And whereas, suffering, as we are, from the want of a system of general instruction, we have learned with much pleasure, that during the last session of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, a bill passed the Senate, appropriating two millions of dollars, the purchase money due the state upon unpatented lands, to create a fund in support of a general system of education, it is hoped that an object so laudable in itself, will not be neglected by the ensuing Legislature, in whose talents and patriotism we have full confidence.

Wherefore Resolved, that we highly approve of the principle recognized in the act abovementioned, believing that a permanent and efficient system of education should be based upon a sufficient and permanent fund. Resolved, That whereas, the subject lays strong claim to our attention as citizens of this com ommonwealth, we will use every exertion to ensure success.

Resolved, That William Audenreid, Daniel Yost, Esq. and Dr. Daniel Foltz, be a committee to correspond with such other committees as may hereafter be appointed throughout the State, for the purpose of educationalso to circulate petitions and have them forwarded to the Legislature, for the said object.

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed and published in The Miner's Journal,' of Pottsville, and in all other papers that may be favourably disposed to the cause of education.

WILLIAM AUDENREID, Chairman. BERNARD KEPNER, Sec'ry.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Miner's Journal.

A correspondent of the Pittsburg Gazette says: "From the earliest times the beautiful river which bounds our city on the north was distinguished by the natives as Fair Water.' Perhaps, also, many persons are not aware that the natives considered the Allegheny and Ohio to be the same stream, and the Monongahela to be a tributary-Allegheny being a word in the Delaware language, and Ohio in the Seneca, both meaning the Fair water.' So that the title Le Belle Riviere,' given by the French to the Ohio, was not original, but a mere translation of the Indian name.

Small pox.-There have lately been several cases of small pox at Pittsburgh.

Pittsburg, (Penn) Nov. 25.

The Water Works -During the present week, it is expected, the engine will be set in motion, and the reservoir on Grant's Hill filled with water. The main pipes are laid through the principal streets and fire plugs set at convenient distances.

derstand the water was let into 17 miles of the canal bePennsylvania Canal.-The water's coming! We untween Blairsville and the Aqueduct across the Allegheny above the mouth of the Kiskeminetas last week, and that but one unimportant breach occurred. The breach, it is supposed, is by this time repaired. The water will probably be flowing through the aqueduct before the close of the present week. We may expect canal news even nearer home, in a short time.

Taxables-The assessors of Armstrong county have made returns of the inhabitants in their districts, together with the increase since 1821:

Apples were very scarce here the last season-scarcely a barrel of cider can be purchased in the country. Large Hog-A hog was one day this week killed by Mr. Pierce Butler of Kingston, upwards of a year old, which weighed 470 pounds.-Wilkesbarre Dem.

Stealing Public Records.--Public Records have lately been stolen from the prothonotaries offices of Dauphin and Tioga counties.

First boat on Western Canal.--On Saturday, 25th October, a boat was launched on the western canal, by Messrs. Jno. Thompson, Thos Hichen, -- Cooper, Smith, Alexander Feay, James Jamieson, Daniel Beatman, and Bash, under the superintendence of captain Levi Feay, who was the first man that put a foot on board the first boat that ever floated on this canal. The boat was then taken through lock No. 1, on the Kiskiminetas, passed around the dam, and returned, when a Scarcity of Grain.-Grain of every kind is obviously number of ladies were received on board, after which it scarce, and the demand greater in this section of the was conveyed to Sect. 17, and a cargo of salt taken in at state, than it has been for many years past. This fact Mr. David Buneman's works. The boat then returned presents a powerful appeal to our agriculturists to withwith the passengers and crew all well. This scene car-hold their grain from the distilleries.—Crawford Mess. ried the recollection back to a period yet within the memory of some of our venerable inhabitants, when this part of the country was the abode of the red man of the forest, and presented to the eye, a dreary and trackless wilderness.--Western Repub.

Pittsburg, Penn. J Nov 19. The Tunnel.-The project of tunnelling Grant's hill is abandoned. The work had been commenced on each side, and much money and time expended, but we are informed, that Messrs. Meloy and M'Avey, the enterprising contractors, after weighing all the obstacles, have determined that it will be more expeditious and less expensive, to cut from the surface, through the hill to the entire depth which is to form the bed of the canal, which will be, in some plases, from 60 to 70 feet.

Appointment by the Governor.-David Reynolds, Esq. to be an Associate Judge for Mifflin county, in the room of Judge Edmiston, deceased.

Printed every Saturday morning by William F. Geddes, No. 59 Locust street, Philadelphia; where, and at the Editor's residence, in North 12th st. 3d door south of Cherry st. subscriptions will be thankfully received. Price five dollars per annum payable in six months after the commencement of publication--and annually, thereafter, by subscribers resident in or near the city, or where there is an agent. Other subscribers pay in advance.

THE

REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE

continued to increase for the mutual benefit of both. The claims of indemnity to numbers of our fellow citizens for depredations upon their property heretofore committed, during the Revolutionary Government, still remain unadjusted, and still form the subject of earnest representation and remonstrance. Recent advices from the Minister of the United States at Paris, encourage

TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE the expectation that the appeal to the justice of the UNITED STATES.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate,

and of the House of Representatives.

If the enjoyment in profusion of the bounties of Providence forms a suitable subject of mutual gratulation and grateful acknowledgment, we are admonished at this return of the season, when the Representatives of the nation are assembled to deliberate upon their concerns, to offer up the tribute of fervent and grateful hearts, for the never-failing mercies of Him who ruleth over all. He has again favoured us with healthful seasons and abundant harvests. He has sustained us in peace with foreign countries, and in tranquillity within our own borders. He has preserved us in the quiet and undisturbed possession of civil and religious liberty. He has crowned the year with his goodness, imposing on us no condition other than of improving for our own happiness the blessings bestowed by his hands; and in the fruition of all his favours, of devoting the faculties with which we have been endowed by him, to his glory, and to our own temporal and eternal welfare.

In the relations of our Federal Union with our brethren of the human race, the changes which have occurred since the close of your last session, have generally tended to the preservation of peace, and to the cultivation of harmony. Before your last separation, a war had unhappily been kindled between the Empire of Russia, one of those with which our intercourse has been a constant exchange of good offices, and that of the Ottoman Porte, a nation from which geographical distance, religious opinions, and maxims of government on their part, little suited to the formation of those bonds of mutual benevolence which result from the benefits of commerce, had kept us in a state, perhaps too much prolonged, of coldness and alienation. The extensive, fertile, and populous dominions of the Sultan, belong rather to the Asiatic, than the European division of the human family. They enter but partiaily into the system of Europe; nor have their wars with Russia and Austria, the European States upon which they border, for more than a century past, disturbed the pacific relations of those States with the other great powers of Europe. Neither France, nor Prussia, nor Great Britain, has ever taken any part in them, nor is it to be expected that they will at this time. The declaration of war by Russia has received the approbation or acquiescence of her allies, and we may indulge the hope that its progress will be signalized by the moderation and forbearance, no less than by the energy of the Emperor Nicholas, and that it will afford an opportunity for such collateral agency in behalf of the suffering Greeks, as will secure to them ultimately the triumph of humanity and free. dom.

The state of our particular relations with France has scarcely varied in the course of the present year. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has VOL. II.

43

French Government will ere long receive a favourable

termination.

The last friendly expedient has been resorted to for the decision of the controversy with Great Britam, relating to the North Eastern Boundary of the United States. By an agreement with the British Government, carrying into effect the provisions of the 5th article of the Treaty of Ghent, and the Convention of 29th September, 1827, his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, has by common consent been selected as the umpire between the parties. The proposal to him to accept the designation for the performance of this friendly office will be made to him at an early day, and the United States, relying upon the justice of their cause, will cheerfully commit the arbitrament of it to a Prince equally distinguished for the independence of his spirit, his indefatigable assiduity to the duties of his station, and his inflexible personal probity.

Our commercial relations with Great Britain will deserve the serious consideration of Congress, and the exercise of a conciliatory and forbearing spirit in the policy of both governments. The state of them has been materially changed by the act of Congress passed at their last session, in alteration of the several acts imposing du ties on imports, and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect of the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain, and reciprocated by the United States, has been, as was to be foreseen, only to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities indispensable to the colonies, and profitable to a numerous class of our fellow citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United States have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access to the British Colonies. The Colonies pay more dearly for the necessaries of life, which their Government burdens with the charges of double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission, and the profits of our exports are somewhat impaired, and more injuriously transferred from one portion of our citizens to another. The resumption of this old and otherwise exploded system of Colonial exclusion, has not secured to the shipping interest of Great Britain the relief which, at the expense of the distant Colonies, and of the United States, it was expected to afford. Other measures have been resorted to, more pointedly bearing upon the navigation of the United States, and which, unless modfied by the construction given to the recent Acts of Parliament, will be manifestly incompatible with the positive stipulations of the commercial convention existing between the two countries. That convention,' however, may be terminated, with twelve months' no. tice, at the option of either party.

A treaty of Amity, Navigation, and Commerce, between the United States, and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and Bohemia, has been prepared for signature by the Secretary of State, and by

The conclusion of our last Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, was shortly afterwards followed by a Commer-present quarter, estimated at five millions, four hundred cial Convention, placing the direct intercourse between the two countries upon a footing of more equal reciprocity, than had ever before been admitted. The same principle has since been much farther extended, by Treaties with France, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic Cities, Prussia, in Europe, and with the Republics of Colombia, and of Central America, in this hemisphere. The mutual abolition of discriminating duties and char. ges upon the navigation and commercial intercourse between the parties, is the general maxim which charac. terizes them all. There is reason to expect that it will, at no distant period, be adopted by other nations, both

near two millions more than was anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.

cents.

applied only to the alleviation of its severity; and that, in pouring forth from the abundance of our own granaThe amount of duties secured on importations from ries, the supplies which will partially restore plenty to the first of January to the 30th September, was about those who are in need, we shall ourselves reduce our twenty-two millions nine hundred and ninety-seven stores, and add to the price of our own bread, so as in thousand, and that of the estimated accruing revenue is some degree to participate in the wants which it will be five millions, leaving an aggregate for the year of near the good fortune of our country to relieve. twenty-eight millions. This is one million more than the The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and estimate made last December for the accruing revenue manufacturing nation, are so linked in union together, of the present year, which with allowances for draw- that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them, backs and contingent deficiencies, was expected to pro- can operate without extending its influence to the others. duce an actual revenue of twenty-two millions, three All these interests are alike under the protecting power hundred thousand dollars. Had these only been real- of the legislative authority, and the duties of the repreized, the expenditures of the year would have been also sentative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony toproportionally reduced. For of these twenty-four mil-gether. So far as the object of taxation is to raise a relions received, upwards of nine millions have been ap- venue for discharging the debts, and defraying the explied to the extinction of public debt, bearing an inter- penses of the community, it should, as much as possible, est of six per cent. a year, and of course reducing the suit the burden with equal hand upon all, in proportion burden of interest annually payable in future, by the with their ability of bearing it without oppression. But amount of more than half a million. The payments on ac- the legislation of one nation is sometimes intentionally count of interest during the current year, exceed 3 mil- made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. lions of dollars; presenting an gregate of more than That legislation, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the twelve millions applied during the year to the discharge | special interests of its own people, will often press most of the public debt, the whole of which remaining due unequally, upon the several component interests of its on the first of January next, will amount only to fifty- neighbour. Thus, the legislation of Great Britain, when, eight millions, three hundred and sixty-two thousand, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression one hundred and thirty-five dollars and seventy-eight of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other which comes in competition with its own; and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other state, which it cannot produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufacturers, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival. Such is the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain, as it bears upon our interests. It excludes, with interdicting duties, all importation (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple productions of our middle and western states; it proscribes, with equal rigour, the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion, and also of the northern and eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the south, unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free, to weave into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are thus enabled to undersell. Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless, that there exists, in the political institutions of our country, no power to counteract the bias of this foreign legisla tion? that the growers of grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the north stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to be clad in a foreign garb; that the Congress of the Union are impotent to restore the balance in favour of native industry, destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just, and more generous sentiments, will, I trust, prevail. If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress shall be found by experience to bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, and I cannot doubt will be, so modified as to alleviate its burden. To the voice of just complaint from any portion of their constituents, the Representatives of the States and Peo This new element of prosperity to that part of our ag-ple will never turn away their ears. But so long as the ricultural industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence, is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection, that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us. That it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good. That, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be

That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that received in the one now expiring, there are indications that can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country, an uniform experience of forty years has shown that whatever the tariff of duties upon articles imported from abroad has been, the amount of importation has always borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, though occasionally differing in the balance, sometimes being more, and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce, that the real value of exports should by a small, and only a small balance, exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports, and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened, in the vicissitudes of the seasons, that the harvests of all Europe have, in the late summer and autumn, fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has ensued; a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our country; and a new prospect of reward presented to the labours of the husbandman, which, for several years, has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union, is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain that, for the approaching year, it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports, and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may, therefore, confidently be foreseen that the revenue of 1829 will equal, and probably exceed, that of 1828, and will afford means of extinguishing ten millions more of the principal of the public debt.

duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article-while the planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman, shall be found thriving in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow citizens of other professions, nor denounce as violations of the Constitution, the deliberate acts of Congress to shield from the wrongs of foreign laws the native industry of the Union. While the tariff

The Reports from the Secretary of War, and from the various subordinate offices of the resort of that Department, present an exposition of the public administration of affairs connected with them, through the course of the current year. The present state of the army, and the distribution of the force of which it is composed, will be seen from the Report of the Major General.Several alterations in the disposal of the troops have been found expedient in the course of the year, and the discipline of the army, though not entirely free from exception, has been generally good.

of the last session of Congress was a subject of legislative deliberation, it was foretold by some of its opposers that one of its necessary consequences would be to impair the revenue. It is yet too soon to pronounce, with confidence, that the prediction was erroneous.-The obstruction of one avenue of trade not unfrequently opens an issue to another. The consequence of the tariff will be to increase the exportation, and to diminish the importation of some specific articles. But by the general law of trade, the increase of exportation of one article will be followed by an increased importation of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies, The attention of Congress is particularly invited to which the diminished importation would otherwise oc- that part of the Report of the Secretary of War which casion. The effect of taxation upon revenue can seldom concerns the existing system of our relations with the be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the test of ex- Indian tribes. At the establishment of the Federal Goperience. As yet no symptoms of diminution are per- vernment, under the present Constitution of the United ceptible in the receipts of the treasury. As yet, little States, the principle was adopted of considering them addition of cost has even been experienced upon the as foreign and independent powers; and also, as proarticles burthened with heavier duties by the last tariff. prietors of lands. They were, moreover, considered The domestic manufacturer supplies the same or a kin- as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use dred article at a diminished price, and the consumer our influence in converting to Christianity, and in bringpays the same tribute to the labour of his own country-ing within the pale of evilization. man, which he must otherwise have paid to foreign industry and toil.

The tariff of the last session was, in its details, not ac

As independent Powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail upon them to sell; as breceptable to the great interests of any portion of the thren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeaUnion, not even to the interest which it was specially of letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in voured to bring them to the knowledge of religion and intended to subserve, Its object was to balance the burdens upon native industry, imposed by the operation our own institutions that portion of them which could of foreign laws; but not to aggravate the burdens of be converted to the state of civilization. In the practice one section of the Union, by the relief afforded to ano- considered as children to be governed; as tenants at of European states, before our revolution, they had been ther. To the great principle sanctioned by that act, discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion might require; one of those upon which the Constitution itself was formed, I hope and trust the authorities of the Union as hunters, to be indemnified by triffing concessions for will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the a removal from the grounds upon which their game was act only relieve the manufacturer by aggravating the extirpated. In changing the system, it would seem as burden of the planter, let a careful revisal of its provi- had not been taken. if a full contemplation of the consequences of the change We have been far more successful sions, enlightened by the practical experience of its ef- in the acquisition of their lands than in imparting to fects, be directed to retain those which impart protec-them the principles, or inspiring them with the spirit of tion to native industry, and remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one great national interest by the depression of another.

The United States of America, and the People of every State of which they are composed, are each of them Sovereign Powers. The legislative authority of the whole is exercised by Congress under authority granted them in the common Constitution. The legislative power of each State is exercised by assemblies deriving their authority from the Constitution of the State. Each is sovereign within its own province. The distribution of power between them presupposes that these authorities will move in harmony with each other. The members of the State and General Governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict between these two powers has not been supposed; nor has any provision been made for it in our institutions; as a virtuous Nation of ancient times existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of parri

cide.

civilization.

But in appropriating to ourselves their hunting grounds, we have brought upon ourselves the when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching obligation of providing them with subsistence; and them the arts of civilization, and the doctrines of Christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst of ourselves, communities claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided. A remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the Report of the Secretary of War are commended to the consideration of Congress.

contribute to the honour and dignity of the nation.

The Report from the Engineer Department presents made in the great systems promotive of the public ina comprehensive view of the progress which has been terest, commenced and organized under the authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already con More than once, however, in the progress of our his-tributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely tory, have the People and the Legislatures of one or more States, in moments of excitement, been instigated to this conflict; and the means of effecting this impulse have been allegations that the acts of Congress to be resisted were unconstitutional. The People of no one State have ever delegated to their Legislature the power of pronouncing an act of Congress unconstitutional; but they have delegated to them powers, by the exercise of which the execution of the laws of Congress within the State may be resisted. If we suppose the case of such conflicting legislation sustained by the corresponding Executive and Judicial authorities, Patriotism and Philanthropy turn their eyes from the condition in which he parties would be placed, and from that of the people of Loth, which must be its victims.

The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our countrymen of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecessor it has been continued with the persevering and liberal encouragement of the Legislature; and combined with corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defence adapted to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten years been steady and progressive; and in a few years more will be so