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will give them for it what they believe to be its value. The United States have necessarily no connection with the transaction.

The cost is a thing into which I will not enter further than to say to the Senator from Iowa that the cost of surveying the land must be greatly over that of the ordinary survey of public lands, for there can be no just survey save that which will award to each of the inhabitants there that which he now claims. Their settlement has not been made under sections and township lines, and the consequence would be that it would very often happen that in subdividing according to the ordinary mode of survey you would put the house on one side and the field on the other. You would have to survey, therefore, with a view to the settlement, and not in the ordinary mode of surveying the public lands of the United States.

I think this whole thing objectionable. As I said before, I do not propose to go into the question of the rate we are to pay. These half-breeds have incorporated their labor in the land. It is, then, theirs. Let them sell it for their own advantage, or, if they do not choose to sell it, leave them where their condition and local attachment render them anxious to remain.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. We ought to ask ourselves where these Indians would be removed to if they were removed from these lands. They now extend to the Red river, on the north -to Lord Selkirk's settlement; and beyond that is the British possession. West of that is the country which we have reason to believe would be assigned to them; and it is not at all suited to their wants. There is no pressing population in this country which requires that the Indian title should be extinguished at once ; and I see no reason why we should place at the discretion of the President a treaty which we have a right to reject from the beginning, and have not determined to accept. It is a strange proposition that we reflect upon the discretion of the President because we do not wish him to form this treaty. We have a right to decide whether we wish the treaty made or not; and to give the authority to the President is nothing more nor less than directing him to make the treaty. I do not wish the treaty made at all. Let the Indians alone until Minnesota shall be in need of this territory. The Indians are becoming civilized as the settlers extend beyond them. I have always doubted the policy of crowding a great number of Indian tribes upon a single territory. They have their hereditary feuds and causes of quarrels with other tribes, with which they will be brought into juxtaposition in the territory. I doubted the

policy at the time it first commenced. My intercourse with the Indians upon the frontiers has since led me to doubt it still more strongly. I believe that we are now following out a policy which will result in more evil than good.

Committee report by Jefferson Davis, Sept. 27, 1850.

PORTRAITS OF PRESIDENTS.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi, from the Joint Committee on the Library, to whom had been referred the memorial of William E. McMaster, praying that he may be authorized to paint full half-length portraits of all the Presidents, to be placed in the President's House, asked to be discharged from the further consideration of the same.

Mr. D. said: In making this motion, I wish to state that this motion is not to be considered as a criticism on his style or a decision on his merits. It merely implies that the Library Committee prefer taking portraits already completed to authorizing the making of them.

The motion was agreed to; and the committee were discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi, from the Joint Committee on the Library, reported the following joint resolution; which was read a first and second time by unanimous consent, and considered as in Committee of the Whole:

A joint resolution authorizing the Joint Committee on the Library to purchase certain portraits of the first five Presidents of the United States, now in the Congressional Library.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Joint Committee on the Library be and hereby is authorized to purchase the portraits of the first five Presidents of the United States, now in the Congressional Library: Provided, That they do not cost more than $500 each.

Mr. D. I would state that the committee reported in favor of the purchase of these portraits some years ago, at a cost not exceeding $1,000 each. The memorial of the executor of Mr. Stuart refers to that, and he says he would consider $1,000 a fair price. They are known to be genuine portraits by Stuart. Mr, Adams, when a member of the Committee on

the Library, gave some information on that point. The Joint Committee have no doubt that these are genuine portraits by Stuart, though they do not consider them the best of his style. But the Joint Committee have thought proper to limit the price which shall be paid for these portraits to $500 each.

No amendment having been offered, the resolution was reported to the Senate.

Remarks of Jefferson Davis, Sept. 28, 1850.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. I wish to offer the following amendment:

"That the Secretary of War be and he is hereby authorized to pay the unexpended balance of the appropriation made by the act of March 3, 1849, for publishing a new edition of the Ordnance Manual, to the officer of the United States army employed in compiling, arranging, superintending, and publishing the same, as provided by the terms of said act."

The Secretary of War at that time (Mr. Marcy) recommended to the Senate a new edition of the Ordnance Manual to be printed, the old one being exhausted. A communication was sent from the Ordnance Bureau to the Committee on Military Affairs, which recommended that to defray the expense of publishing a new edition of a thousand copies, including compensation to be allowed to Captain Mordecai for compiling, arranging, and supervising, there should be appropriated $6,000. The Committee on Military Affairs reported an amendment to the appropriation bill, which left out the name of Captain Mordecai, and increased the number of copies to 1,500. The number of copies was increased for reasons which it is unnecessary at this time to detail, and the name of Captain Mordecai left out, because the committee believed it was improper to make appropriation for an individual, and that for some cause or other it might be advisable or desirable to change the order -that the officer might die, and if the appropriation were made in his name, no other officer could take charge of the work, and it would fail to be executed. For that reason the committee recommended that there should be appropriated $6,000 to defray the expenses of publishing 1,500 copies. When the work was completed, the balance on hand was, of course, the compensation for the officer. As all the bills had to be paid, the balance was the compensation for the compiler; but Secre

tary Crawford (in a communication which lies before me, believed he had no authority to pay the compiler for the work, because he was an officer of the army-the act of 1842 prohibiting all extra allowances to officers of the army; and he therefore recommended additional legislation upon the subject. The Committee on Military Affairs, recollecting the whole history of the transaction, informed the Secretary that it was the intention to pay the officer of the army, who was, in fact, the compiler of the work. He, however, decided that he would not pay the money without some legislation to authorize him; and the amendment which I now offer is to authorize the unexpended balance to be allowed to the compiler, in accordance with the intention of the act of 1849. It is not to make a new appropriation of money, but to allow the unexpended balance of a former appropriation to be paid to the individual for whom it was intended in the first place.

The question being taken on the amendment, it was agreed to.

SUPERINTENDENT OF MILITARY ACADEMY.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. I have another amendment, which I will explain as briefly as I can:

"Provided, That the pay and emoluments of the superintendent of the United States Military Academy shall in no case be less than the pay of a professor of natural and experimental philosophy."

When the appropriation bill for the Military Academy was before the Senate, I made a proposition to increase the rank of that officer to the grade of lientenant colonel, either by linear commission or by brevet. It was with a view to secure to him the pay of lieutenant colonel, believing that amount was necessary to maintain the station which he occupied, and further, because that is the pay of the professors of natural and experimental philosophy. At that time, on account of another proposition being entertained by my friend from Florida, [Mr. YULEE,] I abandoned the proposition, in order that it might be disposed of in this bill. We now find ourselves at the close of the session, without any ability to consider a new mode of providing for the increase of rank of that officer. I therefore offer this amendment, in order that he may escape from the anomalous condition in which he is placed as superintendent of that academy, being in fact the commanding officer of that

institution. As his case now stands, he receives but the pay of a captain. A junior in rank, therefore, receives the same pay as the superintendent, who has all the care of the institution. The whole thing is an anomaly, and is therefore unjust. We have no time now to adopt a more acceptable plan, and I offer this amendment as the only mode of escaping from the condition in which we are placed.

Mr. HUNTER. I only ask my friend whether the effect of the amendment will not be to turn out the man who already occupies the post?

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. Not at all; it is merely to increase his pay from that of captain to that of a lieutenant colonel.

The amendment was adopted.

Remarks of Jefferson Davis on the Naval Appropriations bill Sept. 28, 1850.

THE NAVAL APPROPRIATION BILL.

The Senate then resumed the consideration of the naval appropriation bill.

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. I have an amendment which I wish to offer after the 124th line, as follows:

"Provided, That ten appointments of midshipmen may be made by the President, without reference to residence or congressional recommendation."

I will state that, as at present provided, the officers of the army not having residence have had very little opportunity to get their sons into the navy. We have a provision of this kind for the army, allowing the President to appoint cadets at large, as it is termed-boys without residence, and without influence -sons of officers who have spent their lives in the army and navy, and have had no opportunity to enter the service.

Mr. BUTLER. I concur with my friend from Mississippi in that amendment. I will state an instance in which an officer found it impossible to get an appointment in the navy for his son. Col. Eugene, not having a claim upon his country by hereditary right, presented his son to the Navy Department for a midshipman's warrant, and the late Secretary told him that he was not so far a citizen of South Carolina as to claim the privilege of presenting his son, though, in my opinion, the

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