Resolved, That, from and after the —— day of —— next, no goods, wares, or merchandise, shall be exported from, or imported into, the United States or the territories thereof, in any ship or vessel whatever, to or from any European colonies or settlements, situated on the eastern side of the continent of America, or its adjacent seas, northward of the Equator, unless the importation of all articles of the growth, product, or manufacture of the United States and their territories, in American bottoms, is at all times admitted into the said colonies, or settlements, and unless the exportation of the productions of the said colonies, or settlements, is permanently allowed in American bottoms from the same to the United States, and the territories thereof.
Wednesday, February 12.
Limits of Georgia.
Mr. Spalding, from the committee to whom was referred, on the thirteenth ultimo, the memorial of the Legislature of the State of Georgia, made a report thereon, which was read, as follows:
The committee to whom was referred the memorial of the Legislature of the State of Georgia, respecting disputed limits between that State and the State of North Carolina, having taken into consideration the matter of the said memorial, as well as such information as the documents attached to the memorial and former reports made to this House afford, beg leave to submit the following report:
Between the latitude of 35 degrees north, which is the southern boundary claimed by North Carolina, and the northern boundary of Georgia, as settled by a convention between that State and South Carolina, intervenes a tract of country supposed to be about twelve miles wide, from north to south, and extending in length from the western boundary of Georgia, at Nicajack on the Tennessee, to her north-eastern limits, on the Tugalo. This tract was consequently within the limits of South Carolina, and in the year 1787 it was ceded to the United States, who accepted the cession. This territory remained in possession of the United States until 1802, when it was ceded to the State of Georgia. From the most correct information relative to the said territory, it appears that it is inhabited by about 800 souls, and (to adopt the words of a former report) it is not shown at what period they made the settlement, nor had they any title to the land on which they settled and made improvements. No such title indeed could have been created, as those lands remained within the boundary of the Cherokees until the year 1798, when a part of this territory was purchased by a treaty held at Tellico. It does not appear that the lines that bound the tract of land in question, and divide it from Carolina, have ever been established by public authority.
After the transfer of this territory by the United States to Georgia, the Legislature of that State, in compliance with the earnest request of those self-governed people, praying that they might be allowed to participate in the civil rights enjoyed in common by the people of the United States, passed an act in the year 1803 to organize the inhabited part of the territory, and to form it into a county, authorizing, at the same time, the Governor to appoint commissioners, to meet such commissioners as should be appointed by the Government of North Carolina to ascertain and plainly mark the line dividing this territory from North Carolina. The Governor of North Carolina expressed a readiness to accede to the proposition, under the provisions of a former act of the Legislature of that State, but clogged with a condition which the Legislature of North Carolina refused to depart from, and which the Legislature of Georgia refused to accede to. Her reason may be found in a letter from General Pickens, of the State of South Carolina, attached to a report made to the House respecting that territory while the property of the United States. The letter states, that before the people inhabiting that territory settled on the lands, it was surveyed, and grants obtained for most part of it from the State of North Carolina, and probably by men who cared little whether the land was within the Indian claim or the limits of South Carolina. Your committee conceive that they have no right to enter into the feelings of either of the parties, or to pronounce upon the justice of the condition made by North Carolina on the one part, or its rejection by Georgia on the other, and have therefore confined their attention to that part of the memorial which calls upon Congress to define and mark out the thirty-fifth degree of latitude—the line which North Carolina admits to bound her State—upon the south and north of which Georgia can have no claim of territory. Your committee, after giving to this point the most deliberate consideration, are of opinion that the United States are bound, in good faith, to use their friendly offices with the State of North Carolina for obtaining an amicable adjustment of the limits of the territory, which they have transferred to Georgia, in all parts where such limits may be disputed.
Your committee, therefore, beg leave to offer the following resolution:
Resolved, That the President of the United States be authorized to appoint a commissioner, to meet such commissioners as may be appointed by the States of North Carolina and Georgia, for the purpose of ascertaining and running the line which divides the territory transferred by the United States to Georgia, from North Carolina.
The report was read, and referred to a Committee of the whole House on Friday next.