APPENDIX1

THE SENATE DEBATE ON THE BRECKINRIDGE BILL FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUISIANA, 1804, AS REPORTED BY

SENATOR WILLIAM PLUMER OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

1804, Monday, Jany. 16th.

THE BILL ERECTING LOUISIANA INTO TWO TERRITORIES

Mr. Worthington.2 Moved to amend the 4th section so as that the Legislative Council should be authorized to elect a delegate to Congress with the right to debate but not vote.3

Mr. Brackenridge. I approve of the motion-it will be the means of conveying useful knowledge to Congress.

Mr. Saml. Smith.5 This is going as far as we can at present to satisfy the third article of the treaty. This will be placing that country on the same footing as the other territorial governments?-and from this delegate we shall derive much information.

Mr. Daytons I am opposed. The legislative Council itself will be better able by their memorials to represent the actual state and wants of that country than their agent.

Mr. Jn. Smith.9 I think the amendment is necessary and important.

1 Reprinted from The American Historical Review, vol. XXII, no. 2, January, 1917, through the courtesy of Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, managing editor.

2 Thomas Worthington, senator from Ohio.

3 The fourth section of the bill was that providing as to the appointment and powers of the legislative council. It is quoted in the Journal of the Senate for this day (III, 340 of the reprint of 1821). It is in almost every particular identical with the fourth section of the act as finally passed. The act made no provision for a territorial delegate.

4 John Breckinridge, senator from Kentucky.

5 Samuel Smith, senator from Maryland.

6 The third article of the Louisiana Treaty provided that the inhabitants of the ceded territory should be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible to the enjoyment of the privileges of citizenship, and that in the meantime they should be protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.

At this time there was statutory provision for delegates from the Mississippi and Indiana territories.

8 Jonathan Dayton, senator from New Jersey.

9 John Smith, senator from Ohio.

Mr. Pickering.10 No man will undertake to say, Louisiana is incorporated into the Union, it is therefore absurd to admit a delegate from that country to debate in our national councils. That is a purchased province and as such we must govern it.

Mr. White.11 I cannot consider that territory as a part of the Union. The legislative council are to be created by the President and shall they be vested with the power of choosing a delegate to Congress, and who will in fact be the representative of the President. 'Tis wrong.

Mr. Jackson.12 I am opposed to the motion. The people of that country ought not to be represented in Congress. It is too soon.

Mr. Anderson.13 If this amendment does not obtain, I must vote agt. the section. What, tax that people without their being represented!

Mr. Worthington. What danger can arise from this measure-the delegate can only debate not vote.

Mr. Bradley.14 This delegate will be the representative of your President not of that people. I am surprised to find an advocate for such doctrine. Is the Executive to be represented in the other House? If he can have one delegate to represent him, why not fifty?

Mr. Dayton. The motion is unconstitutional. The constitution has provided only for the representation of States, and no man will pretend that Louisiana is a State. It is true by the confederation15 provision was made for delegates from territories—and our constitution has provided that all contracts and engagements entered into before its adoption shall be valid (Art. 6th) but no man will have the hardihood to say that Louisiana was included in that engagement.

Mr. Adams.16 I was pleased with this motion-but the objections arising from the Constitution, and from the Delegate's being the representative of the Executive and not of that people-compels me reluctantly to decide against it.

Mr. Cocke.17 Gentlemen confound things-this man will not be a representative but a delegate. The government of Louisiana has been compared to other territorial governments, as Mississippi-but this is wrong. 10 Timothy Pickering, senator from Massachusetts.

11 Samuel White, senator from Delaware.

12 James Jackson, senator from Georgia.

13 Joseph Anderson, senator from Tennessee.

14 Stephen R. Bradley, senator from Vermont.

15 Rather, by the ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, sec. 12.

16 John Quincy Adams, senator from Massachusetts.

Some account of

the proceedings and debates upon this bill will be found in his Memoirs, I, 290-295.

17 William Cocke, senator from Tennessee.

This is an original system, founded on new principles-it is unlike anything in Heaven, in earth or under it-we must therefore reason from itself and not compare it with others-for myself I admire it. What part of the Constitution shall we violate by this amendment-none. This delegate will not be a constitutional representative, the objection therefore is not solid. I know that people are ignorant, but ignorant people will always elect learned and wise men to represent them, they know the necessity of it. I love and venerate these people they live in the west.

Mr. Brackenridge. This amendment is no infringement of the constitution. This officer will not be a representative, for he cannot vote—he will be a delegate, and can only deliberate. He will have no legislative power.

Mr. S. Smith. There is nothing in the constitution that precludes the senate from admitting delegates on this floor from the old territories and what is there that can restrain us from admitting Louisiana to send a delegate to the other House? There can be no danger that the delegate will mislead or impose upon the House.

The motion failed yeas 12 nays 18.

1804, Tuesday, Jany. 17th.

The motion to extend the trial by jury in all criminal prosecutions in that territory 18 was lost yeas 11, nays 16.

1804, Tuesday, 24th. Jany.

THE BILL FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUISIANA

Mr. Jackson. The inhabitants of Louisiana are not citizens of the United States-they are now in a state of probation. They are too ignorant to elect a legislature19-they would consider jurors as a curse to them.

Mr. McClay.20 Those people are men and capable of happiness—they ought to elect a legislature and have jurors.

Mr. Saml Smith. Those people are absolutely incapable of governing themselves, of electing their rulers or appointing jurors. As soon as they are capable and fit to enjoy liberty and a free government I shall be for giving it to them:

18 The bill provided for trial by jury in all cases which are capital''; the motion was to strike out the words "which are capital." Journal, III, 343-344.

19 The amendment under discussion provided for popular election of the legislative council.

20 Samuel Maclay, senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Cocke. The people of that country are free-let them have liberty and a free government. This bill I hope will not pass-it is tyrannical.

Mr. Nicholas.21 I approve of the bill as it is. I am opposed to giving them the rights of election, or the power of having jurors. We ought not yet to give that people self-government. As soon as it is necessary I will give my assent to that Country's being admitted as a state into the Union. Mr. Anderson. Several gentlemen of the Senate, I am sorry to say it, appear to have no regard for the third article of the treaty-they seem opposed to freedom. This bill has not a single feature of our government in it-it is a system of tyranny, destructive of elective rights. We are bound by treaty, and must give that people a free elective government.

Mr. Pickering. That people are incapable of performing the duties or enjoying the blessings of a free government. They are too ignorant to elect suitable men.

Mr. Jackson.22 Slaves must be admitted into that territory, it cannot be cultivated without them.

Mr. Brackenridge. I am against slavery. I hope the time is not far distant when not a slave will exist in this Union. I fear our slaves in the south will produce another St. Domingo.

Mr. Franklin.23 I am wholly opposed to slavery.

Mr. Dayton. Slavery must be tolerated, it must be established in that country, or it can never be inhabited. White people cannot cultivate it— your men cannot bear the burning sun and the damp dews of that country -I have traversed a large portion of it. If you permit slaves to go there only from your States, you will soon find there the very worst species of slaves. The slave holders in the United States will collect and send into that country their slaves of the worst description.

Mr. John Smith. I know that country. I have spent considerable time there white men can cultivate it. And if you introduce slaves from foreign Countries into that territory, they will soon become so numerous as to endanger the government and ruin that country. I wish slaves may be admitted there from the United States. I wish our negroes were scattered more equally, not only through the United States, but through our territories that their power might be lost. I can never too much admire the deep policy of New England in excluding slavery. I thank God we have no slaves in Ohio.

21 William Cary Nicholas, senator from Virginia.

22 Comparison of the original bill, amendments, and amended bills preserved in the Senate files shows that the Senate at this point began the consideration of an amendment which extended to the new territory the act of February 28, 1803, forbidding importation of slaves into states which prohibited their importation.

23 Jesse Franklin, senator from North Carolina.

Mr. Franklin. Slavery is in every respect an evil to the States in the south and in the west, it will, I fear, soon become a dreadful one-negro insurrections have already been frequent-they are alarming. Look in the laws of Virginia and North Carolina made for the purpose of guarding against and suppressing these rebellions, and you will learn our dangers.24

1804, Wednesday, Jany. 25.

BILL FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUISIANA.

QUESTION RELATIVE TO SLAVERY

Mr. Bradley. I am in favor of extending slavery to that country, because it is a right they claim, and by the treaty we are bound to grant it to them but I think that in this bill we had better say nothing on that subject.

Mr. Hillhouse.25 Negroes are rapidly increasing in this country-there encrease for the ten years ending with the last census was near two hundred thousand. I consider slavery as a serious evil, and wish to check it wherever I have authority. Will not your slaves, even in the southern states, in case of a war, endanger the peace and security of those states? Encrease the number of slaves in Louisiana, they will in due time rebel-their numbers in the district of Orleans, are now equal to the whites26-why add fuel to this tinder box, which when it takes fire will assuredly extend to some of your states. Why encrease the evil at a distant part of your territorywhich must necessarily require a standing army to protect it? If that country cannot be cultivated without slaves, it will instead of being a paradise prove a curse to this country, particularly to some of the states in its vicinity.

Mr. Bradley. I am in favor of establishing a form of a general, not particular, government-we ought not to descend to particulars. We are incompetent to that-they are too distant from us, and we are ignorant of their wants, their habits and manners. Congress is an improper body to make municipal laws-we have abundant proof of this in our legislation for this district in which we sit-our laws here are very imperfect and insufficient.

24 Here Senator Plumer gives a summary of a letter of Governor Claiborne, describing conditions in New Orleans, which the Senate at this point received from President Jefferson, covered by his brief message of this date, given in the Journal and in Richardson, I, 367.

25 James Hillhouse, senator from Connecticut.

26 Hillhouse probably meant the district consisting of the island of New Orleans with its immediate dependencies. In that case the numbers, according to the statistics which had been furnished by Jefferson (American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I, 384), were, 25,000 whites, 25,000 blacks.