134
CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
Virginia; which was referred to the Committee of
Elections.
The SpsASER also laid before the House a com-
munication from the Secretary of State in relation
to the census; which was referred to the Commit-
tee on the Judiciary, and ordered to be printed.
BANKRUPT LAW.
The SPEAKER laid before the House a mes-
sage from the President of the United States, en-
closing a memorial from citizens of New York,
praying the passage of a bankrupt law.   The me-
morial was signed by 3,000 persons.   The message
was read, and is in the following words:
VPotKe Mouseof Representatives of the United States.
The accompanying memoual in favor ot the passage ofa
bankrupt law, signed by nearly three thousand of the inhabitants
of the city of New York, has been forwarded to me, attended by
a request that I would submit Uto the consideration of Congress
I cannot waive a compliance with a request uiged upon me by
so large andreapec'able a number of my fellow-citizens. That
a bankrupt law, carefully guarded against fraudulent pracl'ces,
and embracing, as far as practicable, all classes of society—the
failure to do which has heretofoie constituted a prominent ob
jectlon to the measuie—would afftud extensive relief, I do not
doubt. The distress incident to the detangements of some years
past, has visited large numbers of our (ellow citizens with hope-
less insolvency, whose energies, both mental and physical, oy
reason of the load of debt pressing upon them, arelobt to the
country. Whether Congress shall deem it proper to en.er i'-">on
the consideration of thissubject at itspreseut extraordinary es
«on, it willdoubtless.wisely determine I have fulfilled my c jty
to the memorialists in submitting their petition to your consi.'a-
ration.                                                    v
JOHN TYLER
Washington, June 30, K31.
The message and memorir.! were referred to ¡he
Committee on the Judiciary, and the message was
ordered to be print d.
Mr. McKEON rose, and des'red to ask the
chairman of the Committee on the Jud'cia'y [Mr.
Barnard] w'tq it vvss probable that a bankrupt
bill wonH be reported.
Mr. BARNARD said that it was impossible for
him to answer the que.tion. Tne Committee c.i
the Judiciary had the subject under consideration.
He had no doubt that they would agree ujion a
bill, and that it would be presented here. It was
hoped, at least upon his part, that it would be pre-
sented in time for the action of the House at the
present session. So far as he might be concerned,
such was his intention.
Mr. PENDLETON said that, some days sine ,
he had presented a resolution upon this wibj-'ct,
of which he was now reminded by the messags'
just received from the President of the United
States. He (Mr. P.) understood the chairman of
the Committee on the Judiciary, which bad thit.
subject in charge, to say that a bankrupt bill would
be presented this session. The object of his (Mr.
P's) resolution was to get an expression of the opi-
nion of this House, by the means of instructions to
the committee. As the necessity for such a resolu-
tion had thus been obviated, he would, if it was
the pleasure of the House now to take up the reso-
lution, move to lay it on the table.
The SPEAKER said the resolution would, by
rule, lie on the table until called for.
On leave given, Mr. KENNEDY of Maryland
presented a memorial on the subject of a bankrupt
law; which was referred to the Committee on the
Jueiciary.
Mr. CALHOUN of Mass. moved that ths House
resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the
state of the Union.
Mr. CAVE JOHNSON hoped, he said, that
gentlemen would permit the ordinary business
* (which was the consideration of resolutions) to be
taken up during the morning hour, so as to give
members an opportunity to get from the Depart-
ments information upon the subjects on which they
were called to act. If this business of going m'o
commutes was to be persisted in, to the exclusion
of every thing else, the mouths of gentlemen would
becioied. They could get no information they
desired.
Mr. J. asked the yeas and nays on the motion
to go* into committee. He wished to know who
Was going to gag them.
And the House ordered the yeas and nays.
Mr. DAWSON inquired of the gentleman from
Tennessee [Mr. C. Johnson] whatresoiution it was
that he desired the House to adopt. If there was
any resolution of a character mors important than
the subject now awaiting action in Committee of
tfee Whole on the state of the Union, which, the
gentleman from   Tennessee  desired to   present,
through which he desired to procure information
necessary to the action of the House on any sub-
ject falling within its legitimate action during the
present session, he (Mr.  D ) would vote against
going into committee at ih's lime.
Mr OWE JOHNSON rising to reply-
Mr. BRISGS submitied to the Speaker that the
motion wai not debatable.
The SPEAKER said it was not.
The question was then taken on the motion of
Mr. Calhoun, and was decided m the affirmative—
yeas 106, nays G9.
So the motion was agreed lo.
DI*TRIBUTION AND PRE EMPTION BILL.
The House again resolved itself into Co.nmiUce
ot the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr
Lawrence of Pennsylvania in the chair,) on the
bill to distribute the proceeds of the sales of the
public lónlsjmd to grant pre eruption rights
The pending question being on the motion of
Mr. Clifford to strike out the enacting elaus3 of
the bill-
Mr C. BROWN said that the presen' meeting
of Cungress had been pronounced, both on this
fl o>- and by the people at large, as an extraordi-
nary «.c^iou oí Congrc&t; and he thought that
when if r'se and progress should have been clear-
ly reviewed, it might be recorded in history as not
only „r> extraordinary session, but an extraordinary
f>n«ress. THy had been called together for the
os cnsible purpose of i roviding revenue to carry
on the Government, because those who had been
elected to execute the laws and duties under it had
found, or thought that they had found, a deficiency
in th" revenues of the Government, which would
prevent it from being able to meet the demands
which might be made upon it. Goneres*, then,
had been convened before the regular day of its
meeting, for ths purpose to which he had alluded,
and this was the only reason he had heard given
for its assembling He, however, believed that
this was not the real object m view, but that there
were others well known to the party. This, never-
theless, was ths view presented to the people of the
United States as an apology for the call of this ex-
traordinary session of Congress. The deficiency
in the revenue, as pointed out by ihe Secretary of
Ihe Treasury, would be clearly shown here and
elsewhere, before they adjourned, to be merely
fictitious, and that there were no such demands
upon the Treasury but what could be easily met
by its revenues—that there was no national debt to
he r.-et—and that, in short, there wats no defi-
ciency to justify the calling Congress together at
this time. The structure, then, which had thus
been erected by the Secretary of the Trea-
sury was scattered to the four winds of Heaven,
and neither that officer nor his friends, would be
able to collect its fragments and reconstruct it He
(Mr. B.) was yet to learn from any quarter, either
from the head of the Treasury Department, or any
one connected with the Administration, how they
could make it appear that the condition of the Trea-
sury was such as to render it indispensable that
Congress should be called together on that account.
The excuse was insufficient, and without founda-
tion. But he did not propose to consider this ques-
tion in this point of view; but had mentioned it
only as having been assigned as a reason for call-
ing this extra session of Congress. Perhaps he
might not be altogether justified in saving what the
real causes were—that they might have some refe-
rence to the under current which we had heard so
much of lately, or that there were objfets in view
which had been concealed from the public eye as
well as from Congress.
Now, he would ask, what had they done during
the time they had been in session, which was nearly
five weeks? Had they proceeded one step towards
making provision to meet the dificiency in ths re-
venue of the Government, supposing lhat to be the
real cause of their being here at this time? What
bad the Administration party done towards supply-
ing the wants of the Government?—for by their
own professions and measures were they to be tried.
He would ask what they had done since they had
been in session? Why, ihey had passed but two
bills: one he might denominate an extraordinary
bill, because, by it was appropriated the sum of      ,
twenty-five thousand dollars to the widow of Gene-
ral Harrison; and the other provided for our own        >
pay and  expenses at this extraordinary session.
These were the only two bills that had been passed,
and the first of which took the large sum of twen-   ,
ty-five thousand dollars out of the Treasury, which
they had been told, over and over again, was en-
tirely bankrupt.   And now, by the bill before this
committee,   they   were    called upon   to   make
an   extraordinary   appropriation   of   a   portion
of  the revenues   of   the   country.    They were
lo  consider  the propriety of appropriating  mil-
lions   of   dollars,  not   yet   in    the    Treasury,
among  the several States, on account of the sales
of the public lands.   Were not these extraordina-
ry measures-?   And would not the people of the
country hereafter think, when the history of these     *
events carne to be written,  (if they did not already    'J'
do do,)  that this was an exttaordinary Congress,    J;
called together, as it was, to provide for the wants    *j
of the Government, and yet wasting its time and     j
spending the money of the people most unprofita-    '}_
bly?   But, as he had already intimated, this was    ;'
not the object for which they were now assembled.    ;
There were others.   Let us look to the history of    ,
this extraordinary Congress, and see what the ob-    '.
jects were for which it was called    Let us look to    f
the course of the majority on this floor, and ex-  -4.
amine what had been their language in reference    S
to the subjects which had been discuss d on this    *
floor,  with a view to see how their sentiments    :
agreed.   By some gentlemen we had been told
that the principle object of this bill was lhat which
the people had called for; and that the people had
willed it by the result of the late Presidential elec-
tion.   But we had been told by the gentleman
from Georgia, [Mr. Alpord,]  that Congress had
been convened for the purpose of making a Nation-
al Bank, and that, after having done that,  they
were to   go home.   Another gentlcmsn, however,
rises in his place and says that we were called to-
gether for the   purpose of passing a bill to divide
the proceeds of the public lands among the States,
and also to establish a National  Bank.    With re-
garded to the alleged deficiency in the revenue,
no one had ventured to show how that deficiency
was to be met.  The gentleman from Georgia [Mr.
Alford] had also said that there was another ob-
ject in view in, calling an extra session of Con-
gress; and that was, to commence the work of re-
trenchment and reform. And now, where, he (Mr.   -
B ) would ask, had there been a bill brought in to
effect those objects?   He would like to be informed
where   this   Administration had commenced the
work of retrenchment, of cutting down the expen-
diture under the last Administration, which  had
been considered by some as extravagant in the
highest degree? For his own part, he confessed that
he had seen no effort made by those who were
now in power to diminish the expenses of the Go-
vernment.   Where had the work of reform been
begun?   He asked any of the Administration par-
ty—any who were answerable for the conduct of
this Government—where the work of reform had
commenced?   Mr. B. then went on to deprecate
the conduct of those who took the late Admi-
nistration to task on the ground of having been
extravagant, arid yet who, when asked to point
out where they had been extravagant, could not
do it.   If those who were so ready to make charges
were sincere and honest in their intentions,  why,
he would ask, did they not point out the officers
who were abusing their trusti?   Why did they not
put their hand upon them?   Could gentlemen point   ";
him out one single instance of extravagant ex-    *
penditure under that Administration?   It had been    f
said that public opinion was in favor of a Na-    i
tional Bank and a distribution of the proceeds of   ",
the sales of the public lands; whilst, on the other    '}
hand, it had been declared by others that public   '":
opinion was in favor of a Bank only.   Conse-   .
quently there was a difference of opinion in re-
gard to what was really the desire of the people.   ,,;
We had been told that Ihe public voice called for   -¡
these measuresr'but he (Mr. B.) would have gentle-   ,\
men to remember that the public voice was per-   M
fectly clear and distinct and explicit, and this tes-   M
timony did not go to show that such was the case.   M