Part 250

Ordered, That a bill or bills be brought in, pursuant to the said resolution, and that Mr. AMES, Mr. MADISON, and Mr. GILMAN, do prepare and bring in the same.

SATURDAY, February 21.

An engrossed bill authorizing the payment of four thousand dollars for the use of the daughters of the late Count de Grasse, was read the third time and passed.

TUESDAY, February 24.

Case of Thomas Person and others.

It was moved that the House should go into consideration of the report of the select committee to whom had been referred a resolution of the House in relation to the back lands of North Carolina. The following is the resolution of the select committee:

"Resolved, That in case the President of the United States shall think proper to enter into a treaty or treaties with all or any of the Indian tribes claiming lands within the territory south of the river Ohio, for the extinguishment of their claims to all or any of the said lands, the sum of ---- dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the purpose of defraying the expenses of any such treaty or treaties."

Mr. GOODHUE did not see that the United States had any concern to interfere in such a purchase: it was private property.

Mr. DAYTON explained that the petition of Thomas Person and others comprehended only two millions of acres. The resolution contemplated twenty millions. It will, when completed, enable the United States to protect the Choctaws and Chickasaws from the Creeks and Cherokees, if the latter should happen to attack them; and that they will attack the Chickasaws is not improbable, from assistance which the latter have given to the white people. Besides, the frontier will be capable of defence, at a much cheaper rate, in this way than at present it can be. It is now an irregular line. A peculiar circumstance, besides, will make the lands easy to be purchased. No Indian tribes reside on them. When the gentleman from Massachusetts considers these things, he will not object, since the United States will gain eighteen millions of acres by the transaction.

Mr. GOODHUE admitted the reasoning as to the eighteen millions, but still scrupled as to the rest.

Mr. SWIFT recommended that the Indian claim should in the mean time be extinguished.

Mr. MCDOWELL, in reply to Mr. GOODHUE, said that if the gentleman had attended to the reasonings formerly used on this subject, and which had occupied considerable time of the House during the present session, he could have been at no loss for understanding the propriety of this purchase being made by the United States.

A committee were named to bring in a bill, in terms of the resolution recommended by the select committee.

WEDNESDAY, February 25.

Indian Lands in Georgia.

The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House on the report of the committee to whom was referred so much of the message from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, of the seventeenth instant, as relates to the disposition of Indian lands by the Legislature of the State of Georgia.

Mr. AMES said, that during the time when the National Debt bill was under discussion, he had attempted to get something introduced in favor of the new emission money creditors, but gentlemen always rose en masse against any proposal that would tend to obstruct the progress of the bill. He now again urged that this affair might be taken into consideration. He knew he should be told of a standing rule of the House that the unfinished business must first be taken up. These creditors had waited for four years without redress, and the rules of the House ought to give way to common feeling and common sense. He therefore moved that the rule in question should be suspended.

The motion was negatived, and the House then went into a committee upon the second and remaining resolutions in the report of the select committee on the Message of the PRESIDENT.

The following is a copy of the third and fourth resolutions in this report:

"Resolved, That the President of the United States be authorized, whenever claims under prior contracts may cease to exist, to obtain a cession of the State of Georgia, of their claim to the whole or any part of the land within the present Indian boundaries; and that ---- dollars ought to be appropriated to enable him to effect the same.

"Resolved, That all persons who shall be assembled, or embodied in arms, on any lands belonging to Indians, out of the ordinary jurisdiction of any State, or of the territory south of the river Ohio, for the purpose of warring against the Indians, or committing depredations upon any Indian town, or persons, or property, shall thereby become liable and subject to the rules and articles of war, which are, or shall be established for the government of the troops of the United States."

After some discussion, the committee rose; the Chairman reported progress, and asked leave to sit again. This was negatived--yeas 33, nays 35.

The House then took up the resolutions. Various amendments were proposed; and the last resolution, in particular, was objected to, as subjecting people to martial law.

Mr. WADSWORTH said, that from a trial by jury he had no hopes. There never had been one instance of a white man condemned and hanged by white men, on the frontier, for the murder of an Indian, since the first landing in America. There might be such a thing for the murder of an Indian, when they lived among the whites. That there ever had been such a thing he did not know. He had been told by judges, upon the frontier, that it was no matter what evidence of a murder of an Indian was brought. No jury would bring the criminal in guilty. It was but very lately that a cool and unprovoked murder had been committed on the borders of this State upon an Indian. The evidence was clear. Nobody pretended to doubt it. The judge gave an earnest charge to the jury; but all to no purpose; they found "not guilty."

Mr. SEDGWICK proposed an amendment to the last resolution, as follows:

"Resolved, That all persons who shall be assembled, or embodied in arms, on any lands belonging to Indians, out of the ordinary jurisdiction of any State, or of the territory south of the river Ohio, for the purpose of warring against the Indians, or of committing depredations against any Indian town, or persons, or property, shall thereby become liable and subject to be taken and confined by the military force of the United States, in such manner as to be made amenable to, and triable by law."

Ordered, That the said motion be committed to Mr. SEDGWICK, Mr. MADISON, and Mr. HILLHOUSE.

FRIDAY, February 27.