5. An act, in addition to an act, intitled, "an act concerning the registering and recording ships and vessels."

6. An act directing the appointment of agents in relation to the 6th article of the British treaty. 7. An act providing a naval armament.

8. An act to ascertain the time for the next meeting of Congress.

Titles of Bills postponed till the next Session.

1. To prevent the arming of private ships, except in certain cases, and under certain regulations....rejected in the House of Representatives.

2. For raising and organizing an additional corps of artillerists and engineers....rejected in the House of Representatives.

3. To prevent citizens of the United States from entering into the military or naval service of any foreign Prince or State....postponed in the House of Representatives.

4. To enable the President of the United States, under certain restrictions, to raise a provisional army....rejected in the Senate, where it originated.

5. To authorize the President of the United Sates to lay, regulate and revoke embargoes....rejected in the Senate, where it originated.

6. To suspend, in part, the operation of an act, intitled, “an act for raising a further sum by additional duties on certain articles imported, and for other purposes"....rejected in the House of Representatives.

7. For arming, organizing and disciplining the militia of the United States....postponed in the House of Representatives.

Titles of Bills brought in, and not decided upon.

1. A bill laying duties on licences for selling foreign wines, and foreign distilled spirituous liquors by retail....passed in the House of Representatives.

2. A bill to continue in force, for a limited time, the act and parts of acts therein mentioned....passed in the House of Representatives.

3. A bill to authorize the President of the United States, during the recess of the Congress, to provide gallies and other vessels, for certain purposes

therein mentioned.

4. A bill making additional appropriations for the support of government for the year 1797. 5. A bill authorizing a loan of money. 6. A bill laying duties on stamped vellum, parchment and paper.

7. A bill providing for the more effectual collection of certain internal revenues of the United States.

8. A bill respecting Consuls and Vice-Consuls. 9. A bill allowing an additional mileage to the members of both Houses.

10. A bill for laying an additional tax on salt imported..

CHAPTER IV.

Remarks on the meeting of Congress....History of the Algerine Treaty....Blount's Conspiracy investigated.... British Piracy.

THE Convention of Congress at this period, appeared to impartial men of every party, as one of the most extraordinary occurrences in the infant history of the American Republic.

When the treachery of Great Britain hurled upon us the fury of the Barbary powers, and, by bribery and corruption, stimulated the peaceful Indians to hostilities....when English pirates plundered our vessels, insulted our flag and impressed our seamen, a war with Britain was cried down by the trumpet of federal proclamation. In place of Congress being summoned to listen to the thundering accents of a war-speech, a messenger was dispatched to the Court of Britain, robed with dignity, and armed with the power of forming an alliance, at the remembrance of which posterity will blush, and the virtues of Washington will sink into contempt.

The administration of France viewed with justice the duplicity of our proceedings, but with their usual magnanimity, they overlooked it for a considerable time. Finding themselves, however, despised in the esteem of our men of power, and deserted by the Executive, they remonstrated in

the mildest and most pacific terms against our usage and our ingratitude. When no satisfactory explanation was deigned to be given, they suspended the functions of their minister, and refused to receive one from us, unless some negociation was entered upon. In short, they considered the cold indifference of our executive, and the acquiescence of our merchants to its measures, as just grounds for this proceeding, and a fit retaliation for the shameful conduct of the United States.

It is not my intention to justify France entirely in her depredations on our commerce; but if Adams and his party could defend the British scheme of adjudication, upon the grounds that the ruin of France was her main object, the candor of Republicans ought to justify France upon a more liberal basis. The object of the French Directory extended no further than to injure the commerce of a power which aimed at the destruction of liberty, and which endeavored to monopolize the produce of the world. But the utmost excesses of France, never could be compared with the most trivial depredations of our English allies. American property was never confiscated, unless detected in an illicit trade....our seamen were never impressed, much less flogged to death....the dungeons of despotism were never exposed to our patriots; nor was there an instance of an American citizen, as Jonathan Robbins, being demanded to die by the hands of a foreign executioner.

Mr. Adams, in his speech, spoke about foreigir and domestic factions....upon this, a writer in the Argus observed, "that as there was but one foreign and one domestic faction in the United States, it was wondrous strange that Mr. Adams should have held the monsters up to day." "The British faction," says this writer, "was the only foreign faction, and the tory faction the only domestic faction America was cursed with." These factions admired John Adams because John Adams admired the British Constitution, and cursed the French Republic. They bestowed unbounded panegyrics upon Alexander Hamilton, because this gentleman acted the part of prime minister to the President. They thought the administration and the government ought to be confounded and identified; that the administration was the government, and the government the administration; and, that the people ought to bow in tame submission to its whims and caprice.

Mr. Adams says in his speech, that "it will be proper to take into view the public audience given to the late minister of the United States, on his taking leave of the Executive Directory," because, in his opinion, it was marked with indignities towards the government of the United States, and evinced a disposition to separate the people of the United States from the government; "that such attempts ought to be repelled with a decision which shall convince France and the world, that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial