Monday, February 3.
A memorial of the merchants of the town of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, was presented to the House and read, stating that they have witnessed, with mingled feelings of indignation towards the perpetrators, and of commiseration for their unfortunate countrymen, the insults and barbarities which the commerce of these States has sustained from the cruisers of France and Spain; but that it is their object, in the present memorial, to confine their animadversions to the more alarming, because more numerous and extensive detentions and condemnations of American vessels, by Great Britain, and to advert to the principles recently avowed and adopted by her courts, relative to neutral trade in articles of colonial produce: principles which, if admitted, or practised upon in all the latitude which may fairly be inferred to be intended, would be destructive of the navigation, and radically impair the most lucrative commerce of our country; and praying that such measures may be adopted, by negotiation, or otherwise, in the wisdom of the Government, as will tend to disembarrass our commerce, assert our rights, and support the dignity of the United States.—Referred to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.
Intercourse with Great Britain.
Mr. J. Randolph said the House would recollect better than he did, for he was not present at the time, the very important resolution referred on the motion of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Gregg,) whom he saw in his place, to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. It was no part of his purpose at this time to discuss the merits of that resolution, and it was still further from his purpose to throw any impediment, or create any delay in bringing forward that discussion; the more so, as he considered the whole country south of the seat of Government, and more particularly that part of the country in which he resided, decidedly interested in a speedy and prompt reception or rejection of the proposition. Indeed, such was his opinion of the necessity of its being speedily acted upon, that as soon as he saw the resolution which had been offered, which was not until Friday, when it was laid on their table, the first suggestion of his mind was to move the going immediately into a Committee of the Whole on it; as those gentlemen with whom he had the honor of holding personal and political intercourse would testify. But a more mature reflection had convinced him that before the resolution could receive that ultimate decision which he trusted it would receive, the House stood in need of material information, which, however it might be in the possession of this or that individual, was not possessed by the body of the House. His object in addressing the House was to obtain this information from the proper authority, from the Head of a Department, which was the only way in which information of a satisfactory nature, such as ought to influence the decision of the House, ought to be obtained. Mr. R. then submitted the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before this House a statement of the exports and imports of the United States, to and from Great Britain and Ireland, and the American colonies of the same, for the two last years, distinguishing the colonial trade from that of the mother country, and specifying the various articles of export and import, with the amount of duties payable on the latter.
Mr. Smilie expressed himself in favor of the resolution, and observed that the species of information called for, had not been received by the House later than 1803.
Mr. Crowninshield was of opinion that it would be best to extend the resolution so as to embrace the British Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the provinces beyond the Cape of Good Hope.
A conversation of some length ensued between Messrs. Crowninshield, Bidwell, and Alston, on the one side; and Messrs. J. Randolph and J. Clay, on the other, on amending the resolution. The former gentlemen were for amending the resolution so as to embrace a period of peace as well as war, and to obtain information from “all the dependencies of Great Britain,” which the latter gentlemen opposed on various grounds, one of which was, that if this additional information were desirable, it could be obtained by a distinct resolution.
On Mr. Crowninshield’s motion to amend the resolution, so as to extend it to “British dependencies,” generally, the House divided—ayes 43, noes 67.
Mr. Nicholson suggested the propriety of adding the following words to the resolution, in which the mover acquiescing, they were incorporated into it:
“And also a statement showing in detail the quantity and value of the like articles of import brought into the United States, from other nations respectively, with the rate and amount of duty thereon.”
The resolution, thus modified, was agreed to without a division.
Mr. Crowninshield then moved the following resolution. He said, in substance it was the same with the amendment which he had proposed to the resolution of the gentleman from Virginia:
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before this House a statement of the amount of the exports and imports to and from the British dependencies, other than those of America, for the last two years.
This resolution was likewise agreed to without a division.