Friday, May 18.
Call of the House.
The Speaker informed the House that the hour was arrived at which a call of the House was ordered to be made, and that the clerk would accordingly proceed to the call.
The call was accordingly made, when it appeared that 92 members were present, which, with 13 members absent on leave, and 1 sick, made up the whole number of members.[33]
Provisional Army.
The bill authorizing the President of the United States to raise a Provisional Army, was read the third time; when
Mr. McDowell moved to postpone the question on the passage of this bill till Tuesday next. Information had been received from Europe, and was entered on the Coffee-House books of this city, that our Commissioners had been received by the Executive Directory; and that the persons who had held authorized conversations with them on the subject of bribes, &c., were imprisoned. He could not say that this information was true; but, if it were, our differences with the French Republic may probably be amicably accommodated, and there may be no necessity to pass this bill at all. He hoped, therefore, the postponement would take place.
Mr. Sewall should be sorry if a motion of this kind were to receive any attention from the House. If negotiations were opened with the French Republic, they might not very soon be concluded. What appearance would it have to the nations of Europe, if, after all the insults and injuries we have received from the French Republic, the moment Congress heard in an indirect, uncertain way, that they had deigned to receive our Ministers, they stopped their proceedings in all measures of defence. A more unfavorable appearance, in his opinion, could not take place. It ought to be recollected that the army proposed to be raised was a provisional army, and would not be raised, if the contingencies therein named, did not take place.
The question for a postponement was put and negatived; there being only 29 votes for it.
The question on the passing of the bill was then taken, and stood—yeas 51, nays 40, as follows:
Yeas.—John Allen, George Baer, jr., Bailey Bartlett, James A. Bayard, David Brooks, Stephen Bullock, Christopher G. Champlin, John Chapman, Joshua Coit, William Craik, Samuel W. Dana, John Dennis, George Dent, William Edmond, Thomas Evans, Abiel Foster, Dwight Foster, Jonathan Freeman, Henry Glenn, Chauncey Goodrich, Roger Griswold, William Barry Grove, John A. Hanna, Robert Goodloe Harper, Thomas Hartley, William Hindman, Hezekiah L. Hosmer, James H. Imlay, John Wilkes Kittera, Samuel Lyman, James Machir, William Matthews, John Milledge, Daniel Morgan, Lewis R. Morris, Harrison G. Otis, Josiah Parker, John Read, John Rutledge, jr., James Schureman, Samuel Sewall, William Shepard, Thomas Sinnickson, Samuel Sitgreaves, Nathaniel Smith, George Thatcher, Mark Thomson, Thomas Tillinghast, John E. Van Allen, Peleg Wadsworth, and John Williams.
Nays.—Abraham Baldwin, David Bard, Lemuel Benton, Thomas Blount, Richard Brent, Nathan Bryan, Dempsey Burges, Thomas Claiborne, William Charles Cole Claiborne, John Clopton, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, Lucas Elmendorph, William Findlay, John Fowler, Albert Gallatin, James Gillespie, Andrew Gregg, Carter B. Harrison, Jonathan N. Havens, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, Walter Jones, Matthew Locke, Matthew Lyon, Nathaniel Macon, Blair McClenachan, Joseph McDowell, Anthony New, Thompson J. Skinner, William Smith, Richard Sprigg, jr., Richard Stanford, Thomas Sumter, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Philip Van Cortlandt, Joseph B. Varnum, Abraham Venable, and Robert Williams.