Part 119

Were the members of the Legislature of Georgia, in 1796, invested with the constitutional power of rescinding the acts of their predecessors in relation to such sale, and did they rescind them?

Congress is incompetent to the decision of this question. Nor is such decision necessary. I will, however, make one or two inquiries, and state one or two principles, which are applicable to the subject, which at the same time will go to strengthen the ground I have taken as to color of title in the claimants, and the policy of extinguishing their claims.

Can a legislature rescind a contract made by its predecessors?

Writers on national law make a distinction between laws which operate in the nature of contracts, and those which have no such operation. Every enlightened and reasonable man will subscribe to the opinion that a pledge of the public faith, given by the competent authority, ought to be irrevocable. Laws which pledge the faith of the community, which create contracts, which vest rights in individuals or in corporate bodies, it may safely be assumed as a general principle, are irrepealable. Laws of merely municipal operation are alterable or repealable at the pleasure of the existing legislature.

Can the judicial power declare a legislative act void, as having been passed by means of corruption?

Different opinions have existed in our country as to the right claimed by the judiciary, of deciding upon the constitutionality of laws. The better opinion seems to be, that from the nature of our Government, and the very terms of the constitution itself, by which that instrument is declared to be the supreme law of the land, the judges not only ought to exercise that power, but that they cannot avoid its exercise. If I am not mistaken, some gentlemen, who deny that the judges possess this right, are prepared to invest them with the more dangerous one of setting aside a legislative act on the ground of corruption. To admit that the judiciary may examine into the motives of the Legislature in passing laws, or that they may receive and decide upon evidence tending to prove corruption in the legislative body, would certainly be going much further than those have gone who have claimed for that department the right of deciding upon the constitutionality of laws. Suppose a trial of title between a person claiming under the act of Georgia, of 1795, and another claiming under the United States, and suppose evidence offered to the Court to prove the corruption of the Legislature of Georgia, in what a peculiar situation the judges would be placed? And would they listen for a moment to an application for the admission of such evidence? It may well be doubted. Do not then the present claimants possess a very strong color of title? Is it not prudent to extinguish claims of this description?

Were claims, or the pretended claims of the present claimants, in any manner recognized by the act of cession of the territory in question from Georgia to the United States? And,

Do justice and policy, or either justice or policy, require that the whole or any part of the five millions of acres, reserved by the act of cession from Georgia to the United States, for the purpose of satisfying claims of a certain description against Georgia, in reference to the said territory, should be appropriated for the purpose of satisfying the claims of the present claimants?

I have anticipated the principal arguments in favor of the equity of the claims, and the policy of a compromise with the claimants. The memorialists state that their claims were particularly contemplated by the Commissioners, both of the United States and of Georgia. They have offered us no evidence of this fact, and we are not to take it for granted. Indeed, I am far from thinking it my duty either to advocate or answer the pamphlet of the memorialists, and I shall make but this single allusion to it. Whatever may be its merits, it has had no influence upon my mind in forming my opinion. An examination of the official documents upon our tables will evince, however, that by a very strong implication, if not by express provision, these claims have been recognized, both by the act of cession, and by the law of Congress passed in consequence.

The gentleman from Virginia has expressed his surprise that the Chairman of the Committee of Claims had contented himself with reporting facts and principles, and that he has not adopted the novel procedure of reporting something tantamount to an elaborate speech in favor of the claims. As the speech of the gentleman from Virginia is unfortunately destitute of argument against the claims, and as it might be possible to deduce from it reasons in their favor, it might perhaps be proper for him to print it and annex it to the report, as a substitute for that which he thinks the chairman ought to have subjoined for the edification of the House. My feeble optics have been able to discover but one attempt at argument, which is in those observations which relate to the Message of the President, and the proceedings of Congress, on the act of Georgia, in 1795, and which, it is contended, were notice, to purchasers and to the world, of fraud. At that time, it was not suspected that fraud had been committed, and the reason for those proceedings was, that the United States possessed, or were supposed to possess, certain claims to the territory. There are certain subtile, sublimated, ethereal, heaven-descended geniuses, the soft and silken texture of whose minds would suffer infinite discomposure from the contact of that rude and knotty thing--an argument. That gentleman is not of this description. Too often have we witnessed his argumentative powers to entertain this idea. I regret that he has declaimed instead of reasoning upon this occasion, as I believe that argument, particularly upon important subjects, is more useful than mere declamation. From motives which I cannot develope, for I ascribe improper views to no one, the present is attempted to be made a party question. The people are told that the Capitol has become a scene of political and private iniquity, of fraud and federalism; that the majority, of their Representatives are committing a stupendous robbery upon the public patrimony, and their indignation is invoked upon the plunderers. What facts exist to justify these denunciations? Are we about to barter away the rights and interests of the people? Are we about to be guilty of a wanton waste of the public property? Are we guilty of political apostasy? No such thing. We are about to make arrangements for carrying into effect a solemn stipulation in the treaty with Georgia, and a solemn act of our predecessors, by devoting a part of the five millions of acres, specially reserved for that purpose, for which the United States never paid a cent, and never will pay a cent, to the extinguishment of the colorable claims of equitable claimants. Yet we are told that this act of equity, good faith, and good policy, is a stupendous crime, compared with which the flagitious acts of the former “unprincipled administration” dwindle into “petty larcenies.” I am a republican--a democratic republican. I was opposed to the general system of that administration. But I do not think it magnanimous, or honorable, malignantly to triumph over fallen foes. Nor do I dread the union of honest men. It can be dreadful only to the dishonest.

It is said that the circumstance that one of the great officers of the Government is numbered among the claimants, ought to scatter consternation through this House. It is unnecessary for me to undertake a vindication of the character of that gentleman. Does his office divest him of the common rights of a citizen? Does it deprive him of the right of petitioning the National Legislature? But his contracts are resorted to for the purpose of proving that he has extended his official influence within our walls. Unfortunate, indeed, is the application of this argument. By the report upon the table, it appears that three members are contractors, and we all see that two of them are opposed to the present claims.

Believing, Mr. Speaker, that this act of enormous robbery, this wanton dissipation of the public treasure, this abominable league between corruption and federalism, of which we hear so much, is neither more nor less than an act of just national policy; believing with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the late Attorney-General, that “the interest of the United States, the tranquillity of those who may hereafter inhabit that territory, and various equitable considerations, which may be urged in favor of most of the present claimants, render it expedient to enter into a compromise on reasonable terms;” and believing that this compromise ought to be delayed no longer, I shall give a decided vote in opposition to the proposed amendment, and in favor of the original resolution, as reported by the Committee of Claims.

Mr. LUCAS.--I am, sir, in favor of the amendment proposed to the report now under consideration. The unparalleled fraud which has been practised by the divers land companies styled purchasers, under the act, or pretended act, of Georgia of 1795, and by the Legislature that passed that act, have been fully noticed and exposed in the course of the debates which took place on the same subject, during the last session of Congress, and again during these two last days. This notorious fraud, odious as it is on the part of the land companies, is still much more so on the part of the members of the Legislature of Georgia, as their country had confided in them, and that themselves had pledged their faith under the obligation of an oath. But there are other instances of fraud and deception, materially affecting the purchase or claim in question, which have been solely practised by the land companies, and in which the Legislature of Georgia had no kind of participation. These charges cannot be resisted by the ordinary means of denial of facts, for they are supported upon authentic documents.

It ought to be observed that the four land companies who are original purchasers under the act of the Legislature of Georgia, passed on the 7th January, 1795, stated in their petition, containing their proposals to the Legislature to purchase certain lands belonging to the State of Georgia, that the land contained within the bounds which were described in their petition, amounted to 21,750,000 acres. It was evidently upon the faith of this statement, that the Legislature consented to sell that land for $500,000. However, it is now ascertained that the quantity of the land thus described amounts to 35,000,000 of acres, and the companies themselves compute it to be near 40,000,000. From this it appears evidently that the companies have deceived the Legislature by stating what was not true, that the contracts are legal and obligatory. The parties ought not only to have contracted with liberty of choice, but they ought also to have contracted with a due knowledge of the matter, which was the object of the contract. This has not been the case here; the Legislature have sold twice as much land as they intended to sell, or, which is the same thing, they have sold it one time cheaper than it was their intention, and all this loss is the result of the false statement given by the land companies.

It is an incontrovertible maxim of law, that none ought to be benefited by his own wrongs; this maxim applies with a double force in a contract between the sovereign authority and private persons. The contract between the Legislature and the land companies having been entered into by the means of a statement which proves to be false, and which has been made by the parties that claim the benefit arising thereof, the contract becomes vitiated and of no effect.

Should this wrong not be sufficient to invalidate the contract, there is another wrong that would arise from it; by the act of 1795, a reserve was made of two millions of acres out of the several tracts sold to the Georgia land companies, for the use of such citizens of Georgia as chose to subscribe in the original terms of the purchase. The price paid by the citizens who did subscribe was two cents and one-third per acre, it being the price then supposed to have been paid by the companies, according to the statement originally made of the whole quantity of land contained in the purchase, which, as I have before said, proves to be very near double the land companies would receive from the citizens of Georgia, who clearly had a right to subscribe on the original terms; a price per acre nearly double to that which they themselves would have to pay, and thus have a profit on the citizens of Georgia for the difference in the quantity of acres contained in the purchase arising from the false statement; which reduces, with respect to the speculators, the actual price of the land to little more than one cent per acre, while it remains at two cents and one-third with respect to the citizens of Georgia. However great may have been the departure of the Legislature of Georgia from the interest of their constituents on this occasion, it appears evidently, that by the expression, “original term,” they understand that their citizens should subscribe, if they chose, to the amount of two millions, upon terms similar to those of the land companies. It appears evidently they did believe they were selling the land of the State at the rate of two cents and one-third per acre, whilst, in fact, they received but one cent and one-sixth, which, upon the whole, is a consideration merely nominal.

To the multiplicity of the radical defects with which the title of the companies claiming under the act of 1795 abound, the advocates of the claim of the New England Mississippi Land Company answer, that none of those who compose their company had any participation in the fraud; they are said to be bona fide purchasers, perfectly ignorant of the fraud which may have been practised by those of whom they bought. They are represented in their memorial and vindication as plain farmers, mechanics, &c., who have made what they possess by the closest application and industry.

Sir, I stand among those who are the most ready to acknowledge that the inhabitants of New England are conspicuous for their industry; but I am likewise of opinion, that they are not less noted for their sagacity, in their attendance to their interest; and in the art of making good bargains, I view them as being fully competent to cope in dealings with the inhabitants of the Southern States. That they should not have heard of the notorious fraud which has taken place at the passing of the act of 1795, is a great cause of astonishment to me; that they should have made a purchase to the amount of eleven millions of acres, without making inquiries sufficient to discover what almost every body knew throughout the United States, if possible, increases my astonishment. For my part, having never thought of purchasing any land from the Georgia land companies, I made no inquiry about the acts of the Legislature of Georgia; yet the corruption was so flagrant, the fraud so notorious, that it reached my ears soon after it was passed. A gentleman from Virginia (Mr. RANDOLPH) has justly observed, yesterday, that the President of the United States had, in his address to the two Houses of Congress, at the beginning of the session of 1795, taken a most direct notice of the act of Georgia, passed in January of the same year, as tending to dangerous consequences. Certainly such solemn communications of the first Magistrate, at the beginning of a session, contain matters that are an object of national concern, and generally sought for. There is not a paper in the Union that omits publishing those communications. It would be possible, however, that this communication would have escaped the notice of plain industrious farmers, such as are able, perhaps, to purchase two or three hundred acres of land; but that a company of sober and discreet speculators, and of New England too, being about purchasing an immense quantity of land for a great sum of money, should be ignorant of what every body knows, and of what they ought to know sooner than any body else, is a circumstance too unaccountable and extraordinary for me to believe that it really exists. I should rather think that the speculators of New England, sober and discreet as they style themselves to be, found the bargain so good and so tempting, the means of pleading ignorance of fraud committed in the original purchase so easy, the means on the part of the State of Georgia, or its vendee, to prove the notice so difficult, that the sober and discreet speculators of New England thought it advisable to make a gambling bargain, expecting that the two extremities of the United States being engaged in the same speculation, they would combine their force and influence to press hard upon the centre, and save through the conflict their speculation, either in whole or in part. Other strong circumstances lead still more to believe, that the New England Company were well aware of the danger which did exist in making a purchase from the Georgia land companies; and that they were taking unusual risks upon themselves; this appears clearly from the face of their deeds; not only the covenant of warranty is special, instead of being general, but another extraordinary covenant is entered upon by which the Georgia Mississippi Company “is not liable to the refunding of any money in consequence of any defect in their title from the State of Georgia, if any such there should hereafter appear to be.” Was not such covenant smelling strongly of the fraud which the Georgia grant was impregnated with? Could the New England Company take more clearly every risk upon themselves? Could they more expressly preclude themselves from every remedy in law or equity in case of eviction?

Mr. BOYD.--The question before the House is not whether we are to do a good or an injury to the class of men who are denounced as a band of speculators; but it is whether we shall agree to or reject the amendment to the resolution offered yesterday to the House by a gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. CLARK.) Yesterday was taken up in reading the laws of Georgia, and of the United States, and various other papers, which have been long in the hands of the members, and which no doubt had been so attentively perused by them as to have rendered the reading at this day not indispensably requisite. Mr. B. said, that if papers were to be read for the instruction and edification of the members as to well-known facts, he thought it would have been of more consequence to have read the Declaration of Independence, and the Treaty of Peace of 1783, in which the independence of the United States was acknowledged by the only Power on earth who contended against it. We were then free, sovereign, and independent States, to all intents and purposes, and as sovereign States, each and every State in the Union had full power and authority to dispose of their lands to whom they pleased, and under what conditions they pleased. And if the State of Georgia, in the exercise of her sovereignty, have conveyed to the Mississippi Land Company the right of soil to the land in question, and that company have transferred the same to the New England Mississippi Land Company, the right is vested in them; unless we have arrived at that stage of political depravity that what was yesterday acknowledged as a right shall to-morrow be declared a wrong.

Mr. CLARK said he was still in favor of the amendment on the table, and which he yesterday had the honor of submitting. He did not wish it to be understood that the amendment was intended to give a preference to any description of claims under the different acts of the State of Georgia, and provided for by the general resolution, but intended it should meet directly those which have excited the most public attention, have been the most ardently pursued, the most zealously advocated, and attended with the most extraordinary circumstances. If the facts which have accompanied this monstrous business from its origin to the present moment were publicly known, or if it could be retraced through all its cunning and wily mazes, the claims would sink beneath the weight of honest indignation, and instead of now being urged before the Congress of the United States, would be gladly withdrawn from public view, and buried in perpetual silence. He peculiarly wished on this occasion a cool and temperate discussion, to divest ourselves of all feelings, either of improper compassion or prejudice, that equally tend to inflame the heart and mislead the judgment. It should be his humble province to endeavor a fair investigation of the naked question, disrobing it of those tinsel habiliments which have been artfully thrown around it for the purpose of concealing its real deformity.

The claims the amendment goes to reject, are derived by a pretended law of the State of Georgia, said to have been passed in the month of January, 1795. He would contend this law was absolutely void, ab initio, not only because the Legislature had no power to make such a law, but from the circumstances under which it was made. That the grantees under this law could have no title to the land, either legal or equitable; and that there have been no circumstances attending the subsequent sales, that place the sub-purchasers under superior equitable advantages. It will be particularly necessary, Mr. Speaker, to be attentive to dates; that of the law under which the claims are made, and generally known by the name of the “cession law,” has already been noticed. Let us now see how this law passed. It stands characterized by circumstances unparalleled in the annals of pollution--of which we have the most conclusive evidence before us. The whole State of Georgia has borne testimony to the fact, and it is now deposited in the archives of the Government, that a majority of the Assembly which passed the law were corrupted and bribed. Some had money given them; others, shares in the lands they were effecting the sale of. This is so universally admitted and detested, that the most enthusiastic friends of the present claimants cheerfully allow the original grantees had no titles, and he believed there was not one now before Congress with his claim. But it is contended the sub-purchasers had no notice of the fraud in the original contract, but are bona fide purchasers for a good and valuable consideration actually paid. This he never could agree to. The evidence before him was the contrary, and he would here take a review of at least a part of that evidence, a great portion of which, no doubt, has been destroyed by the lapse of nine years, but a sufficiency remains when brought together, irresistibly to carry conviction to the mind of the most skeptical. The law itself is almost enough for this purpose. The simple object was to sell to four companies the vacant western land; but to delude the people and lull inquiry, it is called, “An act supplementary to an act, entitled ‘an act for appropriating a part of the unlocated territory of this State, and for the payment of the State troops, and for other purposes, and the protection and support of the frontier;’” and the same fascination is kept up through the enacting clauses, and it is the longest act in the statute book. It goes into a lengthy examination of the State title, of extinguishing the Indian title, and appropriating the money, directing it to be laid out in bank stock. Where, Mr. Speaker, will you find such a law as this? If the object of the Legislature had been correct, would there have been a necessity for clothing the law in such delusive colors? No, sir! fraud and infamy were to be cancelled, and the covering must be thick. They were, however, disappointed in their aim, for honesty and integrity had yet their residence in the State, and as soon as it was known, the whole country was feelingly alive to the abuse, and a general effervescence pervaded the public mind; this was manifested in the only possible way that remained. The Assembly had adjourned, not to meet again in a twelvemonth. Presentments of the grand juries, in almost all the counties of the State, were made in terms of bitter disapprobation of the law. It was also denounced in the public prints, from one end of the continent to the other. In the month of May, 1795, a convention was held in the State; the grand jury presentments, petitions, and remonstrances from all parts of the country were sent up; these were, by the convention, remitted to the next Legislature as the only competent authority to remedy so enormous an evil. In the month of February before, as has been so ably stated by my valued friend and colleague, (Mr. RANDOLPH,) had this subject been the substance of a communication of the President of the United States to Congress, and a resolution and a bill passed the House of Representatives on the subject. Shall I, after this, be told the sub-purchasers had no notice? Impossible; no historical event so notorious. But the evidence does not stop here. The Georgia Legislature again assembled in the month of November, 1795. The subject of this nefarious and wicked speculation, that covered the country with shame and disgrace, was taken up, and if a doubt had remained of the corruption, it was then removed by a number of affidavits proving incontestably the fact; and on the thirteenth day of February, 1796, a law was passed, not repealing the act of 1795, but with honest and laudable indignation declaring it null and void, as being bottomed upon fraud and perjury, and unveiling to the world the most flagitious conduct that ever disgraced a legislative assembly. It is there ascertained and declared, that the land had been sold for three hundred thousand dollars less than what had been offered for it, and the quantity of land much greater than it had been represented. The lands contained in the grants to the four companies were estimated at twenty-one millions of acres, which, at five hundred thousand dollars, the price given, is twelve and a half cents per acre; the real quantity is about thirty-five millions of acres; this reduces the price of the garden of the world to nearly one and one-third cents the acre. Take notice, Mr. Speaker, that the law of 1796 does not pretend to repeal the act of 1795, but proclaims, to every body, that to be void which was in reality so before, and with an honest zeal provides that the money which had been paid should be repaid to the purchaser. This annulling law was so precious to the people, it was a monument so honorable to the State, that when afterwards the citizens of that State arose in the majesty of their strength, resuming all those rights, and acted in convention, this very law was ingrafted in their constitution.

Mr. EUSTIS.--If the position taken by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. CLARK) could be established, it would not in my opinion justify the amendment which he has proposed to the resolution under consideration; because the amendment renders the resolution null and void, and the resolution neither affirms nor admits the legal title. Still, I should be willing to rest the whole merits of the case on the single question, whether the claimants, at the time of making their purchases, had or had not a knowledge of the fraud? In the autumn of 1795, when the sales were generally made in New England, there was no knowledge or suspicion of fraud--the contracts were made in full confidence of the act of a sovereign and independent State--and I know they could have had no knowledge of any fraud in the Legislature of Georgia. We are told by the gentleman that there was “a great uproar throughout the State of Georgia.” Whatever might have been the nature or extent of this uproar, I am confident that a knowledge of it had not reached New England at the time the contracts were made. But the proof that there was no knowledge of any fraud depends not on the opinions or assertions of individuals--it is founded on a circumstance which removes all doubt on the subject--it is founded on the price which the purchasers paid for the land. They paid, as they have stated in their memorial, as much per acre for these lands as the State of Massachusetts had received, a few years before, for lands lying in the State of New York. And is it probable that the purchasers who have been represented by a gentleman from Pennsylvania as possessing so much sagacity, and looking so well to their own interests, would have paid or contracted to pay such a price, with a knowledge that the original grant had been fraudulently obtained?

THURSDAY, January 31.

Georgia Claims.

The House resumed the consideration of the resolution reported the twenty-ninth instant, from the Committee of the Whole, on the Georgia Claims.

Mr. JACKSON.--Mr. Speaker, I rise with some degree of reluctance to address you on the present occasion, not because I fear to give publicity to my sentiments on the question before the House, but from the assurance that the length of time which this subject has occupied at the last, and during the present session of Congress, renders it most certain that no new view can be given; and more especially that the opinions already formed cannot be changed. I would not now have risen but for the wish that inasmuch as a most extraordinary course has been pursued, and a general denunciation of every man who dares to favor the report on your table has been made, my reasons may accompany my vote, and I am willing that they together may form the criterion by which my political existence shall be decided. The reluctance I felt in rising is somewhat removed by the reflection that the arguments urged on this floor are declared not intended to influence the judgment of this House, but to control the public mind, by an avowed appeal to the people of the United States. Let the appeal be fairly made, and I fearlessly await their decision. For that purpose, I deem it proper to offer my sentiments, in order that they may accompany those of my two colleagues who have preceded me. Sir, I am decidedly in favor of the report of the Committee of Claims, and of course opposed to the amendment under consideration. I do not on this occasion regret the absence of party spirit from these walls, which has been invoked by my colleague, (Mr. RANDOLPH.) That party spirit which has been the bane of all government; that party spirit which, disregarding all the forms of justice, tramples its most sacred laws under foot, and presides without check or control over questions relating solely to private property; or which was displayed in the conduct of Jeffries, who servilely prostrating his sacred functions to the purposes of ministerial vengeance, has justly excited the reproach and execration of posterity: and which, if cherished upon occasions like the present, will tend to demolish the fair fabric of our Republican Government. I will not admit that because a majority of this House are in favor of the claims, and desire a prompt decision without debate, it is evidence that “unprincipled men have acquired the ascendency, and knowing themselves to be in the commission of wrong they are silent.” Is my colleague aware of the extent of this doctrine? When unprincipled men, said he, acquire the ascendency, they act in concert and are silent--silence and concert, then, are to him proofs of corrupt motive. Is this always a correct position? Does the gentleman recollect that measures were adopted a few years past without discussion, by my political friends, in conjunction with him, who were silent, and united? I am unwilling to believe that such an inference can result from a union of sentiment. In some instances we are unanimous in our decision of questions, on which no debate takes place; but I have never thought this was proof of the prostration of principle; nor can I suppose that the gentleman himself thinks so; even now we adopt measures advocated by him, and are nevertheless told that to act in concert is proof of corruption. Having premised that the inferences made by the gentleman were not correct, I will proceed to the investigation of the question before the House, viz: Are the claims under the act of 1795, entitled to reference to commissioners for compromise and settlement, or are they not? My colleague (Mr. RANDOLPH) says the persons who obtained the land from the Legislature of Georgia were guilty of a most detestable fraud; and the present claimants, pretending to be innocent purchasers without notice of fraud, are a set of hypocrites, undeserving the attention of Congress, or the commiseration of mankind. In support of this assertion he has quoted the Message of the President of the United States, in 1795, to Congress, describing in terms of approbation the high character of its author--WASHINGTON--whose memory I revere, and whose name I will teach my children to lisp, and venerate as the father of American freedom, and who with Liberty were the two best gifts bestowed by Heaven upon our favored country! WASHINGTON, my colleague says, gave notice to the nation, and published the rape of unhallowed hands upon the property of the State of Georgia. But, sir, if we examine the Message, and the proceedings of Congress upon the occasion, it will be discovered that no knowledge of fraud in the transactions of the Legislature of 1795, was even known, or suspected; because, if any such information had been received, the known integrity of that virtuous man assures me, he would have communicated it; he would have opposed it with his best exertions, and give me leave to say, deprecated it as much as any man can.

Mr. FINDLAY said that he claimed the attention of the House for a short time; but from viewing the unusual turn some of the arguments had taken, and the nature of the subject, he found it a matter of some delicacy to know how to proceed. He was opposed to the amendment under debate, and in favor of the resolution, but he observed some members, with whom he had generally voted, and for whose talents he had a high esteem, and in whose integrity he had the utmost confidence, take the other side with such ardent zeal, and in a mode of argument so unusual in public bodies, that on observing this, he had hesitated and had voted in the last session for the postponement which took place. He had done this in hopes that the House would in this session meet the case in a temper more becoming their own dignity and the importance and delicacy of the subject.

He said he would begin with the Message of the President near the close of the session in February, in the year 1795, informing Congress of the two laws made in Georgia, one in December and the other in the month of February, 1795, (the same Message mentioned by the member from Virginia, Mr. RANDOLPH.) The Message was referred to a select committee, of which he had the honor of being a member, with other very intelligent members from both South and East, (Mr. NICHOLAS, Mr. AMES, &c.) It had long been the opinion of men well informed, that the title of Georgia to the extent of territory she claimed was doubtful, and that it was too great for any one State to possess in connection with the Federal Union. The old Congress frequently called on Georgia to make a cession of her unsettled territory, agreeably to the stipulations on which the Confederation was agreed to, but when Georgia did propose a cession, the terms on which it was made were rejected. Other States made cessions of lands to which they had no title, or else had appropriated the lands to individuals before the cession was made; so that, on the whole, but a small quantity of land unencumbered came to the benefit of the United States. But to return: the committee in February, 1795, examined the title of Georgia as far as they had information, the bounds not being certainly known; the unsettled territory of Georgia was believed to be larger than France or Germany, or any other European nation, except Russia, whose Asiatic dominions extend to the Pacific Ocean; hence they concluded that such an extent of territory possessed by one State, at the extremity of the United States, and bordering its whole length on the Spanish dominions, with which we were then in danger of a serious contest, it was the opinion of the committee that every proper means should be used to induce Georgia to cede, in a peaceable manner, a proportion of that territory; and, as a first step towards obtaining this object, the committee reported that the Attorney-General should examine the titles of the State of Georgia and of the lands claimed by the company from the law of 1795; and they further reported that the President should be authorized to obtain a cession from the State of Georgia of the whole or part of the territory.