Monday, March 31.
Yazoo Claims.
A message was received from the Senate informing the House that they had passed a bill to carry into effect the provisions of the eighth section of the “Act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee.”
The bill having been read the first time—
Mr. R. Nelson said he should not, on this occasion, go into an examination of the principles of the bill, as they were well understood by the House. They went to practise one of the grossest impositions he had ever known. In order to get rid of what he considered a stain on the statute book, and a disgrace to the nation, he moved that the bill be rejected.
The question was accordingly put from the Chair, “Shall the bill be rejected?”
On the motion of Mr. Leib, it was determined to take the yeas and nays.
The question was then put, Shall the bill be rejected? and passed in the affirmative—yeas 62, nays 54, as follows:
Yeas.—Isaac Anderson, David Bard, Burwell Bassett, George M. Bedinger, William Blackledge, John Blake, jun., Thomas Blount, Robert Brown, William Butler, Levi Casey, John Claiborne, Christopher Clark, Joseph Clay, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Frederick Conrad, John Dawson, Elias Earle, John W. Eppes, James M. Garnett, Peterson Goodwyn, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, Silas Halsey, John Hamilton, David Holmes, Walter Jones, Thomas Kenan, Michael Leib, Duncan McFarland, Robert Marion, Josiah Masters, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore, John Morrow, Gurdon S. Mumford, Roger Nelson, Thomas Newton, jun., Gideon Olin, John Pugh, John Randolph, Thomas M. Randolph, John Rea of Pennsylvania, Jacob Richards, Thomas Sammons, Thomas Sanford, Ebenezer Seaver, James Sloan, John Smilie, John Smith, Samuel Smith, Henry Southard, Thomas Spalding, Richard Stanford, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Whitehill, Robert Whitehill, David R. Williams, Alexander Wilson, Richard Wynn, and Joseph Winston.
Nays.—Willis Alston, jun., Joseph Barker, Silas Betton, Barnabas Bidwell, John Campbell, John Chandler, Martin Chittenden, Orchard Cook, Jacob Crowninshield, Richard Cutts, Samuel W. Dana, Ezra Darby, John Davenport, jun., William Dickson, James Elliot, Caleb Ellis, Ebenezer Elmer, William Ely, William Findlay, James Fisk, John Fowler, Isaiah L. Green, Seth Hastings, William Helms, David Hough, John G. Jackson, James Kelly, Joseph Lewis, jun., Matthew Lyon, William McCreery, Jeremiah Morrow, Jonathan O. Mosely, Jeremiah Nelson, Timothy Pitkin, jun., Josiah Quincy, John Russell, Peter Sailly, Martin G. Schuneman, John Cotton Smith, Joseph Stanton, William Stedman, Lewis B. Sturges, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, David Thomas, Thomas W. Thompson, Uri Tracy, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Joseph B. Varnum, Peleg Wadsworth, Eliphalet Wickes, Marmaduke Williams, and Nathan Williams.
So the bill was rejected.
Mr. J. Randolph moved that the House adjourn. He said that a few days ago the House had adjourned on account of the death of General Jackson. He hoped they would now adjourn on account of his resurrection. For he had told him, that if he could give a death-blow to the Yazoo business he should die in peace. Adjourned, yeas 58.