Part 248

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire what compensation ought to be made to Captain Pike and his companions for their services in exploring the Mississippi River, and in their late expedition to the sources of the Osage, Arkansas, and La Platte Rivers, together with their tour through New Spain; and that they have leave to report by bill or otherwise.

Mr. MARION objected to the phraseology of the resolution, as sanctioning a general principle, to which he was not prepared to assent. The resolution did not go to inquire if any compensation, but what compensation, should be given; thus taking it for granted that some remuneration should be made. Mr. M. wished it to be so modified as to inquire “if any, and, if any, what,” compensation should be granted.

Mr. MONTGOMERY acceding to this alteration, the resolution was adopted.

WEDNESDAY, February 24.

Removal of Judges upon Address from Congress.

Mr. WHITEHILL presented the resolutions of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, requesting their members in Congress to use their endeavors to procure an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, so that the Judges of the United States should hold their offices for a term of years, and be liable to removal by the President, on the joint address of a majority of both Houses of Congress; and that, on trials by impeachment, a majority of the Senate should be competent to conviction.

Mr. BARD moved to refer the resolutions to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. DANA opposed the motion. The resolutions were only instructions to the Pennsylvania delegation. This House had nothing to do with them.

After a debate of about two hours, the question was taken and carried--yeas 82, nays 27.

MONDAY, April 4.

A new member, to wit, ADAM BOYD, returned to serve in this House as a Representative for the State of New Jersey, in the room of EZRA DARBY, deceased, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat in the House.

TUESDAY, April 12.

Frauds in Land Warrants.

Mr. RANDOLPH rose to give notice that he meant to bring forward a motion on a subject of considerable public interest, and in which in his opinion the honor of the Government of the United States was materially implicated. He held in his hand an application from a veteran soldier on the subject of his bounty land, and who had sent him a power of attorney to act for him--a man of unimpeachable character, and who had not been at the seat of Government since it was established--his name William Bryan. I found, said Mr. R., that his warrant, No. 9--, has been drawn and fraudulently located; I say fraudulently, because I am well assured that the party has not received any advantage from the warrant, and there is the strongest evidence of fraud. His warrant has been drawn and located, by whom I cannot discover; my researches were completely baffled by the memorable fire, which it is presumable owed its origin to a desire to cover frauds of this nature. I was referred from the War Office to the Treasury Office; for the only chance of finding out who had acted as attorney in fact for this old man, was, that the warrant ought to have been returned and on file there. On going there I found that the space on the record which the warrant ought to have occupied, was blank; and that no such warrant exists on the Treasury files. I believe this is far from being a solitary case, but that the cases are numerous, and many of those who have honestly earned a title to public land have been in this way defrauded, and the land sold to speculators who have reaped the benefit of it. I therefore give notice that I shall at a future day move for an inquiry into this subject.

Suspension of the Embargo.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, 55 to 20, on the resolution offered by Mr. G. W. CAMPBELL, declaring that the President of the United States ought, in the event of certain contingencies occurring during the recess of Congress, to be authorized to suspend the operation of the embargo.

Mr. G. W. CAMPBELL said he would state to the House, in a very brief manner, some of the reasons which induced him to bring forward this resolution.

It will be recollected, said he, that the causes which induced the passage of the law, imposing an embargo, were the orders of council by Great Britain, and the decrees by France, which went in a great degree to cut off and destroy the whole commerce of the United States. In case those causes should be removed, I presume it will be thought necessary that there should be a power vested somewhere to withdraw the embargo occasioned by those orders and decrees. As therefore it is believed that we shall not be much longer in session, and it is at least possible that these orders and decrees may be removed, that Great Britain may revoke her orders of council or change them so as not to affect our commerce, and that France may revoke her decrees or change them so as to render our commerce secure, it is all-important that a power should be vested somewhere to give the people such relief as would be justified by this state of things. Suppose it were the case that any alteration should take place when Congress were not in session, some weeks, nay, some months must pass before Congress could be in session and a law pass for removing the embargo; the consequence of which would be that the country would suffer the pressure of the embargo for weeks or months longer than would be necessary; and I presume no member of the House will say that it would be proper to continue longer than necessary the pressure which the embargo must make upon them. There is I presume at least some reason to believe that the belligerent powers themselves are beginning to see their own interests injured. We see, by the latest accounts from Great Britain, that propositions are made in Parliament for revoking her orders. Should this take place, it is presumable that we also should revoke our regulations. This measure would also have a good effect in turning the attention of the people to the real source whence their present inconveniences flow; they will be taught to look to those circumstances which produced the embargo, a change of which would justify its removal. This would be a consideration of some importance. The mind of the public would be kept alive by the expectation that every day may bring the news which would induce Government to revoke the embargo, which no doubt bears hard upon the agricultural as well as commercial interests of the country.

The resolution as it now stands seems to me to embrace the principal grounds upon which we ought to authorize the Executive to suspend the operation of the law in question. If a general peace or suspension of hostilities take place in Europe, it would seem that there would be no danger from a suspension of the interdiction of our own vessels from sailing; but if no such event takes place, in the event of such alterations as shall exclude American commerce from the operation of the orders and decrees of the belligerents, it will be proper that the embargo should be suspended, they being the grounds on which the measure was adopted. You must vest a power somewhere to ascertain whether such change take place or not. You cannot precisely determine the fact which shall authorize suspension; for were you to say that in case of a revocation of the decrees of France or England the embargo shall cease, you give a vast advantage to those nations--for they may revoke them to-day and reinstate them to-morrow, as their interests may dictate. It is therefore necessary to vest a power somewhere to ascertain not only the revocation, but a reasonable assurance that they will not be renewed. For this purpose it is essentially necessary that the President should be authorized to determine the changes which shall render our commerce safe, by the assurances which may be given that they will not again resort to similar measures. This I mention only as my general object; as to the expressions in the resolution I am not tenacious of them; and in any modification of them which shall promote the public good I shall certainly acquiesce. I have no object but one; that the public may see that we have not left our posts till we had done every thing in our power to relieve them from the distress of measures adopted by us and rendered necessary by the conduct of other nations.

I conceive this to be more important to the people on the seacoasts than to the people in the Western country. To the Western country a few weeks or months protraction of the interdiction, in the fall of the year, could not be of much importance; yet it would seem to me that in the commercial cities and towns, in the Atlantic States, a few days or weeks, much more so a few months’ which might occur before Congress could convene, would be very important; and they would feel much uneasiness if, knowing such changes had taken place as would warrant the removal of the embargo, they were compelled to lie under its pressure until Congress could meet to revoke it. It cannot be expected, after the President shall determine to call Congress, that they can be convened here in less than three months. Such a resolution as this therefore would be beneficial to the commercial interest.

WEDNESDAY, April 13.

Suspension of the Embargo.

The House then went into a Committee of the Whole on the resolution.

Mr. LOVE said, to a proposition having for its object the removal of the embargo, at the first moment the public interests would permit, he had presumed there would have been no objection made either on that floor or by any man in the nation. In this presumption, said Mr. L., I am extremely sorry to be disappointed, and more especially so as the mode of opposition calls for a reply from those who have been the advocates of the system of policy pursued by the Government, during the embarrassing crisis it has been compelled to encounter.

The proposition before the committee is so familiar to those who have been long in the habits of legislation, from the frequent exercise of the general principle on which it rests, that nothing not already obvious to the minds of the greater part of this honorable body, I am sure, can be said in support of it. In the observations therefore, sir, which I shall trouble the committee with, it will not be necessary to say more than shall be proper in answer, only, to the objections which have been made at this time, to the exercise of the power contemplated by the resolution.

I have heard no argument yet urged against the right of delegating in any situation, or under any circumstances, the exercise of special powers which are acknowledged to be vested in a more general view essentially in the Legislature. The argument, if urged to such an extent, would evidently defeat itself, and go to destroy the operations of this or any other Government deriving the source of its authority from a Legislature. Our constitution has enjoined many duties on Congress, which without a delegation of the powers thus vested in it, could never be effected. An objection to the resolution under discussion on so broad a ground, would have been too obviously untenable. The question has not been thus directly met; but in opposition to the constitutionality of the delegation of power contemplated, a distinction has been taken between the authority which should be given to suspend a law, already in operation, and one which has not yet commenced its operation.

I listened, sir, with every possible attention to the argument made on this distinction. I am obliged to say there was no reason intelligible to my mind, offered in support of it. I will content myself therefore with expressing the opinion that the circumstance of a postponed or present operation, cannot make a difference in the principle. In both cases the authority which delegates the agency is the same, it is the act of every branch of the Legislature, and there can be no distinction which would not apply to one equally with the other. It may in the manner of its exercise be assimilated to the powers of a Legislature to repeal a law already in existence, in contradistinction to the power of repealing one, the operation of which had been suspended. If such a position could be sustained (as a proper inference from our constitution) it would be vain; for if the Legislature have the right of repealing a law, they might in the same breath that they would repeal this, enact another which should provide in a manner so far in conformity with the practice acknowledged to be correct, as to be entirely exempt from the objection urged on the ground of this distinction.

When I compare the limited nature of the power now proposed to be delegated, with those almost unbounded trusts which it has been the constant practice of the Legislature to confide in the Executive Department, I cannot help feeling at a loss to account for the present opposition on any grounds of consistency. Those delegations of authority have not been confined in practice to either of the political parties which have at different times given a tone to the Government. The gentleman from Tennessee, who has introduced the resolution, has mentioned several instances in which this has been done; permit me to add others, in which it appears to me the principle has been carried further than in the present case.