Mr. Griswold said, though they had not expressly styled themselves circuit judges, yet they had stated that they had been appointed circuit judges under a law of the United States. They had therefore virtually so styled themselves.
A few words were added by Mr. Eustis against it, and by Messrs. Randolph and Nicholson in favor of striking out the words, when the question was taken by yeas and nays and carried—yeas 50, nays 47.
And then the main question being taken, that the House do agree to the resolution reported from the Committee of the whole House, amended to read as follows:
Resolved, That the prayer of the petitions of William Tilghman, Oliver Wolcott, Richard Bassett, Charles Magill, Samuel Hitchcock, Benjamin Bourne, Egbert Benson, Philip B. Key, William Griffith, Jeremiah Smith and George K. Taylor, ought not to be granted; and that the petitioners have leave to withdraw their petitions.
It was resolved in the affirmative, yeas 61, nays 37, as follows:
Yeas.—Willis Alston, John Archer, John Bacon, Phanuel Bishop, Walter Bowie, Richard Brent, Robert Brown, William Butler, Samuel J. Cabell, Thomas Claiborne, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, John Condit, Richard Cutts, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, William Dickson, Peter Early, Lucas Elmendorph, Ebenezer Elmer, William Eustis, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, John A. Hanna, Daniel Heister, Joseph Heister, William Helms, William Hoge, James Holland, David Holmes, George Jackson, Michael Leib, David Meriwether, Samuel L. Mitchill, Thomas Moore, James Mott, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, jun., Joseph H. Nicholson, John Randolph, jr., John Smilie, Israel Smith, John Smith, (of New York,) John Smith, (of Virginia,) Josiah Smith, Samuel Smith, Henry Southard, Richard Stanford, Joseph Stanton, John Stewart, John Taliaferro, jr., David Thomas, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Philip Van Cortlandt, Joseph B. Varnum, Isaac Van Horne, Robert Williams, Richard Winn, and Thomas Wynns.
Nays.—Thomas Boude, John Campbell, Manasseh Cutler, Samuel W. Dana, John Davenport, John Dennis, Abiel Foster, Calvin Goddard, Roger Griswold, William Barry Grove, Seth Hastings, Joseph Hemphill, Archibald Henderson, William H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, Samuel Hunt, Thomas Lowndes, Ebenezer Mattoon, Lewis R. Morris, Thomas Morris, Elias Perkins, Thomas Plater, Nathan Read, John Rutledge, William Shepard, John Cotton Smith, John Stanley, John Stratton, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, Samuel Thatcher, Thomas Tillinghast, George B. Upham, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Peleg Wadsworth, Lemuel Williams, and Henry Woods.
Friday, January 28.
Presents to a Minister's Wife.
Mr. Speaker laid before the House a letter from Col. Humphreys, late Minister at the Court of Madrid, stating that, when he was about to leave that Court, the Minister of State urged his acceptance of the customary present from His Majesty. Col. Humphreys informed him that he could not, consistently with the constitution of his Government, accept the present. The Minister continued to press the acceptance, and urged that as he was no longer an officer of the United States, there could be no impropriety in his receiving it. Col. H. replied that, though he was then out of office, there would still, in his opinion, be an indelicacy in the acceptance, and that if he should receive the present designed for him, he should consider it as his duty to deliver it into the hands of the President of the United States, to be disposed of at the pleasure of the Government.