The order of the day, viz: the bill concerning the Naval Establishment, was then taken up, and the question on agreeing to the report of the Committee of the Whole, to fill up the blank in the section providing a dock yard, with one hundred thousand dollars, being under consideration, Mr. Cheves stated the grounds upon which the committee had recommended this provision of the bill, and replied to some remarks of his colleague (Mr. Williams) made yesterday.
Mr. Rhea then moved to strike out the whole section in relation to the dock yard; which, after some little debate, was carried—yeas 56, nays 52.
Mr. Blackledge moved a new section to the bill, providing for the building of four seventy-four gunships. As an inducement to the House to adopt this new section, he stated there were sufficient timber and guns on hand; that the whole expense would not exceed $1,300,000, and the guns and timber being already provided, an appropriation of $824,000 only, would be necessary to complete them.
The question was negatived—yeas 33, nays 76.
The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading to-morrow.
Monday, March 2.
Divorces in the District.
Mr. Lewis, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, made the following report:
The Committee for the District of Columbia, to whom were referred the petitions of Jane Deakins, praying for a divorce from William Deakins, and of David Beck, praying for a divorce from Ellen, his wife, submit the following report:
The only object which the petitioners can have in view is to be enabled, respectively, to enter into new contracts of marriage. Were marriages only a civil institution, the courts of law would be open to all parties seeking the redress now prayed for, for alleged breach of the marriage contract: but it is something more; it is a divine ordinance, and has been pronounced such by the highest legal as well as spiritual authority. The competency of any human tribunal to dissolve its sacred obligations may well be doubted. The justice or policy, under any circumstances, of weakening the matrimonial institution, upon the purity of which depends the very fabric of society itself, may be boldly denied. Divorces are not merely the effect of corruption of manners; they are the cause also. They hold out temptations to crime which human infirmity cannot at all times resist. They hold out incentives to that adultery which they are called in to remedy. Extreme cases may indeed be put, but they are rare; both parties are generally in fault. Shall a very few individuals, who present themselves in a questionable shape, be debarred from contracting a second marriage, or shall the foundations of society be loosened for their special accommodation? Shall the heaviest public injury be encountered for the convenience of those, who, for the most part, have shown how little reliance is to be placed upon their virtue or discretion? Shall incentives to nuptial infidelity be presented to the great body of society for the personal gratification of a few unfortunate members, diffusing dissatisfaction and discontent, where, but for the deceitful hope of divorce, they had never been known?