the United States) who shall give general instructions to all sub-Inspectors, for the drilling, exercise, discipline, and police of the volunteers when not in actual service. The officers to be appointed and commissioned by the President of the United States. The proposed corps to include as many of the volunteers who have offered their services under the act of 24th February, 1807, as shall engage in the volunteer army now proposed. The whole to consist of forty-four thousand infantry, three thousand artillery, and three thousand riflemen, to be organized into companies of one hundred each, including officers, regiments of one thousand, brigades of five thousand, and divisions of ten thousand each, to have the usual staff, including Surgeons and Mates; the Surgeons and Mates to attend the annual encampment and actual service, and to receive pay only for their actual services, at the same rate is allowed to Regimental Surgeons and Mates in the other corps of the Army: Pay per month. 830 40 20.000 5 Major Geneals 10 Brigadier Generals $166 500 Captains DECEMBER, 1808. other purposes.-Twice read. and referred to a Committee of the Whole on Wednesday next. [The following are the prominent features of the non-intercourse bill: Exclusion from the harbors and waters of the United States and Territories thereof, of all publie ships and vessels belonging to Great Britain or France, or to any other belligerent Power or Powers having in force orders, decrees, edicts, or laws, violating the lawful commerce or neutral rights of the United States, excepting vessels forced in by stress of weather, pursuit of an enemy, such as are charged with despatches, or business from their Governments, or packets having no cargo nor merchandise on board. The President is authorized to expel by force all such vessels as contravene this regulation. A penalty not exceeding ten thousand dollars, nor less than one hundred dollars, and imprisonment for not less than one month, and not more than one year, upon all persons affording assistance to vessels entering contrary to the law, excepting in case of piloting them out of the jurisdiction of the United States. Authority to seize and condemn, after a certain day, all vessels and their cargoes, bearing the French or English flag, or owned in whole or in part by any citizen or subject of either, which may enter the ports, &c., of the United States, &c., excepting only vessels expressly hired to convey despatches, such as put in through distress, or are chased in by an enemy. Prohibits, after a certain day, the importation of any goods or merchandise, the produce or manufacture of Great Britain or France, or their dependencies, either directly or indirectly, from any country whatever. The forfeiture and payment of treble value by the owners of any goods so prohibited, attempted to be introduced into the United States on board of any ship, vessel, boat, raft, or carriage, which shall receive prohibited goods on board, knowing them to be such, and the owner and master muleted in treble the value of the articles. Provision that, if Great Britain or France revoke or modify their orders or decrees so as to render our commerce sufficiently safe, in the opinion of the President of the United States, of which revocation or modification, he shall give public notice by proclamation, the operation of this act and of the embargo acts, shall, so far as relates to the nations in amity with her, and having no orders, decrees, or edicts in force, violating the lawful commerce and neutral rights of the United States, forthwith cease and determine; without, however, any remission of previous fines and forfeitures. Vessels bound to any foreign port or place with which intercourse shall have been thus restored, are to give bond and approved security, in six times the value of such vessel and cargo, not to proceed to any foreign port, nor trade with any country other than those with which commercial intercourse shall have been thus permitted. The President vested with power to extend the provisions of the bill to any nations having in foree edicts, &c., such as those of Great Britain and France; and all the penalties, &c., of the bill, made applicable to them.] DECEMBER, 1808. TUESDAY, December 27. Payment of Witnesses. Mr. DANA, from the committee to whom was referred, on the twenty-third ultimo, the petition of Edward Beaumont, presented a bill for the relief of Edward Beaumont; which was read twice, and referred to the Committee of the Whole to-morrow. The SPEAKER laid before the House a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting the annual statement of the district tonnage of the United States, on the 31st of December, 1807; which were read, and ordered to lie on the table. The SPEAKER also laid before the House another letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting a statement of goods, wares, and merchandise, exported from the United States, nominally, during one year prior to the first of October, 1808, but in fact, during the three last months of the year 1807; which were read, and ordered to lie on the table. The letter is as follows: TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 26, 1808. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a statement of goods, wares, and merchandise, exported from the United States nominally during the year prior to the first day of October, 1808; but, in fact, during the three last months of the year 1807, subsequent exportations having been prevented by the embargo. The goods, wares, and merchandise of domestic growth or manufacture, included in the statements, are estimated at -$9,433,546 And those of foreign growth and manufac12,997,414 ture at Amounting together to 22,430,960 The articles of foreign growth or manufacture may be arranged under the following heads, viz: $822,000 Produce of the sea 66 66 forest 66 Uncertain 1,930,000 H. OF R. lent to a rejection, the present law expiring on the first of next month, and that this fund was well understood in the nation under the name of the Mediterranean Fund, and there was therefore no reason to change the name. It seemed to be similar to an objection to a man, however estimable, because his name did not please the ear. The motion for postponement was negatived, ayes 16; and the bill ordered to a third reading to-day. PAYMENT OF WITNESSES. Mr. JOHN G. JACKSON, from the committee to whom was referred, on the twenty-first ultimo, the petition of Return Jonathan Meigs, and others, made a report thereon; which was read, and referred to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next. The report is as follows: The petitioners state that they attended the court of the United States for the District of Virginia, as witnesses, in behalf of the United States, on the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, in the Summer of the year 1807; that they travelled from great and remote distances; and that their attendance had been uncommonly long; that an absence from their homes at that busy season of the year had been severely injurious to them; and that the allowance made by law was insufficient to defray the necessary expenses; and therefore they pray an additional compensation In ordinary cases, the committee would be unwilling to sanction any innovation upon the general law relating to the compensation of witnesses attending the courts of the United States; but, in every point of view, whether as it regards the crimes charged upon the accused, the extensive theatre which they embraced, the number of witnesses drawn from the most reconsumed in the trial, as well as the manner of conmote parts of the United States, or the length of time ducting it, this was a most extraordinary one. In ordinary cases the witnesses live in the vicinity of the courts, and are not exposed to heavy sacrifices in attending them. In this case they are compelled to travel great distances, varying from four hundred to one thousand three hundred miles. The committee conceive that the principle is universally correct, that the personal services of no man shall be compulsorily required without a reasonable compensation given to I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your him; and, therefore, that these witnesses are entitled obedient servant, 9,924,000 ALBERT GALLATIN. The Hon. the SPEAKER of the House of Reps. The bill for the continuation of the Mediterranian fund having been reported, Mr. TALLMADGE moved to postpone the bill for a fortnight. Messrs. TALLMADGE and LYON supported the motion, objecting to laying this duty in this form, as the object for which it was intended, by the title of the bill, no longer required this revenue. No objection was made to laying the duty, but to laying it in this form, distinct from the general increase of duties proposed by the Secretary of the Treasury; which subject would no doubt soon be reported on by the Committee of Ways and Means. to it. They have been, however, not only compelled to give their attendance without such compensation, but to expend their own money likewise. In looking over the laws giving compensation to witnesses, the committee find that those who attended the impeachment of Judge Chase before the Senate were allowed three dollars per diem for their attendance, and twelve-and-a-half cents a mile for travelling to the place of trial, and the same for returning. If a departure from the rule fixing the allowance to witnesses was proper in that case, it is equally so in this, as the distance which the witnesses on the trial of Burr had to travel was further, their attendance was longer, and the expenses incurred by them necessarily as great. The venire summoned from the county of Wood, a distance of 400 miles from Richmond, have also asked a further compensation, and the committee see no just Messrs. CAMPBELL and ALSTON supported the cause of discrimination between them and the witnessbill, and opposed the motion for postponement, on es. They therefore recommend that a further compenthe ground that a postponement would be equiva-sation be allowed to the witnesses and venire men who H. OF R. Enforcing the Embargo, DECEMBER, 1808. attended the trial of Aaron Burr for treason before the permanent measure; and that they (the majority) Circuit Court of the United States for the Virginia dis- did not intend to keep it on long, or words to that trict; and, in pursuance of that recommendation, they effect. In this declaration, from so high authorask leave to report a bill for that purpose. ity, I reposed full faith and confidence, and susMr. JACKSON, from the committee, then present-pended offering my second number, in hopes of ed a bill giving a further compensation to the seeing the wish nearest my heart of all sublunary witnesses and venire who attended the trial of objects accomplished, in the removal of the greatAaron Burr before the Circuit Court of the Uni-est evil which in my opinion these United States ted States for the District of Virginia; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole on Monday next. ENFORCING THE EMBARGO. Mr. JACKSON moved that the Committee of the Whole be discharged from further consideration of the bill for enforcing the embargo, with a view to refer it to a select committee, to make amendments wished by its friends, which could not be made without difficulty in Committee of the Whole. Mr. SLOAN proceeded to speak upon the merits of the bill, when he was called to order. Mr. S. said, that if he was not in order, he would make a motion which would supersede the one now under consideration, and entitle him to proceed. He then made a motion to postpone the subject indefinitely, which, although questioned by several members, was declared by the SPEAKER to be in order, and Mr. SLOAN proceeded, as follows: ever experienced since the Revolutionary warI mean the embargo. But I have hitherto waited in vain, and must now beg the favor of my worthy friend, the next time he obliges the House with hearing the sound of his pleasing voicewhich I, for one, shall hear with great delightto release my mind from suspense, by giving us the proper definition of the word experiment, and also what he meant by the embargo not remaining long; whether he meant a few days, or a few weeks, months, or years. For, permit me to remind my friend, that if, instead of being in his present honorable station, receiving six dollars per day, as he did previous to the embargo, and still does, he was placed in the situation of thousands at this time in these United States, whose sole dependence for support is their daily labor, and who, by that measure, having been deprived of employment twelve months, now at the commencement of Winter look forward with the dreadful apprehension, that ere the return of vernal bloom, their tender children may ask bread, and they have none to give, he would consider one day longer than now he does a month. Mr. Speaker: I have observed, that since printers have become so numerous in these United States, they are obliged to adopt new modes of publication, in order to obtain ready sale for their Mr. Speaker, I have committed the purport of innumerable productions. They frequently hand this second number to writing, for two reasonsout long histories in short numbers-for instance, first, to lessen the labor of our stenographers, and a history that in one volume would cost five dol- secondly, because, after having so long followed lars, has much readier sale in twenty numbers, at those learned and eloquent members that have twenty-five cents apiece. And, as appears from preceded me, in their sublime and almost superthe progress already made, it is pretty well ascer- human flights of imagination, it would be ditfitained that the embargo will occupy the greatest cult, if not impossible, for them instantly to depart, if not the whole time, of the present session. scend to my humble sphere, without, in their rapid If a majority of the House is determined to keep descent, falling far below it. Hence, I was apthe people in their present state of suffering and prehensive they would dress my bantling in coarser suspense until Spring, the least they can do dur- clothes than it merits; and every member on this ing the dreary scenes of Winter, will be to con- floor knows that it is needless. Yet, I am not tinue diverting them with eloquent speeches, of disposed to read it; for I have long believed that all sorts and sizes, from fifteen minutes to four both religious and political sermons lose much of hours long. But, knowing that mankind is fond their force by reading. But, before I proceed furof variety, and believing that my worthy friends ther, I will publish my text, which, although very in the majority will have the hardest task they short, (consisting of but one word,) conveys a ever undertook to keep the people of these United dreadful sound to many thousands of suffering States in a tolerable good humor, with the em- American citizens-"EMBARGO." I will not rebargo on their backs, till next March; although peat it; it has become very familiar, and I fear very I do not perfectly agree with them, I cannot give pleasing, to many who receive six dollars per day them up as lost, but. like a faithful friend, mean for sitting a few hours in this splendid Hall talkto stand by them to the last gasp, striving, if posing about it; but, very different is the situation of sible, to get them out of the horrible pit into which they have fallen, before they perish. Under these impressions, Mr. Speaker, I shall proceed to offer my second number, which I thought of doing several days ago, but delayed it in consequence of a declaration of my worthy friend from Virginia, (Mr. NEWTON.) which rejoiced my heart more than all the eloquent speeches I have heard this session: it was, that we (the minority) knew that the embargo was never intended as a many of our constituents suffering under it. Before I left home I expected that one of the first pages of our journal would have contained a declaration, that this word was proved by experience to be uncanonical, and therefore ordered to be expunged from our political bible; but, alas! how grievously am I disappointed in beholding so great a number of our learned Rabbins, introducing Latin quotations, and perhaps Greek and Hebrew, for I understand none of them, and adducing testimony brought from every habitable part of the globe to prove that it is not barely canonical, but that on our strict obedience depends our political salvation, and that all who differ in opinion are dangerous heretics. It will be remembered that my surprise and disappointment was so great, that I remained silent longer than Job's three friends did in days of yore. We read that, in consequence of the grievous sufferings of their friend, they sat silent and astonished seven days. I sat silent much longer, until compelled by an imperious sense of duty to plead the cause of the poor and needy, and exert my feeble powers in behalf of the sinking liberties of my country. Mr. Speaker, last session my principal text was, Removal of the seat of Government, and for the same reason that embargo is at this time; because it was then, in my opinion, the greatest evil these United States suffered-the Embargo is now. And as every wise and just Legislature will first attend to the greatest grievances of their constituents, I must for the present suspend my exertions to remove the seat of Government, and apply them to the embargo. In doing which, I shall not impeach the motives of those who ingrafted into our Constitution the plan of a district ten miles square for a seat of Government; nor of those who carried that plan into execution; nor yet (God forbid! for I was one) of those who passed our first three embargo laws. I will admit that their intentions were good-that their motives were pure. But what has been the consequence? Why experience, that only sure (may I not say infallible?) teacher, has incontestably proved that the principle upon which the ten miles square is founded, is totally repugnant to republicanism and the liberties of a free and independent nation; that whatever its nominal title may be, however artfully disguised, its essence and effect is monarchical, spreading its baneful influence from Georgia to Maine. So has the embargo. They are twin sisters, in proportion to their power, and equally destructive to the lasting interest, peace, and prosperity of these United States, with this difference only, that the latter is more rapid in her movements, and consequently her baneful effects at present are more sensibly felt. Well, now let me ask what must be done? Must these pernicious plans be supported and continued perpetually, because they originated in pure motives? Does not common sense, reason, and justice answer no? The consummate folly of weak and vicious Legislatures has ever appeared most obvious, in the continuation and rigid enforcement of their own oppressive laws; and, vice versa, the wisdom of virtuous Legislatures, in testing their laws by experience, and speedily repealing all that were oppressive to the people. Mr. Speaker, I shall now ask the indulgence of the House in some observations upon arguments of members who have preceded me, in favor of the continuation of the embarge laws; in doing which I shall not pursue them through the deserts of Arabia, or the scorching sands of H. OF R. Lybia; I will not travel with them, either by land or water, from the torrid to the frigid zone; I will not, after exploring the known, make a futile attempt to explore the unknown parts of the universe, in quest of evidence to support our cause. No; that would be a tacit acknowledgment that it was as bad as theirs, insupportable by domestic, plain, and self-evident facts. The principal object we now have in view is, to use a military phrase, to bring the artillery of divers members that have preceded me to bear upon themselves, which-if it should bear hard, let them remember that they have provoked the attack-and to show that some of the evidence adduced by them is conclusive against the continuance of the embargo laws. The first I shall notice is my friend from Tennessee, (Mr. RHEA,) who spoke next after me, soon after the commencement of this discussion. He observed that no distinction ought to be made between rich and poor. I perfectly agree with him, and only ask him to reduce his excellent Christian precepts to practice; that while he sits in this splendid hall, receiving six dollars per day, secure from the piercing blasts of winter, far removed from the hapless habitation of want, where poverty dwells, or even from the apprehension of the plaintive cries of a bosom friend asking bread for her tender offspring where there is none to give, he will abstain from making or continuing in force laws not barely oppressing the poor, but totally depriving them of their wonted means of subsistence-yea, cutting off from them their whole staff and stay of bread. The next observations I shall notice, fell from my young friend from Virginia, (Mr. GHOLSON,) who is certainly entitled to the thanks of this House, and of the United States generally, but more particularly of the merchants, seamen, and fishermen of the Middle and Eastern States. These classes he has laid under so heavy a debt of gratitude, that I fear they never will be able fully to discharge it. I mean his great condescension in setting his prolific genius to work to devise some means to relieve them from their present suffering situation. Being a great friend to home manufactures, I gave particular attention to this truly patriotic and benevolent plan: which was, if I understood correctly, to turn the merchants and their clerks, with their powdered heads, out of the counting-houses, and set them to ploughing, and the seamen and fishermen to spinning cotton-a plan worthy of the author! But I hope my friend will consider it a token of my respect, if I present for his consideration a reversal of his plan; that is, to order the seamen (whose hands have been used to handling the tarry ropes) to the plough, and the other trifling powder-headed gentry to spinning cotton, as more congenial to their former habits. One more token of my respect, and then I will for the present take leave of my friend from Virginia: that is, that notwithstanding his plan is well adapted to the meridian of a Government where slavery and unconditional submission is the order of the day, he will do well to consider before he pro ceeds to enforce his plan, whether it will suit the meridian of a Government whose citizens have not been theoretically, but practically free, and long inured to employment of their own choice. Mr. Speaker, I shall now proceed to some observations of my friend from Georgia, (Mr. TROUP,) but must ask his pardon for not placing him first on the list of the three first mighty men, that have appeared advocates for the embargo; to this station he is, in my opinion, justly entitled, for the clear, positive, and unequivocal manner in which he informed the members of this House from whom they had nothing to fear, and to whom they might safely look up for example. This information, I trust, will be duly appreciated, kept in remembrance, and so strictly attended to, as to prevent the necessity of a repetition. The language, if I understood him correctly, was to the following effect: that we had nothing to fear from the anti-embargo men, they were too base and insignificant; that he would not appeal to the anti-embargo New Englanders, the merest Shylocks, the depraved of the cities, and the ignorant of the country, who would sacrifice the honor and independence of the nation for a little trade in codfish and potash, but to the people of Virginia, too honorable to have been corrupted, and too enlightened to be duped. DECEMBER, 1808. described as follows: "In this State alone, did there exist so little virtue, that fear was to be fixed in the hearts of the people, and to become 'the motive of their exertions, and the principle of their government." No, Mr. Speaker, were I to hold up as an example any State government, it should be one where every man who pays tax for the support of Government, and is called upon when necessary to risk his life in defence thereof, has an equal voice in deciding who shall make the laws that govern him; where the power of the poor man to guard his ewe lamb, is equal to that of the rich over his flock; to a State who, having but eighteen Representatives on this floor, can nevertheless boast of 111,000 free and independent voters. Not to a State where, if the Declaration of Independence is read at all, it is regarded only as a pleasant song, as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; but to a State where this heaven-born language is reduced to practice: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that God hath created all men equal, that he hath endowed them with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Ever bearing in mind, that not the hearers but the doers of the law are to be justified thereby. I will now, with permission of the House, take Mr. Speaker, as this gentleman has been in some notice of my friend from Maryland, (Mr. dulged with liberty to inform the members of NELSON,) who, since the commencement of this this House, and through them the people of the discussion, has twice favored us with the sound United States generally, who he would not ap- of his feeble voice. He will pardon my freedom peal to for example, and who he would, I ask the in applying to him the appellation of friend, after same indulgence, with this exception only: Iask charging me with the capital crime of having not liberty to make invidious distinctions between turned my coat-that is to say, I have not always States; I ask not liberty to mention the names of voted with the majority. But really, Mr. Speaker, any of them. No; this has never been my prac- if I had turned my coat as often as that gentletice on this floor, and I trust never will. None man has changed his plan of operation, within more than myself regret being laid under the these three or four years past, it would, by this imperious necessity, in support of justice, liberty, time, make a very ragged appearance. I am told and the inherent rights of man, to say that I will he is a militia officer. God grant that I may never never appeal or look up for example to any State be a soldier under him; for, at this time of life, government, under which 346,968 human souls he would soon harass me to death with marching are kept in a state of perpetual bondage, and used and countermarching. But, he has exultingly as an article of traffic, in common with a bale of reprobated the Quakers' principle. This I congoods or a beast of the field. I will never hold sider an act of supererogation. For my own part, up as an example any Government, where the I am free to acknowledge, that, since my acquaintchoicest of all earthly blessings, "liberty," is ex-ance with his honor, I have never discovered anytended only to a chosen few, and withheld from thing, either in his precepts or practice, that would the many; where a great majority of those called subject him to the charge of even the least tincfreemen, who are compelled in case of war to ture of Quakerism, or of any other religious socirisk their lives in support of the property of the ety. I hope, in thus candidly exonerating my rich, are denied a voice in making the law that friend from the horrid sin of Quakerism, I may so compels them, or any others. I will never not be considered as derogating in the least delook up for a model of political justice to a State gree from his religion, his piety, or his virtue. He boasting of twenty-two Representatives on this may, for anything that I know, have as large a floor, who, nevertheless, at a late general con- store as any man, and keep it concealed, from the tested election, probably took between twenty purest motives-that is, a fear that it might be and twenty-five thousand votes: when on a sim- contaminated by exposure to the vulgar throng. ilar occasion a State sending but six Representa- But I will for the present drop religious topics, tives, took upwards of thirty-two thousand. And, and observe, that the first time my attention was finally, until I am convinced that a radical and arrested by my friend's feeble voice, his sentiments complete reformation has taken place, (which at first were perfectly in unison with my own. God in mercy grant may soon be the case,) I will If I understood him correctly, he informed the never look for example to a State which the wise House that he had heard so many wrong things and enlightened author of the Notes on Virginia | he could no longer keep silence, and reprobated |