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MARCH, 1822.

Florida Coast-Proposed Adjournment.

Mr. Cook also submitted the following resolution:

H. OF R.

tifications, he was compelled, from a sense of duty, to call the attention of Congress to this subject now. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be di- Sir, we have had this territory in expectancy for rected to lay before this House any evidence, in the many years, and in actual possession a year; yet, possession of the Department, showing that the uncur- the truth is, that no man, perhaps, in the nation, rent notes which he received from the banks of Ed- actually knows where the best ship harbor is situwardsville, Tombigbee, and Missouri, as mentioned in ated; and an examination is now making in relahis report of the 14th ultimo, has been deposited in tion to Spiritu Santo, alias Tampa, alias Hillsthose banks before the date of the contracts by which boro' bay. Another examination has been ordered they agreed to account for them as cash; together with in relation to certain islands near Cape Florida. the contracts under which those banks were only lia- These partial expenditures would be avoided; the ble for said notes as special deposites; if any such con- coasting trade would be greatly benefited; the intracts there were. And that he also lay before this formation necessary to the establishment of lightHouse, all the monthly returns in the possession of the houses on the coast would be furnished; and the Department, which were made by the Bank of Mis- risk of piratical depredations diminished, by havsouri; together with all the correspondence in relationing an accurate chart of the coast. The British to the latter bank, in the possession of the Department, Government have recently employed a vessel of war, to take the survey of those shores; but, whether it will ever be published, so as to be of any advantage to us, is uncertain. And shall we be more improvident toward a country we own than foreign nations? I hope not, and that the resolution will be adopted.]

which has not been heretofore communicated to this House.

The resolution was ordered to lie on the table.

The House took up, and proceeded to consider, the report of the Committee of Claims on the petition of Archibald S. Bulloch and others: Whereupon, it was ordered that the said report be committed to a Committee of the whole House to

morrow.

The House took up, and proceeded to consider, the report of the Committee of Claims on the cases of Hoel Lawrence, Frederick White, and of Thaddeus Clarke and others: Whereupon, it was ordered that the said report be committed to a Committee of the whole House to-morrow.

A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate, have passed a bill, entitled "An act supplementary to the several acts for adjusting the claims to land, and establishing land offices, in the districts east of the island of New Orleans;" and a resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as it respects the choice of President and Vice President of the United States, and the election of representatives in the Congress of the United States;" in which last mentioned bill and resolution, they ask the concurrence of this House.

FLORIDA COAST.

On motion of Mr. HILL, the Committee on Commerce were instructed to inquire into the expediency of having the coast of Florida surveyed, so as to have an accurate chart thereof made, delineating thereon the entrance of all the rivers and harbors; the islands, rocks, shoals, and reefs, in the neighborhood of the coast, as well on the side of the Gulf of Mexico, as on the Atlantic side of the peninsula; and that observations be also made with reference to sites for lighthouses.

PROPOSED ADJOURNMENT.

the joint resolution from the Senate, to fix a time for the adjournment of the present session, (the first Monday in April next.)

Mr. BUCHANAN called for the consideration of

On the question to consider this resolution, the yeas and nays were required by Mr. MERCER. Mr. CONDICT then moved to lay the subject on the table, (in order to avoid what he considered an interruption, to no useful purpose, of the regular business of the House.) The yeas and nays were ordered also on this motion, which Mr. CONDICT then withdrew.

[Two questions of order were decided by the SPEAKER on this occasion, worthy of being recorded, being important as precedents.

1. It was questioned by Mr. TAYLOR, whether it was in order to move to lay on the table a motion to consider a proposition now lying on the table. The SPEAKER decided that a motion to lay any proposition on the table is in order.

2. A motion was made by Mr. WALWORTH, to proceed to the orders of the day, with a view to overruling the motion now presented. The SPEAKER said, that he had more than once entertained this motion, as being conformable to the practice of the British Parliament; but, upon an examination of the rules of the House, with a view to this question, and finding that they direct, that when a question is under debate, that none but certain prescribed motions shall be received, of which the motion now made was not one, he decided that the motion to proceed to the orders of the day, there being another question under debate, was not

[Mr. HILL, in presenting this resolution, observed, that he had hitherto delayed to offer it, in the hope of receiving information from the Corps of Engineers who had recently been directed by the Gov-in order.] ernment to examine the seacoast from the Sabine The question on now considering the resolueastward round the shores of the Floridas; but, tion from the Senate, was then taken by yeas and having been informed by some of the gentlemen nays, and decided as follows: of that corps who have just arrived at this city, that their examination had been confined principally, if not entirely, to the selection of sites for for-resolution. 17th CoN. 1st SESS.-40

For considering it 63, against it 82.
So the House refused now to consider the said

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REPORT ON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Mr. LOWNDES, from the select committee, to whom was referred the report of the Secretary of State on weights and measures, made the following report, which was committed to a Committee of the Whole, with the resolutions :

The Committee to whom has been referred "the report on weights and measures," made by the Secretary of State, on the 22d of February, 1821, report: That so comprehensive a view has been given, in the documents referred to them, of the origin and history of the measures and weights now in use in the United States, and so full an examination of the different proposals which have been made for their improvement, that they deem it scarcely necessary to do more than to submit the resolutions which they think it expedient that Congress should pass at this time. Their object is only to "render uniform and stable the measures and weights which we at present possess." To effect this, they propose that the President shall cause application to be made to the English Government to allow models of the yard, the Winchester bushel, wine, gallon, and pound, (avoirdupois,) to be procured from its offices. For the purpose of easy and perfect comparison, it may be as well that the yard should be traced upon the rod of platina in the possession of the Department of State, on which is traced the French metre. These models should be made with the utmost accuracy which the art and science of England can give, and, if satisfactory to Congress, should be declared the standard yard, bushel, liquid gallon, and pound, of the United States. There is some difference of opinion as to the material of which the standards shall be formed. The committee will not detain the House by a full exposition of the reasons which led them to conclude, that, at least, the standards of length and weight should be of platina, as the material on which time is found to produce the smallest change. The Secretary of State, who adopts an opposite opinion, has said that "the very extraordinary properties of platina, its unequalled specific gravity, its infusibility, its durability, its powers of resistance against all the ordinary agents of destruction and change, give it advantages and claims to employment as a primary standard for weights and measures and coins, to which no other substance in nature has equal pretensions. Should the fortunate period arrive when the improvement in the moral and political condition of man will admit of the introduction of one universal standard for the use of all mankind, it is hoped and believed, that the platina metre will be that standard." But, if the immutability of platina recommend it so strongly as a standard for all nations and all time, it can hardly be amiss to adopt it for the interval which may elapse before the universal adoption of a national standard. This interval the Secretary and the committee may be willing to shorten, but it seems likely to last as long as diversities of laws and language among men. If the standard pound shall be of platina, it must of course, be made equiponderant with the English pound in vacuo, and the same means must be used in making the models of weight which are intended for distribution among the States. The standards of measures of capacity must, probably, be of copper or brass, and the careful preservation of all the standards may be provided for in the law which shall establish them. The committee think it best that they should be kept in the Department of State,

MARCH, 1822.

and used only to verify the models which may be issued under the authority of Government.

The committee believe that, by distributing accurate copies of these standards among the States, the present inequality of weights and measures will be so far removed as to leave little practical inconvenience in that regard. They propose that the President shall cause to be procured such a number of copies or models of these standards of weight and measure (with their most convenient multiples and divisions) as may be necessary to allow one model of each standard to be lodged with the clerk of each district court of the United States, and one to be given to each State and Territory, to be disposed of as its Legislature may direct. The most convenient material for those copies will probably be copper or brass, but the determination of this question may best be referred to the authority which shall procure them.

It is believed that no other obligation will be required to enforce, on the part of the officers in the service of the United States, the use of weights and measures conformed to the standards established by law, than that which a sense of duty and a dependence upon the Government for their continuance in office must produce. The committee think it best, that Congress, after providing the standards of weights and measures, and furnishing models of them to every State, should leave it to the laws of the several States to enforce their use by persons who are not in the service of the United States. In the custom-house and land offices, the measures and weights may be provided from the same funds, and under the same authority, which have been hitherto employed. The committee suppose it necessary only to provide for such a distribution of models as may make it easy to verify the weights and measures which may be used either by public officers, or in private transactions. It was proposed by a former committee of the House of Representatives, in a report made in January, 1819, that the relations between the different standards should be accurately ascertained and declared in the law which should establish them.

It was observed, that "the determination of the proportions between lineal measures and measures of capacity, and between both these and weights, may have some effect in enabling us to detect, without too difficult a process, the defects of measures of capacity, and possibly of weights in common use. For this purpose it would perhaps be convenient to establish, not merely the cubical contents of the common measures of capacity, but to fix determinate forms for all these, and dimensions whose correctness might be as certained by the common measures of length." But the relations between the standards cannot be ascertained with that absolute certainty which should be exacted in a law fixing permanent standards. The calculation of the dimensions of vessels of capacity is found, even by the most practical artists, to be so uncertain, that they rely entirely upon the trials by the weight of water which they contain. It is of some importance, that the forms of measures of capacity, which are used in commerce, should be left to depend upon the material, or the art which it is found most convenient in the different parts of our country to employ. And in fine, those relations and dimensions which it is useful to know, will be ascertained by philosophical inquiry, and published in books of easy reference. Indeed, they have been so.

The committee have proposed to establish but one standard of weight. It will be necessary that accurate

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MARCH, 1822.

Maryland Contested Election.

H. of R.

models of the grain and its usual multiples, should be as by the constitution of the State is required, in order provided to verify the weights which are used for the to constitute an election. But it further appears, by precious metals and for medicine. The law which an official statement of the proceedings of the Govershall establish the standard pound, may declare the nor and Council, bearing date the 18th day of Octograin to be the seven thousandth part of the pound, as ber, 1820, that, in conformity with what was considfrequent and careful examination has shown it to be. ered to be the provisions of the law of Maryland, the The committee submit the following resolutions : Governor and Council" proceeded to decide between Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representa them which should be the Representative, and the retives of the United States of America in Congress sult was that Jeremiah Causden, Esq., was decided to assembled, That the President of the United States be be the Representative for the said district." The requested, (if the consent of the Government of Great committee are aware that to question the right of the Britain shall be given thereto,) to cause to be traced Executive authority of Maryland to give full operaon a rod of platina, the yard of the year 1601, which tion to the provisions of its election laws, will be conis kept in the British Exchequer; to cause to be made sidered as a measure of an important character. It of platina a pound, of the weight in vacuo of the is understood by the committee that the authority, English avoirdupois pound; and that he also cause to under which the Governor and Council acted, is the be made, of whatever material he shall deem best for act of the State of Maryland, passed the 14th of standards of those measures, a vessel of the same capa-vision of the act, the committee believe, has been reDecember, 1790, chapter 16, section 13. This procity as the standard Winchester bushel, and also a vessel of the same capacity as the standard wine gallon of England.

pealed by the act of the 2d of January, 1806. But they consider it unnecessary to enter into an arguResolved, That the President be requested to cause ment on this point. The Constitution of the United to be made, for distribution among the States and States, article 1, section 2, provides, that "the House Territories, and for the purpose of verifying the of Representatives shall be composed of members weights and measures used therein, models of the chosen every second year by the people of the several yard, on which shall be traced its divisions of feet and States; and the electors in each State shall have the inches; models of the bushel, half bushel, quarter qualifications requisite for electors of the most nubushel or peck, thirty-second part of a bushel or quart; merous branch of the State Legislature." Section 5 models of the wine gallon, of the wine quart and pint; of the same article provides that "each House shall models of the pound, half pound, quarter pound, of be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualificathe sixteenth of a pound or ounce; of the seven thou- tions of its own members." On the first Monday of sandth part of a pound or grain; models of the penny-October, 1820, in conformity with the law of Maryweight or twenty-four grains, of the scruple or twenty grains; and, of the apothecaries dram or sixty grains; models of the weight of twelve and a half pounds, of twenty-five pounds, of fifty pounds, and of one hundred pounds; that these models of weight and measure be formed with the utmost practical exactness from the weight and measures procured under the authority of the foregoing resolution, and that the number to be procured of each model shall not exceed

CONTESTED ELECTION.

Mr. SLOAN, from the Committee of Elections to which was referred the memorial of Philip Reed, contesting the election return of Jeremiah Causden, as one of the representatives for the State of Maryland, made a report thereon favorable to Mr. REED; which was read, and committed to a Committee of the Whole.-The report is as follows:

That the constitution of Maryland directs that the elections shall be by ballot; that every free white male citizen of the State, above twenty-one years of age, and no other, having resided twelve months within the State, and six months in the county, next preceding the election at which he offers to vote, shall have a right of suffrage in the election of Delegates to the State Legislature; that the State is divided into districts for the purpose of electing Representatives to Congress; that the sixth Congressional district is composed of the counties of Hartford, Cecil, and Kent. The election for Representatives to the present Congress was held on the first Monday of October, 1820. At that election the memorialist and the sitting member were candidates, and, by the returns from the several counties in said district, as made to the Governor and Council, it appears that the memorialist and sitting member had an equal number of votes, and that neither had the "greatest number of votes,"

land, an election was held by the qualified electors of the sixth Congressional district. On that day they either did, or did not, elect a member to Congress. None could be elected unless he received a greater number of votes than were given for any other candidate. The term election must mean the act of choosing, performed by the qualified electors, in conformity with the requisitions of the Constitution and laws regulating the manner in which the choice shall be made. If, therefore, the legal electors, on the day appointed, should fail to make a choice, it is confidently believed that no other authority of the State be supposed that the electors should fail to attend an can, at any other time, make good this defect. Let it election; that, consequently, no election is held; would it then be contended that the Executive authority could, by lot or otherwise, appoint a Representa tive for such district in the Congress of the United States? This is a power which, it is presumed, none will contend does exist. Yet it is believed to be nothing more than that which has been exercised by the Governor and Council of Maryland, in the case under consideration. In this case, the electors assemble, they proceed to elect, they make no choice, they come to no Constitutional result. It is asked, what is the difference between the two cases? The one would be an appointment, because no election had been held; the other, because no choice had been made. The committee being of opinion that the power thus virtually exercised by the Governor and Council of Maryland, in appointing a Representative to the Congress of the United States, being contrary to the express provisions of the Constitution, and one which this House cannot sanction, have no hesitation in rejecting the official statement of the proceedings in the case as evidence of the right of the sitting member to a seat in this House.

Having disposed of this part of the subject referred

H.

OF R.

Maryland Contested Election.

MARCH, 1822.

mittee were disposed to be less rigid than under other circumstances they might have been disposed to act. In respect to all the other testimony, due notice has been given by each party, and they attended or not as they thought proper. In support of the claim of the memorialist, John C. Hynson, one of the judges of the election in district No. 1, of Kent county, states that he took the tickets from the box; that two tickets were thrown away, on which was the name of General Philip Reed for Congress; that those tickets were not counted, but rejected, under an impression that they were a double ticket fraudulently put into the box; but that, after he had passed it out of his hands, he was impressed with a belief that it was not double, and that this impression was confirmed when, on counting out the whole of the ballots, two were wanting to make the number equal to the number of persons voting.

to them, the committee proceeded to an examination of the claims of the memorialist, and the objections of the sitting member thereto. The memorialist alleges that at the election district No. 1, in Kent county, at said election, two tickets or ballots were thrown away by the judges of the election, and not counted, which tickets were given for him, and ought to have been set down and counted to his poll. These tickets, it appears, were thrown away under an impression that they had been folded together with a fraudulent intention, previous to their being put into the ballot box. On the part of the sitting member it was contended that at Elkton, in Cecil county, two tickets under similar circumstances were thrown away, and not counted, which ought to have been added to his poll, and that, at the same district, the memorialist was allowed one vote on account of a ticket on which was the name of the memorialist, together with that of five other persons, without any other designation than that of "for Congress." It was also contended by the sitting member that sundry illegal votes had been given for the memorialist, which, if deducted from his poll, would give the sitting member a clear majority of votes in his favor. No charges of a want of integrity were made by either party, against any of the officers who had been engaged in conducting the election. Some of the testimony exhibited to the committee had been taken previous to the meeting of Congress, and some has been taken since, under instructions given by the committee, for the government of the parties. It was suggested to the parties by the committee that it would be satisfactory to have the testimony of the judges and clerks of the election in district No. 1, of Kent county, respecting the double ticket, thrown away; and such course was recommended as was thought fair and liberal, and best calculated to arrive at a full knowledge of all the principal facts in the case, and the memorialist departed in order to procure additional testimony. At this time, it was understood by the committee that the sitting member rested his claim on the testimony he had already taken; but a few days subsequent, having stated to the committee that he was apprized of other testimony in the case, and that it was his wish to obtain it, a letter was addressed to each of the parties by the chairman of the committee, appointing the 10th of January, 1822, for the final hearing of the case by the committee, and requesting each to give the other five days' notice of the time and place of taking the additional testimony. The memorialist avers that he did not receive the notification of the committee until it was too late for him to be prepared to take depositions of his witnesses; until the day appointed for the decision of the case; and that, on his way to Washington, he accidentally lost the testimony. Under these circumstances, the committee permitted the testimony to be taken a second time, and inasmuch as the sitting member had not attended the taking of these depositions in the first instance, and did not object to them when presented, on account of not having notice, the committee agreed to receive the testimony thus of fered. They have been thus particular in detailing all the circumstances that occurred in the case since it came under their cognizance, because, although some of the testimony may be such as strictly might not be admissible in a court of law, yet, as there appeared to be every disposition on the part of both the gentlemen to waive all objections of form, and to pursue a course calculated to arrive at facts, the com

Dr. Beckington Scott, David Vickers, James Price, James Ringgold, James Eagle, Jr., Darius Dunn, and John C. Hynson, Jr., testify that they were present at the opening of the ballot box and counting of the tickets, and that they were satisfied that the two tickets thrown away, and which had the name of General Philip Reed on them, were not double, and that, on the final counting of the votes, there being two ballots less than there were names of persons voting, confirmed them in their belief.

The deposition of Elijah Beck states that he was clerk of the election, but states nothing respecting any of the facts in the case.

William Scott, clerk of Kent county, certifies, under the official seal of said county, a copy of the pollbook of said election, which shows that 365 persons voted at said election, and that only 363 tickets were counted.

The deposition of Joseph Ireland states that he acted as clerk of the election. That the judges drew from the box a double ticket, and threw it away. That he saw it in Judge Hynson's hands. And that, after the votes were counted, and the disagreement between them and the poll list was discovered, Judge Hynson still said it was a double ticket.

The sitting member produced the depositions of William Boulden and John Kean. They state that they acted at the election in district No. 2, in Cecil county, in 1820, the first as judge, the second as clerk; and that General Philip Reed was allowed one vote on account of a ticket which had four other names on it, without any other designation than "for Congress." They also state that two tickets were thrown away on account of being doubled.

James Sewall, clerk of Cecil county, gives a certified copy of the ticket alluded to by Boulden and Kean, under the official seal of Cecil county.

The deposition of John Bradshaw states that he was one of the judges of the election in district No. 1, of Kent county. That Judge Hynson drew from the box a ticket which he said was double; the deponent observed that if so, it ought to be destroyed, and it was thrown away. That after the counting was finished, two ballots were wanting to correspond with the book of polls. That he observed to Judge Hynson that perhaps it was a mistake as to the ticket destroyed being double, but he declared it was double, and that it sometimes did happen that the ballots and polls did not agree. Deponent states that he did not see any name on the ticket destroyed, not having it in his hands.

William Scott, clerk of Kent county, certifies, under

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