culty. A corporation inhabits a house not made by man; it inhabits all space-it is everywhere and nowhere. It has no body, as it is sometimes said to have no soul. For his part

he wished this charter to be restricted to the District of Columbia, where almost every anomalous thing was to be found.

Mr. MERCER, of Virginia, opposed the recommitment of the bill, on the ground that such a course would have the effect to give it a quietus for the remainder of the session, especially after the notice this morning given by Mr. LOWNDES. Mr. M. said he concurred with his colleague in his view of the recent opinion of some gentlemen learned in the law, on the subject of the powers of Congress. He did not see, however, how, by possibility, the passage of this bill could countenance that opinion. Mr. M. referred to the nature of the bill, and its unobjectionable character, as arguments in favor of its passing the House, and without recommitment. Mr. Cook suggested a modification of the question, so as to propose a recommitment of the bill to the Committee on the District of Columbia, with instructions to report the specific amendment suggested by Mr. LIVER

MORE.

Mr. LIVERMORE having assented to putting the question in this shape

It was so put and negatived.

[H. OF R.

He states said letter was written by Joel Barlow to Abraham Baldwin, then a member of Congress. He denies that he printed said letter, or aided or abetted used his endeavors to suppress it, by destroying the in the printing of it; but, on the contrary, that he copies which came into his possession. He states that, owing to the political party zeal which prevailed in the United States at that time, much unfairness was used in the trial, both by the marshal in summoning the jury, and the judge who presided, in his instructions to them, and thereby a verdict of guilty was returned against him by the jury; and upon that verdict the court sentenced him to pay a fine of $1,000, the costs of suit, be imprisoned four calendar months, and until the fine and costs were paid. He states that, by virtue of said judgment, he was arrested and confined in a dungeon, the comdistant from the place of his trial, although there was mon receptacle of thieves and murderers, fifty miles a decent, roomy jail in the county in which he lived, and in the town where the trial was had, which jail the Federal Government had the use of; that much severity was exercised towards him during his imprisonment; that he languished in the loathsome prison more than six weeks in the months of October, November, and December, in the cold climate of Vermont, without fire, before he was allowed, at his own

And the bill was passed, and sent to the Sen- expense, to introduce a small stove, or to put glass ate for concurrence.

MONDAY, December 4.

Another member, to wit, from Massachusetts, NATHANIEL SILSBEE, appeared, and took his seat.

Case of Matthew Lyon.

Mr. MCLEAN, of Kentucky, from the committee appointed on the memorial of Matthew Lyon, made a report thereon, accompanied with a bill for his relief; which, by leave of the House, was presented, read the first and second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole to-morrow. The report is as follows:

into the aperture which let in a small glimmer of light through the iron grate.

He states that he is poor, and asks Congress to refund to him $1,000, the fine which he has paid, the costs of suit, for one hundred and twenty-three days' pay as a member of Congress, while he was unconstitutionally detained from a seat in that body, reasonable damages for being suddenly deprived of his liberty, put to great expense, and disabled from paying that attention to his concerns which, in other circumstances, he would have been allowed to do, and such interest on those sums as public creditors are entitled to.

Your committee state that the prosecution against the said petitioner, the judgment, imprisonment, and payment of $1,000, the fine, and $60 96, the costs of suit, are proved by a copy of the record of proceedings in said cause, which is made a part of this report. The committee are of opinion that the law of Congress under which the said Matthew Lyon was prosecuted and punished was unconstitutional, and therefore he ought to have the money which has been paid by him refunded; but should they be mistaken as to the unconstitutionality of this law, yet they think there are peculiar circumstances of hardship attending this case which call for relief. Your committee, therefore, ask leave to report a bill.

The petitioner states that, in violation of that provision of the Constitution of the United States of America which says, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press," Congress, in July, 1798, passed the act commonly called the sedition law; that, some time previous to the passage of this bill, there appeared in the Philadelphia Federal papers a violent attack upon his character, extracted from the Vermont Journal, charging him with many political enormities, particularly with the high crime of opposing the Executive; that he wrote a reply to this charge in Philadelphia, on the 20th of June, 1798, and on the same day put the letter, directed to the editor of the said Vermont Journal, letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, into the post office at Philadelphia, twenty-four days transmitting his annual report on the state of before the passage of the sedition law. For the pub- the Treasury; and, on motion of Mr. STORES, lication of this letter he was indicted in October fol-three thousand copies thereof were ordered to lowing, in the circuit court of the United States in be printed for the use of the House. The rethe Vermont district. In the same indictment, he port is as follows:*

State of the Finances.

The SPEAKER then laid before the House a

III. Of the Estimates of the Public Revenue, and Ex

penditures for the year 1821.

In forming an estimate of the receipts into the Treasury for the year 1821, the amount of revenue bonds outstanding on the 30th day of September last, the sum due for public land, the ability and disposition of the community to purchase, and especially the quantity and quality of the land intended to be exposed at public auction in the course of the year, present the data upon which the calculations must be made. As a portion of the duties which accrue in the fourth quarter of the present year, and in the first and second quarters of the next, form a part of the receipts into the Treasury for the latter year, the amount received will exceed or fall short of the estimate, by the difference between the duties which actually accrue in those quarters, and are payable within the year, and the amount at which they had been estimated.

Third instalment from the Bank of
the United States

Bank dividends which will accrue
during the year, estimated at five
per cent.

Making the aggregate amount of

[H. of R.

500,000

350,000

$16,550 000

The appropriations for the same period are esti. mated as follows, viz:

1. Civil, diplomatic, and miscella-
neous,

2. Military Department, including
fortifications, ordnance, Indian
department, military pensions, and
arrearages prior to the 1st of Jan-
uary, 1817

3.

Naval Department

Making an aggregate of

$1,769,850 04

4,585,352 61

2,420,594 56

$8,775,790 21

All which is respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD,
Secretary of the Treasury.

TUESDAY, December 5.

West Point Academy.

Mr. CANNON moved the adoption of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to lay before this House, as soon as is practicable, a stateThe revenue bonds outstanding on the 30th of ment showing the aggregate amount that has been September last, are estimated at $18,770,000. Of expended on the Military Academy at West Point, in this sum $3,130,000 are in suit, of which about the State of New York, from the establishment of the $1,250,000 will not be collected on account of the same to the present time, in the erection of buildings, insolvency of the debtors; leaving the amount of barracks, repairs, and materials for the same; also, bonds outstanding, upon which collections are to be the aggregate amount that has been expended in pay, made, estimated at $17,520,000. The amount of subsistence, and clothing, of the teachers, officers, and duties secured during the first, second, and third quar- cadets, that are or have been in said academy, up to ters of the year 1820, is estimated at $13,350,000; the present time; also, the aggregate amount that and that of the whole year may be estimated at has been expended on the quartermaster's department $16,500,000. The amount of debentures outstand-attached to said institution, for wood and distributing ing on the 30th of September last, and payable during the year 1821, is estimated at $1,162,114 16, which is subject to be increased by the amount is sued in the present quarter, and during the whole of the ensuing year, chargeable upon the revenue of that year. The average annual amount of debentures, bounties, and allowances, and expenses of collection chargeable upon the revenue, has been ascertained to be nearly equal to fifteen per cent. of the average annual amount of the duties upon imports and tonnage, which accrued from the year 1815 to the year 1819, inclusive.

The receipts into the Treasury from the public land, during the first three quarters of the present year, are estimated at $1,124,645 32, and those of the entire year will probably not much exceed

$1,600,000.

According to the foregoing data, the receipts into the Treasury for the ensuing year, may be estimated as follows, viz:

Customs

Public lands, exclusive of Mississippi

stock

Arrears of internal duties, direct tax, and incidental receipts

the same, forage, transportation, stationery, including articles used in the drawing department, books, mathematical instruments, printing, and all other contingencies, up to the present time; also, the number of cadets that have been educated in said academy, since the first establishment, from the District of Columbia, also the number from each State and Territory in the Union, also the number of cadets now in said academy from the District of Columbia and from each of the States and Territories respectively; also, academy who are in the Army and Navy of the United the number who have received an education at said States, the appointment each holds, and the District, State, or Territory, they are from; and also the number of orphans, if any, of those who have fallen in the defence of their country, or died in its service, who have been educated in said academy, or are now cadets in the same, and the District, State, or Territory, each is from.

Mr. LITTLE wished to correct the resolution $14,000,000 in one particular, in which he conceived there was a misapprehension. The mover was cer1,600,000 tainly mistaken in supposing that the teachers or cadets of the Military Academy were clothed 100,000 by the Government; the cadets, Mr. L. stated,

H. OF R.]

Missouri State Constitution-Citizenship of Free Colored Persons. [DECEMBER, 1820.

received pay, out of which they clothed themselves, and as it was not the fact that either they or the teachers of the academy were clothed by the Government, he did not wish such an idea to go abroad. He hoped, therefore, the gentleman would modify his resolution by omitting the call relative to clothing.

Mr. LOWNDES rose and delivered a speech of nearly two hours in length, of which the following is a brief sketch:

The first observations of Mr. L. were lost to the reporter, from the confusion arising from members changing their seats, &c.* When Mr. L.'s observations became audible, he was speakMr. CANNON referred to a report of the Secre- ing of the difficulty under which he should labor, tary of War, made at the last session, on the in what he had to say, from being obliged to subject of the academy, to show that the Gov- direct his observations to arguments not yet ernment was charged with clothing for it. An urged, and in regard to which he must depend item of the report referred to, stated a disburse- upon what he had heard in other quarters, and ment of five hundred and some odd dollars for upon conjecture. clothing furnished the establishment at West Point. If, however, the Government provided no clothing for that institution, the Secretary would report the fact to the House, so that the feature in the resolution which was objected to he conceived had better be retained. Mr. C. added a few remarks as to his motives in moving this resolution. Economy in the public disbursements was imperiously called for by the state of our finances, and, among the other national establishments, he wished to see if any retrenchment could be made in the Academy at West Point.

Mr. LITTLE replied, that there was a part of the corps of engineers employed at West Point, who were regularly enlisted, as other soldiers, and were in the same manner clothed by the Government; it was the clothing for these soldiers, no doubt, which formed the item in the report referred to. The resolution called for the expenses of clothing the teachers and cadets, and, he repeated, as no such expense existed, he wished the form of the resolution to correspond with the fact, and therefore moved that the feature he objected to should be stricken out.

Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, said the resolution ought not to go forth in such a shape as to show ignorance of the facts on the part of the House, and, as there was certainly no such provision for the cadets as clothing, (for he presumed five hundred dollars would go very little way to wards clothing two hundred and fifty cadets,) he hoped the motion of his colleague (Mr. LITTLE) would be agreed to, and the resolution be modified.

Mr. CANNON assented to the modification proposed by Mr. LITTLE; and thus amended, the resolution was agreed to.

WEDNESDAY, December 6.

Another member, to wit, from Delaware, WILLARD HALL, appeared and took his seat. Missouri State Constitution--Citizenship of Free Colored People.

The House having, on motion of Mr. LOWNDES, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union,

The resolution declaring the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, having been read

In the outset, he said, he was met by an objection of a general nature, applicable to other cases as well as that now presented to the House. He could not doubt, he said, from what he had heard, that there were members of the House who considered themselves bound by the same principles which influenced them

*To get near him, Mr. Lowndes being one of those so rare in every assembly, around whom members clustered when he rose to speak, that not a word should be lost, where every word was to be luminous with intelligence, and captivating with candor. This clustering around him, always the case with Mr. Lowndes, when he rose to speak, was more than usually eager on this occasion, from the circumstances under which he spoke-the circumstances of the Union verging to dissolution; and his own condition, verging to the grave. By his exertions, and those of other patriots, the Union was saved. No skill or care could stay his own march to that "undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns.". He died prematurely, at the early age

of

this speech on the admission of the State of Mis

souri, being the last of the principal speeches ever delivered

by him.

This debate-this branch of the extended and various de

bate, which grew out of the attempt to restrict the State of

Missouri on the subject of slavery-although taking place near forty years ago, will have a fresh interest on account of its applicability to questions which now occupy the public mind. The citizenship of free people of color-the status

or political condition of a Territory erected into a State, and asking admission into the Union, without being able to obtain it-and the delicacy of throwing upon the judiciary the decision of questions which affect the public feeling—are all questions of present, still more than of past interest; and it cannot be otherwise than pleasant and instructive to the men

of this day to see what was said by others on the same points so long before them. With this view-with a view to give this pleasure and instruction-this branch of the old Missouri question endless debate is given more fully than usual, the two leading and opening speeches, one on each side, (those of Mr. Lowndes and Mr. Sergeant,) are retained in all their reported extent; while, in abridging the rest, enough is retained from every speaker to show his position, and the strength of it, on the debated points. These speakers were all eminent men, of weight in their day, and who will not be without it as long as their works shall be known; and not the less weighty because, conforming to the lot of all men in council, opinions are various, and Reason is called in to decide between them. The speakers on this occasion, after Mr. Lowndes and Mr. Sergeant, were: Mr. Henry M. Storrs, of New York; Messrs. William S. Archer, Alexander Smyth, and Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia; Mr. Hemphill, of Pennsylvania; Mr. Louis McLane, of Delaware; Mr. Mallory, of Vermont; Dr. Eustis, of Massachusetts.

DECEMBER, 1820.] Missouri State Constitution-Citizenship of Free Colored Persons.

[H. OF R.

was couched in the broadest terms, requiring the convention, as usual, first to determine the question whether it was expedient to form a constitution. Although the mere act for the admission of a territory into the Union does not make her a State, inasmuch as her acceptance of the offer is required, yet, at the moment that she declares that it is expedient to form a constitution-at that precise moment she acquires all the rights of a State. The people of Missouri, as of every other admitted State, at that moment acquired rights which it is not competent for the legislature of this country-which it is not competent, upon the principles which we hold sacred, for any legislature under Heaven to divest them of.

at the last session, to vote at this session against | States. Mr. L. went on to quote the cases of the resolution declaring the admission of Mis- admission of States into the Union. He refersouri into the Union. On this point, he ad-red to that of Ohio. The act for her admission dressed himself to the moderation and good sense of the House-of those gentlemen particularly who believed the constitution framed by Missouri to be inconsistent with the principles of our Government, to say, whether it was not inconsistent with the character of our Government, and of all Governments, that questions once decided by the legitimate authority of the country should be considered as yet open, or inconclusive? Did not such a course of reasoning lead to the conclusion that all the acts of the Government were binding only on the majority who voted for them? That all compacts are void, for example, as to the minority which refuses to sanction them? Suppose, in regard to a debt incurred in carrying on a war, a party subsequently in power were to say-we did not vote for the debt; we did not support the war; we are not bound to pay the debt. Would such an argument be entitled to respect? Take, for example, the debt incurred in the late war with Great Britain: was it not essential to the character of the nation that that debt should be considered obligatory as well upon those who approved, as on those who disapproved, the purpose for which the debt was contracted? And were all the members of this and the other House not equally bound by the act of the last session respecting Missouri? Whether we ought or ought not to have given to the people of Missouri the power to form a constitution and State government, we have given it. Whether or not we individually wished Missouri to form a constitution, the authority to do so was given by Congress. The constitution was formed, and Congress were now asked to declare that it was so. For himself, Mr. L. went on to say, he believed that the law of the last session gave Missouri a right to form a constitution; and that, having done so, she is now a State.

If you look at the course which Congress has pursued hitherto, it will be found that, on elevating territories from the grade and dependence of a territorial government, Congress has done no more than emancipate them from its control. On doing this, said Mr. L., you have reserved nothing like an authority to remand them to their colonial condition. You have determined, in such case, by the act of allowing the territory to form a constitution, that, for certain purposes, she is an independent State. In the act of the last session, it would be found, on referring to it, there was no difference between the mode of legislation in Missouri, and that which had occurred in regard to the oldest of the States admitted into the Union. Comparing that act with other acts for the admission of States, it would be found to confer the same powers and impose the same restrictions. It was impossible to distinguish, in any manner, between the power which had been given to Missouri and that which had, in like circumstances, been granted to the oldest of the new

Before he proceeded further to refer to the practice of former times, Mr. L. said he would notice an argument which he had heard suggested, which was in some degree a verbal one. It is said that the words of the law in regard to the admission of Missouri are prospective; that the constitution says that Congress may admit new States into the Union; that no authority but Congress can admit them; that Congress has not admitted Missouri into the Union; and that it is necessary she should now address Congress and obtain its consent to her coming into the Union. It is true, Mr. L. said, that the law provides that Missouri "shall" be admitted; that is, prospectively as to the date of the law. It is true, also, that new States can be admitted into the Union only by Congress. But that admission may be from the time the law passes, or on the performance of a condition, whatever that condition may be. There was nothing, Mr. L. argued, in the law of the last session, to show that the act of admission was not complete on the part of Congress when that law passed, although it did refer to a future time. That this was a just construction of the matter, he said, was obvious by a reference to former examples. In the case of Kentucky, for example, her admission into the Union was deferred, by the act of Congress authorizing it, he did not know how many months, but more than a year after the passage of the act. Nothing more was necessary, after the passage of the act for the admission of Missouri, than a lapse of time sufficient for the determination of the people to be ascertained, whether they chose to form a constitution or not.

But his strongest argument, Mr. L. said he was aware, must be derived from the course pursued by Congress in former times. He disclaimed any particular devotion to precedent; but, in a time when parties were as firmly marshalled as they were on this subject at the last session; when the true import of the constitution was contested by nearly equal parties on this floor; when geographical lines were observable in the division of opinion, it was wise, it was becoming, to look to what had been the