to all of you, gentlemen, in the utmost sincerity of heart, the high sense of gratitude which I feel for the many acts of kindness and of favor that you have bestowed on me: they have been such as can never be effaced from my memory, and they will ever be to me a source of proud and of grateful recollections. Accept, I pray you, individually, as well as collectively, an affectionate farewell, and my best wishes for your health, happiness, and prosperity. J t HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-SAME DAY. Mr. FORSYTH laid upon the table the following resolution: "Resolved, That while this House anxiously desires that the Slave Trade should be universally denounced as Piracy, and, as such, should be detected and punish ed under the law of nations, it considers that it would be highly inexpedient to enter into engagements with any foreign power by which all the merchant vessels of the United States would be exposed to the inconveniences of any regulation of search from which any merchant vessels of that foreign Power would be exempted." The resolution lies on the table. Mr. FORSYTH also offered the following: "Resolved, That the purchase of lands from the Indians occupying it in the state of Georgia, is a peaceable extinguishment of their title; and that a purchase should be made, if it can be effected on reasonable terms, although the residue of the tribes to which the said Indians may be attached should not join in the contract." This resolution, also, was, on motion of the mover, ordered to lie on the table. On motion of Mr. MARKLEY, of Penn. it was "Resolved, That the thanks of this House be presented to the Hon. HENRY CLAY, for the able, impartial, and dignified manner in which he has presided over its deliberations, and performed the arduous and unpleasant duties of the chair, during the present session of Congress." A few minutes after this vote, Mr. CLAY, the Speaker, having resumed the Chair, addressed the House as follows: "GENTLEMEN: For the honorable testimony which you have been pleased this day to expres to my official conduct in this highly distinguished station, I pray you to accept my profound acknowledgments. Near fourteen years, with but two comparatively short intervals, the arduous duties of the Chair have been assigned to me. In that long period, of peace and of war, causes from without and within, of great public excitement, have occasionally divided our councils, disturbed our harmony, and threatened our safety. Happily, however, past dangers, which appeared to encompass us, were dispelled, as I anxiously hope those of the present will be, in a spirit of mutual forbearance, moderation, and wisdom. The debates in this House, to which those causes gave rise, were sometimes ardent and animated; but, amidst all the heats and agitations produced by our temporary divisions, it has been my happy fortune to experience, in an unexampled degree, the kindness, the confidence, and the affectionate attachment of the members of the House. Of the numerous decisions which I have been called upon to pronounce from this place, on questions often suddenly started, and of much difficulty, it has so happened, from the generous support given me, that not one of them has ever been reversed by the House. I advert to this fact, not in a vain spirit of exultation, but as furnishing a powerful motive for undissembled gratitude. In retiring, perhaps for ever, from a situation with which so large a portion of my life has been associated, 1 shall continually revert, during the remainder of it, with unceasing respect and gratitude, to this great theatre of our public action, and with the firm belief that the [MARCH 3, 1825. public interests and the liberty of our beloved country will be safely guarded hereafter, as they have been heretofore, by enlightened patriotism. Gentlemen: In returning to your respective families and constituents, I beg all of you, without exception, to carry with you my fervent prayers for the continuation of your lives, your health, and your happiness." Mr. NEWTON offered the following resolution, which lies on the table: "Whereas the encouragement of Agriculture and Manufactures has ever been considered the best means of developing the resources of a nation, and of giving to its navigation and commerce support, extension, activity, and duration: and whereas opening roads, and connecting, by canals, lakes, bays, and rivers, for purposes of intercourse and trade, have also been objects of primary importance to every enlightened government; and whereas the United States, when the fertility of their soil, the variety of their climates the diversity of their productions, and the extent of their waters and water courses, are taken into view, will derive the greatest advantages from a system judiciously formed, and carried into execution, with respect to Internal Improvements; and whereas nothing can tend to generate and perpetu ate the affection of the citizens for their country so much as the attention of the Government thereof to whatever relates to their different interests, all which. receiving, respectively, their portion of the solicitude and care of the Government, and flourishing under its operation, will increase the strength of this Union, give to it stability and security, and, by diffusing knowledge, remove prejudices as to subjects, the importance of which, to be politically and rightly understood, should be fully understood: Therefore "Resolved, That a Department, to be denominated the Home Department, should be established, for the purpose of superintending whatever may relate to the interests of Agriculture and Manufactures, the promo tion of the progress of Science and the Arts, the intercourse and trade between the several states by Roads and Canals, and all other subjects and matters apper taining to the cognizance of such Department." Mr. FLOYD required the question of consideration on the resolution, with a view to stamp it at once with the disapprobation of the House. The question being taken on considering this resolve, it was decided in the negative. Mr. TUCKER, of Va. called for the consideration of the resolve yesterday submitted by him, looking to the Colonization of the free people of color beyond the Rocky Mountains; which motion the House refused now to consider. Mr. WEBSTER said, that, as the attention of the House seemed not occupied for the moment, he would take the opportunity of making a remark on a subject, in relation to which he had, at the last session, created some expectation in the House, and perhaps in the country: he meant the question of a general bankrupt law. His relation to the House, as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, had occasioned sundry resolutions upon that subject, and divers petitions to be. brought to his attention. It would be remembered, that a majority of the Committee at the last session had reported against the expediency of a general system of bankruptcy. Differing from the Committee in that opin ion, he had signified an intention of obtaining, if he might, an expression of the opinion of the House upon it, so soon as a matter intimately connected with the question then pending, and still pending, before the Supreme Court, should be decided. It was well known that the State insolvent laws, so far as they applied to contracts entered into before the enactment of those laws, had been declared inoperative upon those contracts. The more general question remained to be decided, viz: Whether such laws can constitutionally impair the vali MAR. 5, 1825.] National Bankrupt Law. [H. of R. dity of any contracts, whether precedent or subsequent. would remove the necessity of establishing a general When he called the attention of the House to this sub-system. He remained fully of opinion that, in a coun. ject at the close of the last session, it was expected that an earlier day would be fixed for the assembling of the Court this year; and that, in consequence of such ar rangement, the decision of this question might be had in season for the House to act on the subject with a full knowledge of what the exigency required at the present session. That arrangement, however, was not carried into effect. The bill to execute it passed this House, but did not get through the Senate, and up to this moment, he had not learned that that tribunal had pronounced its judgment in the case. He thought that decision would naturally be thought important to enlighten useful and practical legislation; although, for one, he was not of opinion that its decision, either way, try so commercial, with so many states, having almost END OF THE DEBATES. [We have thus arrived at the close of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress; of the Debates and principal incidents of which we have furnished an account as ample as our materials would allow, and faithful as far as it goes, with the allowance for accidental error which is due to all human efforts. As, in drawing to its close, the Session will appear to have been barren of interest, when it would naturally be supposed to be most fruitful of incident, it is necessary to explain, that very little debate usually takes place within the last ten days of a Session, the time of both houses being employed in perfecting business already matured by the committees, &c. principally upon private bills, which seldom elicit more than a passing remark from the chairman of the committee which reported each bill, and sometimes not even that. We have known, in the last week of the Session, as many as forty bills pass in one day; but, as they pass without debate, and without any incident worthy of record, those proceedings find no place in this volume, the object of which is not to journalize the proceedings of Congress, but rather to embody the spirit of those legislative measures and occurrences of each year which form so important a part of the history of the Government. It may be necessary further to add, to account for the scantiness of the matter of the three last days of the Session, during two of which, at least, Congress are known to sit long and late, that a joint rule of the two Houses forbids any act from being received from either House during the three last days, thus confining the proceedings in each House, on those days, to such acts as have already been discussed and passed in the other House, leaving to each House, respectively, little to do but to adopt or reject what has been proposed to it by the other. On the last day of the Session, it is ordered that no bill shall pass either House -a regulation intended to allow the President a reasonable time, before the adjournment, to give his assent or dissent, with deliberation, to the bills presented to him for his signature. Such as wish to know whether any particular measure debated during the Session became a Jaw, and those also who desire to know what laws passed without debate, will be gratified, as already intimated in the Preface, by turning to the complete publication of the Laws of the Session, which will be found at the close of the volume.-EDITORS.] TO THE REGISTER OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS. 18th CONGRESS-SECOND SESSION. List of Members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. Senate. PENNSYLVANIA-James Allison, Samuel Breck MAINE-John Chandler, John Holmes. John Brown, James Buchanan, Samuel Edwards, William NEW HAMPSHIRE-Samuel Bell, John F. Parrott. ward, Robert Harris, Joseph Hemphill, Samuel D. IngCox Ellis, Patrick Farrelly, John Findlay, Walter ForMASSACHUSETTS―James Lloyd, Elijah HuntMills, ham, George Kremer, Samuel M'Kean, Philip S. MarkCONNECTICUT-Henry W. Edwards, James Lan-ley, Daniel H. Miller, James S. Mitchell, Thomas Patterson, George Plumer, George Wolfe, Andrew Stewart, man. RHODE ISLAND-James D'Wolf, Nehemiah R. Alexander Thompson, Daniel Udree, Isaac Wayne, Knight. James Wilson, Henry Wilson-26 VERMONT-William A. Palmer, Horatio Seymour. Philip P. Barbour, John S. Barbour, Burwell Bassett, House of Representatives. MAINE-William Burleigh, Joshua Cushman, Ebenezer Herrick, David Kidder, Enoch Lincoln, Stephen Longfellow, Jeremiah O'Brien.-7. NEW HAMPSHIRE-Ichabod Bartlett, Matthew Harvey, Arthur Livermore, Aaron Matson, Wm. Plumer, Jr. Thomas Whipple, Jr.-6 MASSACHUSETTS-Samuel C. Allen, John Bailey, Francis Baylies, Benjamin W Crowninshield, Henry W. Dwight, Timothy Fuller, Aaron Hobart, Samuel Lathrop, John Locke, Jeremiah Nelson, John Reed, Jonas Sibley, Daniel Webster.-13 RHODE ISLAND-Job Durfee, Samuel Eddy.-2 CONNECTICUT-Noyes Barber, Samuel A. Foot, Ansel Sterling, Ebenezer Stoddard, Gideon Tomlinson, Samuel Whitman-6 VERMONT-William C. Bradley, Daniel A. A. Buck, Samuel C. Crafts, Rollin C. Mallary, Henry Olin.-5 NEW YORK-John W. Cady, Churchill C. Cambreleng, Lot Clark, Ela Collins, Hector Craig, Rowland Day, Justin Dwinell, Lewis Eaton, Charles A. Foote, Joel Frost, Moses Hayden, John Herkimer, James L. Hogeboom, Lemuel Jenkins, Samuel Lawrence, Elisha Litchfield, Dudley Marvin, Henry C. Martindale, John J. Morgan, John Richards, Robert R. Rose, Peter Sharpe, Henry R. Storrs, James Strong, John W. Taylor, Egbert Ten Eyck, Albert H. Tracy, Jacob Tyson, William Van Wyck, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Isaac Williams, Parmebio Adams, Silas Wood, William Woods.-34 NEW JERSEY-George Cassedy, Lewis Condict, Daniel Garrison, George Holcombe, James Matlack, Samuel Swan.-6 NORTH CAROLINA Henry Conner, John Culpeper, Weldon N. Edwards, Alfred M. Gatlin, Thomas H. Hall, Charles Hooks, John Long, Willie P. Mangum, Romulus M. Saunders, Richard D. Spaight, Robert B. Vance, Lewis Williams.-12. One vacant. SOUTH CAROLINA-Robert Campbell, John Car ter, Joseph Gist, Andrew R. Govan, James Hamilton, Jr. George M'Duffie, Joel R. Poinsett, Starling Tucker, John Wilson.-9 GEORGIA- Joel Abbot, George Cary, Alfred Cuthbert, John Forsyth, Edward F. Tattnall, Wiley Thomp son.-6. One vacant. KENTUCKY-Henry Clay, (Speaker) Richard A. Buckner, Robert P. Henry, Francis Johnson, John T. Johnson, Robert Letcher, Thomas Metcalfe, Thomas P. Moore, Philip Thompson, David Trimble, David White, Charles A. Wickliffe.-12 TENNESSEE-Adam R. Alexander, Robert Allen, John Blair, John Cocke, Samuel Houston, Jacob C. Isaacks, James B. Reynolds, James T. Sandford, James Standefer.-9 OHIO Mordecai Bartley, Philemon Beecher, John MISSISSIPPI-Christopher Rankin.-1 Test.-3 ILLINOIS-Daniel P. Cook.-1 ALABAMA-John McKee, Gabriel Moore, George W. Owen.-3 MISSOURI-John Scott.-1 Delegates. MICHIGAN TERRITORY-Gabriel Richard. NOTE-Whatever changes, if any, take place during the Session, will be found noted on the last page of the Appendix. Vol. I-A At the commencement of the Second Session of the future variance. DECEMBER 7, 1824. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives: It having been stipulated by the seventh article of the convention of navigation and commerce, which was concluded on the twenty-fourth of June, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, between the United States and France, that the said convention should continue in force for two years, from the first of October of that year, and THE view which I have now to present to you, should declare its intention to renounce it, in which event for an indefinite term afterwards, unless one of the parties of our affairs, Foreign and Domestic, realizes the it should cease to operate at the end of six months from most sanguine anticipations which have been en- such declaration; and no such intention having been antertained of the public prosperity. If we look to nounced, the convention having been found advantage. the whole, our growth, as a Nation, continues to ous to both parties, it has since remained, and still rebe rapid, beyond example; if to the States which mains, in force. At the time when that convention was compose it, the same gratifying spectacle is exhi-and particularly our claim to indemnity for spoliations concluded, many interesting subjects were left unsettled, bited. Our expansion over the vast territory which were committed on our commerce in the late within our limits, has been great, without indicating any wars. For these interests and claims, it was in the condecline in those sections from which the emigration templation of the parties, to make provision at a subsehas been most conspicuous. We have daily gained quent day, by a more comprehensive and definitive trea strength by a native population in every quarter-a po- ty. The object has been duly attended to since by the pulation devoted to our happy system of Government, Executive; but, as yet, it has not been accomplished. It and cherishing the bond of union with fraternal affec. is hoped that a favorable opportunity will present itself tion. Experience has already shewn, that the differ for opening a negotiation, which may embrace and ar ence of climate, and of industry, proceeding from that range all existing differences, and every other concern in cause, inseparable from such vast domains, and which, which they have a common interest, upon the accession under other systems, might have a repulsive tendency, of the present king of France, an event which has occurcannot fail to produce, with us, under wise regulations, rel since the close of the last session of Congress. the opposite effect. What one portion wants, the other may supply, and this will be most sensibly felt by the parts most distant from each other, forming, thereby, a domestic market, and an active intercourse between the extremes and throughout every portion of our Union, Thus, by a happy distribution of power between the National and State Governments, governments which rest exclusively on the sovereignty of the People, and are fully adequate to the great purposes for which they were respectively instituted, causes which might other wise lead to dismemberment, operate powerfully to draw us closer together. In every other circumstance, a correct view of the actual state of our Union must be equally gratifying to our constituents. Our relations with foreign powers are of a friendly character, although certain interesting differences remain unsettled with were removed. An earnest desire exists, and has been Our revenue, under the mild system of impost manifested on the part of this Government, to place the and tonnage, continues to be adequate to all the pur-commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of reposes of the Government. Our agriculture, commerce, ciprocal advantage; and it is hoped that the British Gomanufactures, and navigation, flourish. Our fortifications vernment, seeing the justice of the proposal, and its im are advancing in the degree authorized by existing ap-portance to the colonies, will, ere long, accede to it. propriations, to maturity, and due progress is made in the augmentation of the navy, to the limit prescribed for it by law. For these blessings, we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledg some. ments. With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the same footing that it did at the last session, By the convention of one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, the commerce between the United States and the British dominions in Europe and the East Indies, was arranged firmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by on a principle of reciprocity. That convention was con, a subsequent treaty, for the term of ten years, from the twentieth of October, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, the date of the latter. The trade with the British colonies in the West Indies, has not, as yet, been arranged by treaty, or otherwise, to our satisfaction. An approach to that result has been made by legislative acts, whereby many serious impediments, which had been raised by the parties in defence of their respective claims, The Commissioners who were appointed for the adjustment of the boundary, between the territories of the United States and those of Great Britain, specified in the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent, having disagreed in their decision, and both governments having agreed to establish that boundary by amicable negotiation be Itween them, it is hoped that it may be satisfactorily adjusted in that mode. The boundary specified by the sixth article has been established by the decision of the commissioners. From the progress made in that provid ed for by the seventh, according to a report recently re ceived, there is good cause to presume that it will be settled in the course of the ensuing year. In adverting to our relations with foreign powers, which are always an object of the highest importance, have to remark, that, of the subjects which have been brought into discussion with them during the present administration, some have been satisfactorily terminated; others have been suspended, to be resumed hereafter, under circumstances more favorable to success; and others are still in negotiation, with the hope that they may be adjusted, with mutual accommodation to the inIt is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has terests, and to the satisfaction, of the respective parties. yet been finally concluded between the two governIt has been the invariable object of this Government, toments, to secure, by joint co-operation, the suppression cherish the most friendly relations with every power, and on principles and conditions which might make them permanent. A systematic effort has been made to place our commerce with each power on a footing of perfect of the slave trade. It was the object of the Bitish go vernment, in the early stages of the negotiation, to adopt a plan for the suppression, which should include the concession of the mutual right of search by the ships of war |