Messrs. Freeman, Sherburne, and Van Cortlandt are absent on leave.
Mr. Duvall has resigned, and his successor has not yet taken his seat.
From which it is evident that there is an actual majority of the House against the expediency of carrying the Treaty into execution.]
Saturday, April 30.
Execution of British Treaty.
The House then took up the resolution yesterday passed in a Committee of the Whole, for carrying into effect the Treaty lately negotiated with Great Britain: when
Mr. Dearborn said, as it appeared that a majority of that House was in favor of carrying into effect the British Treaty, notwithstanding several of those gentlemen who had declared their intention of voting for it, had declared they thought it a bad Treaty, and as he wished to see the opinion the House entertained of the Treaty entered upon their journals, he took the liberty of proposing an amendment to the resolution in the following words:
"Resolved, That, although in the opinion of this House the Treaty is highly objectionable, and may prove injurious to the United States, yet, considering all the circumstances relating thereto, and particularly, that the last eighteen articles are to continue in force only during the present war, and two years thereafter, and confiding also in the efficacy of measures that may be taken for bringing about a discontinuance of the violations committed on our neutral rights, in regard to our vessels and seamen, therefore, &c."
Mr. Coit hoped the yeas and nays would be taken upon the question; which was agreed to.
Mr. Goodhue hoped the House would not agree to the resolution; he, for one, would never agree to it.