The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House on the report of the committee to whom was referred so much of the message from the President of the United States, of the seventeenth instant, as relates to the disposition of Indian lands by the Legislature of the State of Georgia.
Mr. Ames said, that during the time when the National Debt bill was under discussion, he had attempted to get something introduced in favor of the new emission money creditors, but gentlemen always rose en masse against any proposal that would tend to obstruct the progress of the bill. He now again urged that this affair might be taken into consideration. He knew he should be told of a standing rule of the House that the unfinished business must first be taken up. These creditors had waited for four years without redress, and the rules of the House ought to give way to common feeling and common sense. He therefore moved that the rule in question should be suspended.
The motion was negatived, and the House then went into a committee upon the second and remaining resolutions in the report of the select committee on the Message of the President.
The following is a copy of the third and fourth resolutions in this report:
"Resolved, That the President of the United States be authorized, whenever claims under prior contracts may cease to exist, to obtain a cession of the State of Georgia, of their claim to the whole or any part of the land within the present Indian boundaries; and that —— dollars ought to be appropriated to enable him to effect the same.
"Resolved, That all persons who shall be assembled, or embodied in arms, on any lands belonging to Indians, out of the ordinary jurisdiction of any State, or of the territory south of the river Ohio, for the purpose of warring against the Indians, or committing depredations upon any Indian town, or persons, or property, shall thereby become liable and subject to the rules and articles of war, which are, or shall be established for the government of the troops of the United States."
After some discussion, the committee rose; the Chairman reported progress, and asked leave to sit again. This was negatived—yeas 33, nays 35.
The House then took up the resolutions. Various amendments were proposed; and the last resolution, in particular, was objected to, as subjecting people to martial law.
Mr. Wadsworth said, that from a trial by jury he had no hopes. There never had been one instance of a white man condemned and hanged by white men, on the frontier, for the murder of an Indian, since the first landing in America. There might be such a thing for the murder of an Indian, when they lived among the whites. That there ever had been such a thing he did not know. He had been told by judges, upon the frontier, that it was no matter what evidence of a murder of an Indian was brought. No jury would bring the criminal in guilty. It was but very lately that a cool and unprovoked murder had been committed on the borders of this State upon an Indian. The evidence was clear. Nobody pretended to doubt it. The judge gave an earnest charge to the jury; but all to no purpose; they found "not guilty."
Mr. Sedgwick proposed an amendment to the last resolution, as follows: