OF

DEBATES IN

IN CONGRESS,

COMPRISING THE LEADING DEBATES AND INCIDENTS

OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS:

TOGETHER WITH

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

IMPORTANT STATE PAPERS AND PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

AND THE

LAWS, OF A PUBLIC NATURE, ENACTED DURING THE SESSION:

WITH A COPIOUS INDEX TO THE WHOLE.

VOLUME XI.

WASHINGTON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GALES AND SEATON.

1835.

22270

20

GALES & SEATON'S

REGISTER OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.

TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS.... SECOND SESSION.

FROM DECEMBER 1, 1834, TO MARCH 3, 1335.

DEBATES IN THE SENATE.

SENATE.

On Supplying Senators with Newspapers, &c.

ment of each session, so far as the same applies to the Committee on the Post Office. He asked the immediate consideration of the resolution; which was agreed to, and it was then adopted.

A message was received from the House of Representatives, by Mr. FRANKLIN, their Clerk, stating that a quorum of members of that House was present, and that a committee had been appointed to join the Senate committee, for the purpose of informing the President of the United States that the two Houses were organized, and ready to receive his communications. The Senate then adjourned.

seat.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2.

Mr. MORRIS, of Ohio, attended to-day, and took his Mr. WHITE, from the joint committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that quorums of the two Houses of Congress had assembled, and were ready to receive any communication he might be pleased to make, reported that they had performed the duty assigned them, and that the President would, at 12 o'clock this day, make a communication to Congress in writing.

The annual message of the President of the United States was then handed to the Chair, by Mr. DONELSON, his private secretary; and after being read,

On motion of Mr. WHITE, 5,000 extra copies of the message, and 1,500 of the accompanying documents, were ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate. (See Appendix.)

The resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. KNIGHT, relative to supplying the Senators with newspapers, was taken up.

It

one.

[DEC. 2, 3, 4, 1834.

You, sir, continued Mr. K., (addressing the presiding officer,) occupy a station from which you can observe all that passes. You must have seen every day, at 12 o'clock, when members take out their mail, gentlemen taking out of their covers the Lady's Book, or the Mirror, or the Albion, or some fashionable periodical, and looking at some new rondo or fashionable overture, and then folding the work up again, and putting it back on the shoulders of Mr. Barry, in order that it may be conveyed to their wives, or sweethearts, or friends. And thus it is that the revenue is injured, and that the mail stages are improperly burdened. could not see any connexion between the power of Congress to make appropriations, and the practice of purchasing these periodical publications. The practice of subscribing for particular books, which had prevailed for many years, was last session arrested by the Senate. This was done by the majority, and to that majority the credit was entirely due; for the party with which he was generally in the habit of acting had no power to do either evil or good.

He

Mr. K. then moved to lay the resolution on the table; but the motion was negatived.

The resolution was then agreed to.

Mr. POINDEXTER submitted the following resolution, which was considered and adopted:

Resolved, That the 34th rule of the Senate, so far as respects the Committee on Public Lands, be suspended; and that the present committee be continued, with all the powers vested in them, and subject to all the duties enjoined on them, by the several resolutions of the Senate at the last session, relative to frauds in the sale of the public lands.

On motion of Mr. POINDEXTER,
The Senate adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3.

Mr. BROWN, of North Carolina; Mr. TOMLINSON, of Connecticut; and Mr. SPRAGUE, of Maine, attended today, and took their seats.

The CHAIR communicated the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the state of the finances; which, without reading, was, with the accompanying documents, ordered to be printed. (See Appendix.)

Mr. POINDEXTER submitted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office be directed to communicate to the Senate a list of the purchasers of the public lands at the land office in Columbus and Chocshuma, in the State of Mississippi, specifying the name of eaclP original purchaser, and of the assignec or assignees to whom the certificate of purchase may have been endorsed; the quantity of land purchased by each; and the price per acre for each tract, respectively, between the 1st day of October, 1833, and the 1st day of January, 1834.

Mr. KING, of Georgia, said that, on inquiry, he found that resolutions, such as the one before the Senate, had been passed by both Houses of Congress for a number of years past, without any interruption to this constant practice. It seemed, however, that, at one period, in the purer days of the republic, this practice was thought improper, and if it was so then, it was equally so now. He hoped, therefore, that some gen. tleman who was favorable to the resolution would undertake to show what connexion there was between the progress of legislation and the purchase of newspapers. He thought it would be just as easy to show the necessary connexion between the purchase of newspapers for the use of the members and the purchase of the last Waverley novel, or one of Mrs. Radcliff's works. was perfectly true that the daily newspapers might contain interesting speculations on political subjects. They did, and so did the writings of Voltaire, Bolingbroke, and other political writers. It was also true that they contained (some of them) the proceedings of Congress, but they did not necessarily contain them. They were perfectly independent of every branch of the Government, and had no possible connexion with their operations. Admitting, said Mr. K., the power on the part of the Senate to subscribe for these papers, was there no such thing as expediency to be considered? What he wished to impress on the minds of every legislator, and every officer of the Government, was, that power ought not to be exercised merely because it was possessed. There was not a more unprofitable expenditure than that for the purchase of newspapers for the members. It had been said that the publications were useful; but how far useful? He would make an application that would be understood. Was there a member of this or of the other House, who had made sufficient progress in political knowledge to qualify him for his station, that did not subscribe for more papers than he had time to read? He answered that there was not one. The expenditure, therefore, would be entirely a uselessretary:

Resolved, That the said Commissioner be directed to report to the Senate the aggregate number of acres of the public lands offered at public sale, by proclamation of the President of the United States, at each of the land offices in the State of Mississippi, from the 1st day of January, 1833, up to the present time. After transacting some other business, The Senate adjourned.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4.

Mr. LEIGH, of Virginia, attended to-day, and took his seat.

The following message was received from the President of the United States by Mr. DONELSON, his sec