Part 237

NAYS.--John Baker, Abijah Bigelow, Hermanus Bleecker, James Breckenridge, Elijah Brigham, Epaphroditus Champion, Martin Chittenden, Matthew Clay, Thomas B. Cooke, John Davenport, jr., William Ely, James Emott, Asa Fitch, Thomas R. Gold, Charles Goldsborough, Edwin Gray, Jacob Hufty, Richard Jackson, jun., Philip B. Key, Lyman Law, Joseph Lewis, jr., William Lowndes, Archibald McBryde, James Milnor, Jonathan O. Mosely, Joseph Pearson, Timothy Pitkin, jun., Elisha R. Potter, Josiah Quincy, John Randolph, William Reed, Henry M. Ridgely, William Rodman, Daniel Sheffey, Richard Stanford, Lewis B. Sturges, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Uri Tracy, Laban Wheaton, Leonard White, and Thomas Wilson.

Ordered, That the title be, "An act in addition to the act, entitled 'An act to raise an additional military force, and for other purposes.'"

FRIDAY, January 15.

Land claims in Missouri Territory--Confirmation of private claims--Pre-emptions.

Mr. HEMPSTEAD observed, that he had certain resolutions to submit, on which, as they were somewhat in detail, he would ask the liberty to make a few remarks. Under the second section of the first act for adjusting land claims in the Territory of Louisiana, (now Missouri,) each actual settler was entitled to six hundred and forty acres of land, together with such other and further quantity as heretofore had been allowed for the wife and family of such actual settler, agreeably to the laws, usages, and customs of the Spanish Government. A majority of the Board of Land Commissioners in that Territory were, under that section, so liberal in their grants, that it excited the alarm of Government. This alarm, sir, was soon transferred to the people, and has continued ever since; because a majority of the Board passed from one extreme to the other, and granted, in many instances, only one hundred, one hundred and fifty or two hundred arpens, where they had before granted seven or eight hundred arpens. The grants for the smaller quantities are contained in the lists of grants, and being final against the United States, would never come before Congress, unless upon petitions from individual claimants. Other boards of Commissioners, acting under the same law, have granted to the actual settler in every instance, when the law had been complied with, six hundred and forty acres; and it would seem to me, sir, that the people of the Missouri Territory are entitled to the same justice.

The second resolution is to provide as well for rejected claims, in which no testimony has been adduced, as when testimony has been received; and to prevent individual claimants from loading our table with petitions. The mode pointed out will present all claims to Congress at one time. With these observations I shall submit the resolutions for the sanction of the House:

Resolved, That the Committee on the Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing, in favor of the claimants, the re-examination of the grants of land made by the board of Commissioners for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land in the district of Louisiana, under the second section of the act, entitled "An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the Territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana," passed the 2d of March, 1805; and also the grants made by the Recorder of Land Titles for the Territory of Missouri, under that part of the third section of the act, entitled "An act further providing for settling the claims to land in the Territory of Missouri," passed the 13th of June, 1812, which provides for settlement of donation rights in all cases where the quantity of land granted is less than six hundred and forty acres; and that said committee have leave to report by bill, or otherwise.

Resolved, That the Committee on the Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing the Recorder of Land Titles for the Territory of Missouri to receive testimony in all the claims to land in which none has been adduced, and which are rejected in the report made by the late board of Commissioners for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land in the then district of Louisiana, now Territory of Missouri; and, afterwards, to arrange into classes, according to their respective merits, as well the claims embraced by this resolution, as the other rejected claims mentioned in said report, and made abstracts containing the substance of the evidence in support of such claims, and such other information and remarks as may be necessary to a proper decision thereon, and report on said claims to the General Commissioner of the Land Office; and that said committee have leave to report by bill, or otherwise.

Resolved, That said committee be instructed to inquire into the expediency of granting the right of pre-emption to actual settlers on the public lands in the said Territory of Missouri; and that said committee have leave to report by bill, or otherwise.

The resolutions were then agreed to.

MONDAY, January 18.

Two other members, to wit: from Massachusetts, PELEG TALIMAN; and from Pennsylvania, WILLIAM PIPER, appeared, and took their seats.

Encouragement to Privateer Captures.

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill "relating to captures."

Mr. BASSETT stated to the House the considerations by which the Naval Committee had been induced to report this bill. It grew more immediately out of the case of the Guerriere destroyed by the Constitution--a case precisely in point. Such a principle as that which the bill proposed, he believed, had been engrafted in the British service. It was at least required by equity and sound policy, where the public service required the destruction of a vessel for fear of recapture by the enemy in its disabled state, that some compensation should be made to the captors in lieu of that which would have accrued from the sale of the vessel had it been brought into port.

Mr. H. CLAY (Speaker) spoke in opposition both to the principles and details of the bill. He was disposed to believe the principle unprecedented in any other country; but even if it were not, he thought it ought not to exist in this country. It would have the effect to make it the interest of the captor, unless the vessel should be immediately on the coast, or in the very mouth of our rivers, to destroy the captured vessel. On consulting the underwriters, gentlemen would find the premium required on bringing in a vessel of any description from any considerable distance, would be equal to one-half her value; and, as proof of it, Mr. C. instanced the high insurance even from Charleston and New Orleans, along our own coast, to a northern port. The strongest possible temptation would, therefore, be offered by giving half the value of the destroyed vessel to the captors in case of her destruction. Mr. C. moved to strike out the first section of the bill.

Mr. BASSETT replied to Mr. CLAY, and defended the bill, on the ground of expediency and of precedent. In the British nation, he said, rewards were always liberally bestowed on skill and valor, and they must always be by every country that wishes to encourage these qualities in its citizens. The principle did exist in the British service, not by statutory, but by admiralty regulations; and in all such cases rewards had been liberally dispensed.

Mr. BACON opposed the bill as inexpedient and unprecedented. To show that it went beyond the British legal provisions in that respect, he quoted a statute of that nation which allows to the captors of vessels so destroyed, as the bill contemplates, a bounty of five pounds for every man found alive on board said captured vessels, the aggregate to be equally distributed among the crew of the captors. Further, he believed, that Government had not gone.

Mr. CHEVES on this remarked, that every encouragement was afforded to British naval officers, by their Government, as well by promotions to higher office and to nobility, &c., which were not known in this country, as by pecuniary rewards and pensions, not in all cases by statutory, but by Executive sanctions. He was disposed to be liberal to our officers, to foster our rising navy. But, though friendly to the principle, he objected to the particular details of the bill, which he thought susceptible of modifications which would be better made in select committee than in the House. He, therefore, moved that the committee rise.

Mr. QUINCY objected to the principle of the bill, which he thought fundamentally questionable. He was for providing specially by statute for each case after its occurrence, where the circumstances of the case required an exercise of liberality by Congress, and to legislate generally for future occurrences.

The committee then rose, reported progress, and were refused leave to sit again; and,

On motion of Mr. CHEVES, the bill was recommitted to the Naval Committee.

TUESDAY, January 19.

Privateer Pensions.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill regulating pensions to persons on board private armed ships.

Mr. BURWELL moved to strike out the vital section of the bill, with a view to try the principle. In support of the motion, he remarked that he conceived it improper to adopt a principle so extremely liable to abuse as this, especially when pensions had been refused to at least equally meritorious sufferers during the Revolution. The evidence which the log book of a vessel would afford, would be so very liable to error, and so indefinite, as not to be entitled to that conclusive weight given to it by the bill. The proper course, he conceived, would be, to leave the subject open to the annual disposition of Congress; which was now the case with certain other pensions.

Mr. BASSETT stated, in reply, that, at the last session, two per cent. having been reserved from the wages of the seamen on board private armed vessels, for the avowed and declared purpose of constituting a fund for pensions to the wounded, this bill now merely indicated the mode of carrying this provision into effect. The money had been reserved by the collectors and consuls, and as it was never the intention of Congress to make them a present of it, it remained for Congress to direct the mode of its distribution. If the principle was incorrect, it ought to have been objected to when the pledge was given by the House last session on the subject.

The question on striking out the section was negatived by a very small majority; and the committee rose and reported the bill.