I have no idea of supporting questions of property upon grounds of mere policy; I shall never be inclined to squander millions of the public money, because a gang of swindling speculators may enter this House and prove troublesome to its members. The agents of these men have accidentally acknowledged that they cannot extinguish the Indian title, and, therefore, they cannot get possession of the land. What is a man to get by a contract, when it is impossible to comply with the terms? I was in hopes, that the representation from the State of Pennsylvania would have been unanimous on this question: they ought to know, from the salutary experience of their own State respecting land speculations, whether it relates to the Connecticut, Susquehanna, or Delaware Companies, who have kept a part of our State in a continual broil for fifty years, while another set of men, under the garb of the Population and Holland companies, have thrown their warrants over the north-western corner of the State, and are likely to defeat the great objects which the Legislature had in view, when they disposed of the lands to actual settlers alone. I trust, however, that they will be defeated, and that the courts of justice will determine the case in the manner in which it was recently decided. I regret that the oldest member of Congress from our State, should, at this late hour, abandon those republican principles which he has so long and so ably maintained, to support a band of Yazoo speculators. For my part, I must be an altered man indeed, if I ever consent to a compromise with a gang of speculators holding a title founded in fraud and speculation.
The yeas and nays were then taken on the resolution of the Committee of Claims, and decided in the affirmative—yeas 63, nays 58, as follows:
Yeas.—Willis Alston, jun., Simeon Baldwin, Silas Betton, Phanuel Bishop, Adam Boyd, John Boyle, John Campbell, William Chamberlin, Martin Chittenden, Clifton Claggett, Jacob Crowninshield, Manasseh Cutler, Richard Cutts, Samuel W. Dana, John Davenport, John Dawson, John Dennis, William Dickson, Thomas Dwight, James Elliot, Ebenezer Elmer, William Eustis, William Findlay, John Fowler, Calvin Goddard, Gaylord Griswold, Roger Griswold, Seth Hastings, William Helms, John Hoge, James Holland, David Hough, Benjamin Huger, Samuel Hunt, John G. Jackson, Nehemiah Knight, Simon Larned, Joseph Lewis, jr., Henry W. Livingston, Thomas Lowndes, Matthew Lyon, Nahum Mitchell, Jeremiah Morrow, James Mott, Thomas Plater, Samuel D. Purviance, Erastus Root, Henry Southard, Joseph Stanton, William Stedman, James Stephenson, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, Samuel Thatcher, David Thomas, George Tibbits, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Joseph B. Varnum, Peleg Wadsworth, Matthew Walton, Lemuel Williams, and Marmaduke Williams.
Nays.—Isaac Anderson, David Bard, George Michael Bedinger, William Blackledge, Walter Bowie, Robert Brown, Joseph Bryan, William Butler, Levi Casey, Thomas Claiborne, Christopher Clark, Joseph Clay, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Frederick Conrad, John B. Earle, John W. Eppes, Peterson Goodwyn, Andrew Gregg, Thomas Griffin, John A. Hanna, Josiah Hasbrouck, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, Walter Jones, William Kennedy, Michael Leib, John B. C. Lucas, Andrew McCord, David Meriwether, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore, Roger Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, jr., Joseph H. Nicholson, Gideon Olin, Beriah Palmer, John Randolph, Thomas M. Randolph, John Rea of Pennsylvania, Jacob Richards, Samuel Riker, Thomas Sammons, Thomas Sanford, Ebenezer Seaver, James Sloan, John Smilie, John Smith, Richard Stanford, John Stewart, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, Isaac Van Horne, John Whitehill, Alexander Wilson, Joseph Winston, and Thomas Wynns.
The resolution was of consequence agreed to.
Mr. J. Randolph.—On this question I have nothing more to say than to congratulate my friends on the vote just taken. We are strong in the cause of truth, and gentlemen will find that truth will ultimately prevail. When I compare the votes of this session with some of the votes of the last, my objections to refer this subject are almost done away. In whatever shape the subject may be again brought before the House, it will be my duty, and that of my friends, to manifest the same firm spirit of resistance, and to suffer no opportunity to pass of defeating a measure so fraught with mischief.
[On a subsequent day, a bill was introduced for compromising the claims; but it was not acted upon by the House during the remainder of the session.][26]
Wednesday, February 6.
Post Roads.
The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on a motion of the seventh of December last, respecting “the establishment of a post road from Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee, to the settlement on the Tombigbee River, in the Mississippi Territory, and from thence to New Orleans; also, for the establishment of a post road from Georgia to the settlements on the Tombigbee, to intersect the former road at the most convenient point between Knoxville and the Tombigbee;” to which Committee of the whole House were also referred on the tenth of the said month of December, and on the first instant, the report of a select committee, and a Message from the President of the United States, on the same subject.