Second Auditor. [MARCH 16, 1832. course to be pursued was, either an impeachment or a dered had not been reported. The office was held under committee of inquiry, or a direct application to the Exe- the law. cutive for his removal. Whatever we may believe of the officer, there Mr. WICKLIFFE referred to some statements, in re- the time of the House, and strengthening the cause of was no charge established against him. ference to the neglect of this officer, formerly made by that officer, by taking a course which the House ought We were wasting Mr. Sevier on the floor of the House, and declared it to not to sanction. be his purpose, on a future occasion, to move for an in-all officers till proper cause to the contrary was shown. He was in favor of voting the salaries of quiry into certain parts of the commissioner's official con- He would repeat that he was not the advocate of the Seduct in reference to himself. He produced an article cond Auditor, but he must declare that he believed him which had appeared in an Ohio paper, attacking his course to be the most innocent person engaged in the land specuwith regard to this officer, which, at the request of Mr. lation alluded to. LEAVITT, was read at the Clerk's table. Mr. DANIEL said he did not concur precisely with the drawn. No beneficial result could happen from it. The Mr. E. EVERETT hoped the motion would be withgentleman from Tennessee [Mr. POLK] who had just ad- subject to which allusion had been made was before a dressed the House. He [Mr. D.] did not think this was committee of the House, who were understood to be proa side mode of attack, but a direct one against the office,gressing in the investigation. or the officer, he did not know which. However, if they took away the salary, he would venture to say they would fore that committee. They had sent to Tennessee for tesMr. WICKLIFFE said no proof had been placed benot hear much more either of the office or the officer. He timony, and no member of the House was authorized to could not say whether the charges against this officer were say what it would be. right or wrong, but he thought he had good reason to sup- charging his duty was legally entitled to his salary. pose there was something rotten in the state of Denmark, As to this motion, an officer disotherwise they should not have heard so much against on the ground of official delinquency, but to abolish the Mr. BRANCH said he should support the motion, not their having been made. He [Mr. D.] had never had any office. thing to do with that officer, and he did not desire to have; mode. During the war, from the extraordinary extent He was of opinion it might be legally done in this for his colleague, [Mr. WICKLIFFE,] it appeared, had had and multiplicity of the business, it became necessary to essome dealing with that individual, and had not found it so tablish five auditors instead of the one that had been prepleasant as he could have wished. opposed, however, to starving this officer by taking away them has ceased. The Committee on Retrenchment made, Mr. D. said he was viously found sufficient. The emergency which created his salary; for eating and drinking were, he supposed, as he believed, a report on this subject. essential to the life of that officer as of other men. hoped the gentleman from Georgia would withdraw his favor of abolishing this office. He Mr. WICKLIFFE said that committee had reported in amendment, particularly as they had heard that it was the intention of his colleague, [Mr. WICKLIFFE,] at a proper mended its abolition. Mr. BRANCH. Mr. Monroe had previously recomtime, and in a proper manner, to institute an investiga- and the evil might well be corrected in this manner. tion connected with some of the transactions of the officer Its duties were altogether nominal, alluded to. He hoped it would turn out that he had dis-blished to settle the accounts which grew out of the war. Mr. MERCER said this office was undoubtedly estacharged his duty--though he could not say that it would--But though he agreed in the propriety of dispensing with and that, in the consciousness of this, he would come ho- the office when the occasion for it had ceased, he could nestly and promptly forward, and challenge an investiga- not concur in this undertaking to abolish it by withholdtion of any and every part of his official conduct. Legislature the power of repealing a law without the coning the salary. This would give to one branch of the currence of the other two. might go through the constitutional forms, and the next day be destroyed by a single branch. A bill establishing an office to the propriety of this course. He could not agree Mr. WILDE, after vindicating the motion he had made, as intended to rouse the House, the Executive, and the nation, to a subject which he thought needed looking into, and fortifying himself by precedents from the British Parliament, said that, as the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. WICKLIFFE] had pledged himself to an inquiry, he would withdraw his motion. SECOND AUDITOR. Mr. BARRINGER could not concur in the views expressed by his colleague, [Mr. BRANCH.] He did not rise as the advocate of the office or the officer. particular means of knowledge as to either. He had no But he was It Mr. STANBERRY moved to strike out the appropria-satisfied that the course proposed was a wrong one. tion for the salary of the Second Auditor of the Treasury. might serve hereafter, if adopted, as a precedent for very He thought it was improper to grant a salary to the pre-improper legislation. Worthy men in office sometimes sent incumbent of that office. officer of his salary was a better course than the tedious be abolished in this indirect mode, the most injurious conTo deprive an unworthy became obnoxious to a dominant party. If an office could and uncertain one of impeachment. He had been charged sequences might result. by the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. E. EVERETT, opposed to any new plan of assailing or annoying the inbefore the House, with participation in a fraudulent and dividuals in office, who were already amenable to direct It could not be right. He was improper transaction. In England, upon the charge made inquiry. He knew nothing as to the propriety of abolishagainst Lord Melville of improper practices, he was im-ing or retaining this office. mediately dismissed from office, though he was the bosom inquiry instituted for the purpose of ascertaining whether friend and confidant of the Prime Minister, Pitt. He would be glad to see an acquitted. He never was restored to office. He was it might be abolished. hereafter turn out that this officer was not concerned in tion. Upon such grounds of action we should be very If it should taken upon a matter of importance upon a mere sugges He was unwilling to see any step the transaction alluded to, the appropriation could be made liable to overshoot the mark. before the session closes. He was in favor of abolishMr. ARNOLD said he had as much feeling about the this was ascertained to be one, he should be in favor of that ing all unnecessary offices; and if, on proper investigation, transaction to which the gentleman from Ohio had allud-course; but he could not support this motion. ed as any member on the floor, but he thought the course improper. He should be the last man to vindicate the cond Auditor established, to which a salary is attached by Mr. BEARDSLEY said: We now have this office of SeSecond Auditor of the Treasury, or his superior associ- the law creating it. With regard to this motion, it was leaping before The question before the House is, shall we appropriate we got to the stile. The result of the investigation or- that sum of public money required by law for the payment This office is constitutionally filled. ates. MARCH 16, 1832.] Turkish Mission. [H. of R. of the salary? He could see no excuse for the refusal. If had been negatived. It was due to the Committee on Fothe officer is corrupt, let him be impeached and removed. reign Affairs to assign the reason for the instructions they If the office is useless, let it be abolished. If the salary had given, as well as the reason why those instructions fixed by law is too high, reduce it. But while the office were now departed from. The papers on which the exists by law, and is constitutionally filled, let us vote the amendment was grounded, had been communicated in legal salary. confidence to the committee by the Department of State; Mr. STANBERRY, in reply, said, if the improper con- and they could not permit the desired explanation to be duct of the officer was not official, impeachment would given, till they received authority to that effect from the afford no remedy; yet it might be improper to continue department from whom they had received the papers the salary. It was in the power of the House to withhold under the seal of confidence. That seal had now been the salary, and it ought to be done till after the committee removed, and he was permitted fully to explain the obappointed to investigate the subject in which he had been ject of the amendment." In doing this, he should observe implicated had made its report. that brevity of which he was always ambitious, and from Mr. McDUFFIE said there was one conclusive objec- which he should not depart, unless driven from it by the tion to the motion. It proposed to strike out the whole necessity of replying to questions which might be put to salary. Now, if this officer had been guilty of the most him. atrocious offences, and they were proved beyond all ques- The trade which would be opened to the United States tion, he was legally entitled to the salary, as long as he by the ratification of our treaty with Turkey had constiperformed the duties of the office. Besides, there is an tuted, in ancient times, one of the richest portions of the inquiry now going on relative to the subject alluded to. world. When the empire of the Turk had succeeded to It would be highly improper to take any step involving the Grecian dynasty, the commerce of all the countries the opinion of the House as to his guilt or innocence. within the Dardanelles, including the Black Sea, with Mr. LETCHER would suggest to the gentleman from all the fertile regions which surrounded it, was occluded Ohio [Mr. STANBERRY] that he would embarrass himself from the whole world for one hundred and ninety-nine and many others by persisting in this motion. However years, and might be said to have undergone almost an abunworthy this officer might be, it was improper to attempt solute annihilation. This state of things continued until the to reach him in this mode. It was undertaking to pre-success of the Russian arms in the Crimea had enabled judge a case while in the course of examination. It was that Power (always as ambitious of commerce as Turkey altogether improper for the House to express any opinion was averse from it) to extend its dominions on the coast of on the subject. The principle stated by the gentleman the Black Sea, and had led to an attempt to restore a comfrom South Carolina [Mr. McDUFFIE] was perfectly cor-merce once held so important by the whole world. The The attention of the House had been directed to value of this commerce made it an object sought for with this officer by an enlightened committee, formerly appoint-avidity by all the European Powers. They had all made ed by the House, who had published a valuable book, in strenuous efforts to obtain a share of it. But those efforts which many important promises were held out. But it had all been unsuccessful. The Sea continued to be ochad unfortunately happened that, when the gentlemen cluded from all but the Russians. It was a praise due to who made the book got into power, they forgot their pro- our own Government, that its attention had been early dimises. But, as the matter now stood before the House, rected to that subject, with a view to extend and nourish he could see no ground on which the motion could be the commercial relations of this country. It had been resustained. presented in that House, and very generally believed throughout the country that the credit of this attempt was due exclusively to the existing administration. Mr. A. said that he owed it to candor to declare (and it was with great pleasure that he did so) that the preceding administration had shown the same assiduity to possess the country of this commerce, and had been as zealous and as judicious in its efforts for that end, as the administration now in power. It had happened, however, that complete success had been reserved to the era marked by the accession of the present Chief Magistrate. A treaty had been made, but had not been ratified. It was perMr. ARCHER moved to amend the bill in that item fectly well known to all persons acquainted with the manwhich makes provision for the expense of the Turkish ners and habits which prevailed in oriental countries, mission, by inserting, instead of the appropriation of $2,500 that there was no such thing as making a treaty with the for the salary of a dragoman, [interpreter,] the following: Ottoman Porte, except on a condition, the necessity of "For the salary of a dragoman, and for contingencies to which was as well recognised and as little disputed as the the mission to Constantinople, $37,500.” necessity of signing or sealing the treaty itself, namely, rect. Mr. STANBERRY withdrew the motion. Mr. VERPLANCK proposed that the item of $160,000 for the survey of the public lands should be expressly subdivided; $80,000 dollars being appropriated specifically to the survey of the Choctaw lands under the late treaty; which was agreed to. On motion of Mr. DAVIS, an item of $4,000 was inserted for the purchase of the bust of Thomas Jefferson, by Caracci. Yeas 81, nays 63. TURKISH MISSION. But Mr. ARCHER observed that the House would recol- the making of presents to all the chief officers of the lect that he had, on a former occasion, submitted a similar Turkish Government. Nor did this apply only to the nemotion when the bill was under consideration in Commit-gotiations of a great and important commercial treaty. It tee of the Whole. He had at that time stated that the was as indispensable to the completion of the smallest and Committee on Foreign Affairs had instructed him to sub-most trifling arrangement with that Government. Nothing mit the amendment, without going into any further expla- was to be effected but on this indispensable condition. nation than to state that its adoption was unanimously The United States' commissioners, by whom the late treaty recommended by all the members of that committee. had been negotiated, being fully aware of a fact conHe had accordingly done so. It happened, as he had anti-cerning which nobody in a Turkish country can remain cipated, that several members of the House had declared ignorant, sent home to the Executive, as it was their duty themselves unable to yield their assent to the amendment, to do, a projet of the present which would be necesuntil they should have heard the grounds on which it was sary to the consummation of the treaty. In this, Mr. Rhind deemed advisable. Proper and reasonable as these ob- and Mr. Offley had done no more than was done by others, jections were, he had, nevertheless, in compliance with and had graduated their estimate according to the prethe instructions under which he acted, declined giving sents made by other Powers. The amount of their estithe explanation, in consequence of which the amendment mate was 75,000 dollars, H. OF R.] Turkish Mission. [MARCH 16, 1832. It had been usual with all foreign Powers who main- to obtain it, and believing it fraught with so many advan tained diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Porte to de- tages to the commerce and enterprise of his fellow-citi pute to that Porte ministers of a high grade; nor would zens, and perceiving withal that consummation now, as it any other be well received by a Government so eminently were, within his reach, justly concluded that it ought not jealous of its own dignity as to take offence at the send- to be put at hazard for the petty sum of 6,000 dollars; he ing of any one of so low a rank as a chargé des affaires. therefore borrowed that amount on his own responsibility, Our own Government, aware of this state of things, had and thus was enabled to complete the presents required sent to the Senate a nomination for a minister plenipo- of him, in consequence of which the treaty was complettentiary. The members of the committee all knew that ed. He found it necessary, however, not indeed posi the Senate, in the exercise of an unquestionable power, tively, to promise that the amount of the presents should (though he greatly doubted if it had in this instance been be increased-for that he was not warranted to do-but to judiciously exercised,) thought fit to cut down the ap- use his utmost exertion to that end. In compliance with pointment to that of a chargé. It did not belong to him to this promise, he afterwards wrote home to his Government, question the propriety of this decision before a co-ordi- fully stating the considerations which had actuated him, nate branch of the Government; though he might be and suggesting the amount and the form of the additional permitted to make this passing remark, that the Senate had presents which he judged it would be expedient to make acted very much as some of the members of that House in furtherance of the great objects of the treaty; that lethad the day before seemed disposed to act in reference ter had been submitted by the Department of State to the to another item in this bill; [the salary of a minister to Committee on Foreign Affairs, who thought with ComColombia;] and, because it possessed the power, appear-modore Porter, not only that the 6,500 dollars which he ed to think that the power must be exercised. After all had advanced ought to be refunded, but that 20,000 dolthe reflection he had been able to give to the subject, he lars in addition should be appropriated to so important an could not perceive any valid reason for the reduction, object in national policy. This accounted for 25,000 dolwhile there were many of the most substantial nature lars out of the 37,500 that was asked for. Of the remainagainst its expediency. As the mission had been cut ing sum, 2,500 was for the salary of the dragoman, down, it had been conceived necessary that all the ex- and the balance of 9,000 dollars was to be appropriated penses attending it should be reduced also. The Executive to the ordinary contingencies of the mission. A letter Government had some sort of a scale by which they might had been received from the mission within a few days proportion the expenses proper for a full mission; for this past, informing the department that Commodore Porter had been supplied by the estimate of the commissioners. was not only entirely destitute of all public funds, but But when the mission had been cut down to the appoint- even of money for his personal subsistence. All had ment of a chargé, in what proportion ought the expen- been exhausted in meeting the exigencies of the public diture to be reduced? Was any one able to say? There service. was none that could intelligently answer the question; Mr. A. expressed his entire conviction of the reasonand, in the absence of light, an arbitrary rule was adopt-ableness and propriety of the appropriation for which he ed. They chose to assume that, as the salary of a chargé had moved, and its evident tendency to promote the inamounted to just half the salary of a full minister, the terests of the country. No gentleman could for a mopresents he was to carry must be reduced in the same pro- ment hesitate as to the necessity of refunding the 6,000 portion; and as the estimate had been 75,000 dollars, it dollars advanced by our minister. It was a personal debt was cut down, as a matter of course, to 37,500. But, al- contracted for the public service. Some gentlemen might though we might have been disposed to reduce the amount possibly feel a fastidiousness on the subject of making of these presents, the Turk was not: he had always been these presents at all; but one thing was undeniably ceraccustomed to receive presents when he signed a treaty. tain, that, with the Turkish Government, if you make no Those presents were regularly calculated upon before presents, you can get no treaty. Such being the case, the treaty was made, and they constituted with him as and no fact was better established, he could not conceive much a part of the profit expected to be realized by the how any sober-minded man could doubt the policy of treaty, as commercial or other national advantages did making so small a sacrifice with a view to securing the with ourselves. The Turk did not choose to cut down important commercial advantages which such a treaty the amount of presents he was to receive, and when our opened to the enterprise of our fellow-citizens. Our trade half minister presented himself, he found that various diffi- with Turkey during the last year had been equal in culties were started; the real difficulty being, that one amount with our whole trade with Russia, although at that item of the advantages expected by the Turk had been time our vessels had never reached as far as Constantinowithdrawn. So great were these difficulties, that Com-ple. He prayed gentlemen to consider that, during the modore Porter considered it doubtful whether he would last year, two thousand vessels had entered the port of be received at all, in his official capacity; and after his re- Constantinople. Was not the amount now asked for a ception had been effected, it was not without the most moderate price indeed for participation in so signal an adstrenuous efforts that he finally obtained the assent of the vantage as was presented by such a commerce? Turkish Government to the treaty. It was given at length, when gentlemen looked beyond the Dardanelles, and anbut on the express condition that presents should be ticipated what the commerce must be all round that vast made. They told him, as they had told every body else, and rich region which surrounded the Black Sea, they that presents were an indispensable prerequisite. Com- would perceive that our trade with Constantinople formed modore Porter, with that attention to the duties of his but a small portion of the advantages which would proba station which that officer had always displayed, but which bly accrue to the American merchant. In the single port in this case merited no particular commendation, because of Odessa alone, eight hundred and seventy vessels had no other course was left to him, told the Turkish Govern- entered and cleared within the last year; yet this was but ment, that he had but 25,000 dollars to distribute in pre- one of the many commercial ports which presented themsents, and they must accommodate themselves to it among selves on those extensive coasts. He would not go into their claims accordingly. On this communication, they an enumeration of them, or a description of the country, sent him a list of presents, exceeding the sum at his dispo- since he should on that subject ask the House to listen to sal by about 6,000 dollars. He had not the money; but a much fuller and more satisfactory account than any he considering the consummation of this treaty to be an ob- could give, which would be presented to the House by ject so important to his country, remembering that it had an honorable gentleman in his eye, [Mr. DEARBORN,] and been the earnest wish of many successive administrations who must be advantageously known to most of those who But heard him as the author of an elaborate and very learned work upon the commerce of the Black Sea. He had desired to go into some explanatory remarks as to the particular items of which our trade would probably consist, and also as to what might be calculated on as its gross amount; but not being willing to take up the time of the House, he would forbear the reading of the estimates he held in his hand. [H. OF R. pioneer to our bold and enterprising mariners. They had, by their own energy, doubled both the great Capes, and pushed their adventurous commerce into the polar regions, while the Government had been left far in their wake. But here the Sea had been closed. It had been sealed up. Not an American keel had divided its waters until it had been thrown open to our mariners by the exertions of the National Government. They had long coasted all the shores Mr. A. said he had reason to expect that, in the debate of the Dardanelles: they had visited Smyrna, and Enos, which might now ensue, some gentlemen would take ex- and Thessalonica, still passing by the gates of the Euxine. ception to our making presents at all. On that subject he But now, when those gates had been thrown open, and at would refer them to the practice of Thomas Jefferson, this enlightened period of the world, when all other com(clarum et venerabile nomen,) an authority which he trust-mercial nations were emulating and contending with each ed would never be without weight on that floor. other for the extension of their commerce, should we, the In 1809 we had a Barbary ambassador to this country--second commercial nation in the world, be niggardly in a minister from Tunis. By order of Mr. Jefferson, two placing our mariners upon a footing with theirs? The hundred dollars a week were gratuitously allowed to his commerce of the Levant, and of the Euxine, had been the Barbarian excellency, besides large presents at the time first known to the world. Here the Phoenicians and the he left the country. He presumed gentlemen would Tyrians first spread their sails. Here Greece, Rome, and not claim a more fastidious devotion to republican princi- Carthage had first extended their enterprises; and so imples than was admitted on all sides to have distinguished portant had the commerce of the Black Sea been esteemthis eminent statesman. The Committee on Foreign Afed by Greece, that Jason had been immortalized by his fairs considered themselves as owing this explanation to expedition to Colchis, at the mouth of the Bothy's, from the House. If, nevertheless, gentlemen chose to assume whence he was fabled to have brought the golden fleece, the responsibility of jeopardizing all the advantages to be being a poetical mode of commemorating the rich and proderived from such a commercial arrangement as had, after fitable consequences of his expedition. It was a curious so many efforts, at length been successfully accomplished, fact, that we should be the last of all the nations to enter through mere fastidiousness on such a point as that, theirs into a sea where commerce had commenced its career. be it. The trade to Colchis had been of great consequence in the Mr. DEARBORN, of Massachusetts, addressed the time of Herodotus: that historian spoke in particular of House in support of the amendment. No person at all the beautiful dyes and rich goods brought in his day from acquainted with Asiatic affairs could be surprised at the that fertile region, and the Crimea was to this day covered application now made by one of the standing committees with the ruins of magnificent buildings erected by the of the House for an appropriation to be applied in pre-Greeks, who had been enriched by this trade. On the sents on the conclusion of the Turkish treaty. The prac- Southern shore was the valuable port of Trebisond, once tice of giving and receiving presents was not by any means of great commercial importance, and likely to become so peculiar to the Turkish court. All Asiatic and African again, in the neighborhood of which were very valuable Governments approached each other with presents in copper mines. On the opposite side lay Odessa, the seat hand: not as bribes, not as tribute, but as expressions of of a commerce whose importance was incalculable. At civility and respect. Nor was the practice confined to present we touched the great Russian empire only at two solemn public official intercourse. It pervaded society points, Petersburgh and Archangel; and the best of these from the highest to the lowest rank, through all those re- ports was scaled by the frost during a winter of seven gions of the world. No individual in private life pre-months. But the harbor of Odessa was accessible every sumed to approach a superior with whom he desired to month in the year, and all the products were to be obtain be on good terms, without some slight present as a token ed there which we now imported from the North, besides of respect; and a practice of the same kind was to be many others which were indigenous. found in the diplomatic intercourse of European nations. All the trade of Russian Poland was carried on with France, Russia, Austria, and England, all had ministers at Odessa; that also from the shores of the Caspian Sea at Constantinople, with the rank of ambassador. Denmark, Taganrock, at the mouth of the Don, found the same outlet. Sweden, and even the small Italian States, were represent- The number of vessels cleared at that port every year was ed there by ministers plenipotentiary. They all made immense. The whole trade of the Greeks, before their presents, and the presents were usually in proportion to late revolution, was in carrying the products of the Black the importance of the nation represented. Of so much Sea to Italy, France, and Egypt. Here a market would consequence was the observance of this practice in Tur-be opened for all the manufactured articles of our own key, that some of the European Powers kept up their country, as well as the native products of our soil. Hence diplomatic relations with the court, at an annual expendi- a triple, and even a quadruple voyage might be made from ture little short of the amount appropriated to the whole our own country to Constantinople, thence into the Black foreign relations of the United States. Their ministers Sea, and thence to different ports in the Mediterranean; appeared in splendid equipages, and purchased or built the whole trade of Egypt and Palestine would, in like manmagnificent houses at Pera. Custom was a thing to which ner, be free to our vessels, and a circuitous commerce we could not dictate. Compliance with it was no act of would be carried on of immense advantage to the United degradation. It was not so viewed by any body there. It States. It was indeed surprising that no greater amount of was merely subscribing to a long established usage, sanc- trade had before this time been carried on between Egypt tioned by the example of all other nations, and which and the United States. A most advantageous commerce nobody but ourselves conceived to have the remotest con- had long been enjoyed by the French between the ports nexion with any thing disgraceful. Nor had our own Go- of Marseilles and Alexandria. From this we had been alvernment so held it to be. We had made presents in our most entirely foreclosed, because we were not known. negotiations with all the Barbary Powers. Nor could any Our Government had had no intercourse with theirs, and arrangements be made with the Emperor of Morocco, our merchants, in consequence of this state of things, had without a compliance with the same observance. As to participated less in the new channels which were opening the advantages to be derived from a commerce with the to the enterprise of commercial nations in that part of the Black Sea, they were great indeed. The present was the world than those of any other flag. Our Government had only instance in which the Government had acted as a done less to open new channels to its own citizens than the H. OF R.] Turkish Mission. [MARCH 16, 1832. some years past between Russia and Turkey. If he was not mistaken, Russia, by this treaty, had made the Black Sea an open sea for all the nations having friendly commercial relations with that empire. Government of any other nation. What voyages of dis- the Black Sea was not first opened to us by the treaty made covery had we projected? What maritime surveys had we made? What investigations had we authorized? What, in a word, had this Government done for the commerce of its citizens, but to behold it with good will, to cheer it on, and to extend to it the necessary protection? But now it was in the power of the Government to become its pioneer, not only to protect it, but to open for it new fields of enterprise; and surely it was the duty of the Government, with frankness and promptitude to embrace the opportunity. Mr. CAMBRELENG said that it was extremely difficult to judge with accuracy of the value of a trade which had just commenced and could scarcely be said to exist. He concurred with the gentleman from South Carolina, in the belief that the importance of the trade to the Black Sea had been in some degree overrated; but still it was too Mr. McDUFFIE said he had no objection to the amount valuable to justify the gentleman in refusing some 20 or proposed to be appropriated to meet the expenses of the 30,000 dollars to secure it. He had thought this trade presents which he understood were stipulated to be given important last year, and had, therefore, been in favor of at the time the treaty was made; he presumed these pre- sending out a full minister, well knowing the great consents were given as was usual in similar cases; but he want-tempt which was entertained by the Turks for persons in ed some explanation as to the remainder of the sum for subaltern situations. The Greeks had already 500 ships which the appropriation was required. In addition to the in that trade, and all past experience went to show that sum proposed for presents, and the six thousand dollars to Americans were capable of competing with any nation on reimburse Commodore Porter, there was yet nine thousand earth in seizing the advantages of a profitable trade; ay, dollars to be accounted for; that was a large sum, and if and beating them out of it. If Americans were permitted intended for the contingent expenses of this mission, he to go into the Black Sea, they would soon become there was not disposed to grant it without some further explana- what they were in all other parts of the world, the carrition. The experience he had in those matters in the ers to all other nations. Five hundred ships had entered Committee of Ways and Means had satisfied him that ap- the port of Odessa the last season, and the very articles propriations in the form of contingencies should never be which we now draw from Russia, all come over land to made except in cases of obvious unavoidable necessity. Petersburgh, and might be more readily obtained in the southern parts of the empire. Mr. C. said he had been in that part of the world, and knew something about the matter. Mr. McDUFFIE observed that, though a great deal had been said about the value of this trade, no gentleman had yet mentioned in what articles it consisted. Mr. CAMBRELENG replied that hemp and iron might be brought from Odessa. Mr. McDUFFIE thought the gentleman mistaken in that statement, as the iron mines lay in the north of Russia. Mr. CAMBRELENG replied that iron was to be obtain ed at the southern ports also. If this appropriation was intended to cover the expense of this mission, there are already two contingent funds applicable to this purpose, the one "for the contingent expenses of all the missions abroad," and the other for "the contingent expenses of foreign intercourse." He was rather surprised at the extravagant account that had been given of the great benefits that would accrue to this country from the trade of the Black Sea, and he believed that those advantages existed more in expectation than in reality. However disposed he was to maintain the existing commercial relations between this country and Turkey, he had never understood the value of that commerce to be so great as it was now represented; and he should like to be informed what were the articles in which this valua- Mr. E. EVERETT observed that he had been in favor ble commerce consisted, or was expected to consist. It of this appropriation, when the subject was before the would seem, from the discussion upon the subject, that Committee on Foreign Affairs; and he would therefore we were about to revive an Argonautic expedition, and say a word or two in support of the amendment. He sail to Colchis in search of the golden fleece. He could should not enlarge upon the subject of the commerce of find no note of this commerce in our commercial docu- the Black Sea. The Russia trade was a branch of comments, and could not, therefore, understand the grounds merce in which some of his constituents were largely inupon which such mighty advantages were anticipated: nor terested. He presumed that the Russian trade of the could he comprehend why such extraordinary efforts were Black Sea was substantially the same as that of the Baltic made to explore unknown regions and remote seas, to dis- and Archangel. We should carry there the same articles cover new branches of commerce, whilst we were doing of colonial produce, and bring back, he presumed, the every thing to obstruct the invaluable and safe channels great staples of Russian commerce-iron, hemp, tallow, presented to us by nature. By the existing policy, we &c. There was, besides, a great carrying trade between are absolutely blocking up the great highway of the At-the Black Sea and various ports of the Archipelago, Jantic by prohibitory interdicts, whilst at the same moment Adriatic, and Mediterranean, in which our vessels had alwe are going out on new voyages of discovery in search of ready engaged, and would, no doubt, much more extena trade, which, in any view of it, was perfectly contempti- sively. If they did not, it would be the first open trade ble in comparison with that which we are laboring so hard to destroy. of which they failed to secure their share. As to the presents, for which the greater part of the appropriation was He was willing to vote for the sum required for the requested, they are a sine qua non of negotiation with stipulated presents, and to reimburse what Commodore the Eastern nations. Those which we shall have given, Porter had expended, but he wished to have a separate if what is now asked for be granted, are much less than vote taken on the sum proposed for the contingencies. have been given by the Governments of Europe in their He requested the honorable chairman of the Committee negotiations with Turkey. They are much less than were on Foreign Affairs, dispensing for the present with poetic given by our Government to a single one of the petty redescription, to favor the House with a plain prosaic state-gencies on the Barbary coast. Mr. E. held in his hand a ment of this commerce. He begged the gentleman to report, which he had occasion to make three or four years state particularly whether there was a single article, the produce of the United States, that went to the Black Sea, or a single article that came from the Black Sea to this country; and if there were any such article, to state what it was. In conclusion, he inquired of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, whether the commerce of ago, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, in the case of Captain John Burnham, an Algerine captive. To this report was appended a statement by Oliver Wolcott, then Secretary of the Treasury, relative to the expense of the Algerine treaty of 1797; and gentlemen would there find the article of presents amounting to ninety-thousand dol |