Thursday, February 2.
Erection of Louisiana into two Territories.
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill erecting Louisiana into two Territories, and making provision for the temporary government thereof; and on motion to strike out the eighth section of the original bill, amended as follows:
“Sec. 8. The residue of the province of Louisiana, ceded to the United States, shall remain under the same name and form of government as heretofore, save only that the executive and judicial powers exercised by the former government of the province shall now be transferred to a Governor, to be appointed by the President of the United States: and that the powers exercised by the commandant of a post or district shall be hereafter vested in a civil officer, to be appointed by the President in the recess of the Senate, but to be nominated at the next meeting thereof for their advice and consent; under the orders of which commandant the officers, troops, and militia of his station shall be; who, in cases where the military have been used, under the laws heretofore existing, shall act by written orders and not in person; and the salary of the said officers, respectively, shall not exceed the rate of —— dollars per annum. The President of the United States, however, may unite the districts of two or more commandants of posts into one, where their proximity or ease of intercourse will permit without injury to the inhabitants thereof. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of —— dollars, payable quarter-yearly at the Treasury of the United States:”
It passed in the affirmative—yeas 16, nays 9, as follows:
Yeas.—Messrs. Adams, Anderson, Armstrong, Breckenridge, Cocke, Condit, Franklin, Hillhouse, Maclay, Olcott, Pickering, Plumer, J. Smith, Stone, Venable, and Worthington.
Nays.—Messrs. Baldwin, Brown, Dayton, Ellery, Jackson, Nicholas, Potter, S. Smith, and Wright.