[25] An act of Congress has since passed to prevent members from
taking government contracts; but the act did not extend to their
sons, brothers, and nephews, and the spirit of it has been often
eluded.
[26] Mr. Randolph was the great opposer of these claims in
Congress, and General Jackson their great opposer in Georgia. It
was he who roused the feeling which overthrew the General Assembly
who made the grant, and elected the legislature which annulled
their act, and burnt the record of it. He was in the Senate of the
U. S. with Mr. James Gunn, the Senator alluded to in the debate as
being engaged in the fraud, and lost his life in the last of the
many duels which his opposition to this measure brought upon him.
[27] With this session ended the first term of Mr. Jefferson’s
administration, and the end of that term presents a natural
occasion for reviewing the working of the Government in its point
of chief contact with the people--_receipts and expenditures_.
These were kept at the lowest point. The internal taxes had been
repealed: the custom house duties had not been increased. For,
though the change of many articles from the _ad valorem_ to the
specific list, had the effect of increasing the revenue, yet it did
not increase the duty, the object being to prevent frauds and to
simplify and cheapen the collection. The duties themselves, both
the specific and the _ad valorem_, remained at the low and moderate
rates which characterized the early periods of our Government.
The average of the specifics, on the leading articles, were: on
spirits, 29 cents per gallon; on wines, 32 cents per gallon; on
teas, 16 cents per pound; on coffee, 5 cents per pound; on sugars,
2½ cents per pound; on molasses, 5 cents per gallon. The _ad
valorems_ were simplified to three rates, which in fact were but
two, the third and highest rate only applying to luxuries, which
were but little imported; and the lowest rate applying to the bulk
of the importations. Thus the highest rate (20 per centum) in an
importation of near forty million dollars worth of merchandise
paying _ad valorem_ duties, only fell upon $425,000 of that
quantity, while the 15 per cent. fell upon $7,640,000 worth, and
the 12½ per cent. rate fell upon 31 millions of dollars worth.
The average of all the _ad valorems_ was about 13 per centum; and
such was the cheapness of this simplicity of impost, that the cost
of collection was only about 4 per centum, and the revenue cutter
service almost null. The net revenue yielded was twelve millions
and a quarter, of which there went to the principal and interest
of the public debt, about eight millions; to the army and navy,
about two millions; miscellanies, about half a million; tribute to
Algiers, near $200,000; diplomatic intercourse, $60,000; and about
$600,000 to the civil list--comprehending the entire _support_
of the Government in all its branches--executive, judicial, and
legislative. And thus the moderate duties of that time, upon the
moderate importation of that time, with the economy of that time,
produced nearly twenty times the amount of revenue which the
_support_ of the Federal Government required.
[28] Okefonokee Swamp, covering one-fourth of Georgia, 15,000
square miles--the great refuge of fugitive slaves, white outlaws,
and depredating Indians.
[29] The whole object of the bill was the purchase of Florida, but
it not being desirable to avow that purpose, the object was covered
up in the vague phrases of extraordinary expenses in foreign
intercourse. The following is the act as passed:
That a sum of two millions of dollars be, and the same is
hereby appropriated towards defraying any extraordinary
expenses which may be incurred in the intercourse between the
United States and foreign nations, to be paid out of any money
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be applied
under the direction of the President of the United States, who
shall cause an account thereof to be laid before Congress as
soon as may be.
[30] The Marquis de Casa Yrujo. He was recalled.
[31] This expunging was so complete that no vestige of the expunged
matter appears in the Journal; but it is otherwise well known what
it was. The two named persons had presented memorials, which had
been received and read, stating that they were under a criminal
prosecution, now depending in the Circuit Court of the United
States for the district of New York, for an alleged offence against
the laws of the United States, in which, if guilty, they have
been led into error by the conduct of officers of the Executive
Government, who now intend to bring upon the memorialists the
penalties of the laws, to sacrifice their characters, fortunes,
and liberty, in expiation of their own errors, or to deprecate the
vengeance of foreign Governments, by offering the memorialists
as victims to their resentment: that they have also experienced
great oppression and injustice in the manner of conducting the
said prosecution; and praying such relief therein as the wisdom of
Congress may think proper to grant.
The prosecution was for an alleged breach of the neutrality laws,
in fitting out a vessel from New York against a Power with whom the
United States were at peace, to wit, the King of Spain. The vessel
was the _Leander_, and built for General Miranda, then engaged in
his South American expedition. The implications of the Executive
Government which the memorials charged, were voted, by the House of
Representatives, to be unsupported and reprehensible, and ordered
to be returned to the parties from whom they came. The following
was the resolve, adopted nearly unanimously, on the motion of Mr.
Early:
_Resolved_, That the charges contained in the memorials of
S. G. Ogden and William Smith are, in the opinion of this
House, unsupported by any evidence which, in the least degree,
criminates the Executive Government of this country; that the
said memorials appear to have been presented at a time and
under circumstances insidiously calculated to excite unjust
suspicions in the minds of the good people of this nation
against the existing Administration of the General Government,
and that it would be highly improper in this House to take any
step which might influence or prejudice a cause now pending in
a legal tribunal of the United States. Therefore, _Resolved_,
That the said memorials be by the Clerk of this House returned
to those from whom they came.
[32] The constitutional power of Congress to prohibit the
importation of slaves into States, did not accrue till the year
1808; but Territories not being States, the constitutional
prohibition had no application to them.
[33] This was the public commencement of Mr. Randolph’s
separation from the Administration of Mr. Jefferson; but his
dissatisfaction had begun before, at the retention of Mr. Granger,
Postmaster-General, in the Cabinet, after it was known that he was
the agent of the New England Mississippi Land Company.
[34] Since the statute of 13th William the Third, the British
Judges are removable upon the joint address of the two Houses of
Parliament, notwithstanding they are commissioned, since that
statute, during good behaviour--_quamdiu se bene gesserint_.
Before that time they were commissioned during the royal
pleasure--_durante bene placito_: and it was usual, during
profligate reigns, when convictions of obnoxious persons were
required, to remove such of the judges as could not be relied on,
and appoint a subservient set in their place. The act of William
the Third made them independent of the King, but not of the
Parliament representing the country. Their independence of the
crown was completed by the statute 1 George III., which prevented
the vacation of their commissions on the demise of the sovereign.
[35] This is the true view of the constitution, and of our policy,
and the motive to the confederation of 1778, and to Union of
1787. Defence was the object, and the policy--so declared in the
instruments of confederation and of Union, and so proclaimed by
every consideration of policy. And for defence, the United States
are the strongest power in the world. Her railroads in a few days
would place a million of volunteers, if needed, on any point of
land attack: her privateers would clear the seas of the enemy’s
commerce. And these two great means of defence would be as cheap as
effective; superseding the old expensive policy of “_preparing for
war in time of peace_.”
[36] The practice of pronouncing funeral eulogiums over deceased
members had not been yet adopted. Attending the funeral, and
wearing the badge of mourning, were deemed the adequate honor;
and well worthy was General James Jackson of it. He was a man of
marked character, high principle, and strong temperament--honest,
patriotic, brave--hating tyranny, oppression, and meanness in every
form; the bold denouncer of crime in high as well as in low places;
a ready speaker, and as ready with his pistol as his tongue, and
involved in many duels on account of his hot opposition to criminal
measures. The defeat of the Yazoo fraud was the most signal act
of his legislative life, for which he paid the penalty of his
life--dying of wounds received in the last of the many duels which
his undaunted attacks upon that measure brought upon him.
[37] The item for contingent expenses of the Navy, comprises
commissions to agents to foreign countries and in the United
States, officers’ travelling expenses, expense of conveying seamen
from one port to another, as for instance where seamen are entered
in Philadelphia or Baltimore to join a vessel fitting out at
Washington, the expense of nautical instruments, such as compasses,
quadrants, spy-glasses, &c., charts, books, models, drawings,
signals, lanterns, oil, candles, clamps, fuel, hammocks, trumpets,
glass, cisterns, cases, mess kids, axes, gridirons, tea kettles,
galleys, shovels, tongs, charcoal, sulphur, saltpetre, fire
engines, fire buckets, bread bags, and an infinite variety of other
such articles, not expressly provided by law.
[38] Two frigates.
[39] The item for ordnance comprises cannon, carronades, swivels,
blunderbusses, muskets, pistols, swords, boarding-pikes, cutlasses,
cannon ball of every description, musket and pistol ball, cannon,
musket, pistol and priming powder, powder horns, priming horns,
flannel and paper cartridges, cartridge boxes, slow match, lint
stocks, worms, rammers, sponges, wads, gun-locks, screw-drivers,
flints, cartridge thread, &c.
[40] The error which now prevails (with so many) on the subject
of the fishing bounties and allowances, is one which strongly
illustrates the evil in our legislators, of not being sufficiently
acquainted with our early Congressional history. They are now held
by many--by enough to prevent their repeal--to be bounties out of
the Treasury for the encouragement of the fisheries as a nursery
of seamen, when their whole history proves that they were denied
when asked on that ground, (bounties out of the Treasury to any
branch of industry being equally unconstitutional and impolitic,)
and only granted on the principle of drawback--as a refunding of
duty paid on foreign salt exported on fish; and as such applied at
first to all salted provisions, both beef and pork as well as to
fish. And as such drawback these bounties and allowances rose and
fell with the salt tax as long as national legislation was under
the control of our earlier generation of statesmen; but since near
thirty years this dependence of the bounties and allowances upon
the salt tax has ceased to be known, and, while the duty has been
undergoing reductions, the bounties and allowances have remained
at the highest rate they ever attained when the salt duty was at
its highest rate. The want of this knowledge has cost the public
treasury some millions of dollars; and is still costing it some
hundreds of thousands annually.
[41] The application of steam power to the propulsion of boats
on water and cars on land, under the enterprise of private
individuals, has superseded all the old ideas of federal internal
improvement by roads, rivers, and canals.
[42] This is the first appearance of Mr. Clay in either House of
Congress.
[43] The following are the letters:
NASHVILLE, Jan. 8, 1807.
SIR: I received your instructions, dated the 2d instant,
and agreeably thereto, I delivered your letter, addressed
to General Thomas Johnson, to Colonel Cheatham, and it was
forwarded to him immediately. I arrived at Centreville on
the 4th instant; heard a report there that Colonel Burr had
gone down the river with one thousand armed men; arrived at
the mouth of Cumberland river that evening, and made inquiry
concerning Colonel Burr, and was informed that he left that
place on the 28th December, 1806, with ten boats, of different
descriptions; had sixty men on board, but no appearance of
arms. I left there on the 5th instant, and arrived at Fort
Massac that evening; delivered your letter to Captain Bissel,
and received his answer; made some inquiries of him, and was
informed that Colonel Burr had left that place on the 30th
December, 1806, with ten boats. He likewise informed me that he
had been on board the boats, and seen no appearance of arms or
ammunition. On my return to the mouth of Cumberland river, I
was informed that three boats had been stopped at Louisville,
with a quantity of ammunition. There are about fifty men
stationed at the mouth of Cumberland, under command of Colonel
Ramsey.