The Honorable SAMUEL SMITH, President of the Senate, pro tempore, resumed the chair

Mr. Kane communicated the credentials of the Honorable David J. Baker, appointed a Senator by the Governor of the State of Illinois, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of the Honorable John McLean.

Mr. Ellis communicated the credentials of the Honorable George Poindexter, appointed a Senator by the Governor of the State of Mississippi, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of the Honorable Robert H. Adams.

The credentials having been read, the oath prescribed by law was administered to Mr. Baker and Mr. Poindexter, and they took their seats in the Senate.

The President communicated the credentials of the Honorable John Forsyth, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, for the term of six years from the third day of March next; which were read.

On motion by Mr. King,

Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled, and ready to proceed to business. On motion by Mr. Holmes, and by unanimous consent,

Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to cause the members of the Senate to be furnished with such newspapers as they may respectively direct: Provided, That the expense for each member, during the present session, shall not exceed the price of three daily papers.

The Senate then adjourned.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1830.

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Clarke, their Clerk:

Mr. President: I am directed to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives has assembled, and is now ready to proceed to business.

The House of Representatives have passed a resolution, appointing a committee, to join such committee as may be appointed by the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that quorums of the two Houses have assembled, and that Congress are ready to receive any communications he may be pleased to make; in which they request the concurrence of the Senate.

The Senate proceeded to consider said resolution; and,

On motion by Mr. Grundy,

Resolved, That they concur therein.

Ordered, That Mr. Grundy and Mr. Woodbury be the committee on the part of the Senate.

Ordered, That the Secretary notify the House of Representatives accordingly.

On motion by Mr. Woodbury, and by unanimous consent, Resolved, That the 34th rule for conducting business in the Senate be suspended, so far as to authorize the Senate, in the absence of the Vice President, to elect, by ballot, the Chairman of the Committee on Finance.

The Senate proceeded to ballot for a Chairman of the Committee on Finance; and, on counting the ballots, it appeared that the Hon. Mr. Smith, of Maryland, had a majority of the votes, and was accordingly elected.

The President then announced the appointment of the standing committees, as follows:

A Committee on Foreign Relations, consisting of Mr. Tazewell, Mr. Sanford, Mr. White, Mr. Bell, and Mr. King.

A Committee on Finance, consisting of Mr. Smith, of Maryland, Mr. Smith, of South Carolina, Mr. Silsbee, Mr. King, and Mr. Johnston.

A Committee on Commerce, consisting of Mr. Woodbury, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Silsbee, Mr. Sanford, and Mr. Forsyth.

A Committee on Manufactures, consisting of Mr. Dickerson, Mr. Ruggles, Mr. Knight, Mr Seymour, and Mr. Bibb.

A Committee on Agriculture, consisting of Mr. Marks, Mr. Willey, Mr. Noble, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Seymour.

A Committee on Military Affairs, consisting of Mr. Benton, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Troup, Mr. Naudain, and Mr. Iredell.

A Committee on the Militia, consisting of Mr. Barnard, Mr. Frelinghuysen, Mr. Clayton, Mr. Noble, and Mr. Bibb.

A Committee on Naval Affairs, consisting of Mr. Hayne, Mr. Tazewell, Mr. Robbins, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Webster

A Committee on Public Lands, consisting of Mr. Barton, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Kane, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Sprague.

A Committee on Private Land Claims, consisting of Mr. Kane, Mr. Burnet, Mr Poindexter, Mr. Grandy, and Mr. Naudain.

A Committee on Indian Affairs, consisting of Mr. White, Mr. Troup, Mr. Hendricks, Mr. Dudley, and Mr. Benton.

A Committee of Claims, consisting of Mr. Ruggles, Mr. Bell, Mr. Chase, Mr. Foot, and Mr. Brown.

A Committee on the Judiciary, consisting of Mr. Rowan, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Webster, Mr. Hayne, and Mr. Frelinghuysen.

A Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, consisting of Mr. Grundy, Mr. Burnet, Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Seymour.

A Committee on Roads and Canals, consisting of Mr. Hendricks, Mr. Tyler, Mr. Ruggles, Mr. Dudley, and Mr. Poindexter.

A Committee on Pensions, consisting of Mr. Foot, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Marks, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Chambers.

A Committee on the District of Columbia, consisting of Mr. Chambers, Mr. Tyler, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Clayton, and Mr. Sprague.

A Committee to audit and control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, consisting of Mr. Iredell, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Knight.

A Committee on Engrossed Bills, consisting of Mr. Marks, Mr. Willey, and Mr. Baker.

Mr. Grundy, from the committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that quorums of the two Houses have asşembled, and that Congress are ready to receive any communications he may be pleased to make, reported that the committee had performed the duties of their appointment, and that the President of the United States replied that he would make a communication, in writing, to the two Houses of Congress, this day at half past one o'clock.

The following written message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Donelson, his Secretary:

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives:

The pleasure I have in congratulating you upon your return to your constitutional duties is much heightened by the satisfaction which the condition of our beloved country at this period justly inspires. The beneficent Author of all good has granted to us, during the present year, health, peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the wonderful success which attends the progress of our free institutions.

With a population unparalleled in its increase, and possessing a character which combines the hardihood of enterprise with the considerateness of wisdom, we see in every section of our happy country a steady improvement in the means of social intercourse, and correspondent effects upon the genius and laws of our extended republic.

The apparent exceptions to the harmony of the prospect are to be referred rather to inevitable diversities in the various interests which enter into the composition of so extensive a whole, than to any want of attachment to the Union-interests whose collisions serve only, in the end, to foster the spirit of conciliation and patriotism, so essential to the preservation of that Union, which, I most devoutly hope, is destined to prove imperishable.

In the midst of these blessings, we have recently witnessed changes in the condition of other nations, which may, in their consequences, call for the utmost vigilance, wisdom, and unanimity in our councils, and the exeroise of all the moderation and patriotism of our people.

The important modifications of their government, effected with so much courage and wisdom by the people of France, afford a happy presage of their future course, and have naturally elicited from the kindred feelings of this nation that spontaneous and universal burst of applause in which you have participated. In congratulating you, my fellow-citizens, upon an event so auspicious to the dearest interests of mankind, I do no more than respond to the voice of my country, without transcending, in the slightest degree, that salutary maxim of the illustrious Washington, which enjoins an abstinence from all interference with the internal affairs of other nations. From a people exercising, in the most unlimited degree, the right of self-government, and enjoying, as derived from this proud characteristic, under the favor of heaven, much of the happiness with which they are blessed; a people who can point in triumph to their free institutions, and challenge comparison with the fruits they bear, as well as with the moderation, intelligence, and energy, with which they are administered; from such a people, the deepest sympathy was to be expected in a struggle for the sacred principles of liberty, conducted in a spirit every way worthy of the cause, and erowned by a heroic moderation which has disarmed revolution of its terrors. Notwithstanding the strong assurances which the man whom we so sincerely love and justly admire has given to the world of the high character of the present King of the French, and which, if sustained to the end, will secure to him the proud appellation of Patriot King-it is not in his success, but in that of the great principle which has borne him to the throne-the paramount authority of the public will-that the American people rejoice.

I am happy to inform you that the anticipations which were indulged at the date of my last communication on the subject of our foreign affairs, have been fully realized in several important particulars.

An arrangement has been effected with Great Britain, in relation to the trade between the United States and her West India and North American colonies, which has settled a question that has for years afforded matter for contention and almost uninterrupted discussion, and has been the subject of no less than six negotiations, in a manner which promises results highly favorable to the parties.

The abstract right of Great Britain to monopolize the trade with her colonies, or to exclude us from a participation therein, has never been denied by the United States. But we have contended, and with reason, that if, at any time, Great Britain may desire the productions of this country, as necessary to her colonies, they must be received upon principles of just reciprocity; and further, that it is making an invidious and unfriendly distinction, to open her colonial ports to the vessels of other nations, and close them against those of the United States.

Antecedently to 1794, a portion of our productions was admitted into

the colonial islands of Great Britain, by particular concessions, limited to the term of one year, but renewed from year to year. In the transportation of these productions, however, our vessels were not allowed to engage; this being a privilege reserved to British shipping, by which alone our produce could be taken to the islands, and theirs brought to us in return. From Newfoundland and her continental possessions, all our productions, as well as our vessels, were excluded, with occasional relaxations, by which, in seasons of distress, the former were admitted in British bottoms.

By the treaty of 1794, she offered to concede to us, for a limited time, the right of carrying to her West India possessions, in our vessels not exceeding seventy tons burthen, and upon the same terms as British vessels, any productions of the United States which British vessels might import therefrom. But this privilege was coupled with conditions which are supposed to have led to its rejection by the Senate; that is, that American vessels should land their return cargoes in the United States only; and, moreover, that they should, during the continuance of the privilege, be precluded from carrying molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton, either from those islands, or from the United States, to any other part of the world. Great Britain readily consented to expunge this article from the treaty; and subsequent attempts to arrange the terms of the trade, either by treaty stipulations or concerted legislation, having failed, it has been successively suspended and allowed, according to the varying legislation of the parties.

The following are the prominent points which have, in later years, separated the two Governments. Besides a restriction, whereby all importations into her colonies in American vessels are confined to our own products carried hence, a restriction to which it does not appear that we have ever objected, a leading object on the part of Great Britain has been to prevent us from becoming the carriers of British West India commodities to any other country than our own. On the part of the United States, it has been contended, 1st. That the subject should be regulated by treaty stipulation, in preference to separate legislation: 2d. That our productions, when imported into the colonies in question, should not be subject to higher duties than the productions of the mother country, or of her other colonial possessions; and, 3d. That our vessels should be allowed to participate in the circuitous. trade between the United States and different parts of the British dominions.

The first point, after having been, for a long time, strenuously insisted upon by Great Britain, was given up by the act of Parliament of July, 1825; all vessels suffered to trade with the colonies being permitted to clear from thence with any articles which British vessels might export, and proceed to any part of the world, Great Britain and her dependencies alone excepted. On our part, each of the above points had, in succession, been explicitly abandoned in negotiations preceding that of which the result is now announced.

This arrangement secures to the United States every advantage asked by them, and which the state of the negotiation allowed us to insist upon. The trade will be placed upon a footing decidedly more favorable to this country than any on which it ever stood; and our commerce and navigation will enjoy, in the colonial ports of Great Britain, every privilege allowed to other

nations.

That the prosperity of the country, so far as it depends on this trade, will be greatly promoted by the new arrangement, there can be no doubt. Inde