Mississippi Territory-Adjournment-Contested Election.

H. of R.

Contested Election.

JUNE, 1809.

from acting on the subject. It was also said by that the report and amendments, together with other gentlemen that it was a matter of courtesy the bill, be committed to a Committee of the to the sitting member, on his request in behalf of Whole; and the question being taken thereupon, his constituents, to grant time for procuring tes-it was determined in the negative. The question timony. was then taken upon concurring with the comOn the other hand, it was said that the deposi-mittee in their disagreement to the said amendtions were taken under the same circumstances ments, and resolved in the affirmative.

as those under which a member (Mr. CULPEPER) Mr. WHITMAN presented a memorial of the had during the last Congress been deprived of his manufacturers of hats in the town of Portland, seat; that time sufficient had been allowed pre-District of Maine, to the same effect with the mevious to the meeting of Congress; that the re-morial of the hat manufacturers in the city of turned member had not stated any specific facts Philadelphia, presented this day. which he believed he could prove if time were given; that the constituted authority of Massachusetts had no exclusive power of deciding on the returns of members, Congress being the sole judges of the returns of their own members, and having, in various instances, set aside elections declared valid by the State authorities, as in the case of Cowles Mead and John Culpeper. It

was also observed, that some consideration was due to the gentleman contesting the seat of Mr. BAYLIES, who had already attended the whole of this session at considerable expense and inconvenience.

A motion was made that the Committee rise, with a view to recommit the report to the Committee of Elections. The Committee did rise about 5 o'clock, and were refused leave to sit again-65 to 55. A motion was made to recommit the report; which was opposed by Mr. PITKIN. A motion was made to adjourn, which was carried.

TUESDAY, June 13.

Mr. SMILIE presented a memorial of the hat manufacturers resident in the city of Philadelphia, praying that additional duties may be imposed upon hats imported from foreign countries. Referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.

manufacturers of salt in the towns of Orleans Mr. GARDNER presented petitions from the and Yarmouth, in the State of Massachusetts, praying that additional duties may be imposed on the importation of salt from foreign countries. The petitions were read, and severally referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufac

tures.

John Heard from his imprisonment, was read the An engrossed bill, authorizing the discharge of third time, and passed.

Mr. POINDEXTER presented a memorial of a number of citizens of the United States, residing on Tombigbee river, stating that they are subject to an enormous duty of twelve per cent. on all exports and imports at the Mobile, to be paid to the Spanish Government, and praying relief.Referred to the Committee of Ways and Means.

Mr. Love reported a bill for the improvement of the navigation of the river Potomac.-[This bill contemplates giving power to raise money by lottery, &c., for the purpose mentioned.] The bill having been read once, was read a second time-50 to 48. It was then made the order for to-morrow week-53 to 42.

CONTESTED ELECTION.

The House resumed the consideration of the unfinished business of yesterday. Mr. FINDLEY gave his reasons in favor of recommitment.

Mr. JOHN G. JACKSON, from the committee on that part of the Message from the President of the United States which relates to our foreign Mr. PICKMAN stated at length the grounds on relations, presented an amendatory bill to amend which the Council of Massachusetts had ordered and continue in force the act, entitled "An act to a new election in the case, and supported the interdict the commercial intercourse between the right of Mr. BAYLIES to his seat. Mr. CUTTS United States and Great Britain and France, and replied. Messrs. RHEA, BACON, and Cook, also their dependencies, and for other purposes;" advocated recommitment, and Mr. QUINCY rewhich was read twice, and committed to a Com-plied to some observations made by these gentlemittee of the Whole on Thursday next.

Mr. STANLEY, from the committee appointed on the petition of John Kerr, presented a bill for the relief of John Kerr; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole to

morrow.

men.

The report was recommitted without a division.

Mr. BACON moved a resolution to instruct the Committee of Elections to inquire into and report such specific facts as in their opinion may Mr. MORROW, from the Committee on the Pub-afford good grounds for postponing the decision; lic Lands, to whom was yesterday referred the and, if none should exist, to instruct them to inamendments of the Senate to the bill, entitled quire into the merits of the case. "An act authorizing the appointment of an agent for the land office at Kaskaskia, and allowing compensation to the commissioners and clerk," reported the disagreement of the committee to the said amendments.

A motion was made by Mr. JOHN G. JACKSON

Mr. POTTER moved to amend it by adding "and likewise to report to the House whether the depositions taken were authorized by any law of tha United States."-Motion negatived-ayes 36.

Mr. BACON's motion was also negativedayes 28.

"Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to adopt the most immediate and efficacious means in his power to obtain the liberation of the prisoners, if it shall appear to his satisfaction that they were involuntarily drawn into the unlawful enterprise in which they were engaged; and that dollars be appropriated for that purpose."

H. OF R.

MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. from being afraid of any ill consequences resultThe House went into Committee of the Whole ing from the sparseness of our population, he was on the following resolution, reported by the com- afraid that our population, (and experience has mittee appointed to consider the petition of thirty-tested the fact) sparse as it was in number, in six citizens concerned in Miranda's expedition, quality was redundant. We have been told, and now confined in the vaults of Carthagena, said Mr. R., and I believe it, that but the other South America: day the Foreign Office in Great Britain cast its eyes on Colonel Burr, and that they either did commit him-I understand that he was committed and stood so for some time, and was only released on condition of quitting the country-that they either did commit or threaten to imprison that unfortunate man. I want to know, sir, if he had: stood so committed, in what respect his case, in a political point of view, would have stood contradistinguished from that of these petitioners? I can see no difference but such as, in my mind,. would have operated to his advantage. There is an equality of guilt, but on his part a superiority of intellectual character which would have rendered him, if there is to be an accession to the State by bringing back to its bosom those who have voluntarily thrown themselves out of the protection of the country, a more valuable acquisition, or rather a less valuable loss, than these unfortunate men.

Mr. McKIM observed, that he believed nothing further would be necessary for the attainment of this object than an application by the Government of the United States; he then moved to fill the blank in the resolution with such a sum ($3,500) as would defray the expense of sending a vessel there and clothing the prisoners previous to their return.

Mr. RANDOLPH said, he believed there would be no better time than on this motion to express the disapprobation which he felt of the report; for he was unwilling, in his representative capacity, to give one cent of the public money for It appears to me, sir, that in passing this resobringing back into the bosom of the body politic lution we shall hold up a premium to vice; for, these unfortunate but guilty men. He knew how if this proposition be agreed to, when some new invidious a task it was to appear to lean to the Miranda or Burr comes forward with his project, side of inhumanity; he knew how very natural it he will tell his conspirators that they will have was for the mind of man to relent, after the com- nothing more to do, should the matter turn out mission of a crime, and to see nothing in a cul- adversely, than to put up a face and tell Congress prit but his misfortunes, forgetting his guilt; but that they were involuntarily drawn into it. An there were occasions, and he took this to be one, extraordinary mode, to be sure, of volunteering where to lean apparently to the side of humanity to go against their will. These involuntary volis an act of as great injustice and cruelty to so- unteers will be told they will have nothing to do ciety as the Legislature can commit. What but throw the whole weight of the blame on the were the House about to do? To make an ap- original mover of the expedition, and Congress propriation of money for an extraordinary pur-will tax their fellow-creatures-who, poor souls, pose of foreign intercourse. Was not the President of the United States already invested with power to negotiate with the Spanish Government on this, as well as with as any other Government on any subject? Was the President of the United States presumed to have turned a deaf ear to the cries of our suffering countrymen in captivity in a foreign nation? Mr. R. said, this was not like a question of redeeming our countrymen from slavery in Barbary or Tripoli; but it was a question whether this Government would lend its countenance to that class of men who were concerned in the expeditions of Miranda and Aaron Burr. He for one said, that he would not consent to it; and that those persons who, above the dull pursuits of civil life, had enlisted under these leaders, might take for him, however he might feel for their situation as men, the lot which they themselves had selected. He said, he considered them as voluntarily expatriated from this country, and among the articles of commerce and manufacture, which it might be contemplated to encourage by bounty and premiums, he confessed for one, that the importation of such citizens as these was not an article of traffic which would meet with any encouragement from him. So far

had not enlarged and liberal minds, and were content with the dull pursuits of civil life-for redeeming them, clothing them, and bringing them back again to society. I wish the Committee to take the thing into consideration. As men and christians our conduct is to be governed by one rule; as representatives of the people, other considerations are proper. There is, in the proposed interference, no justice; there may be much mercy, but it is a mercy which carries cruelty, if not deliberate, the most pernicious of all possible species of cruelty, along with it. Suppose these men had been arrested and tried in this country, what would have been their lot? It is difficult for me to say. I am no lawyer; but I suppose, under the mild institutions in some of our States, they would have been condemned to hard labor for life. In what do they differ, to their advantage, from other felons? In nothing. Who would step forward to rescue them from that punishment due to their crime if convicted by our own courts ? Nobody. Everybody would have said that they deserved it. Now, on the contrary, having escaped the hand of justice in this country, and fallen into the grasp of the strong hand of power in another country, we are not contented to let

H. OF R.

Miranda's Expedition.

JUNE, 1809.

E., that this expedition, whatever it was, was carried on. in the face of day, in the city of New York, and that equipments of the vessels and enlistments were made without interruption in, the face of day. And would these persons believe that they were going on an unlawful expedition? They might have enlisted from the best motives; and, supposing that they had enlisted, under the knowledge that they were going on an expedition, yet seeing that it was carried on in open day without interruption from the Government, he much doubted whether these poor men ought to be suffered to lie in prison.

them reap what they have sown; we are not contented to leave them in the hands of justice. I believe that there exists a proper disposition in the Executive to interfere, where American citizens are wrongfully treated abroad. And, shall we come forward and open the public purse, and assume on ourselves the responsibility of that act which the President refuses to do, and thus share among us the imputation, such as it may be, which society chooses to cast upon us in consequence of it, instead of letting it fall singly and individually upon him, in case he chooses to incur it? No, sir. I have no disposition to pass this resolution to take the responsibility upon myself. In short, But, putting motives aside, these men declare I should have been glad, if instead of telling us that they did not understand the nature of the that these men are unfortunate and miserable, service for which they were engaged; and this (for who are so unfortunate and miserable as the statement the committee who made the report truly guilty?) that the members of that commit- had brought themselves to believe. Let it be rectee, or the respectable chairman himself, had ollected that these unfortunate individuals were come forward and shown the claim of these pe- lying in prison; and, although they had, by some titioners to the peculiar patronage of the country. means, forwarded a petition here, they could not So far from any disposition to bring them back, attend in person to urge their claim to relief by I would allow a drawback or bounty on the ex- proofs presented to the House. The persons who portation of every man of similar principles. procured these men to go on this expedition cerMr. EMOTT said, that as he had been a mem-tainly would not be very willing to come forber of the committee whose report was now under consideration, he felt the propriety of making a few observations to show the expediency of adopting the resolution. In order to obtain the release of these miserable and deluded men, it was necessary that the Government should interfere, because the Spanish Government never would release them till such application was made. The only money necessary to be paid was not to the Spanish Government, but to defray the expense of bringing back the prisoners. It was not to buy their liberty, but to employ a person to go there to request it.

It had been said that the President had power to attempt the release of these persons without any resolution of the House. Mr. E. said he would not enter into that consideration. He knew, if the President had the power, that he had not chosen to exercise it; and if the House could find from the statement of the situation of these men that they ought to be relieved, they should not refrain from expressing their opinion, merely because the President had the power and would not exercise it.

It might be necessary, Mr. E. said, to call to the minds of the Committee the situation of these men. They were persons employed by Miranda, in his expedition, who, he undertook to say, did not know that they were going on any expedition contrary to the laws of the country. When taken, they had been tried by the Spaniards on a charge of piracy, and condemned to lie in a dungeon for a term of years. They prayed the Congress for its interposition in their behalf.

It had been said that these men knowingly engaged in this expedition. Mr. E. said he believed that they did not; but, admitting, for a moment, that this was the case; that they did know the pursuit on which they were entering, they should not, for that reason alone, be suffered to lie in prison. Let it be understood, said Mr. |

ward and give testimony; because, by so doing, they might criminate themselves and render themselves liable to the operation of the laws of their country. Considering that these persons were removed thousands of miles from us, that they were unfriended, and that the persons who alone could prove that their intent was innocent, would not come forward for fear of criminating themselves, he thought these men were entitled to commiseration, and he believed that it was in his power to show two or three circumstances which would convince the House that they had no knowledge of the nature of this expedition. The first circumstance was the extreme improbability that these men would have engaged in this expedition, if the nature of it had been explained. Had Mr. Smith or General Miranda gone to these men and said, "we are going on an expedition against the laws of the country, and, if taken, you will be punished under the laws of one country or the other," it is extremely improbable that they would have engaged. It is not likely that Miranda or Mr. Smith avowed their purposes, and told them that they were going on an expedition hostile in its nature, and against the laws of the country, because its object was to revolutionize a nation in amity with the United States. It is impossible that these men should have known the nature of the expedition, when it was not known to the Government here, however public. This circumstance, to me, is conclusive, to show that these young men did not know it. There might have been persons who did; if you please, Mr. Ogden, who furnished the ship, or others, but it is impossible to believe, that these men, who were mere soldiers for carrying on the expedition, knew the nature of it. I am convinced that these persons, all privates-for the officers were executed-did not know why they did enlist, or that the corps was for the purposes to which it was actually designed.