On motion of Mr. Tracey, the house then took up building-is 90 feet in length, 30 in width, and about the consideration of the bill relative to the Niagara 35 in height. It is divided into twelve arched alcoves, claims. ornamented with fluted pilasters, copied from the

Several amendments were proposed-some adopt-pillars in the celebrated Octagon tower at Athens. ed, others lost.

On the question of the engrossment of the bill, Mr. Mercer said, that as he had moved some resolutions asking for information pertinent to this subject, which it would require some time to furnish, he should now move to lay the bill on the table until such information could be received. Ayes 82, noes 78. The bill was therefore laid on the table.

On motion of Mr. Webster, the house went into committee of the whole on the bill more effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and for other purposes.

After making several amendments to the bill, the committee rose, reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again.

At the entrance, in the centre of the room, which is approached from the great central rotundo, are two columns of stone, with capitals corresponding with those of the pilasters; and immediately opposite, and fronting the window which leads into the western colonnade, stand two similar columns of stone.Those pillars, with the alcoves, support two galleries, extending nearly the whole length of the room on both sides, and divided into the same number of shelved recesses as the lower appartment. From these recesses springs the arch which forms the ceiling, elegantly ornamented with rich stucco borders, pannels, and wreaths of flowers. On the roof, which is about ten feet above the ceiling, are three sky-lights, the walls of which are also beautifully decorated with stucco ornaments. Through these, and the windows on the west, the light is admitted into the room, and can be lessened or increas

The Speaker laid before the house a message from the president of the United States, inviting an investigation of his conduct in the disbursement of the public moneys while he has been in public office.ed at pleasure, by means of venitian blinds. The We shall give it at length next week. The house adjourned.

CHRONICLE.

Died, in France, Nov. 6, the duke De Noailles, a peer of France, aged 85. He had five daughters by his wife, the daughter of the chancellor d'Aguessau. The second of them was the heroic wife of general Lafayette.

Illinois. We have before mentioned that Mr. McLean was elected to supply the place of Mr. Edwards in the senate of the United States whose period of service would have expired on the 3d March next. Mr. McLean has also been chosen senator for six years after that time.

Washington, Jan. 1. Don Pablo Obregon, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from Mexico, delivered yesterday to the president of the United States, at a special audience, a letter from don Guadalupe Victoria, president of the United Mexican States, announcing the adoption, on the 4th of October last, of a federal constitution for those states, by the constituent congress.

Georgia. According to a census of Georgia, lately taken under the authority of the state, the white population is 242,000, and the colored 162,600-total 374,600. According to the United States census of 1820, the population of Georgia was 340,989, of which number 149,676 were slaves.

Pepper. This article is cultivated only in what is called the "Malayan Archipelago"-that is, on the peninsula of Malacca, and the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and certain countries east of Siam. The whole annual product is about 360,000 piculs, or 48,000,000 lbs. A large part of the trade in this commodity is in the hands of the Americans, except as to the amount which is transported to China. Its price is very fluctuating, and the product of the various districts continually changing. It is supposed to be a great impoverisher of the ground; and new fields are continually planted with fresh vines. The trade in the article is entirely free-the natives sell to the highest bidder, without distinction or predilection.— The preceding article is taken from a late London

paper.

The new library at the capitol. The room for the permanent accommodation of the library of congress, has been completed in a style of great beauty and elegance, which entitle it to particular commendation. It occupies nearly the whole west front of the centre

principal apartment, as well as the reading rooms on the north, attached to it, is handsomely furnished with sophas, mahogany tables, desks, Brussels carpeting, &c. At each corner of this splendid apartment, is a staircase leading to the galleries above, which arc calculated to contain several thousand volumes, which are so arranged as to enable any one to read or write in them with perfect convenience. This room opens into a magnificent colonnade, or logia, formed by ten pillars of the Corinthian order; between which runs an iron railing, to protect as well as to ornament this fine promenade.

The new library room is admitted, by all who see it, to be, as a whole, the most beautiful apartment in the building. Its decorations are remarkably chaste and elegant, and the architecture of the whole displays a great deal of taste. [Nat. Int.

Appointments. The following appointments have been made by the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the senate:

Tobias Watkins, to be fourth auditor of the treasury. Samuel Moore, of Pennsylvania, director of the mint, vice Robert Patterson, resigned.

John Shillaber, of Massachusetts, consul at Batavia, vice Abraham E. Soesman.

William Clark, to be commissioner to treat with the Sac, Fox, and Ioway tribes.

John Pitman, of Rhode Island, to be judge of the U. States, for the district of Rhode Island.

the United States, in the place of J. Pitman, appointDutce J. Pearce, of Rhode Island, to be attorney of

ed judge.

Burrington Anthony, of Rhode Island, to be marshal' for the district of Rhode Island, vice E. K. Dexter, deceased.

land district, in the place of Theodorick Bland, reElias Glenn, of Maryland, to be judge of the Marysigned.

the United States, for the Maryland district, in place
Nathaniel Williams, of Maryland, to be attorney of
of E. Glenn, appointed judge.

titles in the state of Missouri.
Theodore Hunt, of Missouri, to be recorder of land

navy commissioners, vice John Rodgers, resigned.
William Bainbridge, to be president of the board of
Jacob Jones, to be commissioner of the navy board,
in place of Isaac Chauncey, resigned.

Nathaniel Cox, of New Orleans, to be navy agent for that port, in place of J. H. Hawkins, deceased. John H. Norton, of Mississippi, to be marshal for the district of Mississippi.

PRINTED BY WILL FAM OGDEN NILES, AT THE FRANKLIN FRESS, WATER-STREET, EAST OF SOUTH-STREET.

THIRD SERIES.

No. 20-VOL. III.] BALTIMORE, JANUARY 15, 1825. [VOL. XXVII. WHOLE NO. 696

THE PAST THE PRESENT-FOR THE FUTURE.

EDITED AND Published by H. NILES, AT $5 PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR.

certain-and the evil is daily increasing, because Washington, Jan. 12. Persons at a distance Can that, almost every day, some old and established hardly suppose how still and quiet the members of American importer is induced to lessen the amount congress are about the presidential election. I have of his orders, if not compelled to yield the market, seen a much greater degree of excitement about some at his own door, to persons that he knows nothing of ordinary subject of legislation, than appears to pre--and who care nothing for him, except to gather vail as to the settlement of a question which has so his business into their own hands, without any relong and so ardently agitated the people of the Unit-gard to the means by which the object is accomed States. The gentlemen from what are called the plished: and the profits of this trade, instead of being doubtful states, (and there are several states different-retained for the home circulation, are carried away ly claimed for the two prominent candidates), speak to increase the wealth of a foreign country. The very cautiously on the subject-indeed, so much so, extra gain made by strangers creates this monopoly, that I verily believe a large number of them have not and the whole cost of it is not less than three millions yet arrived at any resolution as to whom they will a year to the people of the United States. If this support; and the result, I think, is about as doubtful great annual loss was the effect of an adverse trade, as it was six months ago. The friends of gen. Jack-without our control, we might bear it, in a hope son and Mr. Adams are equally sanguine; and those that, at some other time, the current would be in of Mr. Crawford will not admit that they have given him up, notwithstanding the weakness of his vote in the colleges. They say that he is as fairly before the house for a choice as either of the others. It is pleasant, however, to observe the good feelings that exist; for it affords us just grounds to hope that the election may be made without that bitterness and agitation which prevailed on a former like occasion, and, at one moment, seemed almost sufficient to shake the union. A difference of opinion, as to persons, does not appear to be a difference of principle as to things-nor is it.

THE TREASURY REPORT. We now, as usual, give the important documents which accompanied the treasury report, and invite our readers to examine them. They throw much light on the report itself, and present us with most interesting views of the financial state of the nation.

our favor-but there is no prospect of a quid pro quo on this account. The gain is exclusively on the side of foreigners, through their agents the auctioneers; and the public revenue, as well as private profit, is given up without the chance of a remuneration for it, present or to come. If the goods came cheaper to the consumer through this destructive process, a doubtful advantage might be claimed in favor of it--but this is not the case; because that safe and preserving competition which would exist through the employment of our own abundant capital, is, in a great degree, done away; for it has been shewn, in a preceding paper, that the profit which foreigners may henestly make by a less estimated value of their goods at the custom house, is equal to about seven and an half per cent. per annum, when the fact is, that money, in the United States, is worth only about four and an half per cent. no doubt, in part caused by the loss of that employment for it which the operation of the CRIMES AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. We give a auction system has brought about. This may easily brief notice of some parts of the debate, on the im- be supposed, when we call to mind the astonishing portant bill introduced by Mr. Webster, that the ge- truth, that two thirds of the dry goods, &c. imported neral ground on which it is supported or opposed and consumed in the United States, are imported on may be seen. It would appear to us, from a first foreign account. A low rate of interest may indicate view of the subject, that there will be considerable either prosperity or adversity, and shew what is vuldifficulty in steering such a course as shall provide garly called either a "plenty" or "scarcity" of mofor the punishment of crime in the manner propos- ney. In an old and thickly populated country, like ed, without interfering with the proper and more convenient jurisdiction of the states in many cases: yet that something ought to be done, seems very evident.

England, for example, wherein the people are as fully employed as they well can be, a low rate of interest is an evidence of the nation's wealth; but in others, like the United States, young, vigorous and sparcely THE AUCTION SYSTEM. There is no doubt that the populated, though blessed with a good soil and cligreater part of the business of importing dry goods, mate, a high rate of interest, as representing the achard wares, &c. for the consumption of the people of tive employment of money, may shew the nation's the United States, is in the hands of foreigners-not be- prosperity. The fact is, there is an abundance of cause of the want of capital, enterprise or judgment capital all along our sea-board; and yet, because it in our own merchants, but for the reason that foreign- moves slowly, we say that money is "scarce;" and ers can, and do, supply us at rates more profitable to there is a want of capital, as well as of circulation, in themselves, THOUGH MORE ONEROUS TO US, than Ame- the interior. Now, on the same principle, that every rican merchants can obtain. It has been reasonably man is willing that wheat should be worth two dolshown that they may, with apparent honesty, enter lars per bushel to the growers of the grain, because their goods at the custom house for two and an half of a foreign demand for flour, so a high rate of inteper cent. less duty than our own merchants must pay; rest should gratify us, as affording proof that money and when to this is superadded the false entries which was in demand-and money it is that brings forth and must be naturally expected in a forced trade, it is very stimulates labor; which again creates value convertimoderate to suppose that a million a year is lost to ble into morey, in perpetual succession. The time the public revenue by auction sales of the particular has been when though our banks divided eight or nine kinds of goods mentioned. This is taken from the per cent. annnally, the price of their stocks were not public purse to be placed in the private pockets of much more than at par; and now that of the bank of strangers, and thereby, also, the business of importing the United States, which divides only tive per cent. them is wrested from those who should rightfully and cannot be expected to divide much more, is at possess it, and monopolized by foreigners. That they twenty per cent. above par. The former state of have monopolized it, and to an alarming extent, is things was evidence that the capital of the country Fol. XXVII-20.

was fully employed--but the latter is proof of revers

Treasury Report.

ed circumstances. The capital, no doubt, has in- Documents accompanying the annual report of the secr:creased; but so has our population, and so ought our tary of the treasury, of the 31st December, 1824. wants for it. Our cities are filled with idle capital, because that a great part of the trade carried on in them is on account of foreigners; and the interior wants capital, because that it is idle in the cities. The time has been, when it was advantageous to pay interest to foreigners for the use of their capital-but the time is, when every cent, so paid, is so much lost, and forever, to the United States, because that we have much unemployed capital.

Let persons differ as they may about the propriety of raising a revenue by indirect taxation or the imposition of duties on goods imported, they will all agree that the revenue, as intended to be paid, shall be paid: and especially resolve that foreigners shall not introduce articles at lesser rates of duty, than our own citizens may. It is the design of the laws that they shall not-but that they do so introduce them may be taken as an indubitable fact, and to the extent of not less than a million of dollars a year. This is a sum of money well worth looking after. And, if the public treasury must needs be defrauded of it, let us, at least, so manage matters as to keep the profits of the fraud at home, that we may have a chance of taxing them in the shape of houses and lands, built or brought into a state of improvement.

I shall now say a few words concerning the state revenues derived from sales at auction, as inducing some to oppose the passage of a law for restraining them. If their aggregate revenues amount to 200,000 dollars a year, it is probable that about one third or one half may be lost by the adoption of such measures as the general welfare of the country requires. And, surely, not more than an half, because that a wish is not entertained to interfere with the sales of such articles as do not interfere with American business and capital; and West India and South American products, &c. &c. will be exempted from the operation of the law, for the trade with these islands and countries is by American labor, money and ships. Eighty or one hundred thousand dollars loss to the public treasuries of some of the states, is to stand in opposition to a million lost to that of the United States, and two millions more of profits monopolized by foreigners, and the want of employment that necessarily follows so great a drain of the circulating medium of the country-for these profits, no matter what present shape they have, must result in the abstraction of so much money from the business of the country, and, by lessening the business, diminish the circulation; which is, to the common prosperity, like that of the blood through our veins. Without it, there must be a paralysis. It is sufficient to present those facts and remarks. To reason upon them, would be to insult the understanding of every reflecting man.

The great object is-to bring back the business of our country to its former state, when it was in the hands of American merchants, and the profits made by them were added to the general stock of the national wealth, liable to be used for all national purposes, of peace or war. If this is attainable by a restriction of sales at auction, how can we hesitate to restrict them? and why should it not be done? It was by restriction that we built up the commerce and navigation of the United States-and, by restrictions innumerable, it is that Great Britain has arrived at her present mighty power, and become the banking place of the world-that even the countries which produce the precious metals are compelled to borrow them, of her! This is certainly right and proper-that the commerce and navigation of the United States should not be carried on by and for the profit of foreigners, if possible to secure them for the employment of our own labor and capital, seeing that we have much labor and capital to spare.

of tonnage

Total tonnage employed in the foreign trade of the United States
Proportion of foreign tonnage to the whole amount

employed in the foreign trade of the United States

7.3 to 100

A.