“Sec. 8. The residue of the province of Louisiana, ceded to the United States, shall remain under the same name and form of government as heretofore, save only that the executive and judicial powers exercised by the former government of the province shall now be transferred to a Governor, to be appointed by the President of the United States: and that the powers exercised by the commandant of a post or district shall be hereafter vested in a civil officer, to be appointed by the President in the recess of the Senate, but to be nominated at the next meeting thereof for their advice and consent; under the orders of which commandant the officers, troops, and militia of his station shall be; who, in cases where the military have been used, under the laws heretofore existing, shall act by written orders and not in person; and the salary of the said officers, respectively, shall not exceed the rate of —— dollars per annum. The President of the United States, however, may unite the districts of two or more commandants of posts into one, where their proximity or ease of intercourse will permit without injury to the inhabitants thereof. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of —— dollars, payable quarter-yearly at the Treasury of the United States:”
It passed in the affirmative—yeas 16, nays 9, as follows:
Yeas.—Messrs. Adams, Anderson, Armstrong, Breckenridge, Cocke, Condit, Franklin, Hillhouse, Maclay, Olcott, Pickering, Plumer, J. Smith, Stone, Venable, and Worthington.
Nays.—Messrs. Baldwin, Brown, Dayton, Ellery, Jackson, Nicholas, Potter, S. Smith, and Wright.
Tuesday, February 7.
Erection of Louisiana into two Territories.
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill erecting Louisiana into two Territories, and making provision for the temporary government thereof, and agreed to sundry amendments; and on motion to agree to a further amendment, as follows:
“Sec. 7. All free male white persons, who are housekeepers, and who shall have resided one year at least in the said Territory, shall be qualified to serve as grand or petit jurors in the courts of the said Territory; and they shall, until the Legislature thereof shall otherwise direct, be selected in such manner as the judges of the said courts, respectively, shall prescribe, so as to be most conducive to an impartial trial, and to be least burdensome to the inhabitants of the said Territory:”
A motion was made to strike out from the beginning, to the words “and they,” inclusive, for the purpose of inserting, “persons to serve as grand and petit jurors in the courts of the said Territory.”
A division of the question was called for, and that it first be taken on striking out; and on the question, Shall these words be struck out? it was passed in the negative—yeas 10, nays 18, as follows: