Mr. Masters said if there was any subject in favor of which a petition should not be referred, it was the slave trade. These petitioners knew when the prohibitory law would go into operation, and they were not entitled to relief by the laws of God or man.
The motion for reference was negatived—yeas 37, nays 39.
Thursday, December 31.
General Wilkinson.
Mr. Randolph then rose for the purpose of making a motion, and giving information to the House which he had just received. This was a duty which he owed, not only to himself, but to the enlightened and independent freeholders who gave him a seat on this floor, and to the country at large. Within a few days, information had been put into his possession, of a nature and on a subject which he deemed it proper for the constituted authority to inquire into. Had this information come earlier into his possession, he should not till now have delayed giving it publicity. He would first state certain facts, and those facts would be the ground of his motion, on which he should offer no argument. Mr. R. then read the following documents:
[TRANSLATION.]
New Orleans, January 20, 1796.
In the galley the Victoria, Bernardo Molina, Patron, there have been sent to Don Vincent Folch nine thousand six hundred and forty dollars; which sum, without making the least use of it, you will hold at my disposal, to deliver it at the moment that an order may be presented to you by the American General, Don James Wilkinson. God preserve you many years.
The BARON DE CARONDELET.
To Señor Don Tomas Portell.