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CHAPTER the act might be arrested in the Indian territory by the military force of the United States, to be carried within 1796. ten days for trial to the federal civil authorities in some one of the three next adjoining states or districts.

None could trade with the Indians without license, under penalty of forfeiture of their goods, fine, and imprisonment; nor were traders allowed to purchase from the Indians any gun, instrument of husbandry, cooking utensils, or articles of clothing, except skins or furs, nor horses, except by special license. All conveyances, sales, and leases of Indian lands, except by public treaty with the United States, were declared void.

The president was also authorized to furnish the Indians with domestic animals, implements of husbandry, or other useful articles at his discretion, and to appoint temporary agents to reside among them for their comfort and instruction, at an expense not exceeding $15,000 annually. By another act, the president's plan of public trading-houses was carried out, $150,000 being appropriated for that purpose, the goods to be sold at such prices as to keep up the capital. As this was an experiment, the appropriation was limited to two years; but the scheme, on trial, proved so beneficial as to be adopted as a regular part of the Indian system. Under the strict enforcement of these judicious provisions, the barbarous predatory war which had prevailed on the frontiers for twenty years past was finally brought to an end, and several of the Indian tribes, especially the Southern ones, began to make a certain advance in civilization. This act did not extend to the Six Nations and other smaller tribes living on reservations east of the line above described, and within the jurisdiction of particular states.

The peace with the Indians having opened the way for the sale and settlement of the public lands north of

ters.

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the Ohio, an act was passed for that purpose, based on CHAPTEL the ordinance of the Continental Congress. It created the office of surveyor general, and directed the survey 1796 of the lands, not surveyed already or reserved for mili*ary bounties, into townships of six miles square, by lines crossing each other from north to south and east to west. The alternate townships were to be subdivided into thirty-six sections, each a mile square, the others into quarThese alternate townships were to be sold by sections at public vendue, in the territory, at the upset price of two dollars an acre, reserving the four sections in the center of the township for the use of the United States. The quarter section townships were to be sold at the treasury at the same upset price, payments to be made one half down and the balance in a year, with ten per cent. discount for immediate payments. Considerable difference of opinion existed as to the price to be asked for the lands, and as to the sale in large or small tracts. A certain number of the members from the older and more settled states were very doubtful as to the policy of extraordinary encouragement to emigration, tending, as it did, to the increase of a backwoods population, rude, unsocial, and discontented, whose insubordination, and violence, and threats of secession had al ready occasioned so much trouble, expense, and anxiety. They were therefore opposed to the sale by sections, which was urged by others, together with a high upset price, as a means of preventing these Western lands from falling exclusively into the hands of speculators, as had been to so great a degree the case with the public lands of the states. The sale by sections was objected to by Dearborn, Nicholas, and others, as likely to retard the disposal of the lands, for which they expressed great anxiety, as a means toward paying the public debt. IV.-R R

CHAPTER Harper, on the other hand, exposed with great ability VIII. the disadvantage of a sale in large tracts, as established 1796. by the experience of the states, resulting in great emoluments to individuals, small produce to the treasury, and scattered, irregular, and desultory settlements. The plan finally adopted was a compromise, suggested by Gallatin, between these opposite views. Another act provided for the survey of the tract between the Scioto and the Muskingum, reserved for the location of military land warrants, in which an extensive speculation had already commenced.

The prospect had been held out that the public buildings at the new federal city on the Potomac would be erected without any expense to the United States. The donations for this purpose, of $120,000 by Virginia, $72,000 by Maryland, and of half the lots in the new city transferred to the United States by the owners of the land, in addition to the necessary spaces for streets, squares, and public buildings, have already been mentioned. It appeared from the report of the commissioners for the erection of the public buildings that six thousand of these lots had been sold to a company for the sum of $480,000, payable in seven years, the company contracting to build, prior to 1800, a hundred and fifty convenient brick houses, and not to part with any of their lots except on condition that one brick house should be erected for every three lots sold. Other lots disposed of by the commissioners had produced the sum of $95,652, making, with the donations of Maryland and Virginia, an amount of $768,000; but a part of the purchase money of the lots was not yet payable. There still remained in the hands of the commissioners four thousand seven hundred lots, valued at $1,300,000. The sums received had been applied toward laying a foundation for

VIII.

the Capitol, and in commencing the erection of a house CHAPTER for the president. To enable them to go on, so as to be ready for the reception of the government in the year 1796. 1800, the commissioners had asked for power to raise on mortgage of the unsold lots a loan, to be guaranteed by the United States, to the amount of $300,000. That guarantee was accordingly given by an act passed for the purpose; but the speculation in the new city, pushed at first with great ardor, had already received a check. Great difficulty was experienced in raising the loan, owing principally to the pressure in the money market occasioned by the extent to which speculation. of all kinds had been carried; nor could more than $200,000 be obtained, and that of the State of Maryland, in United States six per cent. stock, then considerably below par.

The subject of the impressment of American seamen had been early brought before the House in a speech by Edward Livingston, in which he assailed Jay with great vehemence because he had not provided for this matter in the treaty. A committee had been raised to take the subject into consideration, and finally an act was passed authorizing the appointment of two or more agents, one to reside in Great Britain, the others at such points as the president might designate, to investigate and to report to the State Department an account of all impressments, with authority also to seek the relief of the sufferers, for which purpose $15,000 were appropri ated. Collectors were required to grant certificates of citizenship to all American seamen; and all captains whose men were impressed were required to make duplicate protests stating the fact, one to be sent to the nearest American consul, and the other, on the return of the vessel, to the Department of State; the master also, be

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CHAPTER fore entering his vessel, to render on oath an account of all seamen impressed from him during the voyage.

1796.

Livingston also brought up the subject of the amelio ration of the penal laws of the United States, but no action was had upon it. An act, however, was passed for the discharge, on taking the poor debtor's oath, of prisoners held for debt on civil process from the United States courts.

In consequence of the peace with the Indians, the military establishment underwent some reduction. It was henceforth to consist of the corps of artillerists and engineers as already organized, two companies of light dragoons, and four regiments of infantry, of about 450 men each, making a total force of 2800 men, to be commanded by a major general and a brigadier general.

A good deal of delay had taken place in obtaining timber and commencing the frigates under the act of 1794. Three, however, had been begun, and these, notwithstanding the peace with Algiers, no treaties having yet been formed with Tunis and Tripoli, it was resolved to finish. The commercial representatives strongly urged, also, that a nation possessing so large a commercial marine, and whose coasts and harbors were liable to perpetual visits and annoyances from the belligerent cruisers, should not be entirely without ships of war. The finishing of these frigates encountered a most vehement resistance from most of the members of the opposition. Nicholas wished them to rot on the stocks, as an instructive monument of national folly. Christie, of Maryland, did not care if they were reduced to ashes. Giles always had opposed a navy, and always should oppose it, in every shape. But upon this point Smith of Baltimore, Parker of Norfolk, Swanwick of Philadelphia, and a few others, voted with the Federalists.