101
HISTORY OF CONGRESS.
102-
January, 1823.
Proceedings.
Senates-
lant care not only that its powers should be rigor-
ously exercised, but that it should be repaired and
improved whenever the public good should require
it to be done. If an appropriation of money, he
argued, were necessary to repair a public road, it
might be said, with equal propriety, that an appro-
priation of attention and care were necessary to
keep the Constitution in repair. Inattention to
that, he said, would produce in it furrows and
dilapidation, and would bring it into the same dis-
use that neglect would cause in a public road.
Mr. T., after other remarks of the same character,
and to enforce the same general sentiment, went
on to say that whenever any opinions or wishes
were demonstrated to be general with the people,
they ought to be attended to and put in practice.
It was manifest, he thought, that this was the case
in regard to the present mode, in the last resort,
of electing the President of the United States, and
that the people universally deprecated the election
of the President by the House of Representatives.
Thinking so, he had sought to provide a remedy,
and therefore asked leave to introduce the follow-
ing joint resolution:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Represen-
tatives of the United States of America, two-thirds of
both Houses concurring, That the following amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States be pro-
posed to the Legislatures of the several States:
"The Electors of a President and Vice President
shall meet on the day of next preceding the
expiration of the time for which the existing President
may have been appointed; vote for a President and
Vice President, according to the Constitution ; and
make two lists of all persons voted for, to be signed
and certified by them ; one to be delivered, sealed, to
the President of the United States, within days
thereafter,-to be opened and. examined by him. And
if it shall appear that no person has received the votes
of a majority of the Electors appointed, the President
of the. United States shall forthwith, by proclamation,
and also by notifications to the Executive of each
State, publish the number of votes given to cach per-
son as President. Whereupon, the said Electors shall
again meet, on the day of next succeeding
their first meeting, and vote for one of the two persons
as President, who shall have received, at their first
meeting, the greatest number of votes for that office.
Or, if it should happen that more persons than two
should have received the greatest number, and also an
equal number of votes, the said Electors shall vote for
one of them as President. The said Electors shall
transmit one of the lists to be made at their first meet-
ing,. and also that to be made at their second, (should
it take place,) to be proceeded upon as the Constitu-
tion has prescribed, except that the person having the
greatest number of votes at the second meeting of the
said Electors shall be the President. But if two or
more persons shall have received the greatest and an
equal number of votes at the second meeting of the
said Electors, the House of Representatives shall choose
one of them for President, in the mode prescribed by
the Constitution."
The leave was granted, and the resolution was
read, and passed to a second reading.
Adjourned to Monday.
Monday, January 18.
The President communicated a report of tlie :
Secretary of War, to whom was referred the peti-
tion of George Ulmer. The report was read, and:
referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs.
The President communicated a letter from the
Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting reports
made under an act supplementary to the several
acts for the adjustment of land claims in the State
of Louisiana. The reports were read, and referred
to the Committee on Public Lands,
Mr. Ritggt.es, from the Committee of Claimsj
to which was referred the petition of Archibald F.
Macneill, of North Carolina, made a report, ac-.
coinpanied by a resolution that the prayer of the ^
petitioner ought not to be granted.
Mr. Holmes, of Maine, presented the petition
of John Low, a soldier of the Revolution, praying-
to be placed on the list of pensioners. The .peti-
tion was read, and referred to the Committee on.
Pensions.
Mr. Barbour, from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, to which the subject was referred, re-
ported a bill to regulate the commercial intercourse-
between the United States and certain British
colonial ports. The bill was read, and passed to
the second reading.
Mr. Barbour presented the petition of Walker
K. Armistead, praying the passage of a law au-
thorizing the equitable settlement of his accounts.
The petition was read, and referred to the Com-
mittee of Claims.
Mr.DiCKERSON presented the petition of Samuel
Howell, of New Jersey, praying compensation for
services rendered his country during the Revolu-
tionary war. The petition was read, and referred
to the Committee on Pensions.
Mr. Gaillard presented the petition of Sarah
Perry of Rhode Island, praying a pension for five
years. The petition was read, and referred to the
Committee on Naval Affairs.
Mr. G. also presented the memorial of Lewis
A. Petray and Just Viel, merchants of Charles-
ton, South Carolina, praying that certain articles
shipped from St. Augustine, when an American:
port, to Charleston, may be exempted from the
payment of duties. The memorial was ready and
referred to the Committee on Finance.
On motion of Mr. Lowrie, it was resolved that
none of the documents accompanying the Presi-
dent's Message of the 10th December last, he print-
ed for the use of the Senate, excepting the letter-
from the Society of the United Brethren to the
Secretary of War, and the statements marked
A and B.
The following Message was received from the
President or the United States:
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, re-
questing the President of the United States " to cause
to be laid before the Senate the number of arms re-
quired, annually, to supply the militia of the West,
according to acts of Congress; the probable number '
necessary to be placed in military deposites, located or
to be located, on the Western waters; the cost of