And a quorum, consisting of a majority of the whole House, being present,

On motion of Mr. Macon,

Ordered, That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them.

Mr. Macon and Mr. Oakly were appointed the said committee on the part of this House.

Ordered, That the Clerk do acquaint the Senate therewith.

A new member, to wit: Philip Barbour, elected to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of John Dawson, one of the members from the state of Virginia, also appeared, produced his credentials, and took his seat, the oath to support the constitution of the United States being first administered to him.

William Lattimore, the delegate from the Mississippi territory, appeared and took his seat.

A message from the Senate by Mr. Turner, their Secretary, pro tempore.

Mr. Speaker: I am directed to inform this House that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and that they are ready to proceed to business: They have appointed a committee on their part to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of this House, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled, and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them.

On motion of Mr. Fisk, of New York,

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to procure newspapers from any number of offices that the members may elect Provided, That the expense thereof do not exceed the price of three daily papers.

Ou motion of Mr. Ely,

Ordered, That the daily hour to which the House

shall stand adjourned, be eleven o'clock in the fore

noon.

And then the House adjourned until to-morrow morning, eleven o'clock.

TUESDAY, September 20, 1814.

Several other members, to wit: from Massachusetts, Laban Wheaton, John Reed and William Baylies; from Pennsylvania, William Crawford and Isaac Griffin; from Virginia, John G. Jackson; from North Carolina, Meshack Franklin; from Georgia, Bolling. Hall, George M. Troup and William Barnett, and from Kentucky, Samuel M'Kee, appeared and took their seats.

Jonathan Jennings, the delegate from the territory of Indiana, also appeared and took his seat

Mr. Macon, from the joint committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that a quorum of the two Houses was assembled and ready to receive any communications he might be pleased to make to them, reported, that they had performed that duty, and that the President answered that he would make a communication to the two Houses of Congress to day at twelve o'clock.

A message, in writing, was then received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Coles, his Secretary, who delivered in the same at the Speaker's table, and withdrew.

The said message was read and is as follows: Fellow Citizens of the Senate

and of the House of Representatives.

Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your session of the present year, I was induced to call you together still sooner, as well that any inadequacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the Treasury might be supplied, as that no delay might happen in providing for the result of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain, whether it

should require arrangements adapted to a return of peace, or further and more effective provisions for prosecuting the war.

That result is not yet known. If, on one hand, the repeal of the orders in council, and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew the occasion on which impressments from American vessels were practised, suggest expectations that peace and amity may be re-established; we are compelled, on the other hand, by the refusal of the British government to accept the offered mediation of the emperor of Russia; by the delays in giving effect to its own proposal of a direct negotiation; and above all, by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly carried on, to infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged more violent than ever, against the rights and prosperity of this country.

This increased violence is best explained by the two important circumstances, that the great contest in Europe, for an equilibrium guaranteeing all its states against the ambition of any, has been closed without any check on the overbearing power of Great Britain on the ocean; and that it has left in her hands disposable armaments, with which, forgetting the difficul ties of a remote war against a free people, and yielding to the intoxication of success, with the example of a great victim to it before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further aggrandizing a power already formidable in its abuses to the tranquillity of the civi lized and commercial world.

But, whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent purposes, the public councils of a nation more able to maintain than it was to acquire its independence, and with a devotion to it, rendered more ardent by the experience of its blessings, can never deliberate but on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant views or unwarrantable passions, with which alone the war can now be pur sued against us.

In the events of the present campaign, the enemy, with all his augmented means, and wanton use of them, has little ground for exultation, unless he can feel it in the success of his recent enterprises against this metropolis and the neighboring town of Alexandria; from both of which his retreats were as precipitate, as his attempts were bold and fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier, his progress, often checked and chastised by the martial spirit of the neighboring citizens, has had more effect in distres sing individuals, and in dishonoring his arms, than in promoting any object of legitimate warfare. And in the two instances mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on our part, he will find in his transient success, which interrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business at the seat of government, no compensation for the loss of character with the world, by his violations of private property, and by his destruction of public edifices, protected as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized warfare.

On our side, we can appeal to a series of achievements, which have given new lustre to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents in the minor operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the Canadian side of the Niagara, by the American forces under major general Brown, and brigadiers Scott and Gaines, bave gained for these heroes, and their emulating companions, the most unfading laurels; and having triumphantly tested the progressive discipline of the American soldiery, have taught the enemy, that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts, the more certain and decisive will be his final discomfiture.

On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the American standard. The bold and skil ful operations of major general Jackson, conducting troops drawn from the militia of the states least distaut, particularly of Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile savages, and by establishing