posed by other members, and referred to the, inexecution of the Treaty of Peace, and to the recent captures of American vessels by English cruisers, in the American seas.

[APRIL, 1818

it enabled the Government to persist in, and to maintain, the system of neutrality which had been recommended by the Father of his Country-a policy, the correctness and benefits of which, whatever may have been the disagreement of opinion among the public men of those

The policy of these resolutions was doubted; they were therefore strenuously opposed, and the extraordinary mission of Mr. Jay to Eng-times, that will now scarcely be doubted. land suspended their further discussion.

During the continuance of this treaty, further The French Revolution had by this time be- though ineffectual attempts were made to escome the subject of universal attention. War tablish a satisfactory intercourse with the Enghad broken out between France and England. lish colonies in the West Indies, and, likewise, The avowed policy of our own Government to to place the subject of impressment on a mutuavoid war, and to adhere to a system of neu-ally safe and equitable footing. trality, was much questioned; and for a time it was matter of great uncertainty whether the country would support the neutrality recommended by the President.

The universal dissatisfaction, on account of the commercial system of England, the inexecution of the articles of peace, the numerous captures by orders of the French Government, of our vessels, employed in a trade strictly neutral, combined with our friendly recollections of the services of France, and our good wishes in favor of the effort she professed to be making to establish a free constitution, constituted a crisis most difficult and important.

It was in these circumstances that President WASHINGTON nominated Mr. Jay as Envoy to England. The Senate confirmed the nomination, and the immediate effect was, the suspension of the further discussion of the important resolutions before the House of Representatives.

England seems never to have duly appreciated the true character and importance of this extraordinary measure. France well understood and resented it. Mr. Jay was received with civility, and concluded a treaty with England on all the points of his instructions. When published, it met with great opposition. The article respecting the West India trade had been excluded from the treaty by the Senate, by reason of the inadmissible condition or proviso that was coupled with it-with this exception, it was finally ratified by the President.

Although the treaty did not come up to the expectation of all, in addition to the satisfactory arrangements concerning English debts, the unlawful capture and condemnation of our vessels, and the delivery of the ports, points of very great importance, it contained articles regulating the trade, navigation, and maritime rights of the two countries. No treaty that could have been made with England would, in the highly excited temper of the country, have satisfied it. But, to those whose object it was to prevent the country from taking part in the war between France and England, and to prevail upon it to adhere to a system of impartial neutrality; who, moreover, believed, that the safety, and even liberties of the country were concerned in the adoption of this course, the treaty proved a welcome auxiliary.

It suspended the further agitation of difficult and angry topics of controversy with England;

The commercial articles of this treaty expired in 1804, no proposal having been made to renew them. A subsequent negotiation took place, but nothing was definitively concluded. The peace of Amiens was of short duration. Another war took place between France and England; no maritime treaty existed between the United States and England; and the manner in which England exercised her power on the ocean; the great interruption of the navigation and trade of neutral nations; the numerous captures of their ships and cargoes under the retaliatory decrees and orders of France and England, with other vexatious occurrences, revived the former angry feelings towards England, and greatly contributed to the late war with that nation.

This war was closed not long after the conclusion of the general peace in Europe; and the Treaty of Ghent was followed by a meagre commercial convention, made at London, and limited, in its duration, to a few years only.

Neither the spirit of the negotiation, nor the scope of the articles, afford any evidence that England is inclined to treat with this country on the only principle on which a commercial treaty with her can be desirable. Her decision on this point seems to be beyond question, as our latest communications inform us that her ancient system will not be changed; and, in case we are dissatisfied with its operation, that England has no objection to our taking any such measures concerning the same, as we may deem expedient-an intimation that puts an end to further overtures on our part. Such is the explanation why the measure now proposed has been so long deferred.

During the Confederation, Congress without power to adopt it.

were

The treaty concluded by Mr. Jay, 1794, the relaxation of the navigation and colonial laws, during the war between France and England, and the advantages derived from our neutral trade while this war continued, rendered the measure inexpedient during this period.

And the expectation since entertained that a more enlarged and equal treaty of commerce and navigation, applicable in its provisions to peace as well as war, might be substituted in place of the present commercial convention, has hitherto suspended the interference of Congress.

This expectation must be given up; England

has apprised us of her decision to adhere to her ancient and exclusive system of trade and navigation, and the only alternative before us, is to submit to the regulation of our own navigation by England, or to interpose the authority of the constitution to countervail the same. There can be no hesitation in the choice.

The bill before the Senate, is in nothing unfriendly towards England-it is merely a commercial regulation, to which we are even invited; a measure strictly of self-defence, and intended to protect the legitimate resources of our own country from being any longer made use of, not as they should be, for our benefit, but to increase and strengthen the resources and power of a foreign nation.

Mr. MACON spoke in support of the bill; after

which

The question, "Shall the bill be engrossed and read a third time?" was taken, and determined in the affirmative-yeas 32, nay 1, as follows:

YEAS.-Messrs. Barbour, Burrill, Crittenden, Daggett, Dickerson, Fromentin, Gaillard, Goldsborough, Horsey, Hunter, Johnson, King, Lacock, Leake, Macon, Morrill, Morrow, Noble, Otis, Roberts, Ruggles, Sanford, Smith, Stokes, Storer, Tait, Talbot, Taylor, Tichenor, Van Dyke, Williams of Mississippi, and

Williams of Tennessee.

NAY.-Mr. Eppes.*

THURSDAY, April 9. SAMUEL W. DANA, from the State of ticut, took his seat in the Senate.

[SENATE.

the PRESIDENT reported it to the House; and the bill was amended. Mr. C. also laid on the table the following document:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 7, 1818. SIR: I have been informed by the President of the Bank of the United States, that the board of directors have applied to the Congress of the United States for permission to issue bills and notes signed by other persons than the president and cashier of the bank. The intimate connection which necessarily exists between that institution and the department of the Executive Government confided to my direction, may render it excusable on my part to present to the Committee on Finance, under whose consideration the subject has been placed by the Senate, some of the reasons which appear to be necessarily connected with the application. It is not my intention to urge the sanction of the committee to the particular modi. fication sought by the bank. I shall attempt only to satisfy the committee that, under the existing provisions of the charter, as construed by the corporation, it is impossible to put into circulation an amount of bills of suitable denominations to supply the necessary and indispensable demands of the community.

The president and cashier of the bank have to sign and countersign all the bills of the bank and of its various offices. They have, in addition to the ordinary duties of president and cashier of a bank, to perform all the duties of commissioners of loans for the State of Pennsylvania, and of agents for the payment of pensioners of every description for that State. They are necessarily charged with the general superintendence of all the offices established by the bank, from the District of Maine to the State of Louisiana, involving a most extensive correspondence, and imConnec-posing upon them an examination of the weekly re

turns of those offices. This examination is necesOn motion by Mr. BARBOUR, it was unani- sarily imposed upon those officers, who are bound to mously agreed to suspend the third rule for con- watch over the interests of the bank generally, and ducting business in the Senate, as it respects the to supply the wants of the different officers; to transhonorable Mr. DANA, to wit: "Every member mit specie where there is a demand for it, and to when he speaks shall address the Chair, stand-withdraw it from points where, from the course of ing in his place, and when he has finished shall sit down."

Bank of the United States-Application for Authority to appoint Persons to sign its Notes. Mr. CAMPBELL, from the same committee, to whom was recommended the memorial of the President and Directors of the Bank of the United States, reported a bill supplementary to the act, entitled "An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States," and the bill was read twice by unanimous consent, and considered as in Committee of the Whole; and no amendment having been made thereto,

trade or other causes, it may have temporarily accumulated. The duty of transmitting the public funds and receives their unremitted attention. From the wherever required within the United States demands view here presented of the various and important duties assigned to them by the charter, many of which are so intimately connected with the Government as to constitute them highly important officers, it will be readily perceived that but a very small portion of their time can be devoted to the mechanical labor of signing bills and notes. It may, indeed, be pointing such officers and servants as the interest of said that the corporation, having the power of apthe institution may require, may appoint other officers, who may be charged with the superintendence of the interests of the institution generally, and of course with the correspondence and distribution of the capital of the bank among the different offices, according to their various wants and necessities arising out of the course of trade, or any other cause. Such a course might, indeed, be pursued; but it would be an entire inversion of the established principle of action, not only in institutions of this nature, but of right reason, when applied to all associations

As revolted colonies, we lost the rights of trade with the British dominions, and at the restoration of peace it was found impracticable to recover the right in full-the trade to her colonies being the exception, and the direct trade to her West Indies totally interdicted. Negotiation, though tried ander every President, failed to obtain it: legislation was resorted to, of which this bill was one instance, but still without effect. The interdiction remained until the year 1830, when, under the administration of Pres-whatsoever. ident Jackson, it was removed, and the direct trade with the British West Indies placed upon the just and fair principles of reciprocity which have prevailed ever since.

The signing of bills and notes is a mere mechanical act. The superintendence of an institution so extensive and complicated, intimately con

nected not only with the Government, but with all the wants and conveniences of society, especially influencing in a very high degree the commercial transactions of the nation, requires intellects of more than ordinary elevation, and information as various as the wants and conveniences of civilized society. To metamorphose the highest officers of the institution into mere machines, the operations of which are to be confined to tracing certain characters infinitely repeated, whilst subordinate officers or servants are invested with duties requiring the highest order of intellect and the most extensive degree of information, would indeed be an inversion of the established ideas of the moral fitness of things.

[APRIL, 1818.

tant facts in relation to these and other connected subjects, is condensed into tabular forms and statements, exhibiting in one view an entire and comparative history of each subject. To this work, much time, industry, and ability must have been devoted; and it forms a vast depository of information, the whole of which is useful and interesting, and some of which, from the conflagration of the public offices, and other untoward events, is now, perhaps, nowhere else preserved. It must be apparent, then, that this work must be deemed necessary and acceptable to every functionary of the Government of the United States, either in its administrative or legislative departments. It was principally for their use the work was designed. It will expedite and facilitate the performance of their respective duties, and it is therefore natural and proper that it should receive their protection and enhopeless that the publication of these Statistical Annals can otherwise be obtained. It will not be undertaken by the author at his own risk. From the variety of numerical tables, the expense of printing would considerably exceed that of ordinary books; and as profit cannot be expected from the sale of a work, which, from its nature, can never be in a certain sense popular, there is no inducement to stimulate the enterprise of a bookseller. Works of a similar description in other countries have frequently been published at the national charge; and surely there is something in the nature of our liberal institutions that ought to induce us, as freely as any other nation, to give publicity to all we have done, as

It is not my intention, nor is it the wish of the bank, to relieve the president and cashier from the mechanical labor of signing bills. This duty will always be performed by them, as far as a due atten-couragement. It appears to the committee altogether tion to their other and more important duties will permit.

The reasons and facts which I have presented, in order to prove that it is impossible for the president and cashier to sign the bills necessary to the wants and convenience of the community, are supported by the experience of the bank. Twenty offices have been established, and applications for others remain suspended from the impossibility of furnishing them with bills for circulation. Two of those which were organized more than six months back, have not yet been supplied with bills to commence operations. Several of those established in the Western country have been so scantily supplied as to render their operations extremely circumscribed. That estab-fully to develop the principles of our policy, and to lished at Augusta, in Georgia, will probably be abandoned, on account of the impossibility of supplying it with bills to make the employment of capital profitable.

I remain, with sentiments of the highest respect, your most obedient and very humble servant, WM. H. CRAWFORD.

Hon. G. W. CAMPBELL, Chairman Com. Finance.

FRIDAY, April 10.

ascertain as clearly the causes of our prosperity. And it may be added, that the best mode of deriving benefit from experience, of rendering what is valuable in our system of political economy permanent, and of reforming what is injudicious and erroneous, can best be suggested by a systematic collation of the facts and principles on which that system is established.

The most of the foregoing remarks are likewise strictly applicable to Mr. Pitkin's published work, entitled "Commercial Statistics of the United States." It is a work of undoubted merit and Statistics of the United States. utility; its facts are drawn from authentic official Mr. BARBOUR, from the committee to whom documents, and its numerical tables and calculations was referred the resolution authorizing a sub- exhibit great industry and accuracy of research. It scription of five hundred copies of Statistical is understood that, intrinsically valuable as this work Annals, proposed to be published by Adam Sey- is, it has produced little or no profit to the publisher bert, and the purchase of a certain number of would be unjust and ungrateful to distinguish one of or the author; and it appears to the committee it copies of a Statistical view of the Commerce of these works by the praise and patronage of Congress, the United States, by Timothy Pitkin, made a and leave the other unnoticed and unrewarded. The report, accompanied by a bill, authorizing a sub-committee are therefore of opinion that a subscription scription for the Statistical Annals by Adam for both these works ought to be authorized, and reSeybert, and the purchase of Pitkin's Statistics; port a bill for that purpose. and the report and bill were read, and the bill passed to a second reading.

The report is as follows:

SATURDAY, April 11.

Five o'clock in the Evening.

That the manuscript of Dr. Seybert's work has been submitted to their inspection, and, in their opinion, it combines a mass of various and valuable appointed on the part of the Senate, jointly with On motion by Mr. MACON, a committee was facts and materials, collected with thorough diligence such committee as may be appointed on the from authentic documents, lucidly and conveniently arranged and methodized. Its main object appears part of the House of Representatives, to wait to be to furnish complete information as to the past on the President of the United States, and notify and present state of the population, navigation, commerce, manufactures, army, navy, public lands, and finances of the United States, and a series of impor

him that, unless he may have any further communication to make to the two Houses of Congress, they are ready to adjourn. Mr. MACON

Proceedings.

and Mr. KING were appointed the said commit- | no further communication to make to the two Houses of Congress.