Holmes also thought the manner of the enquiry was too "loose." Mr. Strother held a similar opinion. The Speaker explained that he had put the question at the request of a member-he did not think "rumor would be a fit ground to act upon, but it might develope a source from whence correct information could be obtained." Mr. T. M. Nelson pressed the house to proceed in the enquiry. Mr. Tallmadge was opposed to the course that things had taken, but expressed his determination to submit a motion for a regular enquiry into the subject. The Speaker called upon the house to decide whether it would proceed to the enquiry or not. After sɔme further remarks from Messrs. Strother and Holmer the house adjourned without a decision.]

the war, col. Anderson had been considered not only a gallant and patriotic man, but a man of integrity, who had made uncommon sacrifices, of nearly all his property, from his devotion to the cause of the country. Mr. J. said he did also understand, from several sources, that col. Anderson, at the risk of his own life did, at the river Raison, rescue individuals from the hands of the savages. Col. J. had further understood, he said, that col. Anderson had refused the command of a regiment, offered to him by the British commander, when the enemy had possession of that country; and col. Elliot, on being pressed to repeat the offer, answered, that he knew the character of col. Anderson fully, and that he knew he would as soon submit to have his head chopped off as to accept of it. Of John Anderson, Friday, January 16. After some other proceedsaid, Mr. J. in relation to his conduct to me at the ings which shall be noticed below more particularlast session and at this, I can say, without prejudice ly, a resolution was adopted to appoint a committo the merits of others, I have never known an in-tee to enquire whether any of the clerks or other dividual, whose losses were so great, and who knew persons in the offices of government have conduct. I was disposed to advocate his claims, to take up ed themselves improperly or corruptly in the se little of my time, and to be as modest in urging discharge of their duties. his claims. All these circumstances together had given to Mr. J. a high idea of the integrity, of the gallantry, and of the patriotism of col Anderson. Other facts than those above mentioned were estion of his witnesses. tablished by ample testimony, descriptive of the sufferings and steadfastness of John Anderson in the cause of the country during the war, &c.

In the course of the examinations of witnesses in the sitting of this day, in the case of col. Anderson, the following incidents arose:

Col. Jos. Watson, one of the witnesses, being called a second time by the speaker, was questioned and answered as follows:

Question-I thought I understood you to say that you had some clans on the government yourself?

Answer-No, sir, I am agent for the settlement of claims, for which purpose I have opened an agency in this city, where I re ceive claims from every part of the country.

Q. Has it been customary, do you know, in any cases whatever, that any of the officers of the government, in setding claims, have received from the claimants any compensation for extra services? 4. I presume the question is expected to be answered from per soual knowledge: I have no personal knowledge of any such com Q. Have you received any information of such practices, and if you have, from whom?

pensation having been received.

A. I have heard such things intimated.

By whom and as to whom?

A. I have heard it intimated that clerks in some of the public offices were in the habit of transacting business as agents, and of receiving a commission for so doing.

Q. Specify, if you can, who gave you the information, and what clerks were named.

4. Information of that sort was received by me in a letter from a person of the name of Samuel How, who resides near Presquisle, who said he had engaged to pay a particular clerk five dollars for obtaining a land warrant for him.

Q. Do you recollect the name of the clerk?

4. Not accurately enough to repeat: but the letter is at the dis posal of the house, if it chuses to call for it. I have an impres sion as to the name, but not so clear and distinct as to give it in

evidence.

By the Speaker.-Bring the letter with you to the house to-mor

row.

The witness then retired, but was again called and interrogated.

The Speaker.- Is that single instance you have referred to, the only one you have heard of?

Witness would state to the house, that 1 am very willing to afford it all the information in my power to afford, which it may require. But I cannot but state, that I feel a delicacy in mention. ing the names of persons who have been reported to act as agents. Being myself an agent, I might be suspected of improper mutives for making such a disclosure. But, being under oath, if the house insists, I must obey.

The Speaker. The house insists on your reply to the question. Witness.-I proceed, then, to perform what is now my duty. Understanding now, that I am held under an obligation to state every thing, even as to general intimations that I have heard, proceed. I have understood, that, in the land bounty office, there Thus far had the witness proceeded, when he was interrupted,

are

[By Mr. Cobb, who doubted the propriety of such "hearsay" evidence being given to the house.

Mr.

Case of col. Anderson. John Anderson was then remanded to the bar of the house, and proceeded in the further examina

General P. B. Porter, Wm. O'Neale, and W. P. Rathbone, where then examined as witnesses in behalf of the accused, whose testimony was to the same effect as that given yesterday.

Mr. Williams, of North Carolina, was then called upon by the accused, who put to him this question:

Question-Did I ever directly or indirectly, by any verbal communication, offer you any reward or inducement, to influence your good opinion in favor of my claims or any other claims? Answer-You never made me any verbal offer of the kind? Col. Anderson-That is all I wished the house to know from your testimony.

Mr. Williams-I presume, if you had made me any such offer, the house would have known it, without your asking it.

Mr. Wilson, of Pennsylvania, being also called up.. on, testified that col. A. had disclaimed, on finding the letter had offended Mr. Williams, any intention of offering the money to him with any other view than as a compensation for extra trouble.

On further questions by the speaker to John Anderson, it appears that the accused is a native of Scotland, came to this country at three years old, and is a naturalized citizen.

The speaker then said he had been instructed to propound to the prisoner the following interrogatory, to which col. Anderson made the reply subjoined.

Question-In writing the letter to Lewis Williams, a member of of this house, from North-Carolina, in which you offer to him the sum of five hundred dollars, for services to be performed by him

relation to claims for losses sustained during the late war, had you or had you not any intention to induce him to support your claims against his own convictions of their justice, or to interfere with the discharge of his legislative duties, or to offer any contempt to the dignity of the house of representatives?

Answer-No, sir; I call God to witness to that, which is the most sacred appeal I can make. I repeatedly assured him, that the offer was made without any wish to influence his opinions in suy degree.

The accused was then questioned whether he had other witnesses to examine: he replied in the nega tive. The Speaker then called upon him for the defence which he had intimated it was his intention to offer.

The prisoner, then addressing the chair, with much earnestness, in a brief manner, stated that the same palliations of the offence with which he stood charged, as are explained more at large in the following address, which he concluded by delivering to the clerk, by whom it was read:

"Arraigned at the bar of the highest tribunal of the nation, for an alleged infringement of its privileges, an attack upon its dig. nity, and the honorable feelings of one of its members, to express the sincere regret I experience, and to apologize for the error I have committed, ought not to suffice. To that body and to myself, Lowe

an explanation of the motives which governed my conduct. That deliberate on the course now proper to be pursued. I have been found in the ranks of our country's defenders, is known Mr. Forsyth offered for consideration a motion to many; that I have sustained a character, unblemished by any

of merit. The commencement of the late war found me environed

act which should' crimson my withered cheeks, has been amply in substance like that which was ultimately adopproven to you, by men, whose good opinions are the greatest booned, but which proposed Wednesday next as the day by all the comforts of life; blessed with a sufficiency of property to on which John Anderson should be brought to the enable me to wipe from the face of distress the falling tear, and to bar. fatter myself that want was not to salute me before the return of peace. The fallacy of my hopes have been too clearly demonstrated;

A variety of propositions, suggestions, and re

by the ravages of the war on the borders of Raisin, (my residence) marks, were made on this occasion, which it would and the destruction of all the property which my industry had be difficult, if it were important, accurately to reamassed. After having seen the streets of Frenchtown overgrown

with grass; sighed unavailingly over the ashes of my own and my port. neighbors' houses, and witnessed their necessities; reduced to sus

One motion on which the yeas and nays were tain life by means of wild animals, (muskrats) whose very smell is taken, is worthy of particular notice. It was made repulsive to the stomach; I gladly hailed the beneficence of my

government in the enactment of the law, usually called the pro- by Mr. Poindexter, to strike out that passage which perty act, and, in the month of January, 1817, I took leave of my charged John Anderson of being guilty of a con. friends and fellow sufferers, and repaired to this city to manage

their claims; on my arrival, I found that the act under which they tempt against the privileges of the house, the words expected relief had been suspended, and I was forced to return "the privileges of," thus denying the house to have with this unwelcome information; tears of disappointinent suffused any privileges not conferred on them by the constithe countenances of every oue-my heart sympathised with theirs,

and I then determined to prosecute their claims to a result. With tution.-This motion was negatived, 108 to 54. a The will of the house was ultimately consumma

this view, I had been in this city more than a month; over-anxious

words:

to accomplish my object, exalted with the success which had atted by the passage of a resolution in the following tended some of the claims, and convinced that the committee of claims was overwhelmed with business, my inexperience in refer ence to legislative proceedings induced me to suppose that, to in- Resolved, That John Anderson has been guilty of a contempt and sure despatch, I might without impropriety approach the chair a violation of the privileges of the house, and that he be brought man of that committee with a proposal to compensate him for "exto the bar of the house this day, and be there reprimanded by the tra trouble." That I have erred, grossly erred, I am convinced, speaker for the outrage he has committed, and then discharged and my only consolation is, that error is no crine, when it is of trom the custody of the sergeant at arins.

the head not of the heart. Had I acted with less precipitation, and Whereupon John Anderson was brought to the consulted the views of others, I should not at this time find any self in the disagreeable dilemma that I am. I should have acted bar of the house, and addressed by the speaker as more consistent with myself: Whatever semblance my request of secrecy may assume, I can with truth aver that its basis in my mind was a desire that those for whom I act should have to ac

knowledge their increased gratitude for the promptitude with

which their claims should have been acted upon.

follows:

"Jolin Anderson: You have been brought before this house upon a charge of having committed a breach of its privileges in attempting to bribe one It cannot be denied, that, after being assured that my own claims of its members filling a high and responsible situawould be allowed, I had less cause to think of obtaining by cor. ruption the payment of claims which I almost knew the justice of tion. The house has patiently beard you in your Congress could not refuse in the sequel-despatch, then, was all I wished for, all I could gain; and I think that the world and this defence, and, in proportion to the pleasure which honorable body, will admit that the benefit of the relief would be it has derived from the concurrent testimonies in in proportion to the time which should elapse in affording it; at support of your character and good conduct hereleast, that in this view it would be appreciated by those who have tofore, is its deep regret that you have deliberateget fresh in their recollection that a husband, a wife, a father, a child, a brother, or sister, was tomahawked, shot, or burnt alive ly attempted to commit a crime so entirely incom by the savage enemy, their hearts inhumanly torn from their bo-patible with the high standing you have heretofore dies, and whilst yet smoking with the vital heat, were triumphantly exhibited to their weeping eyes. Let it be recollected that they maintained. You have the less apology for the athave witnessed, whilst wandering without shelter, and almost un- tempt which you made, because you had yourself clothed, the heart-rending scene, dead bodies exposed to the vora eious appetites of the swine, and these animals eagerly contending experienced the justice of this house but a few for a leg or an arm. Lest this picture may be supposed to be ex- days before, by the passage of two bills in your aggerated, I annex the correspondence which took place between favor, founded on petitions presented to the house. the hon. A. B. Woodward and general Proctor, in the year 1803, Your attempt to corrupt the fountain of legislation, and shortly after the event occurred. Let it be known that most, if not all, the articles they could collect from the ruins of their to undermine the integrity of a branch of the nati houses, were generously, most generously, appropriated in the onal legislature, is a crime of so deep a dye that purchase of prisoners of war, for the purpose of screening them from the bloody tomahawk; that these purchases were made un- even you must acknowledge and be sensible of it. der such circumstances as not to entitle them to reimbursement And if, John Anderson, you could have been sucunder the “act relating to the ransom of American captives of the late war;" and let it also be known that such are the sufferers, cessful in such an attempt; if it were possible that such the merits of the claimants I represent-and I feel confident representatives of the people could have been that the clouds of indignation which, for a moment, threatened to found so lost to their duty as to accept your offer, burst over my frosty head, will be dispelled by the benign influence of philanthropy-an influence which has ever, and I trust everyou must yourself see the dreadful consequence of will characterise my conduct.

That I should be anxious to afford a prompt solace to the sufferings of my fellow-citizens, will not be wondered at, when it is known that they extended every kindness and protection to my family, (from whom I was separated during most of the war) and at a time when the Indians were accustomed to dance before the door of my house, calling upon my wife to come out and select

her husband's scalp.

a

Relying upon the maxim, that "to err is human, to forgive di Fine," I throw myself upon the indulgence of this honorable body, and the magnanimity of the honorable gentlemau whose feel ings I have had the misturtune to wound. If my services form no elaira to indulgence, perhaps my sufferings and those of my fainly may. I stand here prepared to meet all the consequences of an error committed without any sinister intention. In conclusion, I must be permitted to remark that, during confinement, from which I have forborne to adopt any legal mea aures to extricate myself, the only feelings of pain which have had access to my breast, were those produced by the knowledge that an opinion was prevalent that, presuming on the misfortunes of my at a very reduced fellow sufferers, 1 bad bought we did permit, I would, under the price. If this honorable body would solemnity of an oath, call upon God to bear testimony that this opinion is without basis, one Jan. 1818.

JOHN ANDERSON,

The prisoner, being asked if he had any thing further to say, and answering in the negative, was taken from the bar and the house proceeded to

such a deplorable state of things: In your turn you might fall a victim: for your rights, your liberty, and your property, might in the end equally suffer with those of others. The house has seen with pleasure, that, at a very early period after making your base offer, you disclaimed, with symptoms of apparent repentance and contrition, any intention to corrupt the integrity of a member; and, în directing me to pronounce your discharge, the house induiges the hope that, on your return home, you will be more fully convinced of the magnitude of your offence, and by the future tenor of your life endeavor to obliterate, as far as it may be possible, the stain your conduct on this occasion has impressed on the high and honorable character you ap pear to have previously sustained. You are discharged from the custody of the sergeant at arms." Whereupon John John Anderson was discharged from custody:

And the house adjourned to Monday.") and

The speaker laid before the house the following letter which he had received from Joseph Watson, the witness who was yesterday interrogated on the subject referred to in the letter:

The letter having been read

Mr. Holmes, of Mass. offered for consideration the following resolution:

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to enquire whether any or what clerks, or other officers in either of the departments or in any office at the seat of the general government have conduct ed improperly in their official duties; and that the committee have power to send for persons and papers.

This motion gave rise to a desultory debate of considerable length, which the narrowness of our limits compels us to omit the question was at length taken and agreed to by a large majority. The house adjourned to Monday.

Monday, January 19. On motion of Mr. Taylor, Armistead, T. Mason had leave to withdraw his petition, contesting the election of C. F. Mercer, a member of this house,

On motion of Mr. Harrison, the committee on the public lands were directed to enquire into the expediency of authorizing the state of Ohio to sell thirty-five sections of land heretofore granted to Works but which are no longer useful for that purthe said state for the support of the Sciota Salt pose.

On motion of Mr. Hopkinson, it was

Resolved, That the committee on the judiciary be Washington 16th Jan. 1818. instructed to enquire what fees have been charged Sm-t comply with the injunction of the house, in placing at its disposal the letter alluded to in the and received by the district attorney of the southanswer given by me yesterday to a question which ern district of the state of New York, in prosecu was unexpectedly propounded. Although the let-tions brought by him against retailers of spirits, for ter will speak for its self, yet in reference to my have been received and charged in the same cases, vending them without license, and, also, what fees self, I should observe that at the time the question was answered, my impression was that the letter by the other officers of the United States, in the particularly mentioned that the person therein courts of the United States, in the said southern named was attached to the office of the secretary district of the state of New York, and that the of war: that impression must have originated at said committee have power to send for persons and the time of reading the letter, from the similarity papers. of names.

I beg leave, sir, to avail myself of this opportuni. ty to explain the cause of my hesitating to answer the question above alluded to. I then consider it as irrelevant to the subject about which I had been sworn to testify, and hesitated for the purpose of canvassing my right to refuse an answer, and the expediency of subjecting myself to the implications which would have been the concomitants of that refusal.

Unwilling to be dragged before the eye of the public, on a question to which, (adverting to my pursuits) so much delicacy is attached, I trust it will not derogate from the high respect I entertain for the honorable body over which you, sir, have the honor to preside, that I would state that the information which I have been called upon to afford, may be officially obtained from the treasurer's warrrant book, and the report of the secretary of war, which was some time since called for by the house. I will add, however, that, regardless of the consequences, I shall endeavor to acquit myself of any duty which the injunction of the honorable house of representatives may require from from me. I cannot refrain to express my belief that there are clerks who transact agency business, whose small salaries and large families cannot fail to palliate the impropriety of the course,

I have the honor, sir, to salute you with the highest sentiments of individual respect, and to be, JOS. WATSON. yours, &c.

[The letter enclosed states merely that he had Employed Mr. L. Edwards to procure certain claims for him at five dollars each, &t.

The amendments of the senate to the bill fixing the compensation of the senators, representatives, and delegates in the congress of the United States, were read and agreed to.

On motion of Mr. Lowndes, the house having re solved itself into a committee of the whole on the bill making appropriations for the support of the military establishment for 1818: the several appro priations passed without opposition, except one which provides for the appropriation of 35,000 dol lars to compensate such brevet officers as may be placed in service in such situations as to entitle them to pay according to their brevet rank.

This provision Mr Lowndes moved to strike out of the bill.

Whereupon a debate arose on the expediency of continuing this allowance. The debate was of so considerable length, that even a brief sketch of it would exceed our limits.

Those who supported the motion to strike out this section, were Messrs. Lowndes, Clay, Sergeant, Reed, of Md., and those who opposed it were Messrs. Mercer, Harrison, Ogle, Baldwin, and Smyth. Mr. Culbreth and Mr. Tuglor also expressed their views of it.

The motion was founded on the absence of any necessity for employing brevet officers in situations, entitling them to pay beyond that attached to their lineal rank, and was supported on that and other grounds. It was opposed on the ground that, as the law now authorizes the employment and extra pay of such officers when commanding separate posts, &c. it contains a compact which the govern ment ought not to annul, between it and the officers

and also on the ground, that, whilst the law exists, the appropriations ought to be made accordingly. The motion to strike out this clause prevailed by a large majority,

The remainder of the bill having been gone through, the bill was reported to the house, and was ordered to be engrossed.

And the house adjourned.

Wednesday, Jan. 21.-The house took up for con sideration an amendment to the rules of the house, proposed by Mr. Bassett, the object of which was to designate more distinctly the orders of the day, and to make them peremptory (that is, the assig nation of particular business to particular days.)~A considerable conversation took place on the exper diency of the new rule proposed, which was ultimately rejected.

Tuesday Jan. 20. Mr. Sergeant, having obtained leave, reported a bill to amend the act incorporat- The engrossed bills making appropriations for ing the United States' Bank, (authorizing the com-the military service, were read a third time, pass pany to dispense with the signatures of the presi-ed, and sent to the senate for concurrence. dent and cashier of the principal bank, from all The remainder of the day was spent in committee notes issued from the several branches, and autho- of the whole, Mr. Smith, of Maryland, in the chair, rising the president and cashier of the branches to in debating the bill prescribing the effect of certain sign and countersign the bills issued from their judicial records. respective offices, &c.)

Mr. Harrison offered the following resolution for consideration:

Resolved, That a committee be appointed jointly with such committee as may be appointed by the senate, to consider and report what measures it may be proper to adopt, to manifest the public respect for the memory of general Thaddeus Kosciusko, formerly an officer in the service of the United States, and the uniform and distinguished friend of liberty and the rights of man,

[Mr. Harrison introduced this motion by some feeling remarks on the subject of it, and by a view of the principal events of gen. Kosciusko's life.] The speaker presented a letter from the secreta ry of the treasury, transmitting, in obedience to a resolution of the house of February, 1817, a report on such measures as may be necessary for the more effectual execution of the laws for the collection of the duties on imports.

Mr. Pawling, Mr. Pindall, and Mr. Storrs, delivered speeches of considerable length against the bill, and Mr. Spencer replied, also at considerable length.

The committee having risen, and the bill being before the honse

Mr. Forsyth, to try the principle of the bill, which, having been so largely debated, must by this time be perfectly understood, moved to postpone the bill indefinitely.

The question on this motion was taken without debate, and decided in the affirmative by a large majority.

So the bill, after so much learning, labor, and ability displayed upon it, was finally rejected.

Thursday, Jan. 22. Mr. Johnson, of Va. after an introductory explanation of his views, introduced a resolution, which, after being subsequently modi. fied, was agreed to, in the following words:

"Resolved, That the committee on naval affairs The speaker also presented the annual report be instructed to enquire whether any, and, if any, from the navy department, of the state of the navy what alterations are proper to be made in the seyepension fund, the disbursements therefrom, a list of ral laws for the government of the navy." the pensioners, &c. Connected with this motion, Mr. Johnson submit

Also, from the same department a statement re-ted the following, which was also agreed to: specting the condition and management of the navy hospital fund.

On motion of Mr. Bassett, the message of the president transmitting the claim of the representatives of Caron de Beaumarchais, which had been referred to the committee of ways and means in the first instance, and afterwards transferred to the committee of claims, was now referred to a select committee.

In the conversation which took place respecting the reference of this claim, one gentleman estimat ed its amount at four or five hundred thousand dollars, and another at near a million.

"Resolved, That the secretary of the navy be directed to report to this house the proceedings of a certain court martial, ordered by commodore Isaac Chauncey, on the Mediterranean station, for the trial of captain Oliver 14. Perry; also the proceedings of a court martial, on the same station, ordered by the same officer, for the trial of captain John Heath, of the marine corps."

Mr. Harrison offered a resolution as a tribute of respect to the memory of Kosciusko, which shall be noticed in our next, with all the proceedings on the subject.

On motion of Mr. Johnson, of Ky, the house pro: ceeded to the consideration of the bill, now lying on the table, for the commutation of soldiers' bounty lands, with the amendments proposed there: to.

The house then resumed the consideration of the report of yesterday's committee of the whole, on the military appropriation bill for the year 1818. The question to concur in the amendment which strikes out the allowance of 35,000 dollars to defray After debate, a motion to postpone the subject the expense of extra pay to brevet officers, who indefinitely was lost by the casting vote of the speak hold separate commands of districts or posts, acer-77 being for and 77 against it. Some amend cording to their brevet rank-gave rise to much de- ments were then offered to the bill. bate, of considerable interest, and was at length decided by yeas and nays. Messrs. Mercer, Ing: ham, Harrison, Robertson and Palmer opposed the amendment; and Messrs. Lowndes, Pitkin, Johnson of Ky, and Forsyth, supported it.

On the question, the house agreed to concur with the committee in striking out the provision for brevet pay, by a vote of 130 to 30, being a very decisive expression of the opinion of this house on the subject.

The bill was then ordered to be engrossed and ead a third time.

Congressional Reports,

PUBLIC LANDS.

Report of the committee on the public lands, on the subject of increasing the price at which the lands of the United States shall hereafter be sold!.

JANUARY 5, 1818. The committee on the public lands, to whom was referred a resolution, instructing them to inquire into the expediency of increasing the price at which the public lands, shall be sold hereafter,

house, the deductions or reflections which grow out of this state of things, they content themselves with the justification it affords of the resolution which they respectfully submit:

Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at the présent time, to increase the price at which the public lands are required to be sold.

have had the same under consideration, and res-that five or six millions of acres have been given as pectfully report: bounty to the soldiers of the late war, and now are That the lands of the United States are carefully or soon will be the in market to meet the demand surveyed and divided into sections of 640 acres, which the United States alone could heretofore sup. quarter sections, and in certain cases of eighths of ply. The committee will not obtrude upon the sections; that they are advertised for, and set up at public sale, and disposed of to the highest bidder, at any price above, two dollars per acre-if they are not sold, they are returned to the register's office, and may be entered for, in the office, at two dollars per acre, with a credit, after the payment of one fourth, of two, three, and four years; the effects of this part of the system has been hereto. fore, deemed beneficial, both to the public and to individuals. It is beneficial to individuals, because the price is so moderate, that the poorest citizen may place himself in the most useful and honorable situation in society, by becoming a cultivator of his own land: and the fixed value is so high, connected with the abundance of our vacant terri-1 tory, as to prevent individuals from purchasing The committee appointed to enquire into the expewith a hope of advantage, unreasonably extensive and numerous tracts, to be held for purposes of speculation; that this is the case, that lands sold by the United States, are not held by speculators, may be fairly inferred by a consideration of the following facts:

NATIONAL FLAG.

Report of the select committee, appointed on the 16th
ult. to enquire into the expediency of ultering the
Aag of the United States.
JANUARY 6, 1818.

Accompanied with a bill to alter the flag of the United
States.

diency of altering the flag of the United States, beg leave to report:

That they have maturely considered the subject referred to them, and have adopted substantially, the report of the committee, to whom was referred the same subject, at the last session of congress, as forming a part of this report.

From the opening of the land offices in the north west territory, as it was then called, to the 30th The committee are fully persuaded that the form September, 1810, 3,167,829 acres of land were sold; selected for the American flag, was truly emble. this amount, compared with the population in 1810, matical of our origin, and existence as an indepen. is in the ratio of something less than 12 acres for dent nation; and that as such, it having met the each individual; the free white inhabitants of Vir-approbation and received the support of the citi ginia in 1800, amounted to 518,674, the lands of the zens of the union, it ought to undergo no change state, valued in 1798, amounted to 40,458,644 acres; that would decrease its conspicuity, or tend to dethis divided among the inhabitants, gives to each prive it of its representative character; the comindividual, upwards of 76 acres of land, but it will mittee however believe that an increase in thenum. not be contended, that the lands of Virginia are ber of the states in the union, since the flag was alheld by speculators; and with much less truth can tered by law, sufficiently indicates the propriety of it be so said of the lands northwest of the Ohio. such a change in the arrangement of the flag as Again, to show by inference, that the public lands shall best accord with the reasons that led to its are not disposed of at too low a price, the commit-original adoption and sufficiently point to impor tee have thought proper to inquire into the estimat-tant periods of our national history. ed value of the lands in several of the states, and The original flag of the United States was com they find, that in the year 1786, the lands of New Hampshire, amounting to 3,749,061 acres, were valued at 19,028,108 dollars, or $5 7 per acre. In Pennsylvania, 11,959,865 acres were valued at $62,824,852, or $69 per acre.

In Maryland 5,444,272 acres were valued at $21,634,004; or $3 77 per acre.

posed of thirteen stripes, and thirteen stars, and was adopted by a resolution of the continental con gress on the 14th of June, 1777. On the 13th of January 1794, after two new states had been admitted into the union, the national legislature passed an act, that the stripes and stars, should, on a day fixed, be increased to fifteen each, to comport with the then number of independent states. The ac cession of new states since that alteration, and the certain prospect that at no distant period the number of states will be considerably multiplied, render it in the opinion of the committee, highly inex pedient to increase the number of stripes, as every flag must in some measure be limited in its size, from the circumstance of convenience to the place on which it is to be displayed, while an increase would necessarily decrease their magnitude and Indeed the committee feel somewhat apprehen- render them proportionably less distinct to distant sive that the United States, so far from being ena- observation. This consideration has induced many bled to increase, will find themselves compelled to retain only the general form of the flag, while to lessen the price of the public lands, or to forego there actually exists a great want of uniformity in the golden dreams they indulge in, of enormous its adjustment, particularly when used on small prirevenue to arise from their sale. It will be recol-vate vessels.

La Virginia, 40,458,644 acres were valued at 59,976,860 dollars, or $1 48 cents per acre; and finally, in the sixteen states, at that time composing the United States, the land amounted to 163, 746,686 acres, valued at 479,293,263 dollars, or $2 92 cents per acre; now if the lands of the U. States, settled and peopled as they were have been thus valued, it may safely be concluded that the uninhabited wilds of our forests are not disposed of at too low a price.

lected by the house, that heretofore, the public has The national flag being in general use, by vessels been the monopolist of land-that, notwithstanding of almost every description, it appears to the comthis advantage, not more than eight or nine mil-mittee of considerable importance to adopt some lions of acres have been disposed of, for a sum less arrangement calculated to prevent, in future, great than 19,000,000 of dollars, and that too, during a or expensive alterations. Under these impressions space of 18 or 20 years. they are led to believe no alteration could be made They will now take into consideration the fact, more emblematical of our origin, and present ex