Mr. Herkimer,

Hitchcock,

Holmes, Mass.

Hubbard,

The question was then taken to agree to the resolution recommended by the committee of Elections;

And passed in the affirmative,

Yeas....................77,

Nays................

70.

The yeas and nays being required by one-fifth of the members

present,

Those who voted in the affirmative, are

Mr. Allen, Vt.

Anderson, Pen.

Baldwin,

Barber, Ohio,

Sampson,

Savage,

Scudder,

Settle,

Shaw,

Butler,

Linn,

Silsbee,

Southard,

Clagett,

W. P. Maclay,

Spencer,

Cobb,

McCoy,

Strong,

Comstock,

Marchand,

Strother,

The Speaker laid before the House, a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting statements prepared in obedience to a resolution of the House of the 29th December last, which was referred to the committee of Ways and Means.

A message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Joseph Jones Monroe, his Secretary, notifying, that the President did, on the 18th instant, approve and sign,

An act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States, during the revolutionary war; An act to provide for the relief of Israel Smith;

An act making appropriations for the support of the navy of the United States, for the year 1818; and,

A resolution directing the judges of the supreme court to be furnished with Wait's State Papers; and, on the 19th instant,

An act for altering the time of holding the district court for the District of Virginia; and,

A resolution authorizing the transpontation of certain documents free of postage.

Ordered, That the Clerk acquaint the Senate therewith.

Mr. Monroe also delivered in a message, in writing, which was read, and is as follows:

To the Senate, and House

of Representatives of the United States:

In the course of the last summer a negotiation was commenced with the government of the Netherlands, with a view to the revisal and modification of the commercial treaty existing between the two countries adapted to their present circumstances.

The report from the Secretary of State, which I now lay before Congress, will show the obstacles which arose in the progress of the conferences between the respective plenipotentiaries, and which resulted in the agreement between them to refer the subject to the consideration of their respective governments. As the difficulties appear to be of a nature which may perhaps, for the present, be more easily removed by reciprocal legislative regulations, formed in the spirit of amity and conciliation, than by conventional stipulations, Congress may think it adviseable to leave the subsisting treaty in its present state, and to meet the liberal exemption from discriminating tonnage duties, which has been conceded in the Netherlands to the vessels of the United States, by a similar exemption to the vessels of the Netherlands which have arrived or may hereafter arrive in our ports, commencing from the time when the exemption was granted to the vessels of the United States. I would further recommend to the consideration of Congress, the expediency of extending the benefit of the same regulation, to commence from the passage of the law, to the vessels of Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen; and of making it prospectively general in favor of every nation in whose ports the vessels of the United States are admitted on the same footing as their own.

March 19, 1818.

JAMES MONROE.

Ordered, That the said message be referred to the committee of Ways and Means.

And then the House adjourned.

SATURDAY, March 21, 1818.

Mr. Parrott presented a petition of James W. Low, on behalf of himself and William Driskell, Heronimus Steeniker, and Samuel W. Southworth, stating, that during the late war with Great Britain, they were captured at sea by a British cruizer, and after being transferred to sundry vessels, they succeeded in capturing one of them, by rising upon, and overpowering the crew, and brought her into the United States, where she was libelled, condemned, and sold; and praying that such part of the proceeds of the said sale may be awarded to them, as in the wisdom of Congress may seem meet and proper.

Ordered, That the said petition be referred to the committee on Naval Affairs.

Mr. Gage presented a petition of Oliver Herrick, praying com-. pensation for a wagon and team sold to the United States in the late war with Great Britain.

Ordered, That the said petition be referred to the committee of Claims.

Mr. Hopkinson presented a petition of James Brooke, and others, praying for the remission of the penalty of a bond given by them to the United States, to ensure the execution of a contract for supplying the said states with 4000 stands of arms; as also, that certain moneys advanced on said contract may also be given up to them, in consideration of the entire loss of their manufuctory by fire.

Ordered, That the said petition be referred to the committee of Ways and Means.

Mr. Scott presented a petition of Isaac Williams, a petition of William Ramsay, a petition of Charles Sexton, a petition of George Hacker, a petition of Nancy Ferguson, and a petition of More Henley, respectively praying that their title to lands in the territory of Missouri may be confirmed.

Ordered, That the said petitions be referred to the committee on Private Land Claims.

Mr. Scott also presented a petition of sundry inhabitants of the county of Cape Girardeau, in the territory of Missouri, praying the title to a tract of land in said county, granted by the former Spanish government, for the benefit of a public school, may be confirmed to the trustees of said school.

Ordered, That the said petition be referred to the committee on the Public Lands.

Mr. Robertson, of Louisiana, from the committee on the Public Lands, made reports on the petitions of Richard Pray & Co. and James Gary; which were read, and the resolutions therein contained were concurred in by the Honse, as follows:

Resolved, That the prayer of the petition of Richard Pray & Co. ought not to be granted, and that James Garey have leave to withdraw his petition and documents.

Mr. Lowndes, from the committee of Ways and Means, to which was referred the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to repay, or remit, certain alien duties therein described," reported the same without amendment.

Ordered, That the said bill be committed to a committee of the whole, on Monday next.

Ordered, That the committee of Accounts be discharged from the further consideration of the second resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. Spencer, respecting the delay in printing and distributing the list of persons holding offices under the government of the United States.

Mr. Bloomfield, from the committee appointed on so much of the President's message as relates to the Surviving Officers and Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army, made a report on the petitions of Henry Ayres, John Harding, George Reynolds, Lewis Castigan, William Johnson, Silas Payne, James Luther, Abner Curtis, Chancey Curtis, and William Earl, which was read, and the resolution therein contained was concurred in by the House, as follows, to wit: Resolved, That the commitee be discharged from the further consideration of the said petitions.

Ordered, That the committee last mentioned, be discharged from the further consideration of the petitions of sundry officers of the Connecticut line of the revolutionary army; as also, of the petition of Stephen Alling, and of William Lamb, Ezra Thorp, and Isaac Patchin, and that they have leave to withdraw their petitions.

Ordered, That the committee on Pensions and Revolutionary Claims be discharged from the further consideration of the petition of captain Nathaniel Henry, and that he have leave to withdraw his petition.

Ordered, That the committe on Naval Affairs be discharged from the further consideration of the second petition of Thomas Shields, and that he have leave to withdraw the same, with the documents.

The Speaker laid before the House, a letter from the Treasurer of the United States, transmitting the annual statements of his accounts, which was ordered to lie on the table.

On motion of Mr. Simkins,

Resolved, That the committee on the Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of establishing other land offices in the territory of Alabama, than those already established, and of appointing other registers and receivers of public moneys, in addition to those already appointed.

On motion of Mr. Taylor,

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law, for an earlier commencement of the next session of Congress than the stated period, with leave to report by bill or otherwise; and,

Mr. Taylor, Mr. Poindexter, Mr. Pitkin, Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, Mr. Robertson, of Kentucky, Mr. Rhea, and Mr. Whitman, were appointed the said committee.

Mr. Bassett laid before the House, a letter from Daniel Carroll, of Duddington, addressed to him as chairman of the committee on that part of the President's message, in relation to the selection of the site for the Executive Offices, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.

The House resolved itself into a committee of the whole, on the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act for the relief of William