Wednesday, January 9.
District of Columbia.
Mr. Thatcher was opposed to the motion for a recession, and he had heard only two reasons urged in favor of the measure; that the exercise of exclusive legislation by Congress over the District of Columbia was attended with an undue expense of the public money, and occupied so much of their time, that the business of the Union was interrupted and put to a stand by the interference of the local concerns of this place. This statement he did not believe to be perfectly correct; no doubt some of their time was taken up, but he would leave it to every gentleman to say, whether, if they had even more business before them than they had, there was not time enough to transact it. The House usually sat from eleven o’clock until three; but it must have been frequently observed, that the adjournment took place much earlier for want of business to employ them. But he was not an advocate for the present mode of conducting the business of the district; it would perhaps be a better way to give them a subordinate government, controllable by Congress; or a committee of Congress might be appointed for the purpose. He did not see that the complaint of too much legislation was well founded, in any thing that had taken place during the present session. If the little labor they had to perform was too great for them, what must the labor of their predecessors have been, who had passed all the laws in existence for the government of the district, and yet he had never heard any complaint made by them on the ground now taken; they knew that the constitution enjoined upon them the duty of exercising exclusive legislation over the ten miles square, and they performed it with patient attention.
His mind revolted at the idea of recession. Gentlemen had contended that the powers exercised over the people of Columbia were derogatory of, and inconsistent with the principles of free government. Yet, what does this motion for recession propose? Why, to transfer them and the territory away, in the manner practised in Russia, in the transfer of provinces or manors, transferring the vassals with the soil. This may be truly called derogatory to the principles of freedom. Nor is this all; for you do not transfer them merely without their consent, but in the face of their serious remonstrances against the transfer.
Mr. Smilie advocated, and Messrs. Huger and Claiborne opposed the resolutions; when the question was taken on agreeing to the first resolution, for receding that part of the district formerly attached to Virginia, and passed in the negative—yeas 42, nays 62.
The question was then taken on the second resolution, for receding that part of the district, excepting the city of Washington, formerly attached to Maryland, and passed in the negative—yeas 42, nays 65.
The question was then taken by yeas and nays on agreeing to that part of the report which involved a disagreement to the first resolution, and carried affirmatively—yeas 87, nays 46, as follows:
Yeas.—Nathaniel Alexander, Simeon Baldwin, William Blackledge, Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, Joseph Bryan, George W. Campbell, John Campbell, Levi Casey, William Chamberlin, Martin Chittenden, Clifton Claggett, Thomas Claiborne, John Clopton, Frederick Conrad, Jacob Crowninshield, Manasseh Cutler, Richard Cutts, John Davenport, John Dennis, William Dickson, Thomas Dwight, John B. Earle, James Elliot, William Eustis, Calvin Goddard, Andrew Gregg, Gaylord Griswold, Roger Griswold, Seth Hastings, William Helms, David Holmes, David Hough, Benjamin Huger, Samuel Hunt, John G. Jackson, William Kennedy, Joseph Lewis, jun., Henry W. Livingston, Thomas Lowndes, John B. C. Lucas, Matthew Lyon, William McCreery, Nahum Mitchell, Thomas Moore, Roger Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, jun., Thomas Plater, Samuel D. Purviance, Thomas Sammons, Thomas Sanford, John Smith, Henry Southard, Joseph Stanton, William Stedman, James Stephenson, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, David Thomas, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, Philip Van Cortlandt, Isaac Van Horne, Peleg Wadsworth, Matthew Walton, Lemuel Williams, Marmaduke Williams, Richard Wynn, Joseph Winston, and Thomas Wynns.
Nays.—Willis Alston, jun., Isaac Anderson, John Archer, George Michael Bedinger, Phanuel Bishop, John Boyle, William Butler, Christopher Clark, Matthew Clay, John Dawson, Peter Early, Ebenezer Elmer, John W. Eppes, William Findlay, John Fowler, Edwin Gray, John A. Hanna, Josiah Hasbrouck, Joseph Heister, John Hoge, James Holland, Walter Jones, Simon Larned, Michael Leib, Andrew McCord, David Meriwether, Nicholas R. Moore, Jeremiah Morrow, James Mott, Gideon Olin, Beriah Palmer, John Randolph, John Rea, of Pennsylvania, John Rhea, of Tennessee, Jacob Richards, Samuel Riker, Erastus Root, Ebenezer Seaver, James Sloan, John Smilie, Richard Stanford, John Stewart, Joseph B. Varnum, Daniel C. Verplanck, John Whitehill, and Alexander Wilson.
Mr. Smilie moved to amend the second resolution by striking out the words “without the limits of the city of Washington,” so that the city as well as the other parts of the district might be receded.
Only twenty-one members rising in favor of this motion, it was lost.
The question was then taken by yeas and nays on agreeing to the report of the committee, involving a disagreement to the second resolution, and carried affirmatively—yeas 69, nays 39.
So the said motion was rejected.
The question was then taken on agreeing to the whole report of the committee, and carried—yeas 50, nays 28.