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DECEMBER, 1798.]

Address to the President.

THE UNITED STATES, in answer to his Speech to both Houses of Congress at the commencement of this session, containing assurances that this House will take into consideration the various and important subjects recommended to their consideration.

[H. OF R.

withstanding the commercial derangements resulting from this calamity, and from external embarrassments, is a satisfactory manifestation of the great extent and solidity of the public resources. Connected with this situation of our fiscal concerns, the assurthat the legal provisions for obtaining revenue by direct taxation will fulfil the views of the Legislature, is peculiarly acceptable.

The resolution was agreed to without objec-ance tion, and the committee rose and reported the resolution. The House took it up, concurred in it, and appointed a committee of five to prepare an answer accordingly.

The committee consists of Messrs. DANA, VENABLE, HARPER, HOSMER, and BALDWIN.

TUESDAY, December 11.

Two other members, to wit: THOMAS SINNICKSON and MARK THOMPSON, from New Jersey, appeared and took their seats in the House.

WEDNESDAY, December 12.

Several other members, to wit: from Rhode Island, CHRISTOPHER G. CHAMPLIN; from sylvania, THOMAS HARTLEY; and from Virginia, CARTER B. HARRISON; appeared, and took their seats in the House.

Address to the President.

Desirous as we are that all causes of hostility may be exterminated [removed] by the amicable adjustment of national differences, we learn with satisfaction, that in pursuance of our treaties with Spain and with Great Britain, advances have been made for definitively settling the controversies relative to the Southern and the North-eastern limits of the United States. With similar sentiments have we received

your information, that the proceedings under commissions authorized by the same treaties, afford to a respectable portion of our citizens, the prospect of a final decision on their claims for maritime injuries committed by subjects of those powers.

It would be the theme of mutual felicitation, were we assured of experiencing similar moderation and justice from another Power, [the French Republic,] Penn-between whom [which] and the United States differences have unhappily arisen. But this is denied us by the ultimate failure of the measures which have been taken by this Government towards an amicable adjustment of those differences, and by the various inadmissible pretensions on the part of that nation.

Mr. DANA, from the committee appointed to draft a respectful Address in answer to the PRESIDENT's Speech, made a report, which was committed for to-morrow.

THURSDAY, December 13.

to which you have more particularly pointed our atThe continuing in force the decree of January last, tention, ought, of itself, to be considered as demon

strative of the real intentions of the French Government. That decree proclaims a predatory warfare against the unquestionable rights of actual commerce; which [with] our means of defence, our interest and our honor, command us to repel. It

PHILIP VAN CORTLANDT, from the State of therefore now becomes the United States to be as New York, appeared, and took his seat.

Address to the President.

On motion of Mr. DANA, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the Address yesterday reported, in answer to the Speech of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and Mr. DENT having taken the chair, the Address was read, as follows, omitting the words printed within brackets, which were added as amendments: The words printed in italics were struck out in the discussion, so that the Address to be presented to the PRESIDENT contains the words printed within brackets, and does not contain those printed in italics.

JOHN ADAMS, President of the United States—

SIR: The House of Representatives unite with you in deploring the effects of the desolating malady by which the seat of Government and other parts of our country have recently been visited. In calling our attention to the fatality of its repeated ravages, and inviting us to consider the expediency of exercising our constitutional powers, in aid of the health laws of the respective States, your recommendation is sanctioned by the dictates of humanity and liberal policy. On this interesting subject we feel the necessity of adopting every wise expedient for preventing a calamity so distressing to individual sufferers, and so prejudicial to our national commerce.

That our finances are in a prosperous state, not

determined in resistance as they have been patient in suffering, and condescending in negotiation.

While those who direct the affairs of France persist in the enforcement of decrees so hostile to our essential rights, their conduct forbids us to confide in any of their professions of amity.

As therefore the conduct of France hitherto exhib

its nothing which ought to change or relax our measures of defence, the policy of extending and invigorating those measures, demands our sedulous attention. The sudden and remarkable advantages which this country has experienced from a small naval armament, sufficiently prove the utility of its establishment. As it respects the guarding of our coast, the protection of our trade, and the facility of safely transporting the means of territoral defence to every part of our maritime frontier, an adequate naval force must be considered as an important object of national policy. Nor do we hesitate to adopt the opinion, that, whether negotiations with France are resumed or not, vigorous preparations for war will be alike indispensable.

In this conjuncture of affairs, while with you we recognize our abundant cause of gratitude to the Supreme Disposer of events for the ordinary blessings of Providence, we regard, as of high national importance, the manifestation, in our country, of a magnanimous spirit of resistance to foreign domination. This spirit merits to be cherished and invigorated by every branch of Government, as the estimable pledge of national prosperity and glory.

Disdaining a reliance on foreign protection, want

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ing no foreign guarantee of our liberties, resolving to maintain our national independence against every attempt to despoil us of this inestimable treasure, we confide, under Providence, in the patriotism and energies of the people of these United States for defeating the hostile enterprises of any foreign power. To adopt with prudent foresight such systematical measures as may be expedient for calling forth those energies wherever the national exigencies may require, whether on the ocean, or on our own territory -and to reconcile with the proper security of revenue, the convenience of the mercantile enterprise, on which so great a proportion of the public resources depends are objects of moment, which shall be duly regarded in the course of our deliberations.

[DECEMBER, 1798.

FRIDAY, December 14.

Several other members, to wit: JAMES COCHRAN, from New York; WILLIAM MATTHEWS, from Maryland; JOSIAH PARKER, from Virginia and THOMAS PINCKNEY, from South Carolina, appeared, and took their seats in the House.

Answer of the President.

The hour having arrived at which the PRESI DENT had appointed to receive the Address of this House in answer to his Speech to both Houses, the SPEAKER announced it, and the House withdrew for the purpose of presenting the Address.

In about a quarter of an hour, the members returned; when the SPEAKER, having taken his chair, proceeded to read the answer to their Address, a copy of which had been put into his hand by the PRESIDENT. It was as follows: To the House of Representatives of the United States:

Fully as we accord with you in the opinion, that the United States ought not to submit to the humiliation of sending another Minister to France, without previous assurances sufficiently determinate that he will be duly accredited, we have heard, with cordial acquiescence, [approbation,] the declaration of your purpose, steadily to observe those maxims of humane and pacific policy by which the United States have GENTLEMEN: My sincere acknowledgments are hitherto been governed. While it is left with France due to the House of Representatives of the United to take the requisite steps for accommodation, it is States, for this excellent Address, so consonant to the worthy the Chief Magistrate of a free people, to make character of Representatives of a great and free peoknown to the world, that justice on the part of ple. The judgment and feelings of a nation, I beFrance will annihilate every obstacle to the restora-lieve, were never more truly expressed by their Reption of a friendly intercourse, and that the Executive resentatives than those of our constituents, by your authority of this country will respect the sacred decided declaration, that with our means of defence, rights of embassy. At the same time, the wisdom our interest and honor command us to repel a predaand decision, which have characterized your past tory warfare against the unquestionable rights of a Administration, assure us that no illusory professions neutral commerce. That it becomes the United will seduce you into any abandonment of the rights States to be as determined in resistance as they have which belong to the United States as [a] free and been patient in suffering and condescending in negoindependent [nation.] tiation. That, while those who direct the affairs of France persist in the enforcement of decrees so hostile to our essential rights, their conduct forbids us to confide in any of their professions of amity; that an adequate naval force must be considered as an important object of national policy; and that, whether negotiations with France are resumed or not, vigorous preparations for war will be alike indispensable. ly express, of a reliance on foreign protection, wantThe generous disdain you so coolly and deliberateing no foreign guaranty of our liberties, resolving to maintain our national independence against every attempt to despoil us of this inestimable treasure, will meet the full approbation of every sound understanding, and exulting applauses from the heart of every faithful American.

The clerk having read the Address, it was again read by the Chairman by paragraphs. [After a few slight amendments the answer was agreed to.]

Mr. THATCHER wished, as no objection was made to the Address, that it might be entered on the journals as unanimously agreed to; but, on the question being put, a few noes being heard, the SPEAKER declared it not carried.

The usual resolution was then passed, that the SPEAKER, attended by the House, do present the Address, and that a committee be appointed to wait upon the PRESIDENT, to know when and where he will be pleased to receive the same.

Messrs. DANA, VENABLE, and HARPER, were appointed a committee for this purpose. They waited upon the PRESIDENT accordingly, and Mr. DANA reported that the PRESIDENT Would receive the Address to-morrow, at his own house, at twelve o'clock.*

*The general consent with which this answer was voted was honorable to the House, and advantageous to the character of the country. Besides depredations on our commerce, there was, at that time, a course of studied indignities to the United States from the French Government, then having the form of a Directory, of which Barras was President, and Talleyrand Foreign Secretary. These indignities were marked and systematic; of which the speech of Barras to Mr. Monroe when he had his take-leave audience-the refusal to receive his successor, General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and insolent threat to com

I thank you, gentlemen, for your candid approbation of my sentiments on the subject of negotiation,

mit him to the police as a mere foreigner in Paris-the subsequent refusal to receive both himself and Judge Marshall, sending them out of the country, and endeavoring to divide the embassy-intriguing to extort a bribe, and to obtain a loan in violation of our neutrality-and not only proclaiming but acting on the assumption that we were a divided people, (French and British,) and that a devotion to one or the other of these powers, and not a sentiment of American nationality, was the sole rule of our policy. The unanimity of the answer to the President's Speech was a proper reply to all this outrage and insult. And the re-echoed declaration of protection "to the sacred rights of embassy," was not only just in itself, and called for by the occasion, but was due to the personal characters, the dignity and decorum of the two repulsed Ministers, (Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall,) as well as to their official station and the nation they represented.

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and for the declaration of your opinion, that the policy of extending and invigorating our measures of defence, and the adoption with prudent foresight of such systematical measures as may be expedient for calling forth the energies of our country, wherever the national exigencies may require, whether on the ocean or on our own territory, will demand your most sedulous attention.

At the same time, I take the liberty to assure you, it shall be my vigilant endeavor, that no illusory professions shall seduce me into an abandonment of the rights which belong to the United States, as a free and independent nation.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, December 14, 1798.

MONDAY, December 31.

[H. OF R.

"Resolved, That the United States will make compensation to the State of Georgia, for the loss and damage sustained by that State, in consequence of the cession of the county of Talessee, made to the Creek nation, by the Treaty of New York, unless it shall be deemed expedient to extinguish the Indian title to the said land."

Mr. BALDWIN said, he should not call for the reading of the remonstrance, as it had already been twice read, and had also been published in the newspapers. The committee in their report have stated such parts of it as they thought necessary to lead the House to a decision. It is seen at once to relate to two objects: what they consider as a dismemberment of the State, by giving back to the Indians a district of country, called Talessee county, and the injurious operation of the act for regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians. He was himself at New York at the time when the treaty, called the Treaty of New York, was made; he knew well it was with great concern and reluctance RECLAMATION FOR SACRIFICED TERRITORY-COM- that the Federal Government consented to an PARATIVE EXPENDITURE IN DEFENDING NORTH-act which had so much the appearance of disERN AND SOUTHERN FRONTIERS FROM INDIAN

Several other members, viz: from Connecticut, JOHN ALLEN; and from Virginia, SAMUEL J. CABELL and THOMAS CLAIBORNE, appeared, and took their seats in the House.

Remonstrance of Georgia.

DEPREDATIONS.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the report of a select committee on the representation and remonstrance of the State of Georgia; which was read as follows:

"Report of the committee to whom was referred the representation and remonstrance of the Legislature of the State of Georgia:

membering a State, as giving back Talessee county to the Indians; but that frontier was so extensive, the savages who border upon it were so much more numerous and hostile than any others in the United States, that they were induced to consent for a time to the relinquishment of that district to them, as the counterpart of all the other conditions which they obtained in that treaty. He was sure it was at that time their expectation and design to have "That a certain tract of country, within the limits before now peaceably repurchased it of the Inof Georgia, bounded by a line beginning at the fork dians. The act was not founded on any defect of Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers, and thence running in the right of the State to that county; but a in a south-west direction, until it intersects the most short time before, three Commissioners, viz: southern part of St. Mary's River, thence down the Gen. Lincoln, Judge Griffin, a former member river to the old line, was ceded by the Creek nation of Congress, and Mr. Humphreys, who is now of Indians, to the said State, by a treaty held be- our Minister at Madrid, were sent to examine tween the Commissioners of said State, and the Creek into the state of that frontier, and to form treaIndians at Galphinton, on the 12th of November, ties with the neighboring tribes; they were un1785, which tract of country was, by the Legislature wearied in the execution of their trust, visited of said State, formed into a county, by the name of the frontier in person, collected the Indian Talessee county; and the cession thereof was after-chiefs to meet them there, to learn what inward confirmed, at a treaty held between the same parties, at Shoulderbone, on the 3d day of Novem-formation they could give; they afterwards reber, 1786. turned to the seat of Government of Georgia, and examined the treaties, laws, and journals, and examined individuals on oath, so as to obtain all the information that it was possible to procure, on the spot. On their return they made a special and very full report, a copy of which is on the files of the House, and, without doubt, is to be regarded on those subjects as a document paramount to every thing else, at the time it was made. This document leaves no doubt of the fairness of the transaction in the treaties of 1785 and 1786, in which this Talessee county was purchased and contained, as stated by the committee. The giving it back, by the subsequent Treaty of New York, rested only on the importance and urgency of the case, as the only possible means of obtaining peace.

"Your committee further report, that, by the treaty made at New York, between the United States and the Creek Indians, bearing date on the 7th day of August, 1790, a boundary line was established between the said nation of Indians and the United States, whereby the above described tract of country, named Talessee county, was declared to be within the Indian territory.

"The committee have not been able to discover upon what principles the relinquishment of the territory of the State of Georgia was acceded to on the part of the United States; it is therefore to be presumed that it was done upon principles of general policy, with the intention of establishing a permanent peace between the United States and the said nation. They are, therefore, of opinion that compensation ought to be made to the State of Georgia for the loss of this territory, and recommend to the House to adopt the following resolution:

On the other point contained in the remon

H. OF R.]

Remonstrance of Georgia.

[DECEMBER, 1798.

strance, viz: the injurious operation of the law | lands, and this was the cause of their suffering. respecting trade and intercourse with the Indian It appears now, in the result, that they have tribes, he did not think it necessary now to always discharged all their Federal obligations, make many observations, the report of the com- and much more, and instead of getting away mittee was, that it should be revised and the lands from the Indians, the Indians have amended; as that law expires by its own limi- got away their lands, and they cannot get them tation with this session, it is a subject that must back. be taken up, and at that time he should submit to the consideration of the House the various matters which seemed to impress themselves so strongly upon the minds of his constituents.

He believed there could not be much doubt left but that the principles contained in the report of the committee were just and proper. These had been to him for many years very sore objects; the position in which he considered them immovably fixed gave him great pleasure. His constituents had not sent him here to play the champion. He thought it could not be denied that there was some ground for them to triumph over those who had so long vilified and abused them. He begged leave still further to urge the measures recommended by the committee, from the consideration of the small re-expenditures which have been made on that frontier, in proportion to the others.

Mr. B. said, the report of the committee was peculiarly grateful to him, and he hoped the confirmation of it by Congress would be so to his constituents, because the individuals who composed the committee were so long and so well known in the United States, that their report will be likely to have a great effect in finally settling the minds of people on those old subjects of reproach and discord, especially as it is in direct conformity with the copious port of the three Commissioners who examined into the same subject on the spot, as he had before mentioned. This appeared to him to bo a matter of great importance.

From the close of the Revolution to the present time, these reproaches have always been at the threshold, to encounter every thing that was proposed in behalf of that growing and important part of the United States. The Revolution had raged there to such a degree, and the minds of men were so embittered against each other, that it required more than the usual time for them to lay aside the fierceness of their hostility. Though their enemies were driven from them, yet they were not driven beyond the recoil of their resentment. This, joined to the disappointment of some pecuniary enterprises of individuals for gain, had been the cause of those malignant torrents of reproach which have but too long poured forth upon the greater part of their councils, and upon the most distinguished of their public servants.

The accounts of the military expenditures on the northern frontiers, were now more than ten millions of dollars. This had been begun, and principally originated from a regular expedition to destroy a village of fugitive Indians, who committed depredations on the northern frontier; a similar village on the southern frontier, called the Chehaw, was also destined by the Government for a similar expedition; but the measure failed in the Legislature, and that frontier was left to protect themselves. This has been done; the fugitives in that village have been driven off by a party of volunteers. He believed the whole amount of military expenditures on that frontier, till the time of entire peace with the Indians, did not exceed a quarter of a million, and nearly one hundred thousand of that the militia had now been kept out of for four or five years; though he hoped and trusted they would not much longer have cause of complaint on that head. After the observations which he had made, he thought no apology was necessary for some apparent harshness in the language of the remonstrance.

It was well known to him, and to some who heard him, that their calls for protection on a very extensive and very turbulent frontier, had, till within these few years, always been repelled As to the course which it is proper to pursue with reproaches, that they had never been any in granting relief on the subject, he had not thing but an expense; were totally delinquent much to say. He was confident the expectain bearing the burdens of the Revolution; that tions of the State were not unreasonable; he they had been carried through entirely at the was sure they would be satisfied with any reexpense of the other States; and that they sult which could be considered as fair and honought not now to be protected any further till orable; and his confidence in the House forbade they were willing to pay requisitions. When him to suppose for a moment that it could be this reproach was wiped off by the report of brought to any other. The course recommendthe General Board of Commissioners, on the ed by the committee in their resolution now settlement of the whole account of the old co- under consideration, is either to make compenpartnership of the Confederation, and the very sation to the State for the land which has been small number there, at that time, appeared to relinquished, and for the damages which they have done the proportion of the whole number have sustained, or else to repurchase that disby the census which was the rule of the settle-trict or another district, on that frontier, of ment, and to have reimbursed the great delinquency of the loan officers appointed by Congress, for which they were made accountable, still they were told they must protect themselves, for they wronged the Indians out of their

equal value. He said he had laid on the table a certificate from the Surveyor General of that State, taken at that time, as to the length of the lines enclosing that district, and the probable contents of it. If the report of the committee

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the House.

On the call of Mr. BROOKS, the representation and remonstrance were read. After which,

Mr. CHAMPLIN moved that the committee might rise, with a view of postponing this subject till the next session of Congress. He thought the language of the remonstrance too violent and indecorous to claim attention from the House. This opinion was also supported by Mr. DANA. Messrs. BAYARD and N. SMITH wished this motion to prevail, because they doubted the propriety of the report, and supposed there would not be time thoroughly to investigate the business during this session.

[H. OF R.

the flag of the United States, and their officers and men, have been treated by the civil and military authority of the British nation, in Nova Scotia, the West India Islands and on the ocean, with uniform civility, politeness, and friendship. I have no doubt that this first instance of misconduct will be readily Jan. 8, 1799.

corrected.

[CIRCULAR.]

JOHN ADAMS.

To the Commanders of Armed Vessels in the service of the United States; given at the Navy Department, December 29, 1798.

mission, you are to resist that force to the utmost of your power, and when overpowered by superior force, you are to strike your flag, and thus yield your vessel, as well as your men; but never your men without your vessel.

SIR: It is the positive command of the PRESIDENT, that on no pretence whatever, you permit the public vessel of war under your command to be detained, or searched, nor any of the officers or men belonging to her to be taken from her, by the ships or vessels of any foreign nation, so long as you are in a capacity On the other hand, Messrs. PINCKNEY, RUT- to repel such outrage on the honor of the American LEDGE, Harper, Gallatin, Venable, W. CLAI-flag. If force should be exerted to compel your subBORNE, J. PARKER, and MACON, were against the postponement. The objection to the language, it was said, was out of time. If made at all, it ought to have been made when the remonstrance was presented; that some allowance You will remember, however, that your demeanor ought to be made for the language, as it ap-be respectful and friendly to the vessels and people of peared to have been drawn in a moment of pas- all nations in amity with the United States; and that sion; that if the claim was just, it ought not to you avoid as carefully the commission of, as the subbe rejected because it was made in improper mission to, insult or injury. language, especially, since the Legislature of Georgia were not the only persons concerned, as the inhabitants on the frontier, while this subject is undecided, are suffering severely from Indian cruelties and depredations.

The question for leave to be given to the committee to sit again, was carried by 69 votes.

TUESDAY, January 8, 1799.

Impressment of Seamen.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
BEN. STODDERT.

Letters which accompanied the above Message:

Extract of a letter from George C. Morton, acting

Consul of the United States at the Havana, dated there the 18th November, 1798, to the Secretary of State.

"By the delegation of Daniel Hawley, Esq., I am at present acting as Consul of the United States in this district, with which he will most probably have

The following Message was received from the acquainted you. It imposes upon me the mortifying PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

task of informing you, sir, of the partial capture of an American fleet under the convoy of the Baltimore British squadron, off this harbor, accompanied with sloop-of-war, Phillips, Esq., commander, by s circumstances rather grating to the feelings of Americans, and by no means analogous to that good harmony which seems to subsist between the two Gov

ernments.

"The answer of Messrs. Trezevant and Timmons to my annexed note of the 17th instant, requesting an exact relation of the occurrence, will I presume be deemed as impartial a narration as can be given of the whole transaction, they having been passengers on board one of the captured vessels, and removed to the Baltimore.

In compliance with your desire, expressed in your resolution of the 2d of this month, I lay before you an extract of a letter from George C. Morton, acting Consul of the United States at Havana, dated the 13th of November, 1798, to the Secretary of State, with a copy of a letter from him to L. Trezevant and William Timmons, Esqs., with their answer. Although your request extends no further than to such information as has been received, yet it may be a satisfaction to you to know that as soon as this intelligence was communicated to me, circular orders were given, by my direction, to all the commanders of our vessels of war; a copy of which is also herewith transmitted. I also direct this intelligence and these "Mr. Morton adds, that Commodore Loring ordered orders to be communicated to His Britannic Majesty's the fifty-five men out of the Baltimore "on board of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to his ship, previous to any proposal of exchanging the the United States, and to our Minister Plenipoteniary natives of one nation for those of the other, and reto the Court of Great Britain, with instructions to tained five of the hands as being British subjects, him to make the proper representation to that Gov-without giving an equal number of Americans, whom ernment upon this subject. he acknowledged to have on board.”

It is but justice to say that this is the first instance of misbehavior of any of the British officers towards our vessels of war, that has come to my knowledge. According to all the representations that I have seen,

HAVANA, November, 17, 1798. GENTLEMEN: As acting American Consul for this city and district, and of course obliged to forward the

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