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there will remain for distribution among the twenty-four States of the Union the sum of $18,435,054 21. Of this sum the proportion of Kentucky will be $960,947 41, of Virginia the sum of $1,581,669 39, of North Carolina $988,632 42, and of Pennsylvania $2,083,233 32. The proportion of Indiana, including the fifteen per cent., will be $855,588 23, of Ohio $1,677,110 84, and of Mississippi $958,945 42. And the proportions of all the twenty-four States are indicated in a table which I hold in my hand, prepared at my instance in the office of the Secretary of the Senate, and to which any Senator may have access. The grounds on which the extra al-❘ lowance is made to the new States are, first, their complaint that all lands sold by the federal Government are five years exempted from State taxation; secondly, that it is to be applied in such manner as will augment the value of the unsold public lands within them; and, lastly, their recent establishment.

It may be recollected that a bill passed both Houses of Congress, in the session which terminated on the 3d March, 1833, for the distribution of the amount received from the public lands upon the principles of that now offered. The President, in his message at the commencement of the previous session, had specially invited the attention of Congress to the subject of the public lands; had adverted to their liberation from the pledge for the payment of the public debt; and had intimated his readiness to concur in any disposal of them which might appear to Congress most conducive to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of the American people.

After such a message, the President's disapprobation of the bill could not have been anticipated. It was presented to him on the 2d of March, 1833. It was not re* The following is the table referred to by Mr. CLAY: Statement showing the dividend of each State (according to its federal population) of the proceeds of the public lands, during the years 1833, '4, and '5, after deducting from the amount 15 per cent. previously allowed to the seven new States.

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turned as the constitution requires, but was retained by him after the expiration of his official term, and until the next session of Congress, which had no power to act upon it. It was understood and believed that, in anticipation of the passage of the bill, the President had prepared objections to it, which he had intended to return with his negative; but he did not. If the bill had been returned, there is reason to believe that it would have passed, notwithstanding those objections. In the House it had been carried by a majority of more than two thirds. And, in the Senate, although there was not that majority on its passage, it was supposed that, in consequence of the passage of the compromise bill, some of the Senators who had voted against the land bill had changed their views, and would have voted for it upon its return, and others had left the Senate.

There are those who believe that the bill was unconstitutionally retained by the President, and is now the law of the land. But whether it be so or not, the general Government holds the public domain in trust for the common benefit of all the States; and it is, therefore, competent to provide by law that the trustee shall make distribution of the proceeds of the three past years, as well as future years, among those entitled to the beneficial interest. The bill makes such a provision. And it is very remarkable that the sum which it proposes to distribute is about the gross surplus or balance estimated in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1836. When the returns of the last quarter of the year come it, it will probably be found that the surplus is larger than the sum which the bill distributes. But if it should not be, there will remain the seven millions held in the Bank of the United States, applicable, as far as it may be received, to the service of the ensuing year. It would be premature now to enter into a consideration of the probable revenue of future years; but, at the proper time, I think it will not be difficult to show that, exclusive of what may be received from the public lands, it will be abundantly sufficient for all the economical purposes of Government in a time of peace. And the bill, as I have already stated, provides for seasons of I wish to guard against all misconception by repeating, what I have heretofore several times said, that this bill is not founded upon any notion of a power in Congress to lay and collect taxes, and distribute the amount among the several States. I think Congress possesses no such power, and has no right to exercise it until some such amendment as that proposed by the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] shall be adopted. But the bill rests on the basis of a clear and comprehensive grant of power to Congress over the Territories and property of the United States in the constitution, and upon express stipulations in the deeds of cession.

war.

Mr. President, I have ever regarded with feelings of the profoundest regret the decision which the President of the United States felt himself induced to make on the bill of 1833. If it had been his pleasure to approve it, the heads of Departments would not now be taxing their ingenuity to find out useless objects of expenditure, or objects which may be well postponed to a more distant day. If the bill had passed, about twenty millions of dollars would have been, during the last three years, in the hands of the several States, applicable by them to the beneficent purposes of internal improvement, education, or colonization. What immense benefits might not have been diffused throughout the land by the active employment of that large sum! What new channels of commerce and communication might not have been opened! What industry stimulated, what labor rewarded! How many youthful minds might have received the blessings of education and knowledge, and been rescued from ignorance, vice, and ruin! How many

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Executive Patronage, &c.-Reduction of the Revenue.

descendants of Africa might have been transported from a country where they never can enjoy political or social equality, to the native land of their fathers, where no impediment exists to their attainment of the highest degree of elevation, intellectual, social, and political! where they might have been successful instruments, in the hands of God, to spread the religion of his Son, and to lay the foundations of civil liberty!

[DEC. 29, 1835.

The mole, projecting, break the roaring main. Back to his bounds their subject sea command, And roll obedient rivers through the land." The affair of the public lands was forced upon me. In the session 1831-2 a motion from a quarter politically unfriendly to me was made to refer it to the Committee of Manufactures, of which I was a member. I strenuously opposed the reference. I remonstrated, I And, sir, when we institute a comparison between protested, I entreated, I implored. It was in vain that what might have been effected, and what has been in I insisted that the Committee on the Public Lands was fact done, with that large amount of national treasure, the regular standing committee to which the reference our sensations of regret, on account of the fate of the should be made. It was in vain that I contended that bill of 1833, are still keener. Instead of its being dedi- the public lands and domestic manufactures were subcated to the beneficent uses of the whole people and jects absolutely incongruous. The unnatural alliance our entire country, it has been an object of scrambling was ordered by the vote of a majority of the Senate. I amongst local corporations, and locked up in the vaults felt that a personal embarrassment was intended me. or loaned out by the directors of a few of them, who felt that the design was to place in my hands a manyare not under the slightest responsibility to the Govern-edged instrument, which I could not touch without being ment or people of the United States. Instead of liberal, wounded. Nevertheless, I subdued all my repugnance, enlightened, and national purposes, it has been partially and I engaged assiduously in the task which had been so applied to local, limited, and selfish uses. Applied to unkindly assigned me. This, or a similar bill, was the increase the semi-annual dividends of favorite stockhold offspring of my deliberations. When reported, the reers in favorite banks! Twenty millions of the national port accompanying it was referred by the same majority treasure are scattered in parcels among petty corpora of the Senate to the very Committee on the Public Lands tions; and whilst they are growling over the fragments, to which I had unsuccessfully sought to have the subject and greedy for more, the Secretaries are brooding on originally assigned, for the avowed purpose of obtaining schemes for squandering the whole. a counteracting report. But, in spite of all opposition, it passed the Senate at that session. At the next, both Houses of Congress.

But, although we have lost three precious years, the Secretary of the Treasury tells us that the principal is yet safe, and much good may be still achieved with it. The general Government, by an extraordinary exercise of executive power, no longer affords aid to any new works of internal improvement. Although it sprung from the Union, and cannot survive the Union, it no longer engages in any public improvement to perpetuate the existence of the Union. It is but justice to it to acknowledge that, with the co-operation of the publicspirited State of Maryland, it effected one national road having that tendency. But the spirit of improvement pervades the land, in every variety of form, active, vigorous, and enterprising, wanting pecuniary aid as well as intelligent direction. The States have undertaken what the general Government is prevented from accomplishing. They are strengthening the Union by various lines of communication thrown across and through the mountains. New York has completed one great chain. Pennsylvania another, bolder in conception, and far more arduous in the execution. Virginia has a similar work in progress, worthy of all her enterprise and energy. A fourth, farther south, where the parts of the Union are too loosely connected, has been projected, and it can certainly be executed with the supplies which this bill affords, and perhaps not without them.

I

I confess I feel anxious for the fate of this measure, less on account of any agency I have had in proposing it, as I hope and believe, than from a firm, sincere, and thorough conviction that no one measure ever presented to the councils of the nation was fraught with so much unmixed good, and could exert such powerful and enduring influence in the preservation of the Union itself, and upon some of its highest interests. If I can be instrumental, in any degree, in the adoption of it, I shall enjoy, in that retirement into which I hope shortly to enter, a heart-feeling satisfaction and a lasting consolation. I shall carry there no regrets, no complaints, no reproaches, on my own account. When I look back upon my humble origin, left an orphan too young to have been conscious of a father's smiles and caresses, with a widowed mother, surrounded by a numerous offspring, in the midst of pecuniary embarrassments, without a regular education, without fortune, without friends, without patrons, I have reason to be satisfied with my public career. I ought to be thankful for the high places and honors to which I have been called by the favor and partiality of my countrymer, and I am thankful and grateful. And I shall take with me the pleasing consciousness that, in whatever station I have been

their confidence by a faithful, fearless, and zealous discharge of my public duties. Pardon these personal allusions. I make the motion of which notice has been given.

Leave was then granted, and the bill was introduced, read twice, referred to the Committee on the Public Lands, and ordered to be printed.

EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE, &c.

This bill passed, and these and other similar under-placed, I have earnestly and honestly labored to justify takings completed, we may indulge the patriotic hope that our Union will be bound by ties and interests that render it indissoluble. As the general Government withholds all direct agency from these truly national works, and from all new objects of internal improvement, ought it not to yield to the States, what is their own, the amount received from the public lands? It would thus but execute faithfully a trust expressly created by the original deeds of cession, or resulting from the treaties of acquisition. With this ample resource, every desirable object of improvement, in every part of our extensive country, may, in due time, be accomplished. Placing this exhaustless fund in the hands of the several members of the confederacy, their common federal head may address them in the glowing language of the British bard, and

"Bid harbors open, public ways extend,
Bid temples worthier of the God ascend.
Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain,

Mr. CALHOUN, pursuant to notice, asked and obtained leave to introduce the following bills:

A bill to repeal the first and second sections of the act limiting the terms of service of certain officers therein named, &c.

A bill to regulate the public deposites.

Also, a joint resolution to amend the constitution, so as to provide for a distribution of the surplus revenue. REDUCTION OF THE REVENUE.

Mr. CALHOUN offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the report of the Secretary of the

DEC. 30, 1835.]

Newspapers to Members--Reduction of the Revenue.

Treasury of the 15th instant, relative to the duties that may be reduced or repealed, be referred to the Committee on Manufactures, with instructions to report a bill providing for the reduction or repeal of all duties which, in their opinion, may be reduced or repealed consistently with a due regard to the manufacturing interest.

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be reduced or repealed. The Secretary of the Treasury had recommended some, and given a list of others, and it was for the committee to investigate the subject. He would not wish to touch a single article that could injure the manufacturer.

Mr. DAVIS suggested that he might probably concur in all the views of the Senator from South Carolina, if he had time to look into the report; but at present he would only ask that the resolution be permitted to lie on the table until to-morrow.

Mr. CALHOUN assented to the request, and the resolution was laid on the table.

NEWSPAPERS TO MEMBERS.

The resolution to supply the Senators with the usual newspapers was read a third time, and, on the question of its passage, Mr. KING, of Georgia, after a few remarks in opposition, asked for the yeas and nays; which were ordered.

YEAS-Messrs. Brown, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing, Goldsborough, Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Hubbard, Kent, Knight, Leigh, Linn, McKean, Moore, Naudain, Niles, Preston, Prentiss, Porter, Robinson, Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Wall, Wright-31.

NAYS-Messrs. Benton, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Morris, Ruggles, Shepley, White-7.

Several bills were introduced and ordered to a second reading; when,

On motion of Mr. DAVIS, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business; after which, The Senate adjourned.

Mr. CALHOUN, on offering this resolution, adverted to the immense surplus which was daily accruing in the public treasury, to which we must look for an immense increase of power in the hands of the executive Government, and the overspreading of the country with corruption and subserviency. This was not a proper occasion to discuss the actual condition of the treasury; but, if it were, it would not be difficult to show that the actual surplus in the treasury was now from twenty-one to twenty-two millions, and that in the coming year it would be scarcely short of thirty millions. With this immense revenue at the disposal of the President, in banks under his control, and subject to be withdrawn at his discretion, it would be in vain, all our efforts would Mr. KNIGHT, in consequence of the absence of Mr. be impotent, to oppose the executive will. On this ROBBINS, the mover, moved to lay the resolution on the point, therefore, the battle would have to be fought be- | table; but the motion was negatived: Ayes 15, noes 22. tween power and liberty. All other measures which The question was then taken on the passage of the could be devised would fall short of correcting the dan- resolution, and decided as follows: ger to be apprehended from the march of power. But if all those who were opposed to the usurpations of the Government could be brought zealously to unite in ar resting the funds arising out of the revenue, as far as they could, in their passage to the public treasury, and would snatch from the grasp of the Executive the funds which have already accumulated in his hands, there would be still ground for the hope that the course of power would be stayed. Every dollar we can prevent from coming into the treasury, or every dollar thrown back into the hands of the people, will tend to strengthen the cause of liberty, and unnerve the arm of power. He hoped that the Committee on Manufactures would take up the report with an earnest desire to repeal and reduce all those duties that can be reduced or repealed without injury to the manufacturing interest. In doing this they will then feel that they are not only aiding in the cause of reform, as far as it can be assisted by these means, but that they are also contributing to the prosperity of that particular interest of which they are the special guardians; since every reduction of duty, and every tax removed, while it cheapens the cost of production at home, and thus benefits our own manufacturer, will open the prospect of securing the fereign market. As there will be the two interests thus concurring to favor reduction, he hoped the Committee on Manufactures would consider the subject, and report, at as early a period as possible, all the reductions which can be made without injury to the manufacturing interest. Mr. DAVIS said he was not quite prepared to vote at once for the proposition of the gentleman from South Carolina. It had come upon him suddenly, and he was not prepared to understand the exact extent of the proposition, as he had not in his mind the precise propositions of the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject. Therefore, he was rather unwilling to vote for an instruction to the committee; for it would seem that this was not in the shape of an inquiry, but a peremptory instruction, touching an interest of the first magnitude, and a measure of a very important character which was adopted a few years since. He hoped the Senate would not be called on to vote an instruction of this importance before they bad time to examine its character. He had only risen to express the hope that the Senator from South Carolina would not press his resolution at this mo

ment.

Mr. CALHOUN replied that there could be no difficulty on the subject. The Committee on Manufactures would have to examine and ascertain what duties might

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER SO.

REDUCTION OF THE REVENUE.

Mr. DAVIS moved that the resolution of the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. CALHOUN,] (to instruct the Committee on Manufactures to report a bill to reduce certain duties on imports,) which was yesterday laid on the table on his motion, be taken up. Mr. D. said that, having given the resolution a careful examination, he found that it was not so extensive in its bearings as he had supposed-that its object was merely financial-and that, consequently, he had no objection whatever to its passage.

Mr. CLAY said that, in the room of making it a matter of positive instruction, he would rather that it should be sent to the committee as a subject of inquiry. He did not suppose that the Senator from South Carolina and himself would finally disagree. It would be very easily discovered by any one who took the trouble of looking, that the two principal objects of duty were wine and silks-they could very well bear the collection of such duty-still, if there was no necessity for its collection, arising out of the wants of the Government, neither of these articles should bear it. He merely wished for an opportunity to examine and judge for himself; and, so long as there was a certain and abun dant supply in the public exchequer, the resolution would meet with no opposition from him. It was his desire, as, in the event of the passage of the bill which he introduced yesterday, it might be necessary to retain the duties on wines and silks, to make some further examination. He would move that the usual words should be inserted, "to inquire into the expediency," &c.

The

Mr. CALHOUN said that was already done. resolution directed the committee first to inquire and

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Joint Library Committee-Hospitals on the Ohio.

then to report. If, continued Mr. C., the land bill introduced by the Senator from Kentucky should pass, there would still remain a large surplus in the public treasury. The amount there already was twenty-one or twenty-two millions, and by the end of the first quarter of the coming year that amount will have swelled to thirty millions. If, as the Secretary of the Treasury had stated, the expenditures can be reduced to thirteen millions, there would be ample funds in the treasury, unless the reductions of duty should go far beyond what he had imagined.

He wished to impress upon the Senate the importance of two considerations: first, that there was an immense surplus in the public exchequer, which might be employed for the degrading purposes of bribery and corruption; and, secondly, that, by a timely and liberal reduction, all conflicting interests might be reconciled before the crisis which might be expected in 1842-23. Every cent removed from the hands of Government is so much added to the wealth of the whole people. It cheapens production, and thus, by allowing a field for competition, it opens the foreign market at a shorter period.

Mr. CLAY said that the difference between himself and the honorable Senator was very trifling. Like him, he (Mr. C.) had looked a little into the subject of our finances. He believed with him that there were twentyone millions in the treasury, and that at the end of the first quarter of the ensuing year, with the seven millions coming from the Bank of the United States, the surplus revenue would amount to thirty millions. He perfectly concurred with him in the propriety of repealing all duties, so far as it could be done consistently with the interests of the manufacturer. But, sir, (said Mr. C.,) how many of the forty-five or forty-eight Senators here have looked into the matter as the Senator from South Carolina has done, and arrived with him at the same conclusion. They should not be called upon by a resolution, presented in either an unusual form and at an early period of the session, to vote at once, without reflection or examination, for the repeal of every duty. He did not wish so to commit himself.

Mr. CALHOUN said that if any doubt of the ability of the treasury to meet all demands upon it should arise during the progress of this bill, he would then move to Jay it upon the table, or to refer it to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. CLAY said that, with these pledges, he certainJy should not oppose the motion.

The resolution was then agreed to.

JOINT LIBRARY COMMITTEE.

A message was received from the House of Representatives, by Mr. FRANKLIN, their Clerk, stating that the House had passed a joint resolution for the appointment of a Committee on the Library; and that the House had appointed Messrs. Lo YALL, MCKEAN, and WADDY THOMPSON, as the committee on their part.

On motion of Mr. ROBBINS, the resolution was concurred in; and Messrs. PRESTON, PORTER, and ROBBINS, were chosen, by ballot, as the committee on the part of the Senate.

EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE.

The bill to repeal the 1st and 2d second sections of an act to limit the terms of office of certain officers therein named was read a second time, and made the special order for the second Monday in January.

The bill to regulate the deposites of the public money was read a second time, and made the special order for the second Monday in January.

The joint resolution proposing to amend the constitu. tution was read a second time, and made the special order for the third Monday in January.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

[DEC. 31, 1835.

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Mr. LEIGH, suggesting that the gentleman who had introduced the bill [Mr. BLACK] was not in his seat, and as the bill was an important one, and it was proper that the Western Senators should have an opportunity to examine it, moved to postpone its further consideration, and make it the special order for Monday next. The motion was agreed to.

When some other business had been disposed of,

On motion of Mr. TIPTON, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business; and after a short time the doors were reopened, and The Senate adjourned.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31.

HOSPITALS ON THE OHIO RIVER.

Mr. HENDRICKS presented the memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, on the subject of hospitals within that State for the relief of sick and disabled persons employed in navigating the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He said that, in this memorial, the Legislature represented the strong necessity, as well as the humanity, of providing these receptacles for the sick and disabled navigators of the Western waters. The necessity for this measure (Mr. H. said) was peculiarly strong and pressing. For this class of men, it could scarcely be affirmed that there was any provision at all in existence, while the protecting arm and the fostering care of the Government had always been extended in aid of the sick and disabled seamen both of the navy and of our commercial marine. It was true that the boatmen and raftmen of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were properly entitled to the benefits of the several acts of Congress for the relief of sick and disabled seamen engaged in foreign commerce and in the coasting trade; but so defectively supplied were the Western waters with hospitals and asylums for the sick, that these benefits had seldom been feit. In the foreign commerce and in the coasting trade, although there may be scanty provision made in hospitals on shore, yet these men are almost always afloat. The vessels in which they are employed are receptacles for them, and their shipmates are companions around them. They have generally society and comfort to some extent. But often it is not so with the boatmen of the West. The very boat in which they have descended, when at the termination of their voyage, if a flat boat, has to be abandoned, no matter where that may be, or in what condition they are. deprives them of all their companions. Anxiety to return home generally These men are constantly landed and left destitute on the banks of those rivers, often amongst a population unable, and sometimes unwilling, to take care of them; for, however humane and hospitable the people of the West are, (and there are none more so,) the frequent repetition of these acts of kindness becomes a burden insupportable.

These men so left are generally destitute of medical aid, and frequently of the most ordinary attentions and comforts of life. They go from high and healthful latitudes to southern and sickly climates. The change of their habits, as well as of climate, was generally greater than that of seamen; the trade in which they were engaged was that of transporting their own produce and that of the country to the lower markets, and this was necessarily carried on in the spring and summer seasons of the year, when they were most susceptible of the diseases which prevail on the waters of the Mississippi and the South. The people of the West engaged in this

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river trade were exposed to more and perhaps greater casualties than any other in the world; and there was no class whose occupation and business contributed more largely to the prosperity of the Union, and especially of the West, than this class of our citizens. Not only were they exposed to sickness and death, without the usual comforts of the last hour, but they were subjected also to an almost innumerable train of evils, exposures, and casualties; boats getting aground; running upon snags and sawyers; sinking, from these and various other causes, when the greatest danger and exposure of health for the preservation of property takes place; and if this be hopeless, there is the still greater peril of life. In addition to these, there are the casualties by steam, the bursting of boilers, the crushing of boats against each other by night, and the more terrible and appalling disasters of fire and storm. These are some of the evils and dangers to which this whole class of men are exposed, and which many of them suffer.

And how numerous is this class? And how large a population and extent of country are closely identified with their prosperity and business? This class of men are the bone and sinew of more than four millions of people. They are the farmers and farmers' sons of the whole valley of the Mississippi, engaged in the laudable and valuable business of transporting their own produce to market, and in the transportation of the entire commerce of the West. They are closely and intimately identified with a country of great extent; the whole country beyond the mountains; a country much larger than the residue of the United States; a country perhaps unequalled in resources; in the fertility of its soil; the navigation of its rivers; the internal commerce which it creates and sustains; the rapidly increasing magnitude of its population, and the maximum of which it is susceptible; unequalled in these particulars, in all probability, by any other region of the earth of the same extent. I take this occasion (said Mr. H.) to say to the Committee of Commerce, to which I wish this memorial referred, that this is an important interest of the Western country; one in the hands, and especially so, of the federal Government. I tell the committee and the Senate that its importance within the last few years has increased into a ratio far beyond the increase of the the population and the commerce of the country.

The cholera, so prevalent on the Mississippi and its tributary streams, has given this subject of late years an importance and a magnitude almost indescribable. The want of these hospitals scatters the cholera, and distributes it in the neighborhoods and villages of these rivers; whereas, if erected, they would aid in concentrating and extinguishing it, by collecting its patients together, and preventing their intercourse with society. A man known to a boat's crew to have the cholera is put on shore wheresoever he can, by persuasion or stratagem, be deposited. He produces consternation wherever left, is neglected or abandoned, and dies. Thus the cholera is spread upon these rivers among the citizens on shore, and its fatality is greatly increased among the river-faring men themselves. The Committee of Commerce cannot be engaged in a work of patriotism and devotion to the best interests of the country of more importance, in a work of benevolence and humanity more broad and expansive. This subject has been greatly neglected.

He did not stand alone in these opinions. The Secretary of the Treasury had pressed this matter upon the attention of the last session of Congress. He tell us, in his report, that the laws for the relief of sick and disabled seamen should be revised; that hospitals should be built, and that the fund should be made more productive; that, instead of yielding about $30,000 a year, it ought to produce $180,000. A fair dividend of these

[SENATE.

operations of philanthropy on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers would be productive of the most beneficial results. It would produce sanatary regulations which would be the means of saving thousands of lives perhaps every year, and of checking and controlling, in some measure, the cholera-that minister of desolationamongst us.

He

On this subject (continued Mr. H.) efforts had been unceasing for several years past. This was the third time it had been placed before the Senate by himself: last session by the same memorial which he now presented, and the previous session by a resolution, which, on his motion, had been adopted by the Senate. hoped that the Legislatures and the Representatives of the Western States would not cease to importune Congress until they obtained on this subject some beneficial regulation. It had been referred to the Committee of Commerce of the Senate at the last and previous sessions. A bill was reported last winter in the other House. It was, however, insufficient in its provisions. It did not contain any appropriation for hospitals above the mouth of the Ohio. It was his intention to have proposed an amendment to it in the Senate, if not amended in the House, but it never reached this body. The practice of the Committee of Commerce for years past, in waiting for bills from the other House, had, as it seemed to him, been deleterious to much useful business; he hoped it would not be so at the present session, but that this subject would at least be taken up and acted on by the committee of the Senate. The want of money was not at this time a consideration. We had enough, and more than we knew what to do with; and there was surely no object more deserving the appropriation of a few thousand dollars than that of erecting hospitals for the relief of sick and disabled seamen and riverfaring men.

He moved the reference of the memorial to the Committee of Commerce; and it was so referred. On motion of Mr. GRUNDY, it was

Resolved, That when the Senate adjourn, it adjourn to meet on Monday next.

The resolutions on the table were severally considered and adopted.

Agreeably to the resolution offered on Wednesday last in relation to the Patent Office, Messrs. RUGGLES, PRENTISS, and HILL, were chosen members, on the part of the Senate, of the joint committee ordered by said resolution.

Mr. PRESTON being absent, the resolution in regard to the regulation of the Senate chamber was, on motion of Mr. TIPTON, laid on the table.

The bill concerning writs of error and judgments arising under the revenue laws was read a third time; when

Mr. WEBSTER made a few observations on the character of the measure, approving of the general tendency, but desiring some explanations which rendered him desirous, as Mr. PRESTON was absent, to have the bill laid over for the present.

The bill was then, on his motion, laid on the table until Monday.

A bill for the relief of Commodore Isaac Hull was considered as in Committee of Whole, and, after a few remarks from Messrs. SHEPLEY and SOUTHARD, was, on motion of the latter, laid on the table.

Several other bills were taken up in the course of the day, and appropriately disposed of; after which The Senate adjourned to Monday.

MONDAY, JANUARY 4.

BANK OF THE METROPOLIS. Mr. KENT moved to take up the memorial of the president and directors of the Bank of the Metropolis,

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