. The

Mr. HILL said, that the Senator from Maryland had told a story about a rattlesnake, but he had not told the whole. The attention of the old man was called to the stump by the cackling of an old goose. He had not before understood the value of a cackling goose.

Mr. CHAMBERS. I am likely to understand its value, as I have just heard it.

Mr. KING, of Georgia, then made some remarks in explanation of what he had previously said.

Mr. PRESTON believed that the progress of the work did not at present justify a larger expenditure than that proposed by the amendment of the gentleman from Georgia, as now modified. He viewed the question as surrounded by great difficulties. He had doubts as to the constitutionality of authorizing the publication of works amendment was accepted. which did not inform Congress, or the people, on the subject of the proceedings of Congress. The contract was under the law, passed by both Houses, and approved by the present Chief Magistrate, General Andrew Jackson; and where, under such law, vested rights had arisen, they ought to be touched with a very scrupulous hand. He regarded the terms of the law as loose and extraordinary. The contractors had now acquired vested rights, and he was not disposed to sanction any violation of the faith of the Government, because Congress Mr. KING, of Alabama, then made some observations was not amenable to any human tribunal. But all al- on the extravagant character of the contract, which would lowed the contract to be improvident, and it was loose, enable the individuals to draw from the Government, a and liable to great abuse. It was proper that there should sum beyond even their own highest expectations, and be a strict examination of the contract, and it should be this was to be forced on the sanction of Congress, by genrendered specific as to the character of the matter, and tlemen, on the ground of the inviolability of a contract. the extent of the work. However high his opinion of in- He did not intend to cast any doubt on the respectability dividuals, he would not give a roving commission to any of the contractors, but he could not give his consent to one to select materials, which would take their tone from so loose a contract. his prejudices or party liaisons. Would the gentleman Mr. CLAY said, that the Secretary of State had made from Massachusetts be willing to give a roving commis-one contract, and the Committee on Finance had made sion to prepare the materials for a history of that State another. The first was an improvident one, but it was in during the late war? Or would he himself (Mr. P.) be the authority of the Secretary. He should have corrected willing to intrust to any one who might be selected to go the improvidence of Congress. The only restriction iminto his State and pick up materials for a history of nulli-posed by Congress, was as to the individuals to be confication? He thought that there should be examination, tracted with, and that in the proviso that the price should and he was willing to pay up to the present day for the not exceed that of the Diplomatic Correspondence. It progress of the work, and he thought $20,000 sufficient had not been shown to have exceeded this stipulation. Conat present. gress ought to take their full share of blame, and not Mr. WILKINS explained that it was intended to pub- leave the whole on the Secretary. If the first contract lish a volume of this work before the next session of Con- was loose, the second was full of limitations. The congress. It must be a very strong case which would startle tract now cannot exceed twenty volumes, an expense of him from giving his sanction to any proposition for the 300,000 dollars, and a further provision that Congress extension of knowledge. He thought, however, that may appoint an agent to supervise the publication. He $20,000 would be sufficient to appropriate now, leaving it asked, on what pretence the Senate could depart from to a future session to make further appropriations. As their second contract. When the contractors agreed to yet, no part of the work had been submitted to Congress, the limitations of the committee, they fully expected to and, therefore, there was nothing done, and Congress meet with no further difficulty; and it would not be doing were yet in the dark as to its character. The contract justice to the contractors to violate this last contract, as had lost its sanctity of character, by the liberal manner in well as the former. The expenditure would be 25,000 which the contractors had agreed to limitations and modi- dollars a year, for perhaps six, eight, or ten years, and fications. If it were, therefore, a simple reduction of the work would be a very important one. The contract appropriation, he would agree to it, considering that as was an improvident one, and he had at first thought it sufficient to pay in advance. He admitted it was a ro- would be well to get rid of it by paying 40 or 50,000 ving commission, for which Mr. Livingston was justly dollars. But as the contractors had liberally agreed to censurable. limitations, it was due to them to fulfil the second conMr. CHAMBERS placed a paper on file from the con- tract. If it should be hereafter said that useless docutractors, in which they yield any claim for payment in ad-ments were introduced, Congress could then arrest the vance for the first volume, until it shall be published. appropriation. He expressed his hope that a useful lesMr. MANGUM said, it was his original feeling to arrest son would be drawn from this case, and that improvident the progress of this contract at once. He had now, how-expenditures of this kind would hereafter be avoided. ever, come to a conclusion that the contract was void; Although, when the law was passed, the extent of the apand, if he should be sustained in this view, no act of Con-propriation was not understood, it was the fault of Congress could establish a vested right under such a contract. gress, who had not looked into the petition of the conBut it was a grave question, involving the rights of indi-tractors. He should vote for the appropriation. viduals. He desired examination; and if the contract Mr. FORSYTH modified his amendment, by inserting was declared to be valid, it ought be fulfilled, be the cost" proper accounting officers," instead of "Secretary of what it may. He had moved $20,000 to pay any expen- the Senate." He suggested that the second contract was ses of the contractors thus far; and, if a judicial issue not binding. He asked for the yeas and nays on the could be obtained, he would prefer that mode of settling amendment. the validity of the contract. The work of selection ought Mr. LEIGH asked if this proposition would prevent to be confided to the most able and experienced man in the printing of the work. the country, and separated from the mechanical department. He would not now vote for an abrogation of the contract.

Mr. FORSYTH said it would, except at the risk of the contractors.

JUNE 21, 1834.]

General Appropriation Bill.—Death of Lafayette.

DEATH OF LAFAYETTE.

[SENATE.

Mr. LEIGH took the ground that Congress had no right King of Georgia, Linn, McKean, Mangum, Morris, Presto violate a contract made by the Secretary of State, un- ton, Robinson, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilder their authority, because they had not a right to make kins, Wright.-23. such contract. He then read the law, to show the loose- NAYS.-Messrs. Bell, Benton, Chambers, Clay, Clayness of its provisions, and stated the illimitable power of ton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Kent, Leigh, Naudain, Poinselection which it conferred on the contractors. The dexter, Porter, Prentiss, Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Southvalue of such a work depended materially on the ability ard, Sprague, Tomlinson, Tyler, Waggaman, Webster. and the temper of those who executed it. He asked-22. what would have been the effect, if Hume or Henry had been employed to write the Documentary History of the During the preceding discussion, the consideration of Stuarts, or Dr. Lingard to write the Documentary History the appropriation bill was suspended by general consent; of the Reformation? The Documentary History of the when United States might be as well extended to two hundred A message was received from the House of Representvolumes as limited to ten. It was the duty of the Secre-atives, by Mr. Franklin, their Clerk, stating that the House tary of State to have looked into the details and correct- had passed a joint resolution providing for a joint comed the defectiveness of the law. Although this was a mittee to consider and report by what token of respect contract which ought not to have been made, it must not and affection it was proper for Congress to manifest the be violated. This was what the world would say, and deep sensibility of the nation on the event of the decease what a chancellor would say. He thought it would be of General LAFAYETTE.

the best way to appropriate for the first volume, and Mr. WEBSTER said, that he had prepared a resoluleave it to Congress hereafter, if it should be found ne-tion, which, as it happened, was almost in precisely the cessary, to rescind the contract, under the same circum-same words as that now received from the House. He stances which would justify the rescinding of a treaty. The yeas and nays were then ordered.

in the business, he rose to move that the Senate concur in the resolution, and appoint a committee on its part. The motion having been agreed to, Mr. POINDEXTER suggested that the committee consist of nine members.

should have presented it as soon as the Journal was read, had it not been intimated to him that, probably, a comMr. CLAYTON expressed his general coincidence with munication would be made to Congress, on this interestthe views of the gentleman from Virginia. He had no ing occasion, by the President. In consequence of that recollection of the bill which had been passed on this intimation, he had forborne, for the moment, to propose subject, and did not know even whether he voted for it or the resolution; but, as the House had so promptly moved not. He did not perceive any ground for imputing fraud to the contractors, but he thought the law should not have been passed, and that the Secretary had transcended his authority. He was not disposed to perform the contract if he could honorably get rid of it. He saw no other course than that suggested by the Senator from Pennsylvania, to reduce the appropriation, so as to make it merely enough to pay for the first volume, and the adoption On motion of Mr. CHAMBERS, the committee was of the amendment suggested by the gentleman from Mis-appointed by the Chair. sissippi, calling for information from the Secretary of State. He said that he should receive a lesson from this case. The bill had passed at the close of the session, and without sufficient deliberation.

Mr. FORSYTH named thirteen, the number of the old States, as the most appropriate. This last number was agreed to; and,

President of the United States, by Mr. Donelson, his SecThe following message was then received from the retary:

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

Mr. CALHOUN said that Congress had no authority to make the contract, and that it was ab initio void. He de-ous LAFAYETTE has been received by me this morning. The afflicting intelligence of the death of the illustrisired the contractors to be indemnified for their expense and labor; and he would vote for the amendment of the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. WEBSTER said the provision suspends the contract; while the proviso says that it neither affirms or disaffirms the contract. If we have no constitutional power to make the contract, we have none to make compensation to those who suffer from its violation.

I have issued the general order enclosed, to cause appropriate honors to be paid by the army and navy to the countrymen; and whom Providence has been pleased to memory of one so highly venerated and beloved by my remove so unexpectedly from the agitating scenes of life. ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, June 21, 1834.

On motion of Mr. FORSYTH, the message was referMr. BIBB made an explanation as to this point, view-red to the joint committee appointed on this subject. ing the amendment as an injunction to the parties not to proceed until examination.

Mr. WEBSTER said this was the first instance of an injunction issued by a party in their own favor. The amendment was to pay expenses incurred, and he could not vote for that if the contract were disaffirmed.

GENERAL APPROPRIATION BILL.

The Senate then resumed the consideration of the appropriation bill; when

Mr. BIBB submitted an amendment, making an appropriation of four hundred dollars for recording the decisions of the Supreme Court; which, after a short discussion, was rejected.

Mr. EWING was of opinion that the contract was sacred, and must be fulfilled. If the Congress wash their hands of the contract, it must be got rid of entirely, and Mr. BIBB submitted a further amendment, appropriaCongress would not be justified in voting a gift to the ting $800 as additional compensation to the judge of the contractors. He thought the law an injudicious one, but western district of Florida, for services rendered under he could not vote to abrogate or suspend the contract. the land laws, in addition to the sum of 1,600 dollars apAbrogation and suspension were similar powers, and Con-propriated as additional compensation to the judges of the gress had no more right to abrogate than to suspend. eastern and southern districts of the same Territory, for Mr. CALHOUN thought it a clear principle, that if in- the same object; and justice was done to an individual, Congress was bound to compensate him.

The question was then taken on the amendment of Mr. FORSYTH, and decided as follows:

Mr. PRESTON submitted an amendment, continuing in force, for one year, the act of 1st July, 1832, and the supplemental act of March, 1833, for the establishment of a board of commissioners, and a recorder, for the adjustment of land titles in Missouri; both of which amendments

YEAS.-Messrs. Bibb, Black, Brown, Calhoun, Forsyth, Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Kane, King of Alabama, | were adopted.

Mr. POINDEXTER submitted an amendment, providing that no money, to be paid out under this act, or any other act passed at the present session of Congress, shall be paid in any bank note or notes not at par value at the place where they shall be paid.

Mr. FORSYTH expressed his approbation of the amend

ment.

[JUNE 21, 1834.

Mr. WRIGHT said, that it was well known to the Senate that the laws provided that the revenues of the United States should be receivable in notes of the United States Bank and its branches. Now, this would compel the deposite banks in the city of New York, to pay out, on the drafts of the Government, money better than they received, because the notes of the United States Bank Mr. POINDEXTER observed, that the object of the were not, at all times, at par in the city of New York. He amendment must be evident to every honorable Senator: himself had known an instance where the notes of the it was to make the notes of the deposite banks receivable mother bank at Philadelphia were refused in payment of by the Government, and payable at par value in any part a debt due to the branch bank at the first named city. He of the country, to the officers of the Government, who must, therefore, vote against the amendment as injuriouswould be called upon to go to the brokers and get their ly affecting those banks where United States Bank notes notes cashed at the rate of ten per cent. discount. He were not considered at par. was desirous that those notes should be taken at their par value, and he had no doubt that there was no officer of the Government who would thrust from him the notes of the Bank of the United States, or of any of its branches. Mr. CALHOUN said he had some doubts as to the effiIn point of fact, he believed that many of the notes of the cacy of this amendment. To make it effective there local banks of the District were scattered over the West- should be some provision attaching a penalty to the disern country to a great extent, and he believed they had bursing officers of the Government, for paying out money been sent to the brokers. Mr. P.'s object, in introducing in paper not of par value.

Mr. WEBSTER observed that there could be no difficulty on that account, as the deposite banks were not bound by the act of Congress.

the amendment, was to put an end to this, and to compel Mr. POINDEXTER said, the amendment was intended the Government to pay dollar for dollar. to prevent the officers of Government from sending to the Mr. WILKINS called for the reading of the amend-deposite banks money to be paid out to officers, contractment, and then said, the amendment would be entirely ors, or to any individual whatever having a claim on the useless. Bank notes were not a legal tender; no one was Government, which was not at par at the places where it obliged to take them, above or below par. It was not the was to be paid. intention of the honorable Senator to make notes a tender to any creditor of the General Government.

Mr. SPRAGUE said, it appeared to him that the objection of the Senator from South Carolina ought not to preMr. POINDEXTER said, it was very evident that no vail against the amendment. It could not be, and was bank notes, either of the Bank of the United States or of not intended to be perfect. But it would certainly be any other bank, were a legal tender; but the object of the making it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to amendment was, that, when payments were made by the see that the disbursing agents of the Government were Government in bank notes, they should be payable at par provided with good money. He had been willing to vote value. for the amendment providing for paying the public dues Mr. WEBSTER said, he would only mention an in-in specie, and certainly those who had claims on the Govstance which went to show the necessity of the amend-ernment were entitled to be paid in notes that were equivment. One of our ships, some time ago, had arrived at alent to specie. New York to be paid off. The crew were paid in notes Mr. CALHOUN feared that the adoption of the amendof the Brooklyn Bank, and, in a week after, some of them ment was calculated to make a wrong impression on the being here, were compelled to dispose of their notes at a public mind. Our laws recognise no money but gold and loss of 10 or 15 per cent. discount. silver, and there was danger, in passing this amendment, of producing a contrary impression.

it out.

ment.

Mr. BENTON was opposed to any provision whatsoever, that would legalize the tender of paper. If the It certainly would be a great violation of law, and one amendment was persisted in, he should move to strike that deserved the severest punishment, for a disbursing agent of the Government to pay out a depreciated curMr. B. then asked the yeas and nays on the amend-rency; yet, he feared there had been some instances of it since the removal of the deposites. He heard of a reMr. POINDEXTER again explained the object of his cent instance of the kind, where the notes of obscure amendment. It did not provide that the Secretary of the banks, in a remote part of Virginia, had been paid out to Treasury, or the Government of the United States, should the workmen at Norfolk, and that the deposite banks pay in bank notes, but that when they were paid, it should there refused to receive them the very next day in depos be at their par value. ite. He should be glad to adopt any measure calculated After a few words from Mr. BIBB and Mr. CAL- to effect the object of his friend from Mississippi; but the HOUN, evil was too great to be cured by the amendment. The Mr. BENTON submitted an amendment to the amend-evil was in that unlawful interference of the Executive ment of Mr. POINDEXTER, to strike out all of the lat- with the public finances, by which the constitution and ter after the word "Congress," and insert the words, laws had been violated.

"unless in specie, if so required by the holder of the What had been done when the Post Office commitwarrant or the payee;" and, after some remarks from ted such abuses? The head of that Department was Messrs. BENTON, POINDEXTER, WILKINS, SHEP- neither censured nor impeached, but continued in office LEY, and WEBSTER, Mr. BENTON's motion was reject- to this day. ed, as follows:

The question was then taken on Mr. PoINDEXTER'S YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Forsyth, Grundy, Hill, original amendment, and decided in the negative, as fol Kane, King of Alabama, Morris, Robinson, Shepley, lows: Sprague, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins, Wright. YEAS.-Messrs. Black, Chambers, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, PorNAYS. Messrs. Brown, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuy-ter, Prentiss, Robbins, Robinson, Silsbee, Sprague, Wagsen, Hendricks, Kent, Leigh, McKean, Naudain, Poindex-gaman, Webster.-17. ter, Porter, Prentiss, Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Tyler, Webster.-18.

-16.

The question recurring on the original amendment,

NAYS.-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Calhoun, Forsyth, Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Kane, Kent, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Leigh, Linn, McKean, Morris,

JUNE 23, 1834.]

New Hampshire Resolutions.

[SENATE

Shepley, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Tyler, The audacity of the President of the United States, in White, Wilkins, Wright.-25.

declining to be misrepresented by the whig committees, has been the subject of strong reproach on this floor; and it has been said that a British King would not dare to treat his petitioning subjects in the manner that Andrew Jackson has treated the distress committees who came here to petition Congress.

Mr. CHAMBERS said he had to propose an amendment, which, if objected to at that late period of the day, he would postpone until Monday, when the bill would be reported to the Senate. He would, however, state, at present, what the amendment was, in order that gentle men might determine whether they would receive it now It is believed, when a petition, intended not for either or on Monday next. That amendment was, to strike out House of Parliament, but for the monarch's ear himself, the clause which provides for the payment of the salaries is preferred, the King of England does not receive it in of the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the person. I have before me the Gentleman's Magazine for Secretary of the Treasury. Those individuals had now May, 1834, from which I will read an extract. been in office a long time, and the Secretary of the Mr. H. here read from the Magazine an account of the Treasury more than a year, and that without the Senate "Trades' Union" of the British metropolis, attempting having been consulted, which was, in his (Mr. C.'s) hum- to present a petition to the King, through Lord Melble judgment, contrary to the spirit of the constitution.bourne, in favor of a remission of punishment on six laHe was aware that the President had claimed the au- borers who had been sentenced to transportation for adthority-and some of his friends had claimed it for him- ministering illegal oaths. The petition was carried in a to create an officer, and keep him in office, without nom- car or coach, borne on the shoulders of twelve men, and inating him until the last hour of the session. He (Mr. C.) was preceded by a procession of 30,000 workmen, arbelieved that the President possessed no such power, and ranged according to their several trades. It was of great that the true construction of the constitution was, that bulk, and signed by 260,000 persons, 100,000 of whom the nominations should be made to the Senate within a belonged to the metropolis. Lord Melbourne refused to reasonable period after the assembling of Congress. He receive the petition in that way. The immense crowd of (Mr. C.) would not, at present, make that a point. The people who were thus refused, not by the King, but by fact was, that they had now been in session ever since De- the King's servant, retired, without offering any violence cember last, and none of the nominations of those indi- whatever, and his lordship had the condescension, some viduals had been sent to the Senate. They had no more days afterwards, when the "petition was presented in a reason to suppose that the nominations would be sent in becoming manner," to deign to receive it. now than they had in December last, or at any other An attempt has been made to swell the number of petime. The President had carried out the doctrine in re-titioners sent here on account of the bank and the deposgard to nominations, to such an extent, in the case of ites, by counting all that have been received. As many Gwin, that the Senate had no reason, at this time, to believe that he would not do so again.

Mr. WEBSTER hoped the gentleman from Maryland would postpone his amendment until Monday next. Mr. CHAMBERS complied with the honorable Senator's request.

The bill was then reported to the Senate, and all the various amendments adopted in Committee of the Whole were concurred in, with the exception of the amendment relative to the appropriation for the publication of the Documentary History of the Revolution, by Clarke and Force; and, on motion of Mr. WEBSTER, it was postponed to and made the order of the day for Monday next.

Several other bills were then taken up, read the third time, and passed.

MONDAY, JUNE 23.

persons, from some of the cities, have sent their names here more than once, it is fair to presume that the number has been much increased on that account. But taking the whole number, they fall far short of the number on a single petition to the British King, in the month of May last, on a subject relating to six individuals-a concern of trivial moment. If all the names that were sent to Congress a few years ago to prevent the mails from travelling on Sundays, had been counted, they probably would have been double the number the bank and its friends have preferred.

The King of England, it appears, receives no petitions in person-even the King's creature, the minister, refuses to receive them until they have humbled themselves; and this when the petition is especially directed to the King. How does the attempt to criminate the President fail, not for refusing to receive petitions to him, but for simply avoiding such an interview with committees who are here for the purpose of petitioning Congress, as would enable them to misrepresent his language and conLegis-versation!

NEW HAMPSHIRE RESOLUTIONS. Mr. HILL presented certain resolutions of the lature of New Hampshire, sustaining the course of the The parade that has been made of the names sent here Executive in his measures in relation to the public finan- by the bank and its friends, contrasts singularly with the ces, and against the Bank of the United States. manner in which a petition of more than a fourth of a On presenting the above resolutions— million of the subjects of the King of Great Britain is

Mr. HILL said: I have received resolutions of the Legis-treated by my Lord Melbourne. By dint of pay and perlature of New Hampshire, expressing the sentiments of severance, after sending the names of persons here over the people of that State in relation to the great subjects and over again, and many names of persons who have not which agitate the public mind.

an existence in the places to which they purported to beOne ground of complaint against the Chief Magistrate long, the bank and its friends are able to tell you they of the Union, has been his having declined, personally, have, on something like two or three hundred petitions, to meet the distress committees which have come here some hundred and forty thousand names, not all asking from several places with memorials addressed not to him, for a restoration of the deposites, not all asking that the but to Congress. Having been grossly misrepresented bank shall be re-chartered, but requesting Congress to by some of those committees, he declined meeting and relieve the country. And how does this Senate proceed conversing with others who should wait on him for a sim- to relieve the country? By spending the greater part of ilar purpose-at the same time manifesting his willingness six months in preaching up panic-in inviting more disto meet them as citizens, in the manner in which he meets all who call upon him, and offering to answer any communication which these committees might make to him in writing.

tress petitions-in making the country be distressed whether it will or not. And how sadly have the distressing predictions of Senators failed? Every thing turns out contrary to those predictions. In England,