[The following gentlemen compose this committee: Messrs. Tallmadge, Clay, Butler, Rea of Pennsylvania, Weakley, Hale, Turner.]
7. Resolved, That so much of the Message of the President of the United States as relates to the finances of the United States, be referred to the Committee of Ways and Means.
8. Resolved, That so much of the Message of the President of the United States as relates to the fortifications of the ports and harbors of the United States, be referred to a select committee.
[This committee is composed of the following gentlemen: Messrs. Clopton, John Porter, Emott, McKim, Gardner, McBryde, and Witherspoon.]
Monday, December 4.
Several other members to wit: from Maryland, Alexander McKim; from North Carolina, Thomas Kenan; from South Carolina, Robert Witherspoon; from Kentucky, Henry Crist; and from Georgia, William W. Bibb, appeared, and took their seats in the House.
Committee of Manufactures.
Mr. Sawyer asked leave to lay upon the table the following resolution, of a nature similar to one which he had proposed at the last session, which, from the shortness of the session, he presumed, rather than from any unfriendly disposition, never had been acted on:
Resolved, That a standing committee be appointed, to be called the Committee of Manufactures, whose duty it shall be to take into consideration all such petitions, matters, and things, touching manufactures, as shall be presented, or shall or may come in question and be referred to them by the House, and to report, from time to time, their opinion thereon.
Mr. S. said it was certainly too much to expect any one committee to do justice to two such important subjects, becoming daily more so, as those of commerce and manufactures. He wished to have employed on the subject of manufactures the undivided energies of the best talents of the House; he hoped that all the rays of patriotism and genius in the House would be directed to this subject as to a focal point at which they should all converge. How could one committee properly attend to the mass of business before the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures? The subject confided to them could not be acted on, and yet important matters were continually dropping into this gulf of oblivion. This committee, however, did all that could be expected of them; he did not believe that any member of it was hostile to manufactures; he could answer for the chairman, (Mr. Newton,) whom he knew to be friendly to manufactures, both from precept and example. It was because it was impossible for the committee to attend to all the business before it, that he offered the resolution.