The question now recurred on Mr. Bibb's amendment, to insert, in lieu of those stricken out, several new sections.
[Mr. Bibb's amendment proposes that the right of the United States shall be vested in the Corporation of New Orleans, so as to enable them to defend any suit which may be instituted for the recovery of the batture, and that the batture shall be used and enjoyed as a public highway and landing place, &c.; as well by citizens of the United States as by the inhabitants of New Orleans.]
This motion was decided by yeas and nays and lost—yeas 36, nays 84.
Saturday March 31.
The Batture at New Orleans.
The House resumed the consideration of the unfinished business of yesterday, on the bill providing the means to ascertain the title to the batture in front of the suburb St. Mary, in the city of New Orleans.
The question having recurred on the amendment of Mr. Pitkin, the said amendment was withdrawn by the mover.
The question was then taken on concurring with the Committee of the Whole in their first amendment to the said bill, and carried in the affirmative.
The question then recurred on concurring with the Committee of the Whole House in their second amendment to the said bill, amended in the House to read as follows:
"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized, at any time within one year, to make and execute such compromise with the parties, or any of them, who were removed from the said batture on the twenty-fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eight, by order of the President of the United States, and to procure a cession of their claims thereto, or to any part thereof, for the use of the public, or to any body politic or corporate, on such terms as may be agreed on with the said parties, and deemed advisable by the President, and to stipulate for a compensation, either in money or public lands, in the city of New Orleans, or its territories, as he may think proper."