H. OF R.]

Eodem Die, half-past 6 o'clock.

Salt Duty.

CONFERENCE.

Adjournment.

Mr. GREGG, from the committee of conference on the same bill, observed that the conferees on the part of the Senate did not discover any disposition to recede from their amendments. The conferees on the part of the House stated the danger of losing the bill if the conferees did not relax, and proposed to meet them on the ground of compromise, by taking off the duty of eight cents imposed on salt. To this proposition the conferees on the part of the Senate declined acceding.

Mr. J. RANDOLPH moved that the House adhere to their disagreement to the amendments of the Senate.

[APRIL, 1806, ways and means, to meet the demands of the Government, it will not be the first time, as I know it will not be the last, in which I shall step forward to vote a supply to meet every honorable demand. If there shall be deficit, as there is no reason to believe there will be, I pledge myself as one of those who will meet it. I wish to adhere to our vote, that the Mediterranean fund may be lost; for we have been told by those who, I presume, are well acquainted on such points, that such a course will enforce economy, and I wish I could add, in the words of an honorable friend who has no longer a seat here, would ensure economy.

The question was then taken by yeas and nays on adhering-yeas 40, nays 47.

The House then agreed to recede from their disagreement to the amendment of the Senateayes 45, noes 36.

Hamet Caramalli.

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill sent from the Senate, entitled "An act for the temporary relief of Hamet Caramalli." The bill was reported without amendment, read the third time, and passed-yeas 71, nays 6.

Mr. ALSTON.-Having done every thing in our power to repeal the duty on salt or to lessen it, the only question is, whether we shall continue the Mediterranean fund until the next session or not. I call on gentlemen to take a review of the different estimates from the Treasury during the present session, and to consider the expenses they warrant-I allude particularly to the appropriation of two millions towards the purchase of the Floridas, to decide whether we can do without the Mediterranean fund. The great object with me in advocating the repeal of the Mr. EARLY, from the committee appointed on duty on salt was to obtain the Mediterranean the part of this House, jointly, with the comfund. We have done our part to effect this ob-mittee appointed on the part of the Senate, ject. I believe with the aid of that fund, though the duty on salt had been taken off, our revenue would have been sufficient; though even the greatest economy would have been requisite in the disbursement of the public money.

Adjournment.

to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him of the proposed recess of Congress, reported that the committee had performed that service; and that the President signified to them he had no farther communication to make during the present session,

A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate, having finished the legislative business before them, are now ready to adjourn.

Mr. J. RANDOLPH.-I hope we shall adhere to our vote, and I will give my reasons for indulging this hope. I do not profess to be so well acquainted with the subjects of finance as some other gentlemen on this floor. But if the Mediterranean fund is to be continued for so short a Ordered, That a message be sent to the Senate time, it is obvious that the revenue to be gleaned to inform them that this House, having comfrom it will be proportionally small. The argu-pleted the business before them, are now about ments of gentlemen therefore rebut themselves. to adjourn until the first Monday in December They declare that they want a revenue, while next; and that the Clerk of this House do go they acknowledge that the continuance of this with the said message. tax will produce but a small one. I hope that we shall keep the Mediterranean fund as a hostage for the salt tax. If between this and the next session a deficiency shall occur in our

The Clerk accordingly went with the said message; and, being returned, Mr. Speaker adjourned the House until the first Monday in December next.

Proceedings.

NINTH CONGRESS.-SECOND SESSION.

BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 1, 1806.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.

SENATE.]

President's Annual Message.

causes which do not forbid the expectation that, during the course of the session, I may be enabled to lay before you their final issue. What will be that of the negotiations for settling our differences with Spain, nothing which had taken place at the date of the last despatches enables us to pronounce. On the western side of the Mississippi she advanced in considerable force, and took post at the settlement of Bayou Pierre, on the Red river. This village was originally settled by France, was held by her as long as she held Louisiana, and was delivered to Spain only as a part of Louisiana. Being small, insulated, and distant, it was not observed, at the moment of redelivery to France and the United States, that she continued a guard of half a dozen men, which had been stationed there. A proposition, however, having been lately made by our Commander-in-chief, to assume the Sabine river as a temporary line of separation between the troops of the two nations until the issue of our negotiations shall be known, this has been referred by the Spanish commandant to his superior, and in the mean time he has withdrawn his force to the western side of the Sabine river. The correspondence on this subject, now communicated, will exhibit more particularly the present state of things in that quarter.

Having received information that, in another part of the United States, a great number of private individuals were combining together, arming and organizing themselves contrary to law, to carry on a military expedition against the territories of Spain, I thought it necessary, by proclamation, as well as by special orders, to take measures for preventing and suppressing this enterprise, for seizing the vessels, arms, and other means provided for it, and for arresting and bringing to justice its authors and abettors. It was due to that good faith which ought ever to be the rule of action in public as well as in private transactions, it was due to good order and regular government that, while the public force was acting strictly on the defensive, and merely to protect our citizens from aggression, the criminal attempts of private individuals to decide, for their country, the question of peace or war, by commencing active and unauthorized hostilities, should be promptly and efficaciously suppressed.

In a country whose constitution is derived from the will of the people, directly expressed by their free suffrages, where the principal Executive functionaries, and those of the Legislature, are renewed by them at short periods; where, under the character of jurors, they exercise in person the greatest portion of the judiciary powers; where the laws areconsequently so formed and administered as to bear with equal weight and favor on all, restraining no man in the pursuits of honest industry, and securing to every one the property which that acquires, it would not be supposed that any safeguards could be needed against insurrection, or enterprise, on the public peace or authority. The laws, however, aware that these should not be trusted to moral restraints only, have wisely provided punishment for these crimes when committed. But would it not be salutary to give also the means of preventing their commission? Where an enterprise is meditated by private individuals against a foreign nation in amity with the United States, powers of prevention, to a certain extent, are given by the laws; would they not be as reasonable and useful where the enterprise preparing is against the United States? While adverting to this branch of law it is proper to observe, that, in enterprises meditated

[DECEMBER, 1806. against foreign nations, the ordinary process of binding to the observance of the peace and good behavior, could it be extended to acts to be done out of the jurisdiction of the United States, would be effectual in some cases where the offender is able to keep out of sight every indication of his purpose which could draw on him the exercise of the powers now given by law.

The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, for exploring the river Missouri, and the best communiestion from that to the Pacific Ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting communication across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce, and inhabitants; and it is but justice to say, that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, and their brave companions, have, by this arduous service, deserved well of their country.

I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority, constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may pass can take prohibitory effect till the day of the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, yet the intervening period is not too long to prevent, by timely notice, expeditions which cannot be completed before that day.

The receipts at the Treasury, during the year ending on the 30th day of September last, have amounted to nearly fifteen millions of dollars, which have enabled us, after meeting the current demands, to pay two millions seven hundred thousand dollars of the American claims, in part of the price of Louisiana; to pay of the funded debt, upwards of three millions of principal, and nearly four of interest; and, in addition, to reimburse, in the course of the present month, nearly two millions of five and a half per cent. stock. These payments and reimbursements of the funded debt, with those which had been made in the four years and a half preceding, will, at the present year, have extinguished upwards of twentythree millions of principal.

The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease, by law, at the end of the present session. Considering, however, that they are levied chiefly on luxuries, and that we have an impost on salt, a necessary of life, the free use of which otherwise is so important, I recommend to your consideration the suppression of the duties on salt, and the continuation of the Mediterranean fund instead thereof, for a short time, after which that also will became unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation.

When both of these branches of revenue shall in this way be relinquished, there will still, ere long, be an accumulation of moneys in the Treasury beyond the instalments of public debt which we are permitted by contract to pay. They cannot, then, without a modification, assented to by the public creditors, be applied to the extinguishment of this debt, and the complete liberation of our revenues, the most desirable of all objects; nor, if our peace continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The question, therefore, now comes forward: To what other objects shall these surpluses be appropriated,

FRIDAY, December 5.

[SENATE

JAMES TURNER, from the State of North Carolina, attended.

TUESDAY, December 9.

ANDREW MOORE, from the State of Virginia, attended.

THURSDAY, December 11.

JOHN MILLEDGE, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, in the place of James Jackson, deceased, took his seat, and his credentials were read, and the President administered the oath to him as the law prescribes.

FRIDAY, December 19.

and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire dis-
charge of the public debt, and during those intervals
when the purposes of war shall not call for them?
Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advan-
tage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a
few articles, of more general and necessary use, the
suppression, in due season, will doubtless be right,
but the great mass of the articles on which impost is
paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only
who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of
them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its
continuance and application to the great purposes of
the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such
other objects of public improvement as it may be
thought proper to add to the constitutional enumera-
tion of federal powers. By these operations new
channels of communication will be opened between
the States; the lines of separation will disappear;
their interests will be identified and their Union ce-
mented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is
here placed among the articles of public care, not
that it would be proposed to take its ordinary
branches out of the hands of private enterprise,
which manages so much better all the concerns to
which it is equal; but a public institution can alone
supply those sciences which, though rarely called for,
are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts
of which contribute to the improvement of the
country, and some of them to its preservation. The
subject is now proposed for the consideration of Con-
gress, because, if approved by the time the State
Legislature shall have deliberated on this extension
of the federal trusts, and the laws shall be passed and
other arrangements made for their execution, the ne-
cessary funds will be on hand, and without employ-
ment. I suppose an amendment to the constitution,
by consent of the States, necessary, because the ob-his seat in the Senate.
jects now recommended are not among those enu-
merated in the constitution, and to which it permits
the public moneys to be applied.

The credentials of STEPHEN R. BRADLEY, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Vermont, for the term of six years, from and after the third day of March next, were presented and read; also, the credentials of JOHN MILLEDGE, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, for the term of six years, from and after the third day of March next.

Ordered, That they lie on file.

MONDAY, December 29.

The PRESIDENT communicated a letter from ROBERT WRIGHT, stating that he had resigned

gislature of the State of Maryland, in place of PHILIP REED, appointed a Senator by the LeRobert Wright, resigned, produced his credentials, and took his seat in the Senate.

HENRY CLAY, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, in place of John Adair, resigned, produced his credentials, and took his seat in the Senate.*

The present consideration of a national establishment, for education particularly, is rendered proper by this circumstance; also that, if Congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to endow it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the necessary income. The credentials of Mr. CLAY and Mr. REED This foundation would have the advantage of being were severally read, and the oath was adminisindependent on war, which may suspend other im-tered to them as the law prescribes. provements, by requiring for its own purposes the resources destined for them.

Mr. REED also produced the credentials of his appointment to be a Senator of the United States, from the State of Maryland, from the third day of March next, until the fourth day of March, 1813, and they were read, and ordered to lie on file.

JAMES FENNER, from the State of Rhode Island, attended.

MONDAY, January 12, 1807. JAMES A. BAYARD, from the State of Delaware, attended.

TUESDAY, January 20.

The credentials of ANDREW GREGG, appointed a Senator of the United States by the Legisla

This is the first appearance of Mr. Clay in either House of Congress.

SENATE.]

Burr's Conspiracy.

ture of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for six years, commencing on the 4th March next, were presented and read, and ordered to lie on file.

THURSDAY, January 22.

Burr's Conspiracy.

[JANUARY, 1807. vestigate the plots going on, to enter into conference (for which he had sufficient credentials) with the Governors and all other officers, civil and military, and, with their aid, to do on the spot whatever should be necessary to discover the designs of the conspirators, arrest their means, bring their persons to punishment, and to call out the force of the country to suppress any unlawful enterprise in which it should be found they were engaged. By this time it was known

The following Message was received from the that many boats were under preparation, stores of PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

To the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States:

Agreeably to the request of the House of Representatives, communicated in their resolution of the 16th instant, I proceed to state under the reserve therein expressed, information received touching an illegal combination of private individuals against the peace and safety of the Union, and a military expedition planned by them against the territories of a power in amity with the United States, with the measures I have pursued for suppressing the same.

I had for some time been in the constant expectation of receiving such further information as would have enabled me to lay before the Legislature the termination as well as the beginning and progress of this scene of depravity, so far as it has been acted on the Ohio and its waters. From this, the state of safety of the lower country might have been estimated on probable grounds; and the delay was indulged the rather, because no circumstance had yet made it necessary to call in the aid of the legislative functions. Information, now recently communicated, has brought us nearly to the period contemplated. The mass of what I have received in the course of these transactions, is voluminous; but little has been given under the sanction of an oath, so as to constitute formal and legal evidence. It is chiefly in the form of letters, often containing such a mixture of rumors, conjectures, and suspicions, as renders it difficult to sift out the real facts, and unadvisable to hazard more than general outlines, strengthened by current information, on the particular credibility of the relator. In this state of the evidence, delivered sometimes, too, under the restriction of private confidence, neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed beyond question.

provisions collecting, and an unusual number of suspicious characters in motion on the Ohio and its waters. Besides despatching the confidential agent to that quarter, orders were at the same time sent to the Governors of the Orleans and Mississippi Territories, and to the commanders of the land and naval forces there, to be on their guard against surprise, and in constant readiness to resist any enterprise which might be attempted on the vessels, posts, or other objects under their care; and on the 8th of November instructions were forwarded to General Wilkinson, to hasten an accommodation with the Spanish commandant on the Sabine, and as soon as that was effected, to fall back with his principal force to the hither bank of the Mississippi, for the defence of the interesting points on that river. By a letter received from that officer on the 25th of November, but dated October 21st, we learnt that a confidential agent of Aaron Burr had been deputed to him with communications, partly written in cipher and partly oral, explaining his designs, exaggerating his resources, and making such offers of emolument and command, to engage him and the army in his unlawful enterprise, as he had flattered himself would be successful. The General, with the honor of a soldier and fidelity of a good citizen, immediately despatched a trusty officer to me, with information of what had passed, proceeding to establish such an understanding with the Spanish commandant on the Sabine, as permitted him to withdraw his force across the Mississippi, and to enter on measures for opposing the projected enterprise.

The General's letter, which came to hand on the 25th of November, as has been mentioned, and some other information received a few days earlier, when brought together, developed Burr's general designs, different parts of which only had been revealed to different informants. It appeared that he contemre-plated two distinct objects, which might be carried on either jointly or separately, and either the one or the other first, as circumstances should direct. One of these was the severance of the Union of these States by the Alleghany mountains; the other, an attack on Mexico. A third object was provided, merely ostensible, to wit, the settlement of a pretended purchase of a tract of country on the Washita, claimed by a Baron Bastrop. This was to serve as the pretext for all his preparations, an allurement for such followers as really wished to acquire settlements in that country, and a cover under which to retreat in the event of a final discomfiture of both branches of his real design.

Some time in the latter part of September, I ceived intimations that designs were in agitation in the western country unlawful and unfriendly to the peace of the Union; and that the prime mover in these was AARON BURR, heretofore distinguished by the favor of his country. The grounds of these intimations being inconclusive, the objects uncertain, and the fidelity of that country known to be firm, the only measure taken was to urge the informants to use their best endeavors to get further insight into the designs and proceedings of the suspected persons, and to communicate them to me.

It was not till the latter part of October, that the objects of the conspiracy began to be perceived; but still so blended and involved in mystery, that nothing distinct could be singled out for pursuit. In this state of uncertainty as to the crine contemplated, the acts done, and the legal course to be pursued, I thought it best to send to the scene, where these things were principally in transaction, a person in whose integrity, understanding, and discretion, entire confidence could be reposed, with instructions to in

He found at once that the attachment of the western country to the present Union was not to be shaken; that its dissolution could not be effected with the consent of its inhabitants, and that his resources were inadequate, as yet, to effect it by force. He took his course then at once, determined to seize on New Orleans, plunder the bank there, possess himself of the military and naval stores, and proceed