MAY, 1820. Treasury Department-Thanks to the Speaker. H. OF R. cede from their disagreement to the third of the and fourth amendments to the bill, entitled “An said amendments. TREASURY DEPARTMENT. The House, on motion of Mr. SERGEANT, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill from the Senate, in addition to the acts providing for the better organization of the Treasury Department. [This bill provides a summary process for the recovery of moneys belonging to the United States, in the hands of individuals, collectors, and other public agents, &c.] The bill gave rise to a debate, begun by Mr. EDWARDS, of North Carolina, in opposition to the bill, which was supported by Mr. SERGEANT and others. The objection set up to the bill was, that it proposed to violate the right, secured by the Constitution, of a trial by jury, &c., and also the other right, that no man should be deprived of his property without due process of law. In reply to this objection, it was argued, that there was nothing proposed but what was sanctioned by numerous precedents, such as sales for non-payment of taxes, &c. The moment a man receives the public money, he is the agent or instrument of the Treasury, and ought to be subject to its power, so far as to compel him to account for the money which he has received, and refuses or neglects to account for. The bill having been reported to the House, a motion was made by Mr. CROWELL to postpone the further consideration thereof to the first day of the next session; which was negatived. The bill was then ordered to be read a third time; and was subsequently read a third time, and passed-by yeas and nays-89 to 14, as follows: act authorizing the President of the United States to borrow three millions of dollars, and for other purposes." The amendment proposed by the Senate to the bill, entitled "An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Conrad Laub, deceased," was read, and concurred in by the House. THANKS TO THE SPEAKER. The House having got through the business before it Mr. WARFIELD, of Maryland, rose and observed, that although it had been customary, whenever there existed a disposition on the part of the House by an unanimous vote to express their unqualified approbation of the course pursued by the Speaker, to delay the expression of that opinion until the termination of the period for which he was elected, yet he was induced, on this occasion, to depart from that course, having distinctly understood that it was the intention of the Speaker to decline the duties of the Chair at the close of the present session. Any observations, said Mr. W., to enforce the justice and propriety of unanimously adopting the resolution would be altogether superfluous. Every member of the House, in common with himself, had witnessed, during the present laborious and protracted session, the dignity, ability, and impartiality, with which the Speaker had discharged the duties of his station; and he was persuaded there was not a member of that body to whom it would not afford the truest gratification to offer the small tribute of respect and approbation intended to be expressed in the resolution then before them. Mr. W. then submitted the following resolution, the question on which being put by the Clerk, it was adopted unanimously: Resolved, unanimously, by the House of Representatives of the United States of America, That the thanks of this House be given to the honorable HENRY CLAY, Speaker thereof, for the dignity, ability, and impartiality with which he has discharged the duties of that station. Upon which Mr. CLAY rose, and addressed the House as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Abbot, Adams, Alexander, Anderson, Archer of Maryland, Archer of Virginia, Baker, Baldwin, Bloomfield, Brevard, Buffum, Burton, Burwell, Butler of New Hampshire, Campbell, Case, Cobb, Cook, Crafts, Crawford, Culpeper, Cushman, Cuthbert, Darlington, Dennison, Dickinson, Dowse, Eddy, Edwards of Connecticut, Ervin, Fisher, Folger, Forrest, Gross of Pennsylvania, Hibshman, Heister, Hill, Hostetter, Johnson, Jones of Tennessee, Kent, Kinsey, Little, Linn, Lowndes, Maclay, McCreary, Meigs, Metcalf, R. Moore, S. Moore, Monell, Murray, Neale, Newton, Overstreet, Parker of Massachusetts, Patterson, Philson, Rankin, Rhea, Rich, Ringgold, Rogers, Russ, Sampson, Sawyer, Sergeant, Silsbee, Sloan, Smith of New Jersey, Smith of Maryland, Storrs, Street, Strong of Vermont, Strong of New York, Taylor, Terrell, Tomlinson, Tompkins, Tucker of South Carolina, Van Rensselaer, Wallace, War-proof of your favorable sentiments towards me, in the resolution which you have just adopted. field, Wendover, Whitman, Williams of Virginia, Williams of North Carolina, and Wood. NAYS-Messrs. Allen of New York, Ball, Bateman, Brush, Butler of Louisiana, Crowell, Edwards of North Carolina, Foot, Garnett, Hendricks, Herrick, Nelson of Virginia, Ross, and Swearingen. A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed the bill of this House entitled "An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Conrad Laub, deceased;" with an amendment. The Senate recede from their first GENTLEMEN: The House of Representatives has, thanks. I then felt that the sole claim which I had on former occasions, honored me by a vote of its to a testimony of the public approbation, so distinguished, was the zeal with which I have ever sought to discharge the highly responsible duties of the Chair; and I am now sensible that I am indebted to your belief of the continued exertion of that zeal for the fresh If, gentlemen, the traveller parts with regret from those agreeable acquaintances which he casually makes, must be the separation of those who have co-operated as he journeys on his way, how much more painful many months in the anxious endeavor to advance the prosperity of a common country; who have been animated by mutual sympathies; and who have become endeared to each other by an interchange of all the friendly offices incident to the freest social intercourse? Addressing you as I now do, probably the last time from this place, I confess I feel a degree of emotion which I am utterly unable to express. I shall carry with me into that retirement which is necessary to the performance of indispensable private duties, a grateful recollection of all your kindnesses; of the respectful and affectionate consideration of me which you have always evinced; of the generous and almost unlimited confidence which you have ever reposed in me; and of the tenderness with which you have treated even my errors. But, interesting as have been the relations in which I have stood, for many years, to this House, I have yet higher motives for continuing to behold it with the deepest solicitude. I shall regard it as the great depositary of the most important powers of our excellent Constitution; as the watchful and faithful sentinel of the freedom of the people; as the fairest and truest image of their deliberate will and wishes; MAY, 1820. and as that branch of the Government where, if our beloved country shall unhappily be destined to add another to the long list of melancholy examples of the loss of public liberty, we shall witness its last struggles and its expiring throes. Gentlemen, I beg you to carry with you my sincerest wishes for your individual happiness, and the prosperity of your respective families. SELAER having been appointed to wait on the Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, and Mr. VAN RENSPresident, reported to the House that the President had no further communication to make; and The House adjourned to the second Monday in November next, being the thirteenth day of the month. APPENDIX TO THE HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH CONGRESS. [FIRST SESSION.] COMPRISING THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS ORIGINATING DURING THAT CONGRESS, AND THE PUBLIC ACTS PASSED BY IT. DANISH BRIG HENRICK. [Communicated to Congress, December 28, 1819,] To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: within the view of the Executive of the United States, and have been the subject of a very favorable representation from the Department of State. It will not, therefore, be necessary that I should enter into a minute detail of the circumstances ment contain a full and faithful statement of attending it, as the public records of the Governthem. On the 23d of February, 1803, a Message from the President of the United States was transmitted to both Houses of Congress, together with the I deem it proper at this time, sir, to present the report of the then Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, upon the case of the Danish brigantine Hen-in question was Danish property; the cargo on case before you in this summary way. The vessel rick and her cargo, belonging to citizens of Ham- board belonged exclusively to citizens of Hamburgh, recommending the claim to the favorable burgh; and, of course, the whole was neutral in consideration of Congress. In February, 1805, it the then existing war. She sailed from Hamwas again presented, by a Message from the Presi-burgh, bound to Cape François, on the 3d of Octodent, to the consideration of Congress, but has not since been definitively acted upon. The Minister resident* from Denmark and the Consul General from Hamburgh having recently renewed applications in behalf of the respective owners of the vessel and cargo, I transmit, herewith, copies of their communications for the further consideration of the Legislature, upon whose files all the documents relating to the claim are still existing. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 1819. ber, 1799. She was taken by a French privateer, and on the 8th of the same month was recaptured by the American public vessel called the Pickering, and carried into St. Christopher's. At this British island the vessel and cargo were libelled for salvage; one-half of the gross amount of sales was decreed to the recaptors, and the other half, after deducting costs and expenses, to the owners. Of the value of the cargo, amounting to upwards of thirty-four thousand dollars, nearly the whole was lost, as appears by the documents heretofore exhibited on this subject to the Department of State. From the Consul General of Hamburgh to the Secretary to have been plainly conceded that it was the duty In the past consideration of this affair, it seems of State. HAMBURGH CONSULATE GENERAL, SIR: On behalf of several of the citizens of Hamburgh, I have the honor to solicit your attention to the subject of their interests in the cargo of the Danish brigantine Henrick, Peter Scheelt, master, which was captured by a public armed vessel of the United States in the year 1799, with a request that you will be pleased to lay the case before the President of the United States, that, if he shall see proper, he may submit it to the consideration of Congress. This vessel and cargo have been heretofore *The application of the Minister was verbal. of the American commander to have brought the property recaptured under the authority of the United States within their jurisdiction, and that if this duty had been performed the vessel and cargo would have been released either altogether, or upon payment of the most moderate rate of salvage. By a different line of conduct from that which should have been pursued, the property was involved in a sentence proceeding from a palpable misconception and misapplication of a law of the United States, and its almost total loss was the consequence. The owners, thus heavily suffering from the conduct of the American commander of a public vessel, had no remedy for the injury they had sustained but an appeal to the justice of the American Government. This appeal was made Danish Brig Henrick. on behalf of the whole interest, and its justice was in various departments of the Government distinctly recognised; but the redress suited to the case has never yet been afforded. It is supposed that the conduct of the Danes towards American property may have had its effect upon the American Government in postponing its just purposes towards the owners of the property in question. But it is respectfully submitted that this consideration, if it has any existence, ought not to affect the interests of the owners of the cargo, who are citizens of Hamburgh, and who now separately make their claim to retribution. Most respectfully inviting your attention, sir, to the documents in the Department of State, in relation to the brigantine Henrick and cargo, and to several reports of committees of the House of Representatives in Congress on the subject of this claim, I do earnestly submit the claim of the owners of the cargo to your consideration, and request that it may be laid before the President of the United States, in order that a just recompense may be had for the heavy injuries which have been thus sustained. Permit me, sir, to assure you of my particular regard and consideration, wherewith I have the honor to remain, sir, your most obedient servant, C. N. BUCK, Consul Gen. of Hamburgh to the U. S. Hon. JOHN Q. ADAMS, Secretary of State. [The following report on the same subject was made February 8, 1820.] The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the Message of the President of the 24th of December last, recommending to Congress the consideration of the case of the Danish brigantine Henrick and her cargo, respectfully report, that they have thought it right to present to the House that view of the circumstances of the case which is contained in the report made by Mr. Madison on the 22d of February, 1803: "The Secretary of State has the honor to report to the President of the United States, upon the note of the Minister of His Danish Majesty, dated on the 9th instant, as follows: adopted from the laws of the United States, as then applicable to recapturers of American property, and of such as belonged to belligerent Powers in amity with the United States; but it is believed that these laws had, according to decisions of our own courts, no reference to recaptures of neutral property. That admitting, what has received the sanction of some recent authorities, that, in certain peculiar cases of danger of a neutral being condemned by a belligerent, the recaptors are entitled to a proportionate salvage, there is much reason to believe this is not such a case, as the vessel was bound from a neutral to a French port, the whole of the property being neutral, and, according to the assurance of Mr. Lindemann, the Governor of the Danish West India islands, most of the Danish vessels carried into Guadaloupe, for a year before this capture, were released, and some of them with damages. That the courts of the United States have, in cases much more strongly marked by circumstances indicating a danger of a neutral being condemned, allowed much smaller rates of salvage. "That the laws of the United States required vessels captured under their authority to be brought within their jurisdiction; and it is conceived that it was the duty of the American officers, in this case, to repel the attempt of the foreign judicatory to take cognizance, much less ought they to have directly submitted their recapture to its decision, which, as it could not be revised or rectified, in case of error, by the tribunals of their own country, might tend to involve it in claims on its responsibility from others. That, according to the representation of the agent for the owners of the Danish vessel, of the sum of $44,500, the value of the vessel, freight, and cargo, there remained, after satisfying the decree for salvage and expenses, no more than $8,374 41. "That, as the policy and interest of the United States lead them, in a special manner, to respect and promote the rights and facilities of neutral commerce; as the sentence in this case was permitted, if not procured, by officers of the United States, to be made in a foreign, and therefore improper tribunal; as there remains no doubt but that a court of the United States, pronouncing "That it appears that the Danish brigantine thereon, would either have rejected the claim for Henrick, Captain Peter Scheelt, sailing from Ham-salvage altogether, or reduced it to the most modburgh, loaded with an assorted cargo, and bound erate scale, as the declared basis of the sentence; to Cape François, was captured on the 3d of Octo- as the law of the United States was inapplicable ber, 1799, by a French privateer, and, on the 8th to the case; and as it is understood that a remedy of the same month, she was recaptured by an is now unattainable, in the ordinary judicial course, American public armed vessel called the Picker- it is the opinion of the Secretary of State that, ing, and carried to the British island of St. Chris-under all the circumstances, the case ought to be topher, where she arrived on the 10th. referred to the just provisions of Congress thereon. "All which is respectfully submitted. "That, from an authenticated transcript of the proceedings in the case of the said vessel, had before the court of vice-admiralty at the said island, it appears that the said court took cognizance of the case, and awarded one-half of the gross amount of the sales of the brig and her cargo to be paid to the recaptors, and the other half, after deducting costs and expenses, to be restored to the owners. That this rate of salvage appears to have been "JAMES MADISON. "Department OF STATE, Feb. 22, 1803." The examination of the subject by the committee has led them to an entirely different conclusion, as to the obligations of the United States, from that which seems to be intimated in the foregoing report. The laws of the United States required Danish Brig Henrick. that the French vessels of which it authorized the capture should be brought into the ports of the United States for condemnation. They provided for the restoration of American property which might be recaptured from a French captor, upon a salvage to be determined either upon the mutual agreement of the parties, or by a decree of a court of the United States, and they do not seem to have provided at all for the case of the capture from the French of property belonging to a third nation. The proceedings in the court of vice admiralty in St. Christopher's, by which so large an allowance of salvage and costs was made as to absorb a very great proportion of the amount for which the vessel and cargo were sold, were submitted, in 1800, to three of the most distinguished lawyers of this country, who concluded, from the papers laid before them, that the sentence of the court was in consequence of proceedings exhibited on the part of the owners of the vessel and cargo, and not on the part of the recaptors. In this opinion, (which the committee have subjoined to their report,) it is suggested to be unadvisable for the Danish Consul to apply either to the Government of the United States for indemnity, or to institute any suit in the courts of justice here against the captors. This claim of indemnity against the Government is, indeed, of an unusual character. It is alleged that a foreign court, in a case to which an American officer was a party, awarded an unjust sentence, and that the costs of this legal proceeding were excessive. The claimants have abstained from the natural remedy for correcting the errors of an inferior court, which the justice of civilized nations provides, by constituting tribunals of appeal. They abstain, too, in conformity with sound legal advice, from prosecuting any legal remedy in our own courts against the officers of whose misconduct they complain, and they choose to prefer their claims to indemnity against the Government which, as they say, did not authorize, and whose laws, indeed, according to their construction, forbade the proceeding. more than ninety-six hours in the power of the French, carried into St. Christopher's, and there libelled by Peter Scheelt, master of the said Danish brig, on behalf of the owners, underwriters, and others concerned, in the court of vice-admiralty, who ordered the said brig Henrick and her cargo to be sold, and adjudged one moiety of the gross proceeds to the recaptors, for salvage; as far as we are able to judge from the papers laid before us, which do not contain the whole of the record, it appears to us that the sentence of the judge of admiralty was in consequence of proceedings exhibited on the part of the owners of, and others concerned in the vessel and cargo, and not on the part of the recaptors; which proceedings, it is reasonable to conclude, were for restitution. Under these circumstances, we do not think it advisable for the Danish Consul either to apply to the Government of the United States for indemnity or recompense for the great loss sustained, or to institute any process in the courts of justice here against the captain of the Pickering. It must, we think, be left to the discretion of the owners, underwriters, and others who may happen to be interested, whether they will or will not prosecute an appeal to the courts in England. EDWARD TILGHMAN, FEBRUARY, 21, 1800. B. Copy of a letter from Commodore Tingey, the commander of the United States squadron in the West Indies at the time the Danish brig was recaptured. NAVY YARD, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1820. SIR: In pursuance to your directions, I have endeavored to call to my remembrance as many of the facts as came to my knowledge relative to the recapture of the Danish brigantine Henrick from the French, by the United States brig Pickering, Captain Hiller, in the month of October, 1799, This claim has several times been recommended during the period of my having the command of to the attention of Congress by the Executive. our West India squadron. Captain Hiller, in the Committees have made reports in its favor, and a brig Pickering, pursuant to orders from the Secrebill to provide for it passed the House of Represent-tary of the Navy, having joined my command, atives, January, 1804, by a majority of one hundred and eight to fifteen members. The committee recommend to the House the following resolution : Resolved, That it is not expedient to make provision to indemnify the owners of the Danish brigantine Henrick and her cargo for the injury alleged to have resulted from the sentence of a British court of vice-admiralty in the island of St. Christopher. A. Copy of a paper filed in the Navy Department, purporting to be a copy of an opinion given by Edward Tilghman, William Lewis, and Peter S. Duponceau. On the case of the Danish brig Henrick, taken by a French privateer from Guadaloupe, on her voyage from Hamburgh to Cape François, retaken by the United States brig Pickering, after being received my orders relative to what part of the station he should cruise in, so as to have the squadron distributed in such a manner as should be most effectual in protecting our defenceless commerce, and annoying the enemy; when, some time in the month of October above mentioned, Captain Hiller fell in with the above-mentioned brig Henrick, in possession of a prize-master and crew from a French privateer, by which she had been captured some short time before; he, of course, recaptured the Henrick, as it was his duty to do, and carried her to the port of Basseterre, in the island of St. Christopher, which was the general rendezvous of the squadron. At this time I was, as my duty strictly enjoined, cruising in the United States ship Ganges, for the purposes before mentioned. On my next meeting with the Pickering, some few days afterwards, Captain Hiller reported this recapture to me, merely as a part of his transactions, |