Fourthly. Expediente and papers relative to a drafi through the minister of finance, by the treasurer general, by order of the cortes, on the corporation of Cadiz, in September, 1812, for fifty thousand dollars, which draft remained unpaid. Papers and documents relative to the amount awarded to be due R. W. Meade, for his imprisonment : First. Autos existing in the consulado of Cadiz, and in the supreme tribunal of war, commenced by John McDermot, against R. W. Meade, for the payment, a second time, of a sum of $52,000, deposited by order of the tribunal of commerce of Cadiz, in the royal treasury of that province. Secondly. Autos on the same subject in the office of the captain general of Andalusia and governor of Cadiz, relative to the imprisonment of Mr. Meade. Thirdly. Copies of the royal orders issued through the minister of state to the council of war, on this subject. Fourthly. Copies of the royal orders from the minister of finance to the council of war, particularly an official private order of Don Manuel Lopez Arango, to the said council. Continuation of documents required: First. A certificate from the minister of state or finance, showing, that, from the year 1805 to the present period, no currency existed in Spain except gold and silver, and, particularly, that no kind of paper money was in circulation, or indeed existed, except vales reales, which was a funded debt of the government, bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum, but which paper had nothing to do with the currency of the nation or the contracts of the government, and was never bought, sold, or received in payment, except under special contract or agreement between individuals, the same as the funded debt of any other nation. Secondly. A certificate from the minister of finance, stating the rate or rates of interest which was paid during the years 1811 and 1812, and subsequently by the government, on moneys taken up on loan by it. Thirdly. A certificate from the minister of finance, showing whether the different governments of Spain complied with the engagements made with Mr. Meade. If they did not, what were the reasons of their not fulfilling their engagements. Whether Mr. Meade was not entitled by law to ample compensation for the failure on the part of the government to pay him, at the different periods, and in the divers modes of payment agreed on. Whether the failure proceeded from misconduct of the agents of the government, or from circumstances not within the control of the govern ment. Whether Mr. Meade was not entitled by law to interest for sums illegally detained from him by the government and its agents. Whether the government has not constantly promised to make full compensation to him for the injuries he had received from want of punctuality on the part of the government, long prior to the year 1819. Whether the debt due to Mr. Meade was not considered as one of the most sacred nature due by the Spanish nation. Whether the Spanish government would not have paid to Mr. Meade the full sum awarded to be due to him, together with interest thereon till payment was effected, if the government of the United States had not solemnly agreed to assume and pay the debt. Whether the royal commission named by his Catholic majesty, in May, 1819, to liquidate the claims of Mr. Meade, was not, in every point of view, competent to decide on the matters submitted to them; and when the award was sanctioned by his Majesty, whether it was not as binding on the nation as any judgment obtained in the supreme councils of the nation. Whether the appointment of such a special commission or tribunal is not usual in Spain, and resorted to in cases of the highest importance, both civil and criminal. It being one of the highest prerogatives of the royal authority, the designation or appointment of a tribunal, where a demand against the nation shall be heard and decided, and whether such decisions, when approved of by the king, are not binding on the nation. Whether the cortes of the nation in October, 1820, did not acknowledge the debt due to Mr. Meade, as finally settled by the commission, and send the same to the king, through the secretary of state, directing that the same should be paid to Mr. Meade; provided the same had not been assumed by the government of the United States in the treaty about to be ratified for the cession of the Floridas. Whether Don Luis de Onis, the minister who negotiated the treaty, did not officially inform the government of Spain that the claim of Mr. Meade had been specifically and expressly included in the treaty. And whether Mr. Onis did not demand its insertion, by name, in the treaty, which was finally given up for state reasons alone; it not being thought proper to insert the individual name, though the fifth renunciation was inserted for the express object of including this claim. Whether his Majesty did not in the month of August, 1818, declare, by a royal order, that compensation should be made to Mr. Meade for his unjust and illegal imprisonment from May, 1816, to May, 1818; and, if so, a copy of the original document is required. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled: The memorial of Richard W. Meade, of the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, son and administrator de bonis non of Richard W. Meade, of said city, deceased, respectfully showeth : That your memorialist's father was a native citizen of the United States, and as such was a creditor of the Spanish government on the 19th day of May, 1820, to the amount of four hundred and ninetyone thousand one hundred and fifty-three dollars and sixty cents, (491,1531%) as was on that day established and freely acknowledged under the sign-manual and royal seal of the king of Spain, after a protracted and most rigorous scrutiny by a junta or board of high functionaries specially assigned to that duty, whose award for that sum, to be paid by Spain, was in all respects fully and completely confirmed by all the departments of that government; that the United States obtained from Spain a cession of the Floridas in virtue of the treaty concluded at Washington, the ratifications whereof were exchanged on the 22d of February, 1821, and the consideration given for said cession was a release and acquittance to Spain of her liability to all her American creditors, including said Richard W. Meade-the government of the United States taking upon itself to respond to said creditors of Spain for the claims of its citizens so taken to the public use. By that treaty Spain bound herself to furnish all proofs and documents relative to said claims which might be in her possession and required by the board of commissioners appointed under it for the adjustment thereof; that the claim of said R. W. Meade as against Spain was released by said treaty, has never been questioned; nor was it ever doubted that the United States had assumed the responsibility, which was originally upon Spain, to discharge it. Said board of commissioners decided that it was a valid claim against the United States under said treaty, but resisted the liquidation above mentioned on unreasonable grounds, since the vouchers of detail, which they required, were in the possession of the Spanish government, and their delivery refused, by reason of the alleged disrespect to the royal decision. The board was fully satisfied that said proofs in detail could not be obtained by the claimant, because the board itself had demanded them and had been refused. It was therefore cruel to insist, as the board did, that the claimant should nevertheless produce them or lose his claim; (the whole diplomatic strength of our government was used in this behalf, for more than thirty years past, with no better success ;) and the claim was therefore rejected by the board, without demerit, and without omission of effort or neglect on the part of the claimant, but solely because of an unreasonable fastidiousness on the part of the board. The claim, however, still exists; it has not been spirited away, nor has it been in any degree satisfied. Your memorialist further represents, that in 1822 our government notified Spain that a continued refusal on her part to furnish said required proofs and documents within a short specified time would be held as fixing on Spain a new obligation to satisfy the claims to which they relate. Whether this notification of one party to the treaty created a new obligation on the other party, is not for your memorialist to determine; but if the first of the alternatives be true, it evidently follows that it can only be enforced by the direct action of our government ; and if the second of the alternatives was intended as a menace to Spain, as is presumed, it has been wholly ineffectual, since she pertinaciously retains the required proofs to this day. Your memorialist further represents, that the oft-repeated appeal to Congress in this case has resulted, in every instance save one, in bills reported by the respective committees of both houses to whom the subject has been referred, and four of said bills were voted by the Senate and House, but no definitive decision has been had by Congress. Your memorialist, therefore, prays that the favorable considerations which led to said reports and bills may not be lost to him, but that your honorable bodies will resume the further examination of the case, coupled with said favorable appendages, and thereupon grant him such relief as may be found just and proper. And, as in duty bound, your memorialist will ever pray. Administrator of R. W. Meade, deceased. WASHINGTON, December 12, 1853. The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the "bill making a grant of land to the State of Alabama, in alternate sections, to aid in the construction of a railroad from the line of Georgia, on the Chattahoochee river, to the city of Mobile," having had the same under consideration, recommend the passage of the bill, and beg leave to present the following report: The Savannah and Albany railroad, proposed to be aided by the grant of alternate sections of land to the State of Alabama, provided in the bill under consideration, has been chartered by the States of Georgia and Alabama, and is intended to connect the Atlantic ocean at Savannah, Georgia, with the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama, in a nearly direct line, about four hundred and fifty miles in length, with a branch road from the main line at Albany, Georgia, through Eufaula to Montgomery, Alabama, about one hundred and fifty miles in length; making, together, about six hundred miles of road. Of this the greater part will be in Georgia, and something less than three hundred miles. will pass through the United States lands in Alabama. The company has been organized in Georgia, with a subscription of one million three hundred thousand dollars, and active preparations are being made to commence the work; but the company has no present prospect of procuring sufficient capital to extend the road to the public lands of Alabama, without the aid proposed by this bill-the country through which it will pass being, comparatively, unsettled, destitute of capital, and valueless, on account of the great difficulty and expense o reaching a market with its productions. The considerations to the United States Treasury, for the grant proposed in this bill, are valuable and important. The lands in the southern part of Alabama, through which this road will pass, have been subject to occupation and sale more than thirty years; they are reputed to be well timbered with yellow pine, and capable of yielding a fair return to the agriculturist; and yet, within this long term of years, but a small fractional part of these lands has found a purchaser at the government price. Whatever may be the capability of the country for productions, they are so nearly consumed, in transportation to market, |