The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 352

                                
352
CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
a memorial, should be printed, at an enormous ex-
pense, for distribution to the country.
The CHAIR again remarked that debate was not
in order, as the rule carried the matter to the Com-
mittee on Printing.
Mr. ALLEN asked whether the rule carried the
document before that committee without any motion
for such reference.
The CHAIR was understood to say that the rule
was imperative, that all proposition to print any
matter except resolutions from State legislatures,
must be referred to the committee. Such was his
reading of the rule.
Mr. ALLEN said he was only going to state that
this report was made for the purpose of enforcing a
policy 
The CHAIR insisted that the question was not
debatable; that the proposition must go to the com-
mittee without debate.
Mr. ALLEN observed that he would not debate
it. He merely wished to call the attention of the
Senate and the committee to the fact that this report
was made for the purpose of enforcing a proposition
by which it was proposed te assume, on the part of
this government, two hundred millions of State
debts. It was to the character of the report, and the
object for which it was made, that he espesially in-
vited the attention of the committee. That was the
reason why he asked whether it was in order to
make a motion lo lay it on the table. He did not
wish to refer it to the committee, because he intend-
ed moving to lay it on the table himself, as the best
means of preventing the action of the committee
upon it.
Mr. WOODBRIDGE was understood to reply to
the remarks of the senator from Alabama as to the
character of the matter the document contained, that
he made the proposition to print with a view lo the
great importance of the matter it contained; but he
did not consider that it was at all important that the
columns of names attached to a particular memorial,
comprised in the document, should be retained and
reprinted. He did not introduce the proposition, that
such matter might be printed, but for the reason
that the document did contain statistical matter, hav-
iilga bearing upon important interests in the country.
JVIr. ALLEN inquired of the Chair whether it
was not in order to submit a motion to lay the prop-
osition on the tabic.
The C1IAIR was under the impression that, on
any question of printing, it was not in order, be-
cause the rule emphatically said that all propositions
to print should go to the committee.
Mr. MERRICK coincided with the interpretation
given to the rule by the Chair. The very object of
the rule, he contended, was to preclude preliminary
debate on a proposition to print. Debute would be
in order after the committee shall have reported up-
on a proposition to print.
Mr. ALLEN submitted the motion to lay 011 the
table, insisting that it was in order, on the ground
that the Senate never intended, by its rules, to ren-
der itself powerless.
Mr. MRRR1CK maintained that it was not 111 or-
der; for a motion of the kind would defeat the rule,
which provided that all propositions to print should
go to the committee, except resolutions from the
States.
The CHAIR was again understood to say, that,
after a proposition to print was once received by the
Senate, it must go to the committee; but, before it
was received, it was in order for any senator to sub-
mit a motion to lay the proposition to print on the
table.
Mr. ALLEN said he was not disposed to cavil
about the decision of the Chair, but he respectfully
asked whether it was not in order to lay a resolution
on the table at any time when it was pending before
the Senate.
The CHAIR was understood to say that this was
not a resolution in fact, though it was apparently
so in form, but was simply a proposition to print
certain documents.
Mr. ALLEN said it was certainly a resolution in
form; and he moved to lay it on the table.
_ The CHAIR said the resolution being a proposi-
tion to print, and having been received, must, under
the rule, go to the committee.
Mr. McDUFFIE contended that there was no
rule of that or any other legislative body, which de-
prived themselves of the power to get rid of a sub-
ject by laying it on the table. There was no such
principle in parliamentary law. Was the Senate
obliged to refer a matter to a committee, though
they might believe unanimously, that it ought not ;
to be referred? The motion to lay on the table was
one of those privileged questions which was always
in order.
Some further remarks upon this point were made
by Messrs. MERRICK and KING, the former sup-
porting the decision of the Chair, and the latter main-
taining that the Senate had the power to lay any
subject upon the table—that the laying of this prop-
osition on the table would not defeat the object of
the rule directing the reference of propositions to
print to that committee, its object being to pre-
vent the printing of useless matter, and not to pre-
vent debate on propositions to print The motion
to lay on the table was perfectly in accordance with
the purpose of the rule.
The subject here dropped, and the matter went to
the committee.
Mr. HAYWOOD introduced a bill to amend the act
establishing the branch mints; the object of which
was to provide that the officers of these branch
mints may qualify before the judges of the
States, in which the mints are located, instead of a
judge of the Supreme Court, as at present required.
The bill was a measure of economy. It was read
twice, and referred to the Financc Committee.
The following resolution, submitted by Mr.
Semfle yesterday, was considered and and adopted,
viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be
instructed to inquire into, and report 011, the expe-
diency of requiring the circuit and district courts,
within the district of Illinois, to hold alternately the
terms of said court at Chicago andSprinjfield, in said
State.
The following resolution, submitted by Mr.
Archer yesterday, was considered and adopted,
viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on Pensions he in-
structed to inquire into the expediency of transfer-
ring from the State to the War Department such of
the papers purchased of Washington's heirs as con-
stitute evidence of the service upon which claims to
pensions are adjusted.
The bill from the House making appropriation
for the payment of revolutionary and other pen-
sioners of the United States, for the fiscal year end-
ing 30th June, 1845, was read twice, and referred to
the Committee on Finance.
The bill relating to the office of smveyor gen-
eral of the United States for Ohio, Indiana, and
Michigan, providing for the removal of that office
from Cincinati, Ohio, to Detroit, Michigan, was
read the third time and passed.
The bill for the relief of William De Puyster and
Henry M. Cruger, was read the third time, and
passed.
SLAVE REPRESENTATION.
Mr. ARCHER presented resolutions adopted by
the general assembly of Virginia in response to the
resolutions adopted by the legislature ofMassachu-
setts, proposing to amend the constitution so as
to exclude from the basis of federal representation
the three-fifths of slave population. Among the Vir-
ginia resolutions were the following, unanimously
adopted by the legislature of that State:
1. That we cannot regard these resolutions as in
truth a proposition to amend the federal constitu-
tion; but one virtually to dissolve the Union.
2. That whilst we have forborne the expression
of complaint at the disturbance of the peace and
safety of the South by the agitation of the subject of
our peculiar domestic institutions by individuals
and voluntary societies at the North, we regard this
attack by the highest constitutional authority of a
sister State as in the highest degree unjust, unkind,
faithless to the compromises of the constitution, and
meriting the deepest conideinnation of every patriot
and friend of the Union.
The resolutions having been read,
Mr. ABCIIER moved that they be printed. He
remarked that when similar resolutions introduced
by the senator from Alabama [Mr. Bagey] were
under discussion the other day, that senator, after
having moved the printing of the Alabama resolu-
tions, moved also to take from the table and have
printed the resolutions of the legislature of Massa-
chusetts, (which, at his instance, had been laid on
ths table,) to which they were responsive. At his
(Mr. Archer's) instance, the motion to take up the
proposition to print the Massachusetts resolutions
was withdrawn, under a promise that he would,
when he presented the Virginia resolution responsive
thereto, renew the motion to print. He, (Mr. A.,)
like the honorable senator from Alabama, was dis-
posed to have the resolutions of the Massachusetts
legislature printed. Jt was nothing more than fair
that they should be printed and go to the country
along side of those responsive to them.
The question was then put on printing the Vir-
ginia resolutions; and carried in the affirmative.
" The question recurring on the motion to take up
the proposition to print the Massachusetts resolu-
tions—
Mr BAGBY asked the senator from Virginia not
to press the motion this morning. He was prepar-
ing a series of resolutions, which he intended to
move when the question was taken on the motion to
print the resolutions from Massachusetts. He pre-
ferred, therefore, that the senator would defer the
motion until to-morrow morning.
Mr. ARCHER then withdrew his motion.
RIVER IMPROVEMENTS.
On motion by Mr. TALLMADGE, the Senate re-
sumed the consideration of the bill to grant a certain
quantity of land to improve Fox and Wisconsin
rivers, and to connect the same by a canal in the
Territory of Wisconsin.
The question pending being the amendment of
Mr. Haywood, providing that the quantity of
land appropriated by this bill shall be deducted for
the 500,000 acres to which Wisconsin will be enti-
tled by the distribution bill, when she comes as a
State into the Union.
Mr. HAYWOOD remarked, that he had given
his reasons to the Senate for making the motion to
amend the bill, as proposed 011 a former day, at the
time he made that motion. If those leasons were
deemed worthy of influencing the minds of senators,
he had no doubt they would be recollceted. He
would not repeat them in detail. But it might per-
haps be his duty, as the mover of this new section to
the bill, to answer the only objection which had been
urged against it by the honorable senator from
Michigan, [Mr. Porter;] and it would be no diffi-
cult matter to do it.
Mr. H. .said, the 8th section of the distribution
act was the only impoitant part of that law which
was now in force. All of that act, except what
gave donations to new States and pre-emptions, re-
mained suspended by force of the tariff. The authors
of this distribution la w, in the very words of the 8th
section, professed and declared that donations of
lands to new States and Territories for internal im-
provements should be deducted from the gratuity of
500,000 acres secured to such State or Territory.
Mr. H. here read the 8th section of the distribu-
tion act of 1841, the language of which was, in sub-
stance, that the Territories, when admitted into the
Union as States, should be entitled to 500,000 acres
of land, deducting so much as they may have re-
ceived previous to their admission.
The Congress which passed this distribution law,
had thus declared and settled the rule of their equi-
ty, and had made it a rule of law. It was not a very
great concession for senators to admit, therefore,
that the rule should not be enlarged in favor of the
new States and Territories, until we were prepared
to abandon the distribution law. That this, how-
ever, might not be done by indirection, the bill to
give Wisconsin the 320,000 acres for a Fox river
canal, he had proposed to amend, by a positive
declaration that such donation should be in part
satisfaction of Wisconsin's half million present
from the extra Congress of 1841! Was any thill"
more reasonable? 0
The honorable senator from Michigan [Mr. Por-
ter] had said it was unnecessary to adopt the amend-
ment. Mr. H. supposed he said this because he
thought such would be the law without the amend-
ment, as well as with it. Why, then, asked Mr.
H. did the friend of the senator from Michigan [Mr.
Tallmadge] oppose the amendment' Unnecessa-
ry, and free of doubt, when the other friends of the
biff say one way, and the Senate another? There
was a doubt (said Mr. H.) expressed in the face of
the benate, and m the presence of senators; and yet
would they refuse to put those doubts at rest and
prevent future dispute? No, no. The line of true
]jall , leoIsIaUon required that, these doubts
should be solved now. If the Senate intended to
give these lands in satisfaction of the distribution
law, as senators averred they thought the law did
mean, let the amendment be passed. If they did
not, reject it, and adopt the amendment of the Sena-
tor from Ohio, which he had proposed in case the
senate rejected the one now offered. Let the Senate
say yes or no; and not leave doubt, at present ex-