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ted on the 1st of June of the present year, com-
municated to this house on the 12th instant; and
also the correspondence, if any, between the De-
partment of War and general Andrew Jackson, in
answer to the letter of the latter, of the date of
the 7th of May, 1818, also communicated to this
house on the 12th instant," has the honor to
transmit an extract of a letter written by major
Vandeventer, chief clerk, Department of War, in
reply to general Jackson's letter of the 7th of
May, 1818, and to state that no letter was written
by this Department to the governor of Georgia,
in answer to his letter of the 1st of June, 1818.
Department of War,
J. C. CALHOUN.

Dec. 30, 1818.

The President of the United States.

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These amendments were not objected to by Mr. Mercer, and were, as well as the original motion, all agreed to.

Tuesday, January 5. Among the many petitions presented to the house this morning, were the following:

By Mr. Sergeant, from sundry citizens of Philadelphia, remonstrating against the condemnation and sale of slaves, in execution of the provisions of the laws prohibiting their importation.

By Mr. Little, the memorial of sundry mer. chants of Baltimore, whose vessels were sunk for defence of the place during the late war, praying for compensation.

By the Speaker, a memorial from B. . Latrobe, late surveyor of the public buildings, complaining of and protesting against some passages in the Extract of a letter from major C. Vandeventer, report of the present architect to Congress rechief clerk, to major general Andrew Jackson,specting the arch in the northern wing of the dated

"Department of War, June 2, 1818. "Your letters of the 7th of April, one without date, and of the 26th of April, are received.

"The President of the United States and the Secretary of War are out of town. The former will return about the 15th instant, the latter not before the middle of next month. So soon as the President returns, your despatches, together with your orders to major Davis, commanding the arrest of captain Wright, and a copy of your letter to the governor of Georgia, in relation to the horrid and atrocious destruction of the Chehaw village, will be laid before him. In the mean time I am advised to communicate the "opinion" that the trial of captain Wright, by court martial, is decidedly preferable to a civil prosecution in the federal court."

Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed The following resolution was introduced by Mr. Mercer, and agreed to:

building.

Mr. Smith, of Md. reported, from the committee of ways and means, a bill for the relief of Jas. Gooding and Jas. Williams.

Mr. Pindall, from a select committee appointed at the last session, reported a bill to authorize the prosecution of suits in the nature of petitions of right and informations of instruction in cases in which the United States are concerned.

These bills were twice read and co amitted. Mr. H. Nelson, from the judiciary committee, made an unfavorable report on the petition of Martha J. Cobb, widow of Elk. Cobo, who prays to be allowed the exclusive use of certain inventions made by her deceased husband, but never patented; which was concurred in.

Mr. Cobb, from a select committee, reported an amendment to the bill explanatory of the act for the sale of certain public lots; which, on motion of Mr. Smith, was ordered to lie on the table.

On motion of Mr. Taylor, the daily hour of meeting of this house was directed to be, for the remainder of the session, eleven o'clock.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy be directed to report to this house a copy of such instructions, if any, as may have been issued by On motion of Mr. Campbell, the committee on his Department, in pursuance of the act of Con- the public lands were instructed to inquire into gress of 1807, prohibiting the importation of the expediency of passing a law to vest in the slaves, to the commanders of the armned vessels Legislature of the state of Ohio power to sell the of the United States, for the purpose of inter-remaining 35 sections of land in the reservation cepting, on the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, such at the Sciota Salt Works, and to apply, the provessels as have been engaged in the slave trade.ceeds of the sale to the use of the state, as the Mr Mercer also submitted the following resolution:

said Legislature may deem most proper.

On motion of Mr. Sutherland, the committee on so much of the President's Message as relates to the Militia, were instructed to inquire whether any, and, if any, what alteration or amendments to the laws of the United States, are necessary, to ensure an equitable enrolment and annual returns

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to report to this house the number and names of the slave ships, if any, which have been seized and condemned within the United States for violation of the laws thereof against the importation of slaves, and if any negroes, mulat-of the Militia of the respective states. toes, or persons of color, have been found on On motion of Mr. Smyth, the committee of board such vessels, their number, and the dispo.commerce and manufactures were instructed to sition which has been nade of them by the seve-inquire into the expediency of fixing the standard ral state governments under whose jurisdiction of weights and measures. they have fallen.

Mr. Strother moved to amend the resolution so as to direct a report to be made also of the number and names of the slave ships, if any, and the ports from which they had sailed, if they could be ascertained.

Mr. Floyd wished, also, that the names of the places where the vessels are owned should be added to that of the place whence they sailed.

Mr. Cobb desired to amend this resolve further, so as to require information by whom, as well as where, the vessels were owned.

On motion of Mr. Sampson, the committee of ways and means were instructed to inquire into the expediency of amending the 5th section of the act laying a duty on imported salt, &c. so that the owner of every vessel above 20 tons, employed in the fisheries, shall receive an allowance of four dollars for each and every ton of such vessel's burden: Provided, that the allowance aforesaid, for any one vessel, for one season, shall not exceed 340 dollars.

The Speaker laid before the house a letter from the Navy Department, accompanying a number

For arming and equipping the militia, 200,000 dollars.

of copies of the Navy Register, for 1819; and a List, transmitted by the first comptroller of the Treasury, of those persons who have not rendered For the erection and completion of arsenals, to accounts for settlement within the year preceding. wit: for completing the arsenal at Augusta, in The committee of the whole having been dis-Georgia, 50,000 dollars; for erecting a powder charged, on motion of Mr. Rich, from the further magazine at Frankford, near Philadelphia, 15,000 consideration of the bill to authorize the Rockville dollars; for completing the arsenal and other and Washington Turnpike Company to make the works at Watertown, near Boston, 20,000 dollars; road as far as the city boundary, the same was for completing the arsenal and other works at ordered to be engrossed for a third reading. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 5,000 dollars; for a levee round the arsenal at Watervliet, New York, ||6,000 dollars; for building a powder magazine at Baton Rouge, 20,000 dollars.

A message was received from the President of the United States, by his private secretary, trans. mitting, for the information of the house, a copy of the convention with Spain, (ante, page 18,) and a copy of a letter from Don Luis de Onis, to the Secretary of State, in reply to the letter of the latter to the former, of the 30th November; and the house adjourned.

Wednesday, January 6.

On motion of Mr. Crowell, Resolved, That the committee on the public lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing by law the sale of such townships of land in the Alabama territory, as have been returned by the surveyors as not, in their opinion, worth two dollars per acre, and consequently not surveyed or offered for sale.

The engrossed bill to authorize the President and Managers of the Rockville and Washington Turnpike Company to extend and make said road within the District, was read a third time, passed and sent to the Senate for concurrence.

The orders of the day being then annour.ced, a motion was made by Mr. Smith, of Maryland, to take up, out of its turn, the bill making appropriations for the support of the Military Establishment for 1819. This departure from the usual course of business requires the unanimous consent of the House. Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, objected, and the question was therefore not put.

Mr. Smith then moved to postpone all the orders of the day which preceded that bill, in order to take it up,

On this motion a short debate took place, in the course of which Messrs. Williams, of N. C. Mercer, Smith, Storrs, Tucker, Floyd and Read spoke. The result of the question was, by a small majority, to go into committee.

The bill in question embraces the following items of appropriation:

For subsistence, (in addition to 200,000 dollars already appropriated,) 506,600 dollars.

For forage for officers, 26,496 dollars.
For clothing, 400,000 dollars.

For bounties and premiums, 62,500 dollars. For the medical and hospital departments, 50,000 dollars.

For the quarter-master's department, 550,000 dollars.

For contingencies of the army, 60,000 dollars. For arrearages, arising from a deficiency in the appropriation to pay outstanding claims, 100,000 dollars.

For fortifications, 500,000 dollars.

For making a survey of the water courses tributary to, and west of the Mississippi; also, those tributary to the same river, and north-west of the Ohio, 6,500 dollars.

For the current expenses of the ordnance department, 100,000 dollars.

For the armories at Springfield and Harper's Ferry, $75,000 dollars.

For cannon, powder, and shot, to fulfil existing contracts; for mounting cannon, and for purchase of lead, 191,200 dollars.

To provide for the payment of the retained bounty, and the per diem travelling allowance of pay and subsistence to soldiers discharged from the army in the year 1819, 92,500 dollars.

For the purchase of maps, plans, books and instruments for the War Department, 1,500 dollars. For fuel, maps, plans, books, erection of quarters and other buildings, and for contingent expenses for the Academy at West Point, 55,640 dol

lars.

For marking and running the boundary line of the several cessions of land made by the Indians,

15,000 dollars.

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lars.

For annuity to the Creek nation, under the treaty of 1802, 3,000 dollars.

into a committee of the whole, a debate arose, of The House having accordingly resolved itself a desultory but interesting character, occupying two or three hours, in the course of which Messrs. Clay, Barbour, Smith, of Md. Trimble, Tucker, Mercer, Williams, of N. C. Lowndes, Johnson, of Va. and Johnson, of Ky. bore a part.

The result of the debate was, that the committee rose, reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again.

After ordering some papers relative to one of the items of the bill to be printed, it was, On motion of Mr. Mercer,

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to report to this House the present strength and distribution of the Army of the United States, and to subjoin to such report the number and value of the extra days' labor performed by the several detachments thereof, respectively, in the year ending on the 30th day of October last, upon roads or other objects of fatigue duty, together with a statement of such objects, if any there are, of a similar nature, to which it is contemplated to direct the labor of the troops in the current year, distinguishing the sums expended on roads.

Thursday, January 7. Mr. Livermore, from the committee on post offices and post roads, reported a bill to increase

the compensation of the assistant post masters ge neral, which was twice read and committed

The QUEEN of England died at one o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th of last November. Her

Mr. Bellinger, from the committee on the pub-disease (a dropsy) terminated in a mortification;

lic buildings, made a report, accompanied by a bill making appropriations for the public build ings, for the purchase of a certain lot of ground containing a fountain of water, and for supplying with water certain public buildings; which bill was twice read and committed.

On motion of Mr. Herbert,

and it is said she expired with great composure and without a struggle.

Don JOSEPH MASSOT, late Governor of Pensacola, has arrived at the Havana, from Campeachy. The Bank of the United States, by advertisement under date of Jan. 4th, 1819, has declared a dividend of two and one half per cent, on the capital stock-we presume for half a year; for the advertisement does not specify that particular. Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY, a celebrated English law

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be instructed to report to this house a statement of the debts, credits, and funds, of the incorporated banks of the District of Columbia, required by the 19th section of the act of Congress, enti tled "An act to incorporate the subscribers to certain banks in the District of Columbia, and to prevent the circulation of the notes of unincor-er, and member of Parliament for Westminster, porated associations within the said District." On motin of Mr. Floyd,

put a period to his life in a fit of insanity, by cut

Resolved, That the committee on the judiciarying his throat, on the 2d. of November last. The be instructed to inquire into the expediency of recent death of his wife is said to have been the creating a law to define and punish piracies and cause of it. felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations.

The bill for the relief of Thomas Hall Jervey, passed through a committee of the whole, Mr. Desha in the chair, received an amendment, and was ordered to a third reading

The Speaker laid before the house a letter from the Secretary of State, transmitting a list of persons who have obtained patents in the past year.

The house then again resumed, in committee of the whole, Mr. Hugh Nelson in the chair, the bill making appropriations for the military establishment for the year 1819.

The discussion of a particular provision of this bill, commenced yesterday, was resumed, and continued for some time.

The committee did not get through the bill, before it rose, and obtained leave to sit again. On motion of Mr. Mercer, it was

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to include in the report of the strength of the ar my, called for by the resolution of yesterday, the amount in value, if any, of the extra compensa tion, in subsistence, clothing or pay, allowed the troops for extra labor, during the year ending on the 30th October last, in fatigue duties, distin guishing that which has been bestowed in compensation for labor on roads.

Mr. Mercer then laid on the table the following resolution:

Resolved. That the committee on military af. fairs be instructed to report to this house, a bill to reduce to one the number of Major Generals of the army of the United States.

EDITOR'S CABINET.

By the latest accounts, the British Parliament' had been prorogued to the 20th of December last. The dispute between Gen. ADAIR and Gen. JACKSON, it is said, has been satisfactorily accommodated, through the friendly interference of the venerable Governor SHELBY, of Kentucky.

The VICE-PRESIDENT of the United States has arrived in the City of Washington, and taken his seat as President of the Senate.

SMITH THOMPSON, Secretary of the Navy, has arrived, and assumed the administration of his department.

Directors of the Bank of the United States for 1819.

The following persons were, on the 4th instant, appointed by the Stockholders to be Directors of the Bank of the United States for the ensuing year.

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History of Congress.-The business of the House of Representatives is at length becoming lively. The chairman of the committee of ways and means has been most wittily mauled for want of information in relation to a particular item of expenditure contained in the bill making appropriations for the support of the military establishment for 1819. We shall, next week, present our readers with a picture, in our way, of the discussion that arese on Count SANDELS is the Swedish vice-roy of Nor- the occasion. Mr. CLAY was remarkably keen, and

CITY OF WASHINGTON, January 9, 1819. Official Notices, &c. &c.-JONATHAN RUSSELL, the minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the court of Sweden, left Stockholm, on his return to America, on the 23d of October last. CHRISTOPHER HUGHES, junior, secretary of the legation, remains as charge-des-affairs.

way.

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most brilliantly satirical.

No. 3.]

WASHINGTON CITY, JANUARY 16, 1819.

[VOL. VH

Printed and Published, every Saturday, by Lawrence, Wilson, & Co. at five dollars per annum.

Contents of this No. of the National Register.
ORIGINAL.-American Gallery of Portraits, No. 1, 33.-
Editor's Cabinet History of Congress, 47.-Delaplaine's
Repository, 48.
SELECTED.-Military Affairs-Report of the Secretary of
War concerning the Military Peace Establishment, 35.-
Manufactures, Commerce, and Navigation-Prizes not to
be sold at St. Bartholomews, 39-Rapid sailing, 40.-Lite
rature-Tragedy by John Howard Payne, 40.-Proceed-
ings of Congress, 40.-Voyages and Discoveries-North
Pale Expedition, 46-Banks-Explanation from certain
State Eanks at Philadelphia, 47.

FOR THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

American Gallery of Portraits-No. I.

cupies in the view of the public, it is wholly intellectual. He never attracted a single suffrage in his favor by the blandishment of manners or the graces of courtesy. Studious from his earliest youth, he continues to be so in his riper years; and his mental labors are astonishing, when we reflect that he is the practical organ of a department of government which is intrusted with the management of affairs of the first importance, both at home and abroad. The mind of Mr. Adams is strictly logical; and although he is evidently a considerable master of the rhetorical art, he is never inclined to use it except on extraordinary occasions. In every case that calls for the in-exercise of his judgment, he appears to seek alone for the facts and the rule of decision which leads to the proper conclusion. This cautious adhe rence to reason, this guarded aversion to the indulgence of feeling, has induced superficial politicians to pronounce him cold. There never was a more erroneous opinion. The secret of this apparent frigidity is, in truth, a strong sensibility, which has compelled Mr. Adams to resort to a mental discipline, from which he does not depart, lest he should be hurried into the regions of fancy, where there is neither anchorage nor pilot. || A cold-minded man was never yet a wit; and we have heard several witty things attributed to him: an icy heart never won a friend; and it will not be denied that Mr. Adams has many and warm friends. His ambition, indeed, has been more to become an useful citizen than a pleasant companion; and hence the frivolous and the volatile, who

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. To draw in perfection the visible features of dividual man, has at all times been considered an art of very difficult attainment: How much more difficult must it be to depict the intellectual traits of the human character? The writer knows not whether he is about to add to the thousand caricatures which have been propagated in relation to men and mind; but he is not afraid to assert the purity of his intentions. His object is to make his countrymen better acquainted with the remarkable personages of the times, and to pourtray them according to their true merits.

their voices in his praise. They should consider that knowledge is not acquired by trifling; and that an individual who cultivates the sentiment of patriotism in its fullest extent can have but little time to sacrifice to the graces.

Every person in society, whether in private or in public life, presents himself for contemplation in two aspects: the first, as it regards his reputation; the second, as it respects his real character. The world in general is governed by the first, because the world in general is like the head of a drum, which only re-echoes the sounds that are produced from it by the dexterity of the drum-look at affairs only on the surface, have not joined mer. Character can only be perceived by those to whom nature has given penetration and judgment, and with whom reputation passes for no- || thing if it is contradicted by the actions which con stitute character. Not to advert to a more divine example, Socrates affords a striking illustration of the truth of these remarks. He was put to death by the Athenians from the evil report of his enemies, who framed for him an infamous reputation: but succeeding generations have done justice to his memory; and his character, presented to posterity in genuine colors, stands foremost among those of the sages of antiquity who are reputed the most virtuous and the most wise.

Without being a courtier, Mr. Adams leans a good deal to the side of authority in government. It is this feature of his character which has ren-. dered him hitherto rather unpopular with the republican party. But has this inclination been rightly understood? In a monarchy, he that inclines to authority in government, is commonly an enemy to the rights of man, and is justly liable to suspicion on the part of the friends of liberty In

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS is one of the few states-the United States, authority means nothing more men of America who have obtained, among their than the reign of the law. To a well regulated cotemporaries, a reputation nearly corresponding mind the law of the land is the great rule of acwith their intrinsic characters. In his case, how-tion; and the disregard of it is a certain sign of ever, the latter has always been, in some degree, dissoluteness of thought. Too nice an adherence superior to the former. Whatever ground he oc- to the dictates of reason, nevertheless, will, in tu

With him, it is always his country. Is he prudent? Is he cautious? It is for his country. Is he bold and spirited? It is still for his country. If he has taken a stand in relation to the Independence of South America repugnant to the feelings of enthusiasts, it is because he does not act wholly for himself but for the nation. Is it allowable for an individual to endeavor to execute his own particu. lar desires through the instrumentality of government? Certainly not. A man who acts for himself alone, may rush, at will, into all sorts of dangers. If he perishes, the evil of his conduct perishes with him. But a statesman who acts for a whole

his own propensities, and shape his conduct according to the interests of his fellow citizens. If is natural for the Spanish Americans to look for countenance and succor from the only established free republic in the world, it is quite as natural that that republic, standing alone, should pursue measures calculated to preserve itself as a germinating and regenerating principle for other political com

the solitary Republic of the West should guard its institutions with a sacred discretion, till population and improvement shall afford strength suffi

multuary periods, often convey to the senses of the mass of a people the idea of austerity, and even of aristocracy; because the thorny virtue of irreproachable rectitude pricks the consciences of those factions orators who mislead mankind, and whose political morality is measured solely by convenience. If, during sixteen years of his literary and public life, Mr. Adams supported the measures of administration which were deemed odious, we cannot, at least, accuse him of being a demagogue. He was the advocate of the empire of the law, in opposition to that wilderness of notions engendered by the fluctuations of the French Revolution; and it is worthy of grave considera-people, must, if he would act with propriety, curb tion, whether the administrations of George Washington and John Adams, by the barrier which they opposed to the libertinism of the times, from 1789 to 1800, did not do as much service to the United States, as the labors of those whose efforts|| were impelled by an impetuous enthusiasm to a less constrained system of politics. Let those who have been the partizans of revolutionary France, through all the eventful changes of her destiny,munities. When Kings combine in "holy leagues," examine themselves at this day with candor, and decide whether they were not guided more by passion than by principle? Who that admired the generous efforts of the French constituent assem-cient to enable it to dictate limits to the operably, could consistently continue their admiration of Gallic politics through twenty-five years of dreadful vicissitudes, including the predominancy of Kobespierre and the despotism of Napoleon?with confidence in a form of government which There have been, notwithstanding, men who, a tyrants in every age have said could not be renmidst all these direful changes, have stood the dered durable. Whenever any considerable porfast, the devoted friends of French revolution, tion of Spanish America shall demonstrate that it whichsoever way it rolled, and still called them-is unalterably united, and irrevocably determined selves the adherents of the cause of freedom! to be independent, exhibiting, at the same time, Leaning, as he did, to constitutional authority-internal resources adequate to sustain such a posia little strained, perhaps--Mr. Adams was, nevertheless, neither its tool nor the instrument of fac tion. When danger thickened around the republic, from both sides of the British channel,|| and the federal party was disposed to avail itself of the critical moment to embarrass Mr. Jefferson's administration, Mr. Adams separated himself from it; and, with a peculiar delicacy, as he could not express the false principles of the men who, in 1805, ruled Massachusetts, he resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. At this crisis he neither hesitated nor looked back. He threw himself, unconditionally, into the bosom of the republican party, uncertain of his reception but confident in his motives.

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tions of arbitrary power. This discretion does not imply hostility to freedom; it tends, on the contrary, to give to it stability, and to inspire mankind

tion, Mr. Adams, we predict, will be found as prompt as the loudest brawler to recognise it; and so much the more reliance may, in that case, be placed in his decision, as it will have been the result of calm consideration and not an ebullition of feeling or a Sempronian trick of intrigue.

If, however, caution has swayed him with respect to Spanish American affairs, he has not permitted himself to hesitate upon occasions where the positive rights of the United States have been concerned. In the negotiations with Spain, he has contended, in justice, for every dollar and every acre; and, with regard to the Seminole war, he has generously thrown himself, with the mighty shield of his talents, in the breach From that period to the present day we have of opinion which exists in the community touchfound him invariably laboring for his country. ing the proceedings of General Jackson in FloWhether we view him in the Senate, or at St. || rida, and nobly vindicates, upon irrefragable Petersburgh; at Ghent, at London, or in the De-grounds, and at the peril of an opposing and acpartment of State at Washington; the same devo- tive animosity, the military deportment of that tion has uniformly been manifest in his labors. intrepid and intelligent soldier, in the embarrass

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