Part 238

Mr. STOW made a motion going to confine the pensions allowed by the bill to such as should be disabled in actual service, and spoke in support of his motion.

Mr. MCKIM opposed the motion. The services rendered by the privateers were valuable to the country and ought to be encouraged. The duties on prize goods, he said, brought into the port of Baltimore alone, had amounted to three hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars. This showed the importance of this system in a pecuniary point of view.

Mr. STOW questioned the benefit rendered to the public interest by privateering, and said he was in favor of letting this fund accumulate, and first see whether there was sufficient to pension those having received known wounds in action, before they agreed to extend it to all casualties on board private armed vessels.

Mr. LITTLE asserted the utility of privateers and their efficiency as a means of annoying the enemy, He bore testimony to the bravery they had displayed in all conflicts with the enemy, and to the injuries they had inflicted on his commerce. The enterprising individuals concerned in it ought to be encouraged; for, by the impediments to the prosecution of their enterprise, many had been already discouraged and had dismantled their vessels. If properly encouraged, they would scour every sea, however distant, and ransack every port and harbor in search of the enemy. He was in favor of exhibiting the most liberal disposition towards them.

Considerable further debate took place on the amendment, which was at last agreed to by a very small majority.

Mr. RHEA subsequently moved to recommit the bill to the same committee which reported it, for the purpose of amendment; and the bill was recommitted.

WEDNESDAY, January 20.

Astronomical Observatory.

Mr. MITCHILL, from the committee to whom was referred the memorial of William Lambert, and the report made thereon by the Secretary of State at the last session, presented a bill authorizing the establishment of an Astronomical Observatory; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole on Friday next.

The report is as follows:

On the 27th December, 1809, Mr. Lambert addressed the House of Representatives upon the expediency of establishing a first meridian for the United States at their permanent seat of Government. This was ordered for consideration to a select number of gentlemen, who, on the 28th March, eighteen hundred and ten, laid upon the table an able and learned opinion, accompanied with scientific calculations illustrative of the object. They concluded their investigation by recommending that provision should be made, by law, for determining, with the greatest accuracy, the distance between the City of Washington and Greenwich in England, and that the proper instruments should be procured.

Afterwards, on the 23d January, 1811, the memorial was referred to a select committee; and, on the 23d of the ensuing February, that committee was discharged, and the memorial referred to the Secretary of State for his consideration.

Conformably to the desire of the House, that officer wrote to the Speaker a letter which, after having been read, on the third day of July, 1812, was ordered to lie on the table. That letter was, on the 8th December last, ordered to the present committee, who have diligently weighed the matters which it contains.

It is their opinion that astronomical observations are highly useful to a navigating and commercial people, already eminent for their progress in science and the arts, and who are laboring for the completion of their national dignity and splendor.

The most ready method of obtaining the information to be derived from noting the phenomena of the heavens, is by the establishment of an observatory. This may be erected at the city of Washington. By such an institution, means may be adopted not only to fix the first meridian, but to ascertain a great number of other astronomical facts and occurrences through the vigilance of a complete astronomer.

THURSDAY, January 21.

The House met with closed doors; and, after being opened, another member, to wit, from New York, PETER B. PORTER, appeared, and took his seat.

FRIDAY, January 22.

Encouragement to Privateers.

The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Ways and Means on the petitions of Joshua Barney and Stephen Kingston.

The resolution, reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, "that it is inexpedient to legislate upon the subject of the petitions," was disagreed to; and the following was reported to the House as a substitute thereto:

"Resolved, That any right or claim of the United States to British property which may have been captured by American privateers, arising from forfeiture under any provision of the non-importation acts, ought to be relinquished for the benefit of the captors."

The question on the original resolution was also disagreed to by a vote of the House. For disagreeing 61, against it 47.

And the resolution proposed in Committee of the Whole as a substitute, was, as stated above, agreed to; and was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means to bring in a bill in pursuance thereof.

Impressed Seamen.

The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a correspondence between John Mitchell, Agent for American Prisoners of War at Halifax, and the British Admiral commanding at that station.