VOL. VII.] THE NATIONAL REGISTER which prohibits the striking superiors; but there The resolution was agreed to; and the House adjourned. Monday, February 1. Mr. Rhea, in pursuance of instructions from the House, reported, from the committee of pensions and revolutionary claims, a bill for the relief of Benjamin Simmons, (a case which the committee heretofore reported against, but which was reversed by the House, and is a claim under an alleged contract, for services rendered as wagon master in the revolutionary war.) The bill having been read, Mr. Rhea moved that the bill be rejected, on the ground that the claim was in itself unjust, and, if just, the amount allowed was more than the claim justified. This motion was opposed by Mr. Hubbard; and, after some discussion on the merits of the claim, The motion to reject it was negatived, and the bill was again read and committed. Mr. P. P. Barbour then made an attempt to Porter committed to the have the claim of same committee, as being an analogous case; but that claim having been already definitively decided by the House, in concurring with the com. mittee who reported against it, the motion of Mr. B. was decided to be not in order. Mr. Spencer presented for consideration the following resolution: Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause all the public deposits in the bank of the United States and its several offices of discount and deposit, to be withdrawn on the first day of July next; that after the said day, the bills or notes of the said corporation shall no longer be receivable in any payments to the United States; and the Attorney General of the United States shall on that day, or as soon thereafter as may be, cause a scire facias to be sued out in conformity to the provisions of the "Act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States," calling upon the said corporation to show cause why its charter should not be declared forfeited; unless the said corporation shall, by a legal act to be delivered to, and approved by, the Attorney General, and to be by him transmitted to Congress at the next session thereof, declare its assent to the following propositions, on or before the said first day of July next, viz: ceived in any court to contradict or explain the 2. That Congress may provide for the reduc- 3. That the power of removing any director for misconduct, may be vested in the President of the United States. 4. That the bank may purchase not exceeding five millions of dollars of the funded debt of the United States, and may hold the same without being subject to redemption unless consented to by it, until the time or times specified in the certificates thereof. 5. That no by-law of the corporation shall exclude the directors appointed by the government from a full knowledge of all the concerns of the bank, and of the accounts of every person dealing with it; and that the assent of at least one public director shall be necessary to allow any discount, and to render valid every act of the board of directors. 6. That the provision in the second fundamen. tal article, prohibiting any director from holding his office more than three years out of four in succession, may be modified or repealed by Congress. 7. No discount shall, in any case, be made by the bank at Philadelphia, or by any office, without the consent of at least four directors of the bank, or of the office, as the case may be. 8. Congress may authorize the bank to deal and trade in other things than those enumerated in the ninth fundamental article, so as to receive pledges of its own stock, and of the funded debt of the United States, in security for loans, and to sell such pledges on a forfeiture thereof. 9. That persons holding stock, upon which any instalment shall have been paid by the proceeds of notes discounted, shall be compelled gradually, and as soon as circumstances will admit, to pay the full amount of such instalment in coin, or in coin and funded debt, according to the provisions of the charter; and no dividend of profits shall be allowed to such stock, until the said payment is completed. 10. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall be permitted at any time, either in person, or by agent to be appointed by him, to inspect all the books, papers, correspondence, minutes, and proceedings of the board of directors of the bank, and of all its offices, and of all their officers. 11. That Congress may extend the time for the payment of the whole, or any part of the sum of 1,500,000 dollars, required to be paid by the 20th section of the charter. 12. That a scire facias may be issued out of any circuit court in the United States, in the case stated in the charter; and whenever it shall be issued out of any other court than the circuit court of Pennsylvania, sworn copies of the books and papers of the bank shall be received as evi. dence, instead of the originals. The foregoing provisions, or any of them, may at any time be enacted into a law or laws, by Congress, and shall, therefore, become a part of the charter of the bank. 1. That Congress may by law provide such means as may be necessary to enforce the first fundamental article of the said charter respecting || the rights of voting for directors, and particularly to provide that transfers of stock shall always be made to the real owners thereof, or to some per son or persons in trust for the owners, who shall always be named in such transfer; that stock shall always be deemed to belong to the person or persons in whose name it may stand, or for whose Mr. Spencer, with the view of removing any use it may be declared in the certificate to be held, and that no evidence whatever shall be re.objection which might be felt to the considera The resolution having been read, and the question stated whether the House would now consider it tion of the motion, stated that it was not now bis | Robert Kidd; and also a bill to anthorize the Sewish to go into a discussion of it, but only to becretary of the Treasury to sell a lot of ground at enabled to have it referred to the committee of Bermuda Hundred, in Virginia. the whole House, to which had been committed the report concerning the management of the bank. Mr. Tyler asked leave to make one remark. He hoped the House would agree to consider the resolution, that it might take the course suggest. ed by the mover, and have a full and fair discussion. He wisher that every member might have an opportunity of exhibiting his views, and that the House might make its final decision with all the lights to be derived from deliberate discussion and mature reflection; but he would here say, that, whenever the question on the adoption of this motion should be presented to him, he should be obliged to vote for its rejection, under the hope that the House would, in preference, direct a scire facias to be forthwith issued. The House having agreed to consider the resolution, Mr. Spencer moved that it be committed to the committee of the whole House on the state of the Union, to which was referred the report of the committee appointed to investigate the manage. ment of the bank of the United States. Mr. Johnson, of Virginia, hoped the resolution would not be committed, but that it would he laid on the table. He hoped the question would be fully met; and it had been his intention, if no other member should do so, to move to instruct the committee on the judicary to report a bill to repeal the charter of the bank. The patient Mr. J. said, was too far gone to be recovered; expedients were useless, as dissolution was inevitable, and it was better to meet the question at once. He, therefore, moved to lay this resolution on the table. Mr. Spencer was as willing as any one to meet the question fully, and to give the subject a fair and ample discussion; and he thought the course he proposed to give the resolution, was the best way to afford it a full consideration, because the report was already committed, and, hy referring his resolution to the same committee, the whole subject would be presented for discussion;, &c. He would, however, give way to the course moved by Mr. Johnson; and consent to laying, the resolution for the present on the table. Mr. S. then withdrew his motion to commit the resolution, and, It was laid on the table. On motion of Mr. Marr, it was Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of amending an act passed the 4th day of April, 1818, entitled "An act supplementary to an act to authorize the state of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle the claims to the vacant and unappropriated lands within the same," passed the 18th of April, 1806; with leave to report by bill or otherwise, Mr. M'Coy, from the committee of claims, made a report on the petition of John M'Causland, accompanied by a bill for his relief. These bills were severally twice read and committed. Mr. H. Nelson, from the judiciary committee, to whom had been referred the bill further to extend the judicial system of the United States, reported it without amendment. On motion of Mr. Livermore, it was ordered that eleven hundred copies of the reports of The odoric Bland and J. B. Poinsett, on the subject of South America, be printed, for the use of the House, and, that forty copies thereof be presented to Mr. Bland and Mr. Poinsett, respectively. EDITOR'S CABINET. Cut them off Robbers and Pirates. The close of the wars of the French Revolution has thrown loose upor the world a multitude of licentious individuals. Many of these have engaged in piracy, and are. at this moment roving the seas in search of spoil They merit, and no doubt will soom receive,. chastisement. On the land, too, villains, the outcasts of Europe, or generated in the corruptions of our populous cities, are increasing in boldness, in the perpetration of robberies and murders. Our penitentiary system seems to have little terror for these victims of vice. What, then, is to 'be done? Nothing less, we fear, will answer. Let punishment be sharp, sure, and' swift. The robbery of the United States mail, an account of which will be found in this week's Register, is an offence, although not attended with loss of life, meriting vengeance from the heavy hand of justice. Two of the robbers, Maurie and Bertrand, have been caught. Some of the letters, opened and rifled, have been found not, a great way from the place where the nail was stopped by these desperadoes. In addition to the $1,000 offered by the postmaster of New York, 500 dollars reward are promised for ascertaining and convicting either of the accomplices, and 200 dollars for information leading to their discovery. History of Congress.-The debate continues in the House of Representative on the topic of the Seminole war. It would appear to be endless. But General Jackson gains ground. daily, even in the opinion of the members of the House. The per On motion, the committee on pensions and reple have always been with him.-Notwithstanding volutionary claims was discharged from the fur-the continuance of the discussion, business of dif ther consideration of the petition of Wm. Jack-ferent kinds progresses. There is an under ourson, and rent, not conspicuous; but it runs along; and more On motion of Mr. Rich, the committee of has been done in the maturing of bills and passclaims was discharged from the petition of Olivering acts than is generally understood. We shall Herrick he, glad when the Seminole Campaign (in Congress) shall have been terminated, and all the speeches published, in order that we may give our readers a summary of all the arguments. Tuesday, February 2. Mr. Newton, from the committee of commerce and manufactures, reported a bill for the relief of No. 7.] THE NATIONAL REGISTER. WASHINGTON CITY, FEBRUARY 13, 1819. [VOL. VI. Printed and Published, every Saturday, by Lawrence, Wilson, & Co. at five dollars per unum Contents of this No. of the National Register. ORIGINAL-Address to the American people relative to the Seminole war, 97. SELECTED.-Mr. Adains' letter to our minister at Madrid, 101.-Proceedings of Congress, 109, and stipulations, whose corre pondence an cha. Pacter, have pourtrayed a profound knowledge of the rights of mankind, and the proper policies to be pursued by his government under the guidance and sanction of those rights. Let us take a succinct survey of the grounds upon which those who differ with me upon this subject endeavor to establish their conjectures. FOR THE NATIONAL REGISTER. In entering their solemn protest against the proTO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. ceedings of the war, they condem without exFELLOW CITIZENS,-At a moment of public anxception, the whole of its administration, where no iety, when your attention has been arrested by higher authority has been concerned than that extraordinary circumstances, growing out of the of the commanding officer. But what were the peculiar condition of a part of your country, arguments displayed? The executive had violatwatching with no little interest the reiterated in-ed the constitution--the general had turned a juries and unprovoked machinations of a corrupt deaf ear to the voice of clemency, and im nolatand despotic foreign government, and while too ed on the murderous altar of the executioner, the your negotiations are pending with her minister, || mild maxims of Christianity! The fair reputation you have been called on to witness the singular of America, heretofore unsullied as the white and unprecedented arraignment of a great, ho mantle of the seraphim, was stained with the nest, and renowned patriot, for having checked blood of innocent and unoffending victims! As the savage butcheries committed by the Indians their enthusiastic advocates expanded and glow. on your frontiers, and the equally blood thirstyed upon the subject, you would have imagined policy of outlawed and pillaging incendiaries. Al the clotted gore of those unfortunate wretches low me, therefore, to invite you to pause at the ascended with an invocation to Heaven for a threshold of investigation, and calmly to view the speedy and omnipotent retribution! That the state of the question whereon you must ultimate-aictions and melancholy.sorrows of the wild ly express your opinion. aboriginal tenant of the forests of America, had The constitutional doctrines, the love of free-only been atoned and ameliorated by the blood dom, the abomination of military supremacy, an of the infant, the wife, and the brother, of the hatred to cruelty, a devotion to the precepts of frontierman, who ought not to complain under so div.ne, natural, and national law, by which gen- equitable a dispensation of an all wis and benetlemen profess to be guided, on this particular volent Creator! It would have seemed, that, at a occasion, I trust are not more sincerely maintain- rapid stride, we had encompassed an immeasuraed and felt by them, than the individual who now ble desert, and planted ourselves far beyond the addresses you. The arguments, or rather the extreme edge of our legal possessions, and dedeclamations, of men to prove the motives by signed to wage a predatory and exterminating which they are actuated, the history of the world warfare against the deluded followers of the Inhas shown, that, however false or untrue, ostensi. || dian prophets, and the dupes of English emissably rest upon disinterested bases--the honor, theries! That we had spared neither their persons, glory, and prosperity of their countrymen. Even their property, their superstitions, nor their holy the despotic usurper, who views the sceptre religion-all, all had sunk beneath the covetous, within his grasp, or who feels the majesty of its avaricious, and overwhelmning march of our amweight and authority, is wonderfully cautious obition! Nay, the great Indian public law itself, impress his veriest slaves, who flatter the meanest which had sacredly descended through so many of his vices and his follies, with the idea of the years untouched and uninjured in its original pureverence he entertains for the institutions of the rity, peace, and perfection, had vanished before empire, and the deep interest with which he is the intense military fury of a western chieftan! animated for the purity, morals, independence, The poor, wretched, and misguided savages had and civil concord, of its subjects. The most arch, been deceived, decoyed, ambuscaded, surprised, consummate, and successful conspirator that ever and aggravated We had insulted their pagan lived, kept up the show of respect and regard for gods, devastated their lands, laid waste their the ancient forms of the Roman republic, and at towns, and in the memorably execrable treaty of the instant he seized its palladium, declared it to Fort Jackson sowed the seeds of all our subsequent be for the safety and preservation of the state. troubles! It was there that the red man had Such have been the avowed objects of all who || asked for bread, and we had given him a stonehave attempted to impose upon the people, and that he had sued for peace, and we had given him on the ruin of others to build the superstructure a sword! It was there, the hideous maxims of of their own political fortunes. I will not accuse Roman conquest had crept into our moderate to you the hopes and wishes of those who have and uniformly equal policy! Such is a plain and assailed the conduct of general Jackson. They unexaggerated picture of the high-toned sentimay be honest and upright, but it is a strange in- ments divulged by some who consider themselves, consistency to extol his successes and wisdom, at least at this time, the exclusive friends of the and in the next breath to acquit him of any evil constitution. Whether, in aiming at argument, intentions in his late operations in Florida, leav-they have fallen into declamation, and have had ing the inference to be deduced of an ignorance of the law of God and man in him whose able and skilful warlike combinations, whose treaties the temerity, unfairly, to arrogate to themselves the praise of fighting the battle of the nation, or whether they are contending in the carte and tierce of an irritated and circumscribed party phalanx, must be submitted to your discernment, and not their boasts, to decide. and institutions, that the force of the nation should remain merely dangling on its oars, with folded arms, while Congress sat in cold debate over the But to the constitutional question. It has been mangled bodies and smoking blood of the fronargued that the operations in Florida actually tiermen, women, and children? Where was the constituted a war, and that the war-declaring wrong in the exercise of this mighty prerogative? power is in Congress. Without controverting Is not the President bound, religiously, morally, and either of those two points, what is the conclusion? legally, to see the laws faithfully executed, and to Why, admitting the latter, in the fullest extent of preserve the soil or the republic from invasion; and, which it is susceptible, the former stands in that || above all, the citizens from torture, and violence, qualified attitude, the result of the circumstances and rapine, and murder? Where is the clause of and causes which produced it, and must necessa- that constitution, we all revere, prohibiting this? rily attach to it its primary and fundamental cha- Where is the law remotely disapproving it? Has racter. And from the aspect it has thus assumed, he not the highest existing authority to call out I hazard nothing in entering on the defence of the militia, and employ the active force of the the administration and the general. Adverting country to suppress insurrections and repel invato the manifold examples in history, it will not be sions? And have not your fellow Christians and denied that wars are sometimes wholly defensive, citizens been horribly murdered by monsters, and retain this peculiarity, so long as the imme- pretending to the rights of human beings? Has diate, and general, and essential public security, not your peaceful home been changed, by the depends thereon, whatever complexion the ways howl of the prowling savage, into an echoing and means of supporting them may acquire in the vault of death; and invasion, stalking forth into different stages of their progress. in contradis the consecrated hearth and altar of your nuptial tinction to this explanation, the illustration of an affections, and beneath the eye of the husband offensive war, as adopted from experience and or the parent, forever blotted from the book of observation, is to be found at the root of ambi- time the living wedlock of his love; and the filial tion, and receives its determinate stamp from the picture of his hopes and happiness? And is not hand of conquest. The first, however, alluded all this invasion? If not, I dauntlessly challenge to, is of a mixed nature, and not merely defensive, the champion of opposition to promulge his debut absolutely necessary to self-preservation. In finition! Perhaps, he might say, the wave of the long series of events which it may produce, it blood has not rolled far enough upon the centre is immaterial whether the posture of the original of civilization and population! It had not yet aggressor becomes that of a trembling, and cow-reached to the capital of Georgia. In the name ardly, and almost exhausted foe, the primitive of God, does our constitution know any distinction character of the war, or what, perhaps, would be between the brave, generous, noble-minded bora stricter term, of the defence, is unchanged, and|| derer, and the luxurious nabob of a wealthy city? does not require, by the rules and obligations in- Or are the verges of our territory to be made cident to it, that having pursued the perpetrator outcasts and fragments to the auxiliary arm of the to his den, (where, if you bay and watch, you may government, and suffere, like the provinces of ultimately destroy him, and consequently remove Rome, at the period of her declension, to be conthe object of your fear and annoyance) the victo-verted from seats of security and tranquillity, inrious patriot should fall back upon his own ram- to theatres, on which the tigers of the human parts, within his own territory, and wait a second, species may whet their fangs, and glut their corand very likely, more vigorous and dangerous at- morant cruelty, unharmed, unavenged, and tritack, from the resuscitated courage and resour umphant, in the heart's blood of the Backwood's ces of the enemy. If he were bound to do so, Settler! Who is prepared to proclaim to his coneven by an existing treaty, touching a neutral ter- stituents, "this is my doctrine! Look at it! See ritory, although the treaty had not been infracted, it in characters of blood! Behold-this is the and supposing the obligation to proceed from crimsoned liturgy of my constitutional creed!" some general construction given to it, it would Merciful Heaven! is such the awful compact of cease to be binding, as its effect would impair" passive obedience and non resistance," by which the right of a sufficient protection, and prostrate, with ignominy, the majesty of all civil compacts. I put this extreme cose, to demonstrate the im possibility of occupying a position, which, in relation to other nations, would arrest and paralyze the use, direction, and defence, of your own hands, and eradicate the claim, thus situated, the people have upon the real executive of the country to shield their helplessness, and provide for the welfare of their lives and their fortunes. A difference, as to names, may be contended for, and although sticklers would quibble, even here, for the appellation of war, fairly speaking, it is a mere defence. But I will resign to their most wanton malignity the name, while on all bands the explanation is conceded. Under this view of the war, or as I denominate it, of the defence, I ask, was it not competent to the President to undertake its objects, and honorable in the commanding officer to employ the ablest means in their consummation? Or was it of such a nature, involving so many perils to our freedom we were joined together? Is this the true image of our Union? No! we are the genuine constitutionalists who declare, practically, self-preservation an omnipotent law of our nature, and the poorest individual to be entitled to the exercise of its greatest and most transcendant privileges. So far, then, from admitting the President and the general have violated the constitution, I unhesitatingly pronounce, they would have been guilty of an act of flagrant omission, in tamely looking on the sanguinary incursions of a profligate, barbaric, and unmerciful tribe of brigands. When, therefore, they undertook to repel them, a consistent part of that policy, one inseparably incidental to it, was to disperse the hellish hordes from which they issued, and whether cherished in the deep morasses of extensive lakes, or in the fertile bosom of an envious and treacherous member of Christendom, to break up their nightly orgies, and weaken, if not totally annihilate, their strength and resources, by subverting the fountains from which they were drawn. Through VOL. VII.] THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Was it not, inout, the policy would continue exclusively de-metropolis, unawed, unregulated, and as the law. fensive. It was not the fugitive and flashing less masters of the soil. Had not the province, stead of the governor of Pensacola, or the compeace of the moment that could crown and per- as it affected us, changed hands? fect the defence; but one which would rest on pillars of light in the profound retreat of the mis-mandant of St. Marks, the Big Warrior or the minion? Yes: from this mixed and heterogeneous creants-and in which we might proclaim, IsraelLittle Prince who controlled the sceptre of doagain is safe! ment. The parallel, which I trace, between a war de-sovereignty the evils of an abominable and blood The dastardly representatives of the clared by the established authorities, for just thirsty warfare were pouring in upon our fropcauses, which may become defensive, and that tiers! which grows out of a defence, founded upon the broken, decayed, and sad remnant of Castilian highest existing law, and provoked by inhuman glory had fallen, useless, enfeebled, and terrorand midnight invasion, plunders, and massacres, struck, even at the menace of the black haired and which must, generally, to be rendered effec-chiefs of the woods, and stood before them the hound rapacity! Where was the treaty then? tive, react upon the invaders, is fair, clear, and confessed and plant accessaries to their hell unsuspicious, sustained as well by all law as our own peculiar institutions and legislative acts. The Under the foot of the savage, in cotemporaneous former is a war embracing the grand prerogatives homage, with the neck of its master! Could we ther and another hour tore forth new wounds, of Congress-the other is sanctioned by the spirit halt to parley? Could we hesitate to act? Anoand added an infant's or a mother's scalp to the and letter of our constitution, and in extreme cases of actual or impending danger, solely con. to kindle the revenge and infuriated devotions of fided to the Executive, although it is the undoubt-hundreds that were then suspended in council ed right of the legislature to anticipate the event. No man, however, who seriously contemplates the barbarian vagabond! The only alternative Place, the organization of our confederacy, considering was to strike where the Fon prowled, and overthe recess which always follows the exercise of come his designs in the dark cells of his den. Our legislation, can believe an invasion may be made,defence unavoidably involved in it the measures at such an interval, without a resort to be had, any which resulted in victory and protect on where, to a power entrusted with the immediate therefore, your finger upon the map, and take right to meet and repel it, and place in security with you the recent history of that country, and the vulnerable part at which the assault has been your doubts will be satisfied and your judgment directed. Sophists may rack their ingenuity to convinced, it was justified by our constitution, by and authoritative laws of nature and of God. A describe limits to a defence, and yet be entangled the laws of nations, and the still more imperious and confounded in an endless series of vain specu lation, while circumstances are beyond the con- self-defence, so entirely paramount to all subtletrol of legislation, and, in their various and incal-ties and objections, is co-extensive and invariable culable fluctuations, force and shape the course and system of that defence. But the objections wielded with the greatest force against the occupation of Florida, are the violations tauntingly as serted to have been committed on neutral ground, and the usurped power of determining when and where a treaty has been neglected, or openly put to defiance, and what remedy should be applied to so disgraceful a breach of faith. Separate, Permit me now to draw your attention to the however, the matter from the mazes of legal me. taphysics. When Spain ceased to fulfil her ries found it incumbent on him to pursue, while pledges to the United States, all obligation upon retaliatory measures the hero of so many victous, as it respected the objects of her neglect, were absolutely dissolved, and she thereby tacitly ac- combatting the homogeneous crew of a dark and knowledged the physical superiority of the in-nefarious conspiracy. The anterior views I have dians she was bound to restrain; and though with- presented have not been altogether disputed by we are about to consider. A few endeavor to ont its constituting any sovereign right of eminent those who differ with me in relation to the cases domain in them, her provincial government was comparatively at their mercy, and the system of seem as if they would exculpate the President, our defence consequently to be followed by their provided they could make an unconditional saentire subjugation, and reinstating, as it were, incrifice of the general. I will not impeach their the possession of the former her own strength, or motives, or inquire into the cause of such glaring mit to your better judgment to unravel KememAleft imperfect and insufficient for its avowed pur.casuistical variances. They are absurdities I subposes. The object of that part of the treaty was security; and as parties thereto, on its failure, we ber, however, the solitary insulated station of the had the plenary right, under the supreme law of warrior, of whom even his friends are jealous, the land, of which the President is created, at the without an office to give, or patronage to cover instant of the ratification, the residuary executor, and protect his acts, is far below the towering atso far as it touches the lives and property of our titude of the first magistrate of a republic, who citizens, to prevent the ruin which would inevita- holds, as it were, the purse strings of the treasury, honorable titles and employments under the gobly ensue. I repeat it, what is the evidence of and distributes, at his nod, the most lucrative and facts in the progress of our defence? The outlawed savages, so called by a vast and oversha-vernment. I would admonish gentlemen, if addowing majority of their own brethren, already monition be not considered as offering a contempt traversed the Spanish territory wherein they to their understanding, that if they dissemble were inhabitants, and claimed an indisputable their real emotions towards the more prominent home, from the utmost latitude of our line to the Il personage, they but increase his reserve and sus in its character, with the whole consistent plan of |