SENATE.]

Arabian horses, presented by the Emperor of Morocco to the President of the United States, shall be sold at public auction, at the City of Washington, on the last Saturday of February, 1885; and that the lion presented by the same potentate shall be presented to such suitable institution, person, or persons, as the President may designate.]

On motion of Mr. BENTON,

The Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business; and, when the doors were opened, Adjourned.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16.

AMERICAN CONSUL AT LONDON.

Mr. SILSBEE, from the Committee on Commerce, reported favorably on the claims of the American consul at London to a settlement of his accounts. He was directed to say that, in the opinion of the committee, the whole allowance claimed should be allowed. The Secretary of State had objected that he had no right, hy law, to allow them; but Mr. S. suggested, by autho rity from the committee, that, until the Legislature made some provision in these cases, the claims might be allowed, as they had been for thirty or forty years past. If not allowed, these expenses would swallow up the whole amount of emolument and fees received by consuls.

ROAD FROM LYME CREEK TO CHATTAHOOCHIE.

On motion of Mr. KING, of Alabama, the Senate took up the bill lying on the table, making an appropriation of 20,000 dollars for the repair and completion of the road from Lyme creek to Chattahoochie.

[JAN. 16, 1835.

promote the advantage and interests of Mississippi, the neighboring State; the road led into that State; he would therefore move, as an amendment, that the mo ney be taken from the two per cent. fund of Mississippi; to this that gentleman certainly could not object, and perhaps it will be highly gratifying to him to let Mis sissippi supply the funds, since he has endeavored to prevent them from being supplied from any other

source.

Mr. POINDEXTER spoke in support of his amendment, and read that part of the ordinance which referred to his argument.

Mr. MOORE said the same committee of both Houses had reported a bill making an appropriation to this road to the amount of 20,000 dollars; but it was within the State; beyond the State limits there was no right to touch the fund without the consent of Alabama. M. hoped his colleague would amend or withdraw his proposition.

Mr.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, would amend, but not withdraw. To obviate the difficulty, he moved to strike out Alabama and insert Mississippi.

Mr. BLACK was opposed to this amendment.

Mr. PORTER said the idea of the gentleman seemed to be that all the roads leading to Mississippi must come from Washington. Mr. P. thought they might come in any direction; and this road he thought important, as connecting the Southern States. He trusted the Senator would permit the amendment to be made.

Mr. POINDEXTER thought that the money might be taken with as much propriety to construct a road from Black Rock to New York. He had never heard that the two per cent. fund of one State should be taken for the benefit of another, merely because the road led to the former State.

[Mr. P. read the portion of the law relating to this subject, to show that the two per cent. was designed for the benefit of the particular State, under the direction of Congress.] He said, on the broad principle assumed, the fund of Mississippi might be applied to any road pointing to the State. He deemed this principle dis

Mr. POINDEXTER objected. He doubted the right of Congress to dispose of that fund without the consent of the Legislature of Alabama. He founded this objection on the provisions of the ordinance by which Alabama was admitted into the Union. He therefore moved as an amendment, “provided the consent of the Legislature of Alabama be obtained to the same."

Mr. KING replied that this amendment would ruin the bill, for the road ought to be made during this present spring and summer, whereas the Legislature did not meet till next winter.

Mr. K. contended that those funds proposed in his amendment were placed by law at the disposition of Congress. The Legislature of Alabama was not, therefore, concerned in the matter.

This road, Mr. K. observed, leads into the State of Mississippi, and was calculated to promote the benefit of that State as well as of Alabama. First he proposed the appropriation to be made from the treasury, as it was for the object of facilitating the transportation of the mail. To this the Senator from Georgia [Mr. KING] objected, suggesting that the two per cent. fund was expressly set apart for that purpose, and subjected to the control and disposition of Congress; then he introduced, by amendment, that the money be taken from that fund; now, however, the gentleman from Mississippi objects even to our having our own money for this purpose. In this manner there will be no road at all; but it is of the utmost importance to Alabama, and all the Southern States, that there should be; it would

mit.

Mr. BLACK contended that, on this principle, the fund might be taken to improve Pennsylvania avenue; the road in question did not lead to the State, nor was it even connected with any main road leading there.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, was surprised that the Sens. tors from Mississippi refused to have the money expended either in the State or out of the State. He said this was the direct road leading to the capital of Mississippi. [Mr. K. here described the course of the road.] If the Senators would not expend their money on a great mail route leading to the State, where would they expend it? If they deemed it an insuperable objec tion that the road was out of the State of Mississippi, Mr. K. was willing to resort to the fund of Alabama. Mr. K. thought the object of the fund was to construct roads for the benefit of the country generally. Threefifths of the fund granted was expressly for the benefit of each particular State; the other two-fifths was for the benefit of the Union. If the Senators could point out any other road leading to the State that would be of more benefit to Mississippi, Mr. K. was ready to give it the preference.

Mr. HENDRICKS had no hostility to the bill, and he was willing to vote for this appropriation, on the prin ciple on which such appropriations had heretofore been made. He was, however, unwilling in this case to tax either the two or three per cent. fund.

Mr. GRUNDY differed from gentlemen on both sides as to the construction of the ordinance. Mr. G. understood that the three per cent. was to be applied by the

JAN. 16, 1835.]

State Legislature to local and internal objects. The two per cent., on the contrary, was designed for national objects, the effects of which should not be confined to the limits of the particular State. [Mr. G. read from the ordinance.] Mr. G. would therefore vote against the proposition to take the appropriation from the two per cent. fund of Mississippi, and in favor of taking it from that of Alabama.

Mr. BLACK said the Senator from Alabama [Mr. KING] had misunderstood him on one point. Mr. B. understood that roads leading to a State were not with in the State; for that reason he would not consent that the funds of Mississippi should be applied to roads in Alabama. Mr. B. again insisted that the route of the road was circuitous.

Mr. PORTER trusted the amendment would be supported. When this road connected with the State of Mississippi, and benefited her considerably, it was not just to speak of it as if it bore analogy with any remote road in any part of the world, not connecting with that State. He hoped the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. POINDEXTER] Would assent to the amendment.

Mr. POINDEXTER was sorry he could not take the gentleman's advice. The road in question runs to New Orleans, and has no connexion with his State, except by cross roads which meet it. He was willing to consent that the appropriation be taken from the funds of Alabama, but certainly he did not think she had any right to run into a neighboring State, and carry off funds from it to make roads running through her State. His only objection had been, that the consent of the Legislature of Alabama was necessary, and that the right of disposing of these funds rested in that body, and not in Congress.

Mr. BLACK moved to insert Louisiana, for the road would benefit that State as well as any other; and, therefore, let that State find the funds as well as any other. Mr. GRUNDY was afraid this important and necessary measure would be defeated by such contrariety and differences among Senators. Many complaints are made about the failure of the mails; and here it is evident that the Senate itself contributed to produce such a failure. As to taking the funds from Mississippi, Mr. G. observed that Tennessee might just as well be called upon to make an appropriation for the improvement of Pennsylvania avenue; for if this road led to Mississippi, so did Pennsylvania avenue also lead to Tennessee.

Mr. TIPTON confessed the subject was so embarrassed, from all that had been said upon it, that unless its real title and character were given, he should vote against the amendment.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, explained.

Mr. TIPTON said that if the funds of one State were to be applied to make roads through another State, he should vote against it.

The question on the amendment of taking the money from the two per cent. land fund of the State of Mississippi was then put, and lost.

The VICE PRESIDENT then observed that the bill was now before the Senate, open to amendment.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, then moved to insert Alabama instead of Mississippi.

Mr. POINDEXTER would not object to the money being taken from the Alabama fund, but the consent of the Legislature of Alabama, he thought, ought to be obtained; it would be more respectful to that State.

Mr. GRUNDY observed that the Legislature of Alabama had nothing to do with it; the ordinance places one portion of this fund at the disposition of Alabama for specific objects, and the other portion at the disposition of Congress for making public roads. Out of this latter portion the bill authorized the appropriation to be made; but the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. POINDEXTER]

[SENATE.

is not willing to permit that the law should take its course as to the disposition of this fund, without first getting the consent of the Legislature of Alabama. Now, as to courtesy and respect, on that ground he could have no objection to the reference to the Legislature, but he must distinctly put in his protest against the principle which that Senator would establish, the precedent which he aimed to lay down-namely, that Congress was to be tied down in such a manner as not to be able to act in the simplest case, where its authority was clearly defined, without first consulting and obtaining the consent of State Legislatures.

Mr. MOORE supported the view of the Senator from Mississippi, though at the same time he was sorry to differ from his honorable colleague on this subject. Mr. M. then spoke at some length in support of Mr. POINDEXTER's amendment.

Mr. GRUNDY said this two per cent. was to be applied to the construction of roads not limited to the State, but which had their origin without the State, and leading to it.

Mr. MOORE differed from the honorable Senator; he presumed the plain words of the compact confined the appropriation to roads leading to the State, and not to roads within the State. Mr. M. would have been glad if his colleague had withdrawn his amendment, and the appropriation had been made as heretofore; he felt compelled to vote against it.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, thanked the Senator from Mississippi for his respect to the legislation of Alabama. Mr. POINDEXTER explained he meant nothing disrespectful.

Mr. KING, of Alabama, further urged the smallness of the appropriation and the importance of the road. He had no doubt at the time the compact was accepted, that the money was to be appropriated to roads leading to the State, but within the limits of the State. He insisted that the grant made by Government was not equal to the benefit to the Government for not having the public lands.

Mr. PORTER would vote for the original, bill. If there should be delay in passing it, the road would become impassable, and the course of the mail would be interrupted. In his opinion, the benefit of all the neighboring States should as much be taken into the account as that of Mississippi and Alabama. He would vote against the amendment, and he thought the whole discussion useless, showing no other purpose than to satisfy nice constitutional scruples, with which, in this case, he was not troubled.

The call of Mr. POINDEXTER for the yeas and nays, on the amendment, was sustained.

Mr. HENDRICKS was wholly opposed to taxing any other fund with the appropriation in this bill. The compact declared that the two per centum fund should be appropriated to making roads to the States. On this point the decisions heretofore had been uniform. A part of this two per centum fund had been disbursed east of the Ohio river for a road leading to the new States. With the three per centum Congress had nothing to do; and, on the other hand, over the two per centum the States had no control. Mr. H. would vote against all amendments, and would then vote for the original bill. He thought Messrs. GRUNDY and KING could not have constitutional scruples as to the original bill, for the latter gentleman introduced it, and the former, as chairman of the Post Office Committee, adopted and reported it without amendment.

Mr. POINDEXTER said he had proposed his amendment merely to make the preceding amendment better; he, however, preferred the original bill to either.

The vote was now taken on the amendment to the amendment; and it was lost: Yeas 4, nays 27.

SENATE.]

Mr. KING'S amendment was then adopted: Yeas 19, nays 17; and the bill, as amended, was reported to the Senate.

Mr. WEBSTER suggested that there might be objections to the bill in its present form.

Mr. EWING said he should have voted for the bill if the amendment had not prevailed; as it was, he should vote against it.

Mr. MOORE moved to lay the bill on the table till Monday; which motion prevailed, by a vote of 20 to 18. BRIDGE OVER THE WABASH.

The following resolution, yesterday offered by Mr. TIPTON, was taken up for consideration:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to transmit to the Senate an estimate of the cost of constructing a bridge over the river Wabash, at the crossing of the Cumberland road; and also a report as to the practicability of constructing said bridge on such a plan as not to obstruct the navigation of the river at any stage of water; and should the files of the Department not now furnish the information sought for by this resolution, that the Secretary will cause it to be procured and reported to the Senate at an early day in the next session of Congress.

Mr. TIPTON said that this was a mere resolution of inquiry, to ascertain the probable cost and practicability of erecting a bridge across the Wabash. If it could be done without interrupting the navigation of the river, it would be very desirable. Several States were interested in the bridge more than the State from which he came. It would be admitted by every one, that the mail, in travelling farther west, and having to cross this river to the Cumberland road, would be greatly accommodated by the erection of a bridge. Much difficulty was at present experienced in passing the river, owing to the sudden rise and fall of it by freshets. And in winter, particularly, the inconvenience was felt. There is a portion of the winter, when the ice floats, that the river cannot be passed at all, and then all travelling must be suspended. It was vastly important that, if the bridge was built, it should be on such a plan as that it would not obstruct the navigation of the Wabash. He should be guided in his vote as to the appropriation for this bridge, by the information he should obtain, whether it could be built without causing any obstruction to the navigation of the river; and the inquiry could, at least, do no harm, and would be satisfactory to those most interested.

The resolution was then agreed to.

PRESENTS FROM MOROCCO.

The joint resolution authorizing the disposal of a lion and two horses was taken up on the question of its pas. sage; when

Mr. POINDEXTER said that, as there were many Senators absent, and some gentlemen had expressed an objection to the mode in which the lion was to be disposed of by this resolution, he moved that, for the pres ent, the resolution be laid on the table.

The motion was agreed to.

After taking up and acting upon several bills, The Senate adjourned to Monday.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19.

EXEMPTION OF MERCHANDISE FROM DUTY. Mr. WEBSTER, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to which had been referred the bill to exempt merchandise, imported under certain circumstances, from the operation of the tariff laws of 1832, reported the same, with an amendment, which was read.

[JAN. 19, 1835.

Mr. W. said that the committee had made two amendments to the bill, or, rather, one amendment; for, although the words came in in two parts of the bill, they looked to the accomplishment of only one object. The act was now so modified as to extend the exemption from duties only to goods imported before the 30th of September, and there it stopped. He suggested that this seemed to be a very short period for goods which were imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Yet, as there was much unanimity on the subject of adopting the amendment as it stood, it was thought better to put all merchandise on the same footing. And if there were cases of merit and equity arising out of long voyages, which this bill would not provide for, it seemed to the committee that they should be made the subject of particular legislation.

The amendment was then adopted, and the bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

MOSES SHEPHERD.

On motion of Mr. CLAY, the bill for the relief of the legal representatives of Moses Shepherd, deceased, was taken up for consideration, and, after a debate, in which Messrs. BLACK, SMITH, LEIGH, TYLER, HILL, and HESDRICKS, participated,

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading: Yeas 22, nays 21, as follows:

YEAS--Messrs. Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Leigh, Linn, McKean, Moore, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Robbins, Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Tomlinson, Tyler, Webster --22.

NAYS--Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Black, Brown, Bu chanan, Cuthbert, Grundy, Hill, Kane, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Mangum, Morris, Preston, Robinson, Shepley, Swift, Tipton, Waggaman, White, Wright--21.

ALABAMA TWO PER CENT. FUND.

The bill introduced, on leave, by Mr. MOORE, of Alabama, authorizing the State of Alabama to apply the two per cent. fund arising from the nett proceeds of the public lands in said State, reserved for the making of roads to the same, to the purposes of education, was taken up as the order of the day. The question being on the amendment reported by the Committee on Public Lands. [The substance of the amendment is, that the fund shall be vested in some safe stocks, to remain as a perpetual fund for the support of schools in Alabama; that the interests from such stocks only, shall be applied; and provides that, before the act takes effect, the assent of the Legislature of Alabama must be given to such application of this fund.]

Mr. MOORE, of Alabama, said, agreeably to the compact entered into between the General Government and the State of Alabama, and the other new States, as contained in the act admitting these into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States, the three per cent. of the nett proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within each State, respectively, had been reserved for purposes of internal improvement within the State, under the direction of the General Assembly; the two per cent. of the nett proceeds of the sales had been, in like manner, reserved for the purpose of making a road or roads leading to the State, under the direction of Congress.

This two per cent. fund, as regards the State of Albama, he said, had been permitted to remain inactive: there having been no great road leading to the State in which the General Government, or the citizens of the State, had felt an interest, it had not been appropriated. The object of this bill was to change the destination of this fund, and to place it under the control of the Gen

eral Assembly of the State, for the purpose of establishing common schools, mainly for the education of those who are destitute of the means of procuring it in any other way. With this view, the bill provides that this money shall be laid out in stock or stocks, the principal constituting a permanent fund, and the interest arising therefrom only to be appropriated, from time to time, to the objects of this bill.

Mr. M. said it was not for him, at this time, to detain the Senate by enlarging upon the importance and inestimable advantages of education. This Government had given ample proof of its commendable solicitude to promote education, by the liberal and beneficent grants made for its encouragement; and yet it is a fact much to be deplored that, notwithstanding this liberality, there were many thousands of the youth of our country utterly without the means of procuring an education.

As to the sixteenth sections granted to each township, and designed by the Government for this purpose, experience had proven that this was altogether insufficient, and nine times out of ten would furnish no aid whatever to this object.

It is true that the grant made the State for the university had been liberal or the part of the Government, and satisfactory to the citizens of the State; and he said he was gratified in being able to state that its management had been marked with great sagacity and prudence; and this institution, justly the pride of the State, had been put in operation under the most favorable auspices, and promised all the advantages its most sanguine friends anticipated. Yet, he said, he need not say the number who were capable of enjoying the advantages to be dispensed by it is comparatively small, indeed, and that none except the sons of the wealthy could share its blessings. How, said Mr. M,. can it be expected that the son of a a poor man can ever become a graduate of this institution, at the enormous expense required for that purpose? No, sir, he said, this class of his fellow-citizens could not indulge the hope of deriving any greater benefit from this university than if its location had taken place in Europe or Africa. Its blessings had heretofore been, and must continue to be, confined to the wealthy, and to these only.

The funds now proposed to be applied to the object contemplated by the bill, Mr. M. said, amounted to about $115,000, and must be greatly increased by the sales of public lands now going on, and which must continue for some time to come. We may confidently look to this as the means of erecting a system of primary schools which will carry education to the door of every man in the State, by which the sons of the farmer, the me. chanic, and those who get their living by the sweat of their brow, will be better qualified for all the various occupations of life, by which the youth of our community will be placed more upon an equality, by giving to the sprightly intellect and individual superiority of mind of the son the humblest individual among us (for in this class extraordinary genius is as often found as elsewhere) the power of expansion, and the power, too, of competing with those upon whom fortune has been more bountiful in her gifts of worldly blessings, for any public station of honor or profit known to the constitution and laws of a free people. This measure proposes to put the means in the power of the General Assembly to improve the moral condition of the entire population of the State.

Mr. M. said he was glad to see that an individual, claiming to stand high in favor with the dominant party, in a different part of this building, had, since this measure was introduced in the Senate, followed the lead on this subject. This, he hoped, augured well for the success of the measure; one thing, however, he hoped would not follow the consummation of this as did another VOL. XI.-15

[SENATE.

important measure intimately connected with the interest of those whom he had the honor in part to represent: he meant the law authorizing the entry of public lands in forty acre lots. He trusted that if this measure shall become a law, we shall not, at a convenient time hereafter, read a long article in any newspaper, written either by the editor or the individual, claiming for that individual the entire credit of this measure as his own work. Yet the claim to this would be as genuine as was the claim preferred to the measure to which he had made allusion.

Mr. M. was not disposed to occupy the time of the Senate unnecessarily (which had now become precious) on this subject. It would be seen, he said, by the proviso, that the law was not to take effect until its provisions shall be approved and accepted by the General Assembly of the State. He therefore hoped the bill would receive the sanction of the Senate, as it had received the unanimous favor of the committee.

Mr. KING, of Georgia, said that this was a most extraordinary bill. Its object was virtually to make the very wealthy and respectable State of Alabama a mendicant to the General Government. The two per cent. fund, amounting to $115,000, was, in his opinion, just as much under the control of Congress, for the purposes for which it was set apart, as any money in the national treasury. The principle on which this two per cent. fund was founded was originally wrong, and, of course, it became more and more so, as the State progressed in population. He was much disposed to think that these nurslings of ours-these minors in the confederacy--had been in the nursery long enough, and he was inclined to wean them as rapidly as possible. Under the bill granting every 16th section of the public lands for the establishment of schools in the new States, tens of millions had been appropriated, and he was disposed to put an end to this sort of legislation. He would say again, that he was desirous to wean them; at least, he was disposed to consider their education as completed-as perfect in some branches of it, and particularly in that excellent science, "political economy," which taught the securing the greatest possible amount of comfort from the smallest possible share of labor. He presumed it would be admitted, on all hands, that Alabama had had an abundance of legislation by the General Government. He was astonished that the honorable Senator should get up and ask charity of the General Government, when his State was so rich and powerful, and did not need it. His (Mr. K's) honorable friend on his left [Mr. KING] had risen during the last session, in open session and open day, to give notice that he would introduce a bill for the purpose of appropriating-he (Mr. K.) did not know how many hundreds of thousands of acres of the rich lands in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana-for what purpose? Why, for the purpose of educating the young ladies of those rich States.

Now his honorable friend [Mr. MOORE] supposed there were poor children there. Why, there were none. And, yet Alabama came here to ask the bounty of the General Government. Why, it was literally populated with nabobs and slaves; and as to the latter, he (Mr. K.) believed the former were quite competent to take care of them.

If an application were to be made to appropriate the money derived from the two per cent. fund, for the purpose of educating the really poor children of the States generally, he might feel disposed to support such a proposition. Why these repeated applications to Congress on the part of Alabama, reminded him of a cormorant picking up crumbs from a rock. It had become an inveterate habit with her, and it was necessary that her friends should interfere and cure her of it. He had thus expressed his opposition to the bill, and he should