Part 225

Mr. BLOUNT said, that, at the moment the gentleman from Massachusetts had moved this resolution, he was in the committee-room, in the act of addressing a note to the Secretary of State on this subject, according to the direction of the committee, calling for a full and correct statement of all the facts relative to the aggression committed on the frigate Chesapeake. For the satisfaction of the gentleman, he would read the note which he had written. [Mr. B. then opened and read the note.]

THURSDAY, November 12.

Two other members, to wit: from Massachusetts, JACOB CROWNINSHIELD; and from Pennsylvania, JOSEPH CLAY, appeared, produced their credentials, were qualified, and took their seats in the House.

The SPEAKER laid before the House sundry documents, transmitted to him by Duncan McFarland, of the State of North Carolina, relative to his claim to a seat in this House, as a Representative for said State, in the room of John Culpepper; which were referred to the Committee of Elections.

Maryland Contested Election.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Elections, to whom was referred the memorial of Joshua Barney, of the State of Maryland. The report of the Committee of Elections is as follows:

The Committee of Elections, to whom was committed the petition of Joshua Barney, of the city of Baltimore, praying to be admitted to a seat in the House, he having, in his opinion, the highest number of votes given to a candidate legally qualified to represent the city of Baltimore, having carefully examined the facts stated on both sides, and compared the laws of Maryland under which the said election was held, with the Constitution of the United States, report--

That, by an act of the Assembly of Maryland, passed in November, 1790, it is required that the member shall be an inhabitant of his district at the time of his election, and shall have resided therein twelve calendar months immediately before.

By another act of the Assembly of Maryland, passed in November, 1802, it is enacted that Baltimore town and county shall be the fifth district, which district shall be entitled to send two Representatives to Congress, one of which shall be a resident of Baltimore county, and the other a resident of Baltimore city.

That Joshua Barney is a citizen of Maryland, and has been a resident of Baltimore city for many years.

That William McCreery has been for many years a citizen of Maryland, and a resident of the city of Baltimore; but that, in the year 1803, he removed himself and his family to his estate in Baltimore county; that, from that time, though he himself has occasionally resided in Baltimore, yet he, with his wife and family, have not made the city their settled residence.

That William McCreery states that his intention was, and still is, to reside with his family on his country estate in summer, and in the city of Baltimore in winter; but that, ever since he has removed his family to his farm, he has been obliged every winter, in the public service, to reside, and frequently with his family, in the city of Washington, which prevented him from removing his family, agreeably to his intention, to the city of Baltimore; but he resided himself in the city of Baltimore five or six days before the election; that he and his family were residing in the same situation, when he was elected to serve in the ninth Congress, that they were when he was elected into the present Congress; that, however, not wishing to have been taken up as a candidate at the last election, he expressed to some of his friends some apprehensions that exceptions might be made on account of his constant family residence not being in the city of Baltimore.

At the election in that district for the Congress now in session, Nicholas R. Moore had 6,164 votes; he is a resident in Baltimore county; and William McCreery, against whose right to a seat in this House objection is made on account of residence, had 3,559 votes; and Joshua Barney, who claims a seat in this House, and it is admitted is a resident of Baltimore city, had 2,063 votes; and John Seat, also a resident in Baltimore city, had 353 votes. The above statement of facts being admitted by the parties, further evidence was not required. No question was taken on the legal residence of William McCreery in the city of Baltimore.

The committee proceeded to examine the constitution, with relation to the case submitted to them, and find that qualifications of members are therein determined, without reserving any authority to the State Legislatures to change, add to, or diminish those qualifications; and that, by that instrument, Congress is constituted the sole judge of the qualifications prescribed by it, and are obliged to decide agreeably to the constitutional rules; but the State Legislatures being, by the constitution, authorized to prescribe the time, place and manner of holding the elections, in controversies arising under this authority, Congress are obliged to decide agreeably to the laws of the respective States.

On the most mature consideration of the case submitted to them, the committee are of opinion that William McCreery is duly qualified to represent the fifth district of the State of Maryland, and that the law of that State, restricting the residence of the members of Congress to any particular part of the district for which they may be chosen, is contrary to the Constitution of the United States: therefore,

“Resolved, That William McCreery is entitled to his seat in this House.”

TUESDAY, November 17.

Another member, to wit, MARMADUKE WILLIAMS, from North Carolina, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat in the House.

Frigate Chesapeake.

Mr. BLOUNT, from the committee to whom was referred so much of the Message of the President as relates to aggressions, &c., made a report.

The report commences with an expression of sensibility at the outrage committed on the Chesapeake; states the receipt of information relative thereto from the State and Navy Departments; presents a general view of the circumstances; observes that it might be said to have been incontestably proved that William Ware, John Strachan, and Daniel Martin are citizens of the United States. But the committee add, that they conceive it unnecessary for them or the House to go into any inquiry on that part of the subject, as in their opinion whether the men taken from the Chesapeake were or were not citizens of the United States, and whether the Chesapeake was or was not within the acknowledged limits of the United States at the time they were taken, the character of the act of taking them remains the same.

“From the foregoing facts, it appears to your committee that the outrage committed on the frigate Chesapeake has been stamped with circumstances of indignity and insult of which there is scarcely to be found a parallel in the history of civilized nations, and requires only the sanction of the Government under color of whose authority it was perpetrated to make it just cause of, if not an irresistible call for, instant and severe retaliation. Whether it will receive that sanction, or be disavowed, and declared an unauthorized act of a subordinate officer, remains to be determined by the answer which shall be given to the demand of explanation. That answer (now daily expected) will either sink the detestable act into piracy, or expand it to the magnitude of premeditated hostility against the sovereignty and independence of this nation; and until its true character shall be fixed and known, your committee deem it expedient to decline expressing any opinion as to the measures proper to be adopted in relation to it. But, as other acts of aggression have been committed within our ports and waters by British ships of war, as well anterior as posterior to this, some of them manifesting the same disregard of our national rights, and seeming to flow from the same contempt for the authority of our laws; and especially as the British squadron, of which the Leopard was one, after being notified of the President’s proclamation, ordering them to depart from the waters of the United States which they knew had been published in conformity to an act of Congress, anchored within the capes of Chesapeake Bay, and in that situation remained, capturing American vessels, even within our acknowledged territorial limits, and sending them to Halifax for adjudication--impressing seamen on board American vessels--firing on vessels and boats of all descriptions, having occasion to pass near them in pursuit of their lawful trade, and occasionally denouncing threats, calculated to alarm and irritate the good people of the United States, particularly the inhabitants of Norfolk and Hampton--all which facts are substantiated by the accompanying documents, Nos. 1 to 6--the committee are of opinion that it is expedient to provide more effectually for the protection of our ports and harbors; but not being prepared to report specifically on that subject, they ask further indulgence of the House, and beg leave to submit for their consideration the following resolution:

“Resolved, That the attack of the British ship of war Leopard on the United States frigate Chesapeake was a flagrant violation of the jurisdiction of the United States, and that the continuance of the British squadron (of which the Leopard was one) in their waters, after being notified of the proclamation of the President of the United States, ordering them to depart the same, was a further violation thereof.”

The report was referred to a Committee of the Whole on Monday.

On a motion of Mr. BASSETT, that the proceedings of this day, with closed doors, ought to be kept secret, the question being taken thereupon, it passed in the negative--yeas 22, nays 104.

WEDNESDAY, November 18

British Aggressions.

Mr. QUINCY said the House might have observed, that in the Message of the President of the United States to Congress, delivered on the 27th of October, there was an express reference to a certain Proclamation interdicting our ports and harbors to British armed vessels. It was in Great Britain, he understood, a universal Parliamentary rule, that proclamations of this kind should be laid before Parliament; and in this country it had heretofore been the usual practice. In the case of the Proclamation of Neutrality, issued by President Washington, in 1793, in his first communication to Congress, he laid it before them, and it was entered on the Journals. Circumstances of however great notoriety were not official information on which they could act; but, were it so, he had not been able to find it in any papers he could procure. He had expected it would have been connected with the report of the committee on aggressions; but, as it was not yet before the House, he moved the following resolution: