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H. of R.]

United States' Penal Code.

[JAN. 24, 1825.

ten, or shall thereafterwards underwrite any policy of insurance thereon, or on goods on board thereof, or shall, within the United States, build or fit out, or aid in build

the same shall be cast away, burnt, or destroyed, for the purpose, or with the design aforesaid; every person so offending, shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of felony, and shall be punished, by fine, not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement to hard labor not exceeding ten years.”

"By any person belonging to the company of said ship, or any passenger, on any other person belonging to the company of said ship, or any other passenger." On motion of Mr. WEBSTER, the words "and outing or fitting out, any ship or vessel, with intent that of the jurisdiction of any particular state" were added to those parts of the bill which prescribe the limits within which the crimes to be punished must have been committed. Mr. W. further stated, that the present law provided punishment against seamen who "make revolt." But, as this term is unknown to both the civil and the common law, and is found only in the act of Congress, to which he referred, a question had arisen in the Courts "Sec. 24. And be it further enacted, That if any of as to what acts constituted a revolt; and in one case it the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined had been decided, that, as there were precedents or at the Mint of the United States, shall be debased or legal means of ascertaining what was the extent of made worse, as to the proportion of fine gold or fine that term, so much of the act as prescribes the punish-silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or ment of a revolt is void. To meet this difficulty, he value than the same ought to be, pursuant to the several proposed the following: acts relating thereto, through the default, or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise, with a fraudulent intent; and if any of the said offices shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of said offences, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall be sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than one year nor more than ten years, and shall be fined in a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars."

[Sec. 5. (printed bill ) line 35, after “ pirate.”] "Or shall unlawfully imprison or confine the master or commander of such ship or vessel, with intent to deprive him of his lawful command, or to compel him to do any act or thing contrary to his duty, or shall combine and conspire with any other person to make a mutiny or revolt among the crew of such ship or vessel, or to stir up among the crew a general disobedience or resistance to any lawful command or authority of the commander or officers of such ship or vessel."

A proviso was added to the end of the eleventh section, (which provides the punishment of death for burning or destroying a vessel of war of the United States) in the words following:

"Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to take away or impair the right of any court martial to punish any offence which, by the law of the United States, may be punishable by such court."

The following sections were then, on motion of Mr. WEBSTER, added at the end of the bill. In illustrating the first of them, that murder, manslaughter, and maiming, were the only offences now punished by the bill, no provision was made for that class of offences called felonious assaults; for want of which, it had actually happened, that a sailor, who cut the throat of his captain with a razor, from ear to ear, could receive no punishment whatever, because, by a miracle, the captain had recovered. And, in like manner, with respect to the second, that there had lately occurred two cases, in which conspiracies to defraud the underwriters by sinking the ships at sea, had gone unpunished, although clearly proved, because the attempt did not succeed.

[At the end of Sec. 22, of printed amendments.] "Sec. 22. And be it further enacted, That, if any person or persons upon the high seas, or in any arm of the sea, or in any river, harbor, or creek, and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state as aforesaid, on board any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States, or any citizen or citizens thereof, shall, with a dangerous weapon, or with intent to kill, rob, steal, or to commit a mayheim or rape, or to perpetrate any other felony, commit an assault on another, such person shall, on conviction thereof, be punished, by fine, not exceeding three thousand dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement to hard labor not exceeding three years, according to the aggravation of the offence."

"Sec. 23. And be it further enacted, That, if any person or persons shall, on the high sea, or within the United States, wilfully and corruptly conspire, combine, and confederate with any other person or persons, such person or persons being either within or without the United States, to cast away, burn, or otherwise destroy any ship or vessel, or to procure the same to be done, with intent to injure any person that bath underwrit

"And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, shall be and the same are hereby repealed."

Mr. WRIGHT now repeated his motion for amendment, formerly stated, which, after a short debate, was negatived.

Mr. WICKLIFFE then moved to strike out the punishment of death in the 1st section of the bill, (provided for burning any dwelling house, mansion house, store, barn, stable, light house, arsenal, magazine, rope walk, ware house, store house, block house, barrack, ship or vessel, within any fort, dockyard, navy yard, arsenal, or magazine, belonging to the United States,) and substitute in lieu thereof

"Shall be punished, by fine, not exceeding 5000 dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement at hard labor, not exceeding 15 years, according to the aggravation of the offence."

As this motion went to a leading feature of the bill, Mr. WEBSTER rose and said, that he might as well take the present opportunity as any other, briefly to state what were his views in relation to the penal parts of the bill. He regretted, as much as any of the gen tlemen could do, the necessity of capital punishments, and he did not know that he was not prepared to say, that a system might be formed in which it should be dispensed with altogether. But such was not the present system of our laws. We punish the crimes of treason, murder, and rape, with death, and so long as this punishment was retained at all, he conceived that the crime of arson merited it as richly as either of the other offences. He would state, in a few words, his reasons for this opinion. No human code, proceeding on just principle, could undertake to administer any part of that moral retribution, which belonged to the General Government of the Universe. The great objects of human punishments is to deter, by example, from the commission of crimes. Laws do not, or ought not, to proceed on a vindictive principle. Offenders are punished, not to take vengeance of them, but that others may not offend, in like manner. Nemo prudens punit quia peccatum est, sed ne peccatur. Such was the sentiment of Seneca, and it was a just sentiment. The true inquiry, therefore, is, what degree f punishment

JAN. 24, 25, 1825.] Drawback on Hemp-Internal Trade with Mexico.

[H. of R. & Sen.

is likely to the purpose of prevention, and to secure appropriations therefor. The bill having been read the safety of lives and property. It is essential to con- throughsider, therefore, in every case, not only whether the Mr. BENTON rose and said that the petitions precrime be highly injurious and dangerous to communi-sented by the inhabitants of Missouri, and the community, but, also, whether it be of easy, or of difficult per- cation derived from Mr. STORRS, had proved the exist petration; whether it be usually open, or secret ; and if ence of an inland trade between the valley of the Missecret, whether detection be generally easy or difficult. sissippi and the internal provinces of Mexico. They Now, with respect to arson, or the malicious burning of had shewn also, he said, the dangers to which the trade dwelling houses, none could doubt, in the first place, was subject, from Indian depredation on the way, and its enormity, and the danger and destruction which it arbitrary exactions after it arrived. The Indians, prone brought on life and property. To him it appeared to robbery and murder, attacked and pillaged the caracertainly not less atrocious than ordinary murder. It vans; the Provincial authorities, separated by an imwas generally an act of deliberation, and it endangered, mense distance from the parent government, imposed not one life only, but many lives. In the next place, arbitrary duties on the merchandise imported. To reit was easy to be committed-it did not require much lieve the trade from those dangerous impositions, the preparation, or the favor of particular or unusual cir- citizens of Missouri had addressed themselves to the cumstances, or the aid of numbers. Lastly, it was of Congress of the United States, and claimed the interpodifficult detection. It is usually perpetrated in darkness,sition of its powerful protection. They have asked, said and the offender may have gone far from the deposit- Mr. B. among other things, for the right of an unmolested sparks before they shew themselves in general ed passage, protected by treaty stipulations, through conflagration. Experience proves, that extensive fires the territories of the intervening tribes, and for the apoften happen in cities, under circumstances clearly pointment of agents, with suitable powers, to reside at evincing the agency of incendiaries, where there has Santa Fe and Chihuahua. In deciding upon these rebeen no conviction, and no detection. The hope of quests, the committee to whom the subject was referred, escape, therefore, in such cases, is great, and in minds and whose organ I have the honor to be, have held it so depraved, as to be willing to commit the deed, it to be their duty to inquire strictly into the value of the must evidently be controlled and counterbalanced, by trade for which protection is sought, the probability of the terror of some dreadful punishment, if detection its continuance, and its effect upon the social and polishould follow. Still, however, if the House, on due de- tical, as well as upon the commercial relations of the liberation, should think that the public safety could be two countries. They have inquired, accordingly, and, sufficiently secured, he should sincerely rejoice. But, finding the results to be favorable to the object of the for himself, he had not been able to bring his mind to petitioners, they have instructed me to report the bill that conclusion. which has been read at your table.

Mr. LIVERMORE, after making a few remarks on capital punishments, and the limits within which they should be confined, expressed a hope that the Committee on the Judiciary would further consider that subject, and would be prepared, on to-morrow, to modify this section in such a manner as to remove the burning of some of these objects from under the punishment of death and assign to them a lighter penalty. With this hope he moved that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; and the House adjourned accordingly.

IN SENATE-TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1825. DRAWBACK ON MANUFACTURED HEMP.

The question being now put, "Shall this bill pass?" I feel myself, said Mr. B. called upon by the novelty of its propositions, by my position as chairman of the committee which reported it, and, above all, by the relation in which I stand with respect to those who are chiefly interested in its passage, to state the reasons which induce me to give an affirmative answer to that question.

First, then, sir, said Mr. B. it does seem to me that the trade between Missouri and Mexico is sufficiently valuable to merit the favor of the national protection. It opens a new and extensive market for the cotton goods grown and manufactured in our own country; a market not circumscribed by the walls of a town, or the shores of an island, but spreading over an area of a million of square miles. The seven internal provinces are equal

The Senate resumed the unfinished business of yester-in extent to seven of the principal kingdoms of Europe day-the bill for allowing a drawback on the exportation of cordage manufactured from imported hemp.

Messrs. D'WOLF, and LLOYD of Mass. spoke in favor of the bill, which was opposed by Messrs. ED. WARDS, and JOHNSON of Ken.

The question being taken on engrossing the bill for a third reading, it was decided in the negative, by Yeas and Nays, as follows:

put together. They are large enough to give rise and outlet to a river washing more territory than the Danube the Rio del Norte, which traverses sixteen parallels of latitude, and finds in three provinces only, in those called Eastern, an ample space in which to unfold its enormous length. The resources of this extensive region are rich and various. The mountainous districts abound with furred animals; the plains with mules, horses, and cattle; and the central parts with gold and silver mines. The population, exclusive of that description of Indians which the Spaniards call "Indios Bravos," amounts to 600,000 souls, and increases with the rapidity only known NAYS.-Messrs. Barton, Benton, Brown, Bouligny, to new countries, where manners are simple, the means Chandler, Dickerson, Edwards, Elliott, Findlay, Gaillard, of subsistence abundant, and land a free gift to all that Hayne, Holmes, of Maine, Holmes, of Miss. Jackson, will take it. The trade of a people inhabiting a country Johnson, of Ken. Johnston, of Lou. Kelly, Lowrie, M'Il so vast, possessing resources so rich, and increasing in vaine, M'Lean, Macon, Talbot, Taylor, Tazewell, Wil-numbers as rapidly as ourselves, must doubtless be valiams-25.

YEAS.-Messrs. Bell, Clayton, D'Wolf, Eaton, King, of Ala. King, of N. Y. Knight, Lanman, Lloyd, of Mass. Noble, Palmer, Parrott, Ruggles, Seymour, Smith, Thomas, Van Buren, Van Dyke-18.

So the bill was rejected.

INTERNAL TRADE WITH MEXICO. The Senate then proceeded to the consideration of the bill reported by Mr. BENTON, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, on the 11th inst. to authorize the Presi dent to cause a road to be marked out from the frontier of Missouri to the confines of New Mexico, and making

luable. It has already yielded, for the present year, $190,000, in gold and silver coin, and bullion, and precious furs; and this sum, although considerable in itself, is only a beginning, and an earnest of what may be expected when the trade is protected and carried to the extent of which it is capable.

The trade promises to be permanent. The internal provinces are natually dependent upon the valley of the Mississippi for their supplies of foreign goods. They

66

Senate.]

Internal Trade with Mexico.

[JAN. 25, 1825.

as permanent as are the localities, and the liberties of their countries.

But it is not the West alone which is benefitted by this trade. The North and the South participate in her profits. The South grows the cotton, the North works it up, and the West exports it; thus displaying one of the most beautiful operations of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, mutually dependent upon, and mutually aiding each other.

bind upon each other for more than a thousand miles. The Red River, the Arkansas, and the Kansas, furnish different lines of water communication; and the land To the people of the West, I know this trade to be route is free from obstruction to the march of wagons an object of the greatest value. Their own interior poand carriages, and abounding with the means of subsist-sition cuts them off from foreign commerce. The Mexience for men and horses. This interior region, so open cans are their neighbors, and the only foreign power with to access from the valley of the Mississippi, is almost un- whom they can trade. It is one of the few sources from approachable from every other side. It is separated from which they can derive the precious metals. The coin Mexico, proper, by distance, by deserts, and by moun- already brought in, constitutes the circulating medium of tains. It is cut off from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans the country in the western parts of Missouri. It is paid by the same barriers. Its interior position has acquired into the offices for public lands, and then comes into the for it the emphatic title of "Provincias Internas," and coffers of the government, whose protection it now soinduced the Kings of Spain to favor it with a government licits. of itself, independent of the Vice Roys of Mexico. Το aggravate the evil of such a position, is the want of navigable rivers. The Rio del Norte, though magnified by the Spaniards by the imposing titles of "Bravo" and Grande," is yet only brave in a war upon sand, and only great in the distance which it runs. Of the two thousand miles which it displays in length, no more than four or five hundred, and these towards its head, are fit That the trade will be beneficial to the inhabitants of for navigation; all the rest is choked up with sand.- the Internal Provinces, is a proposition too plain to be Akin to this evil is another-the want of convenient sea- argued. They are a people among whom all the arts ports. The internal provinces may be said to be with- are lost-the ample catalogue of whose wants may be out sea-ports. Guaymas, in the gulf of California, is inferred from the lamentable details of Mr. STORRS. NO small in itself, not readily approached, and separated books! no newspapers! Iron a dollar a pound! cultivatfrom the valley of the Rio del Norte, by some hundred ing the earth with wooden tools! and spinning upon a leagues of distance, and the lofty ridge of Sierra Mader. stick! Such is the picture of a people whose fathers San Bernardo and Galvezton, on the coast of Texas, are wore the proud title of " Conquerors," whose ancestors, nothing but anchorages, and separated by great dis- in the time of Charles the Fifth, were the pride, the tances from the rich and populous provinces. Vera terror, and the model of Europe; and such has been the Cruz, Tampico, Alvarado, and Acapulco, are about as power of civil and religious despotism in accomplishing far off as our Pittsburg is from the town of Santa Fe.- the degradation of the human species! To a people thus They are as far off in measured miles, and about ten or abased, and so lately arrived at the possession of their twenty times further in the difference of transportation. liberties, a supply of merchandise, upon the cheapest From the Mexican ports, the whole route to Santa Fe is terms, is the least of the benefits to be derived from a over land, and the backs of mules the only means of con- commerce with the people of the United States. The veyance. From Pittsburg, the entire distance, with the consolidation of their republican institutions, the imexception of a mere fraction, is a water line of river na-provement of their moral and social condition, the restovigation. Look at the maps. See the Ohio running a thousand miles direct from Pittsburg towards Santa Fe; then see the Kansas, the Arkansas, and Red River, running directly from it, and meeting the Ohio in the central Thus, Mr. President, I think it is fairly demonstrated channel of the Mississippi. Thus not only St. Louis and that the trade in question is worthy of the national prothe towns on the Missouri river, but those on the Ohio, tection. The next inquiry is-Will the government proand even those on the sea board of the Atlantic states, tect it? I answer that the claim for protection rests on are nearer to Santa Fe than either Vera Cruz, Acapulco, the same principle which carries protection to the comor any other Mexican port. But the decision of the merce of the Union upon every sea, in the most remote question does not depend upon a view of the maps. It countries, and upon distant isles. Our maritime comis already solved. The merchandise which is now car-merce requires ships, treaties, ambassadors, consuls, and ried from Missouri to the internal Provinces, is the same successive wars, to protect it. The inland trade to Mexwhich had been previously brought down the Ohio from ico, requires a right of way, to be purchased from the the Atlantic ports and factories. The cotton goods thus Indians, and two or three commercial agents to be stacarried out, bear the stamps of Arkwright and Waltham, tioned in the Internal Provinces. At this very moment and are the same which, after paying the cotton grower we are enacting, with the greatest unanimity, measures for the raw material, and leaving a profit in the hands of of a war character against the pirates of Cuba; and for the manufacturer, the first, second, and third sellers, and what? To protect the lives and merchandise of our cigiving employment to numerous carriers, are still sold tizens, in passing through the Gulf of Mexico. And will at another profit in the Internal Provinces, and yet sold you not protect the same citizens in going to Mexico by so low as to drive out of market every competitor from land as well as by water? Will you not protect them the Mexican ports. This fact, so important to the legis- against Indians as well as against pirates? Will you lalator, is vouched by Mr. Svonнs, who informs us that wish your sympathy upon a citizen hung by a pirate, and the arbitrary duty imposed by provincial authority, upon deny your compassion to a citizen shot and butchered by American importations, was imposed at the instance of an Indian? The story of piratical murders has been the traders from the Mexican ports, to enable them to told to you in language which harrows up the soul; now contend with those who derive their supplies from the listen to a plain statement of robberies and murders comseaboard of our north Atlantic States. Allied by nature, mitted upon our citizens on their way to Mexico. the Internal Provinces are now allied in fact, with the valley of the Mississippi. For ages they had been sepa-kansas river, by 300 Pawnees. They were repulsed with rated by the power of man. The jealousy of despotism had raised between them a barrier of interdicts, more impassable than walls of stone or brass. But liberty has raised her head, and the barrier is overthrown. Our adventurous citizens enter, and unless checked by the government, they will make the inland trade to Mexico

ration of their lost arts, and the development of their national resources, are among the grand results which philanthropy anticipates from such a commerce

"Mr. Choteau was attacked upon an island in the Ar

the loss of thirty killed and wounded, and declared it to be the most bloody affair in which they had ever been engaged. This was their first acquaintance with American arms. In 1822, Mr. Maxwell was killed, and another American wounded, by the Camanches, near the mountains. In 1823, the Pawnees killed a Spaniard, on the

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Arkansas, in the service of William Anderson, and forcibly took from him thirteen mules. The company which went out last summer had upwards of forty horses and mules stolen, about fifteen miles south of the Arkansas, by the Camanches, who lost one man in the affair. The same company, thirty-two in number, encountered, on their return, a war party of eighty Pawnees. The war whoop was raised, and both parties drew up for action; but the enemy agreed to a compromise when they found that they could not rob without losing the Eves of their warriors. In the winter of 1822-23, Mr. John McNight, of St. Louis, was killed by the Camanches, at some distance south of the Arkansas."

[Senate.

The use of an unmolested passage between Mexico and the United States, is as necessary in a political, as in a commercial point of view. They are neighboring powers, inhabitants of the same continent, their territories contiguous, and their settlements approximating to each other. They are the two chief powers of the New World, and stand at the head of that cordon of Republics, which, stretching from pole to pole, across the two Americas, are destined to make the last stand in defence of human liberty. They have the legitimates of Europe in front, and the Autocrat of all the Russias in the rear.They are Republican, and Republics have become "the abhorred thing," the existence of which, is not to be tolerated in the land. The time was, Mr. President, when the kingdom and the republic could exist together, when the Swiss, the Dutch, and the Venetian republics, were the friends and allies of Kings and Emperors. But that day has gone by. The time has come when the monarch and the republican can no longer breathe the same atmosphere. A speck of republicanism above the political horizon, now throws all Europe into commotion. Telegraphs play, couriers fly, armies move, the Cossacks of the Don and of the Ukraine couch their lances, kings and emperors vault into their saddles; a million of bayonets turn their remorseless points against the portentous sign! We Americans (I use the word 2. A road through the Creek nation from Athens, in in the broadest sense) we Americans see and hear all Georgia, to the 31st degree of north latitude, in the dithis, yet we remain strangers to each other, form no as-rection to New Orleans-act of 1806-appropriation, sociations, and our communications are as tardy and as $6,400. difficult as they are between the inhabitants of Africa 3. A road from the Mississippi to the Ohio, through and Asia. Even with Mexico, our nearest neighbor, we the northwest territory-act of 1806-appropriation, have no communication, except by a sea voyage, through $6,000. a boisterous gulf, infested with pirates. The bill before 4. Three roads through the Cherokee nation, to open you is intended to correct a part of this evil; it will make an intercourse between Georgia, Tennessee, and the "straight the way" between the United States and Mex-lower Mississippi, by treaty of 1805. ico; it will open an easy channel of communication between them, not for merchandise only, but for thoughts and ideas; for books and for newspapers, and for every description of travellers. It will bring together the two nations whose power and whose positions, make them responsible to the world for the preservation of the Republican system. And shall a measure of such moment be defeated by a parcel of miserable barbarians, Arabs of the desert, incapable of appreciating our policy, and placing a higher value upon the gun of a murdered hunter, than upon the preservation of all the republics in the world!

mencement from the opening of roads through their country. Roads induced separate families to settle at the crossing of rivers, to establish themselves at the best springs and tracts of land, and to begin to sell grain and provisions to the travellers, whom a few years before they would kill and plunder. This imparted the idea of exclusive property in the soil, and created an attachment for a fixed residence. Gradually, fields were opened, houses built, orchards planted, flocks and herds acquir ed, and slaves bought. The acquisition of these comforts, relieving the body from the torturing wants of cold and hunger, placed the mind in a condition to pursue its improvement.-This, Mr. President, is the true secret of the happy advance which the southern tribes have made in acquiring the arts of civilization; this has fitted them for the reception of schools and missions; and doubtless, the same cause will produce the same effects among the tribes beyond, which it has produced among the tribes on this side of the Mississippi.

The right of way is indispensable, and the committee have began with directing a bill to be reported for that purpose. Happily, there are no constitutional objec│tions to it. State rights are in no danger! The road which is contemplated will trespass upon the soil, or infringe upon the jurisdiction of no state whatsoever. It runs a course and a distance to avoid all that; for it begins upon the outside line of the outside state, and runs directly off towards the setting sun. The Congress and the Indians are alone to be consulted, and the statute book is full of precedents. Protesting against the necessity of producing precedents for an act in itself pregnant with propriety, I will yet name a few in order to illustrate the policy of the Government, and show its readiness to make roads through Indian countries to facilitate the intercourse of its citizens.

To the Indians themselves the opening of a road through their country is an object of vital importance. It is connected with the preservation and improvement of their race. For two hundred years the problem of Indian civilization has been successively presented to each generation of the Americans, and solved by each in the same way. Schools have been set up, colleges founded, and missions established; a wonderful success has attended the commencement of every undertaking; and, after some time, the schools, the colleges, the missions, and the Indians, have all disappeared together. In the south alone have we seen an exception. There the nations have preserved themselves, and have made a cheering progress in the arts of civilization. Their advance is the work of twenty years. It dates its com

1. A road from Nashville to Natchez, through the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, by an act of Congress of 1806-appropriation, $6000.

5. A road from Shawneetown to Kaskaskia-act of 1816-appropriation, $8,000.

6. Repairing the road from Nashville to Natchez, within the Indian nations—act of 1816—$7,920 appropriated.

7, 8, and 9. By acts of 1824, that is to say, at the last session of the present Congress, and by the same members to whom I now speak, and sitting in the same chairs in which they now sit, three roads were authorized to be made. One from the Chickasaw Bluffs, on the Mississippi, to Little Rock, in the territory of Arkansas-$15,000 appropriated. One from Pensacola to St. Augustineappropriation, $20,000. One from the state of Ohio to Detroit-appropriation, $20,000.

These instances are enough, in all conscience, to shew the readiness of the Government to open roads through Indian territories. But, in following out the road from Missouri to Mexico, a perverse circumstance intervenes; we are met in the way by the boundary line of the United States, and a road upon foreign territory is a novel subject of legislation in the American Congress. Mr. President, I had always been opposed to this boundary of 1819. I was opposed to it as a line inconvenient in itself, not adapted to the localities of the country, uncovering the flank of Louisiana, dismembering the valley of the Mississippi, cutting off a province to which our title was admitted, placing a foreign people upon

Sen. & H. of R.]

Internal Trade with Mexico.-U S. Penal Code.

the heads of our rivers, and giving them a right (under the law of nations) to navigate those rivers through the heart of Louisiana. For these reasons, and two more, which I have not enumerated, I had always been opposed to the boundary line of 1819; and I liked it still less when I found it a stumbling block in my road to Mexico, and a protecting barrier to the cruel Camanches who kill and rob our citizens. It is true, I could see no reason for not continuing the road with the consent of the Mexican Government, through the unoccupied territory of that power; but the novelty of the thing was appalling; and gentlemen might call for a precedent, although they should find it impossible to start an argument against it. Well, sir, I have a precedent; one which is strictly analogous, directly in point, up to the exigency of the occasion; one which needs not the bed of Procrustes to fit it to the case for which it is wanted. I speak of a road from Georgia to New Orleans, in the year 1807, under

the administration of President Jefferson.

In the year 1806, the President had been authorized to open a road from the frontier of Georgia to the 31st degree of north latitude, in the direction of New Orleans. In the year 1807, he was authorized to continue the same road from the 31st degree to the city of New Orleans, under such regulations as might be agreed upon with the Government of Spain. The first part of this road lay through the territories of the Creek Indians; the second, through the dominions of the King of Spain. It is the prototype of the road from Missouri to Mexico. The two sections of the bill which we have before us, are nothing but transcripts, with a change of names, from the two acts of 1806-7. Here are the acts:

ACT OF 1806.

[JAN. 25, 1825.

the Congress Library, and I found the volume of maps which he had described; and here it is, (presenting a huge folio,) and there is the map of the road from Georgia to New Orleans, more than two hundred miles of which, marked in blue ink, is traced through the dominions of the King of Spain!

With this triumphant precedent, I leave the fate of the bill to the wisdom and to the justice of the Senate. Mr. CHANDLER put one or two questions on the subject, which were answered by Mr. BENTON, as to distances, &c. after which

The bill was, on motion of Mr. CHANDLER, laid over until to-morrow.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-SAME DAY.
Mr. ROSS, from the Committee on the Judiciary, re-
Ported a bill fixing the place for holding the Circuit and

District Courts of the United States for the Southern

District of New York; which was twice read, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading on Monday next.

PENAL CODE OF THE UNITED STATES. The House then resumed the unfinished business of yesterday, being the bill further to provide for the punishment of crimes against the United States.

Mr. WEBSTER, having signified, that, in compliance with the suggestion of the honorable member from New Hampshire, (Mr. LIVERMORE,) he had divided the offences in the bill, into two classes; to the first of which only, the punishment of death was to be applied

Mr. WICKLIFFE consented to withdraw the amendment which he had offered to the bill, premising, however, that he was not thereby to be understood as giv"Sec. 7. That the President of the United States be, ing his consent that the punishment of death should be and he hereby is, authorized to cause a road to be open-assigned to any of the crimes specified in the bill. ed from the frontier of Georgia, on the route from Athens to New Orleans, till the same intersects the thirty-first degree of north latitude: Provided, he shall not expend more than $6,400 in opening the same."

ACT OF 1807.

"Sec. 2. That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to cause a road to be opened from the thirty-first degree of north latitude to New Orleans, on the route from Athens to New Orleans, under such regulations as may be agreed upon for that purpose, between the Executive of the United States and the Spanish Government; and he is hereby authorized to expend, in opening the same, any part of the money heretofore appropriated for opening a road on the said route from the frontier of Georgia to the thirty-first degree of north latitude, which remains unexpended."

Mr. WEBSTER then proposed an amendment to the first section of the bill, so as to make the burning of any store, barn, or stable, a capital offence, only when such store, barn, &c. was parcel of a dwelling house, or mansion house; and to amend the second section of the bill, so that the burning of a light house, arsenal, magazine, rope walk, ware house, store house, block house, barrack, or any ship or vessel, should be punishable by fine and imprisonment.

The section respecting offences against_underwriters, was slightly amended by inserting, after the word "person," the words " or body politic."

And, on motion of Mr. CALL, of Indiana, the 14th section of the bill was so amended, that, if there was no state prison or penitentiary, in the district where the offender is convicted, it shall be lawful for the court to imprison him in the nearest state prison or penitentiary in the limits of any other district. The vote upon this amendment was-Ayes 76, Noes 61.

On motion of Mr. FORSYTH, the 13th section, which provides that the trial of all offences which shall be committed on the high seas, shall be in the district wherein the offender is 'apprehended, or into which he may be first brought, was amended by adding, after the word "high seas," the words "or without the limits of any state or district of the United States."

For a knowledge of this precedent, I am indebted to a conversation with Mr. Jefferson himself. In a late excursion to Virginia, I availed myself of a broken day to call and pay my respects to that patriarchal statesman. The individual must manage badly, Mr. President, who can find himself in the presence of that great man, and retire from it without bringing off some fact, or some maxim, of eminent utility to the human race. I trust that I did not so manage. I trust that, in bringing off a fact which led to the discovery of the precedent, which is to remove the only serious objection to the road in Mr. LIVINGSTON, of Lou. then moved to strike out question, I have done a service, if not to the human fa- from the first section (respecting the burning of dwellmily, at least to the citizens of the two greatest Repub-ing houses, &c. within any fort, dock yard, &c. belonglics in the world. It was on the evening of Christmas day that I called upon Mr. Jefferson. The conversation, among other things, turned upon roads. He spoke of one from Georgia to New Orleans, made during the last term of his own administration. He said there was a manuscript map of it in the Library of Congress, (formerly his own,) bound up in a certain volume of maps, which he described to me. On my return to Washing ton, I searched the statute book, and I found the acts which authorized the road to be made; they are the same which I have just read to the Senate. I searched!

ing to the United States,) the words "shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall, on conviction thereof, suffer death," and insert, in lieu thereof, the words, "shall be punished by fine, not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not exceeding 15 years."

In support of this amendment, Mr. LIVINGSTON went into an extended and eloquent argument-the heads of which alone we present, in a very succinct form.

lle commenced by a deserved compliment to the

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