amendment; that the subject was already before another committee, and under consideration; and that it was well settled, that when a subject has been referred to a commit tee, it is not to be called up in the way of an amendment, until the report of the committee has been received.

The chairman of the committee (Mr. Markley) decided the amend

ment to be in order.

Mr. Dwight appealed from his decision; but before the question was taken on the appeal, the amendment was withdrawn, upon the suggestion of the speaker, who expressed an

opinion, that it was not in order.

In the senate, the bill was amended, by inserting $10,000, for the survey of the harbors of Savannah and Brunswick, in Georgia, Beaufort, South Carolina, Baltimore, Maryland; and by dividing the sum of $14,000 appropriated for contingencies, into two parts, viz: $13,500; the purposes to which that sum was to be applied, were enumerated, and $500 for other contingencies. These amendments were agreed to by the house, and the bill was passed.

$1,480,320 50

Building ten sloops of war,

350,000

naval force. Mr. Storrs said, that this addition was required, in consequence of the war, which had broken out between Brazil and Buenos Ayres. A paper blockade

had been declared, by the emperor of Brazil, of the coast, from Cape Horn to the river la Plata. Our East India trade, and our vessels from the Pacific, had to pass, in that direction, and great inconvenience, had already resulted from this state of things. Our trade, in that quarter, was without protection, and exposed to piratical depredations, as well as to injuries resulting from privateering. Nothing, but an increase of naval force, could protect our commerce. The estimates were for a frigate, and two sloops of war, to be in commission for nine months; which was the least possible force.

Mr. Williams, of North Carolina, objected to this appropriation, if it were intended to remove that blockade. It might lead to worse consequences, than the Panama mission; or any other measure before the house. He hoped the house would

will assemble, on this coast, from all quarters, to depredate upon our commerce. Protection was requisite; and it might be afforded, without bringing us into collision with any other power.

Mr. Cambreling was in favor of the appropriation, and suggested that the secretary of the navy should be empowered to order the North Carolina from the Mediterranean, to the coast of Brazil.

Mr. Webster observed that this detail belonged to the executive department; and upon his suggestion, the bill was amended so as merely to make the necessary appropriation, and to leave the disposition of the force, to the executive.

The bill then passed.

The sum of $55,000 was appropriated for building a penitentiary, and two jails in the district of Columbia, and $131,565 for the public buildings in Washington. When the bill making this last appropriation was under discussion, Mr. Beecher, of Ohio, moved to strike from the appropriations, the sum of $25,000 for furnishing the president's house. Mr. Forsyth said, that having built, at the public expense, a house for the chief magistrate, it was the duty of the public to

furnish it in a corresponding style. He should have preferred, that the president should have been permitted to live where he pleased, and how he pleased, as a private

gentleman. He regretted certain publications of details, which had found their way into the public papers, and hoped the appropriation would be made. A modification of this amendment was finally made, so as to authorise the application of this sum to the purchase of new furniture, and to repair old.

A bill was introduced early in the session, making provision for the surviving officers of the revolution. During the summer, a strong feeling in their favor had been excited by the recollections, which the visit of La Fayette naturally produced. As he passed through the country, all who remained of his companions in arms, thronged to greet their ancient leader, and to recall the memory of those scenes, where they had participated as well in the bitter trials and reverses of that bloody conflict, as in its glorious and successful termination. It was impossible to witness the meeting of these interesting relics of the war of independence, without a disposition to recompense them for their suffering and privations; and congress met under the influence of a general wish throughout the country, that some provision should be made for their declining years, or at least an ample remuneration for the depreciation of the currency in which they had been paid. This was a claim upon the justice, as the other was upon the gratitude of the

nation; and earnest memorials were forwarded to congress, setting forth the grounds of their claim in the most forcible terms. A bill was reported by a select committee to distribute $1,250,000 among the surviving officers of the revolution

ary army.

It was brought up for discussion at a late period of the session, April 24.

Mr. Estill, of Virginia, objected to the bill that no provision was made for the militia, and proposed a recommitment. Mr. Clarke, of Kentucky, thought provision should be made for the soldiers as well as the officers; and also for the surviving widows of the revolutionary soldiers. Mr. Alston, of North Carolina, said he considered the account as paid, and that he was unwilling to open a settled account. The grounds upon which the bill was supported, are set forth in a speech of Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts. To the objection of Mr. Alston, Mr. Everett replied,

"That he also was unwilling to open a settled account; but he could not consider an account as settled, until it was paid to the last farthing. He asked, how this account was paid? It was paid after a total bankruptcy of the country. He did not mean that remark by way of reproach: but he must say, that when the government settled with the army of the revolution, it was insolvent. The payment was

a paltry dividend of 2s. 6d. in the pound. Now we have grown rich and are rolling in wealth, our old creditor in the extremity of age, and often in want, comes and asks for a little relief out of our abundance. We tell him that we paid him forty years ago; that we have his discharge in our pocket, and bid him begone. In the language of the gentleman from North Carolina, the account has been settled and paid, and we want to hear no more about it. Sir, I want to hear one thing more about it; that it has been fully paid, and fairly settled.

"It is objected that some of those for whom it provides relief, remained in possession of their certificates of final settlement, until they rose to their par value, or even above it. "I do not suppose that the number of the officers of the revolution who were thus able to reserve their certificates, and fund them at par, can be so considerable as to make it important to take their case into special consideration. But be they few or many, I am not prepared to allow, that even they ought, as a matter of justice, to be shut out from the provisions of the bill. They were entitled to money or available securities.

You gave them no money, and securities worth but an eighth of their nominal value. They had, perhaps, a pittance which enabled them to live

from day to day, without sacrificing their certificates at the market value.

These they reserved, not knowing that they would eventually be worth the paper on which they were printed. They speculated in their own funds; not voluntarily, but by compulsion: and I cannot think that their having done so, (unquestionably in very few cases, of which it does not appear that any one is among those now presented to our consideration,) ought to form a reason for excluding them, far less all the other surviving officers, from the benefits contemplated by this bill.

"It has been made an objection to this bill, that it tends to enlarge the pension system of the United States. Sir, nothing is more decidedly in opposition to a republican policy, not merely than the enlargement of a pension system, but than the existence of any thing which could be properly called by that name. But is the fair compensation, for services rendered, to be called by the odious name of a pension? Sir, pass this bill, adopt the amendment of my honorable colleague, (Mr. Reed,) give the survivors of the revolution all they ask, and ten times more than they ask, and which generation will still be in arrears; we to our fathers, or they to us; which will have done the most for the other; they, in achieving by their toils, and blood, the independence we enjoy, or we in solacing

their age by these poor gratuities; which generation is dependent on the bounty of the other; which is the pensioner of the other?

66

Sir, it is said that other classes suffered as much as those for whom relief is now asked; that the distress and privation were general; and that the army bore no more than its share in the common calamities. There was suffering enough on all sides, heaven knows; and it fell, it is true, not less on the citizen at home, than on the soldier in the camp. But the army, in suffering as such, was not exempt from its share of the general calamity. They did not cast off the character and relations of citizens. No, sir; while they were suffering all the hardships of the camp and of the field, they were, also, suffering in all their interests at home, in common with the rest of the community. They belonged to a class of society whose personal attendance, labor, and care, are their chief property. What brings the most grievous distress, on such a class of society? Not, the fluctuations and obstructions of the market, for they produce very little that goes to market; not the failure of crops of great staple products, which do not depend upon the presence or absence of an opulent proprietor. No, sir, the citizens of this class are most distressed when an industrious

member is called away from the little circle-when an active son or brother is lost to the aged father or helpless sisters, who depend on his aid to carry on the frugal operations of that domestic industry which is necessary to the common subsistence and comfort. The absence from home of those most needed, in this way, was one chief cause of that general wreck of small fortunes, which was one great feature of the universal distress. I myself, sir, know families, from which, not one alone, but two, and even three, who were most wanted at home, were yielded to the common cause; from which when Joseph was not, and Simeon was not, the voice of a bleeding country called Benjamin away also: And however great the sacrifice, the call was obeyed, as is well known from many a touching anecdote of those eventful times.

"Yes, sir, the spirit of the day was equal to its trials; but let us not talk of the soldier as exempt, in any degree, from the common suffering of the citizen; when the fact, that he was absent from home in the army, might be the heaviest blow to the prosperity of his family, and to his own prosperity as a member of it. It deserves, also, to be recollected, that the sufferings of the country, after the close of the war, were probably more severe, on the whole, than during