The national intelligencer and Washington advertiser. (Washington City [D.C.]), 1804-09-21 00:00:00

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, AND WASHINGTON ADVERTISER.
VOL. IV.
WASHINGTON CITY, PRINTED BY SAMUEL HARRISON SMITH, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.
DCXVIII.
FIVE DOLLS. PER ANN.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 st , 1804.
PAID IN ADVANCE.
CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
SATURDAY, March 10, 1804.
DEBATE on Georgia Claims.
MR. T. M. RANDOLPH.—Mr. Speaker, I hope the House will not consent to postpone these resolutions. I hope it will on the contrary immediately proceed to consider them and conclude by adopting them, for taken generally they meet my warm approbation as to the principles they lay down, and I am anxious to see the last one, which is the fair corollary of the other, incorporated into the bill now before us.
It is with reluctance I trouble the House this session, after so long forbearance, with my opinions and sentiments not yet sufficiently matured by any experience in legislation; but my opinion on this question is so decided, my sentiments at this moment are so strong, and I know them to be so consonant to those relative to this subject, which are most prevalent in that district of Virginia I have the honor to represent, that my inclination and my duty combined impel me irresistibly to make an attempt to communicate them. Besides when an opinion must be publicly pronounced as mine must be in giving my vote on this question, and it appears to be obnoxious, perhaps I might say unsafe, to assign in bold and apt words the reasons which give rise to it, then in my mind it is not many to retain or to veil those reasons. When hatred, it may be, danger, is likely to ensue from the declaration of truth then above all times I deem it my duty to utter it, for when many decline that necessary service, none of those who are willing to undertake it, can be spared. I have little hope of performing this task in an impressive and agreeable, or even in a smooth manner, but I shall perform it. To do what I conceive to be my duty is my business: the peculiar manner in which I do it is the necessary result of that manner in which nature has formerly done her duty towards me.
My opinion is that it will cast a broad stain on the American character, as it must be exhibited in future history, for this body which represents it to grant compensation for their pretended losses, under whatever form ingenuity may invent to disguise it, to any of those adventurers who made the spurious contract with Georgia in the year 1795, for the purchase of her western territory, upon the ground that the fictitious bargain gave the least shadow of title to any part of that territory. This opinion is a conviction irresistibly given to my mind by an impartial investigation, that what were at that time called companies of land adventurers, were with the exception of one or two misled individuals, whose delusion and consequent implication I sincerely lament, no other, in their conduct on this occasion, than shameless bands of sharpsers: that what was imprudently called a contract, was in reality a fraud of unprecedented enormity, and what has since been declared an unjust interposition of the primary sovereign authority of the state to cancel a fair bargain was no more than the regular and proper application of the only sufficient means which could be used to redress a cheat upon the people of Georgia of unparalleled audacity and magnitude. I am sorry by entertaining this opinion to differ from so many on this floor, with whom it is my pride to think, but I am not much surprised at that difference. Very rarely indeed have I heard of important questions which did not divide opinions: never have I been present at a criminal trial where numbers did not doubt the reality of the crime. Such is the difference in the impression made by the same testimony upon different minds. Were it not for this extraordinary circumstance in our nature which almost precludes unanimity, and which completely defies explanation upon any general principles of the moral structure of man, there would be but one sentiment in this House upon the question now before it. The information which has satisfied my mind I have derived from the declarations of the counties of Georgia, in their petitions and remonstrances presented to the convention of that state, which assembled in the month of May, 1795; from the acknowledgment made by that convention of the dignity of those applications, and the respect due to them, in the resolutions which referred the matter they contained to the consideration of the succeeding legislature; from the proceedings of the
general assembly of 1796, upon that matter, and the evidence it collected and recorded relative thereto, and lastly, from certain declarations and provisions confirming those proceedings, and thereby establishing that evidence, which were made by the convention of 1798, and which exist now in the body of the present constitution of Georgia. The same means of information are within the reach of all: I ought to say possessed by all: I might say should be satisfactory to all, since the witnesses are the great body of the people, of one of our most respectable states, and the testimony is authenticated, confirmed, and preserved, as well by the constitutional, as the ordinary code of that state.
It has not been my object in making this enquiry to learn in what deep sharper's brain this scheme was first engendered, which of the associates stood most prominent in the development and execution of it: how the price paid for the flagrant treason against posterity was apportioned, or how the spoil obtained by such a stupendous larceny committed upon the inheritance of the unborn was divided. I have not desired to know, and it would be unimportant to the House to be informed which of the associates had no moral sense at all, whose conscience was subdued by his avarice, or who unthinkingly gave the control of it into the hands of his friend. I desire not to see any name consigned to infamy: of those which have come to my knowledge, one or two I yet respect; the remainder have not more distinct images annexed to them, in my mind, than those of the men who conceived and executed the South Sea cheat in England, or the Mississippi fraud in France. But from the investigation I have made, I have learned as certainly as the actions of men can be known to any others than the actual beholders of them, that the legislature of Georgia which commenced its session in the autumn of 1794, was assailed by every possible artifice of seduction, to procure from it the act of 7 th January, 1795, which constituted what has since been imprudently called the Yazoo contract. That it yielded to those artifices, and a considerable majority of its members became treacherous to their constituents, and deaf to the voice of their honor. That bribes were daringly offered and unblushingly received for votes in favor of the land. That the property of the state of Georgia, to the amount of fifty millions of dollars, at the most reasonable estimate, was sold by those trustees of the people of Georgia for one half million, and purchased by the sellers themselves, in combination with certain abject work-hoppers of gold, who had artfully insinuated into them their blind fanaticism. That another offer of four-fifths of a million, made by other men at the same time, was rejected, because the legislature itself was concerned in the first. That the chief magistrate of the state, after one feeble effort of resistance, and a declaration which ought to have bound him to an obstinate opposition, with a conduct, which to my mind manifests a thorough knowledge of the corrupt views of the legislature, as well as a want of energy to defeat them, yielded to the impulse, and ratified the fraudulent act. That the moment his irrefutable hand gave the illusive sanction to the vain and ineffectual deed, this ravenous pack of speculators, keen with the hunger of avarice, unkenneled and scoured the whole peopled territory of the union in quest of their appropriate game, the simple, the credulous, and those who are hoodwinked by the excess of their own cupidity. The most voracious of them sought the great cities, where numbers of the thirsty souls of gain became their prey, while numbers more joined in the promising chase, led the way to the victims, and fattened on their spoil. Many more fell in their nature, though less keen in their appetites for gold, traversed the tranquil country of New-England, scenting the homely parties which hung in the smoky corner of peaceful cottages, into which the solitary dollar had been dropped with religious punctiliousness every week, perhaps every month only by the hand of the provident father, from the time when the first birth under his roof had gladdened his heart. Great numbers of these receptacles of hard earned gain, with all their rich treasure, the fruit of long continued industry and frugality, destined to endure to many of the rising race, the innocent joys of a life of wholesome exertion in their own fields, were devoured by them, and that happy deluding in a moment changed for a short period of certain pain, and probable vice in the moving prisons of the ocean.
The promulgation of the law produced one general murmur of indignation throughout the state of Georgia. The crime committed by the representatives of the people was ironically denounced by the grand juries of all the succeeding courts. An assembly of special representatives, which had been framed for constitutional purposes, meeting in the succeeding spring, was addressed by all the counties of the state, by nearly the whole people of it, with memorials, remonstrances, petitions according to the different degrees of excitement, all setting forth in strong terms the nefarious act, complaining with bitterness of the perfidy of the legislature, requiring, urging, imploring the convention to proclaim the fact, and annul the fraudulent sale. No laborious investigation into the huge and naked scheme of reculation, no troublesome search after testimony to expose the framer of it, was necessary. Nothing was requisite but to receive, condense, and record the decisive evidence voluntarily offered from all quarters. But this legitimate and easy task, the convention naturally enough, thought fit to decline as many of its members were themselves openly concerned and many more secretly interested in the purchase. The pack of speculators were then in full cry, the game were falling abundantly into their jaws: it could scarcely be expected that those who had contributed so much to set this chase on foot, who expected to share so largely in its profits should found the horn of alarm to the objects of it. It quickly occurred to a majority of this body that a reference of these addresses to the legislature of the next year would not only give time for the continuance of the chase, but might be productive of something like fatry in the later possession of the spoil of it; while it promised to afford some shield against the popular discontent and indignation which a total neglect, so desirable to themselves, must inevitably have brought on them. Notwithstanding before midsummer of the same year the fraudulency and consequent invalidity of the sale must have been unequivocally known throughout the union by the ferment in the state of Georgia. Early in the succeeding year all the records of state relative to this transaction were publicly burned, and all recorded evidences of private contracts which had arisen out of the land were cancelled, destroyed, and forbidden to be renewed or afterwards admitted in the courts by the legislature acting under the authority to consider the matter, and of course the power to redress the complaint of the petitions which had been given to it by the convention, and also under the express injunctions of the people themselves laid on the individual members of that body at the elections. But the speed of the sharpsers had outstripped the slow step of the state. They had in a great measure executed their swindling scheme, and numbers of their dupes were already, instead of amusing their own credulity, insincerely and falsely, I will say, accusing the perfidy of Georgia.
Thus was a blot made which never can be completely expunged from the page of American History. It is local however, and as yet stains but one small spot of that fair sheet. And shall this body, the genuine representative of the American nation, influenced by the clamor of sharpsers and the complaints of their dupes, by admitting the bill now pending before it, by refusing their counteraeting resolutions proposed to it, extend it over the whole.
I trust we will not. I feel confident we shall by adopting the one and rejecting the other, diminish the disgusting spot, to that it shall scarcely be offensive to the eye of the reader of distant futurity. If we do not, it must appear to that eye deeper than any stain of venality in the annals of that nation which affects to believe that corruption is politically wholesome: blacker than any blot ever thrown upon that page by the unnatural alliance of Christian avarice with Mahometan cruelty against that devoted country for the oppression and ruin of which all the vices of the cross & the crimes of the crescent seem to have combined, inasmuch as we declare public and private morals to be the only pillar which can support our system, while they openly avow the desire of gain to be the most valuable string of human actions. Let us not shew to day that our belief is feigned. Let us demonstrate it to be ferious. Let us go farther and display the same tenderness to
*Compare the lists of associates of the four companies as far as they have been brought out with the list of members of the convention.
the future character of the American nation of our time which we individually feel for that private fame we are respectively to leave with our fellow citizens hereafter. We may afterwards yield to the impulse of charitable feelings and relieve by moderate grants of land, and land only I hope, all those sufferers who are entirely innocent of this crime and sincerely ignorant of its perpetration. That innocence and ignorance, or the contrary guilt and acquaintance with the fraud, can be collected with considerable certainty by an attention to the times and places in the written evidences of the pretended claims, as they must display the information relative to the nature of the transaction which might and ought to have been possessed by the purchasers. Some atonement is due from the state of Georgia for the perfidy of so many of her exalted citizens. She has acknowledged that it is due: she has provided for making it by placing five millions of acres of land in our hands as a fund for that and certain other purposes. The task of applying that fund we have, willingly assumed. Is it possible we can coolly resolve in performing the voluntary service to insult, most grossly to insult, that respectable state by granting any part of that fund to men whom it has stigmatized, whose conduct in this affair has in its primary sovereign capacity solemnly pronounced infamous, and whom its representatives on this floor continue still, by the part they take in this question, bitterly to denounce. Surely it is not possible we can give this insult to the state of Georgia. We know she must have intended, if not, that an exact discrimination should be made, at least that a complete exclusion of all the parties to the original fraud and all the notorious propagators of the milchiefs of it should be effected. For myself I believe the former was the intention, as I know it now to be the will of Georgia. What will the people of that state think of our conduct if we act otherwise? What should we think of trustees who should render inaccurate expressions in an instrument of trust: bestow upon the highwaymen or incendiaries themselves the best part of a donation placed in their hands by charitable persons for the relief of sufferers: by highway robbery or by wilful burning? I trust we shall apply this fund for the relief of the real sufferers. I know that it is greatly more than sufficient for that purpose, and I hope the United States will not be forced by Congress to assume a heavy debt for the increase of it, in order that it may be extended farther than charity or justice requires, to objects on which benevolence could not look and at which justice shakes her head. I trust we will revive the hopes of those good parents of whom I have spoken, we will restore the destiny of their injured children, but I cannot believe we will consent to admit to a share of the bounty of Georgia along with them, the wicked contrivers of their distress. Those Eagles in human shape although they were driven with disgrace from the gigantic prey at which they had audaciously stooped, have born afar immense booty in their rapacious talons. I am assured that somewhat more than a million of dollars has been truly smelted by them all from their fraudulent sales and that of the half million which was paid to Georgia for a property worth then 40 millions and rapidly rising in value, till checked by a late occurrence, five sixth parts has been withdrawn by them with her permission from her treasury, where it lay defied and untouched as polluted trash. Not yet glutted, they now threaten, insolently threaten, to return to the rescued prey, and, under assumed, for ought I know innocent names, boldly solicit ten millions from the nation as the price of their abandonment of it. Nay, they have become so fastidious at length, that they now disdain any portion of the desired prey itself. They require their indemnity for its having been forced out of their talons in American stock. Yazoo stock! Ten millions of Yazoo stock! Heaven preserve our ears from this frightful sound. That of Algerine tribute has always been so distressing to mine that I have often wished the nation would risk some of its blood to purchase the eternal suppressi-
† Those who have sold deny that more than a trifle over a million has been received in the whole; those who have bought declared they have paid three millions. What has become of the difference? It has never existed.
‡ See proposition 2 and 3 made to the Commissioners of the United States by Hull, Morton, Dexter, Payne, &c. the names now assumed.
on of it. When once they become subject to be assailed in passing the walls of our treasury by the hideous note of Yazoo stock, from that moment they must become forever callous to all tones which convey the infamy of my country. What excuse can we make to the nation for not carefully excluding them from the additional emolument by their iniquity, which they now boldly expect? Can we say there are no discriminating powers at our command, by which we can separate the real sufferers by their fraud from the contrivers of it, and the false propagators of its milchiefs? Surely we cannot. The original lists of the four companies, including all the associates, certainly cannot be so carefully hidden as to elude all search. Surely an attention to the proximity or distance of the residence of those claimants who were afterwards involved from the scene of the iniquitous act, and a notice of the period when that iniquity became notorious, will enable any tribunal to distinguish the innocent and ignorant purchaser from the fraudulent and knowing speculator, with some degree of accuracy, if not with a precision sufficient completely to satisfy justice. Are we compelled by our agreement with Georgia to throw down what her humanity has put into our hands for the relief of the innocent sufferers, (and surely we will not inflict her by presuming she meant to include the guilty) that it may be scrambled for by all the claimants, and sced in the proportions which antecedent cunning and swindling dexterity may have predetermined? We cannot say we are. Yet what else shall we be doing, if we pass this bill and thereby confine our commissioners to the literal proofs of those false, though specious claims: If we neglect to give them the power; if we fail to instruct them, I ought to say carefully to list out of the claims, all evidence of the original fraud or of a probable acquaintance with it, which they may contain, and reject or admit them by that test? Ought we not to expect that all the disinterested in the nation will be struck with astonishment, if while some of us are proclaiming the odious origin of these claims, a majority without disproving our assertions should pronounce them all to have some legal foundation and proceed to give indiscriminate relief to the holders of them? For myself, I must hear much more than I have yet heard in support of that opinion to remove my amazement at it. Surely there cannot be so wide a difference between law and justice, that the former can embrace what the latter must loath. I have heretofore thought, notwithstanding the simple, uniform, universally manifest character of the one, and the complicated, various occult nature of the other, that their essence was the same. I have always believed and till now thought all men concurred with me in the belief, that whatever was manifestly fraudulent must be illegal; that no lapse of time, no change of circumstances, no complication of numbers or of influence, could legalize it. I have farther believed that no act of any legislature manifestly immoral, and unjust, could be deemed genuine, and be afterwards calmly received as binding on the state. These points of belief I shall ever retain, and were my tenderness less for the gentleman who differs with me on this question, I should not hesitate, trusting yet to their concurrence, to conclude now by calling on them to disprove the history we have given of those claims, or to withdraw their favour from the claimants, to consent to the consideration of those resolutions, and ultimately to the rejection of the bill before us.
But my deference for the sentiments of these gentlemen leads me for a moment to abandon these all important axioms of social and political morality, which I have just stated, and which they seem to disallow by advocating the claims; for a moment to admit that a legislature may in some way derive from a constitution the power to do acts manifestly immoral, unjust and treacherous; that corruption may be purified, fraud may be sanctioned, robbery may be made to give a valid title, by legislative authority.—They will, I make no doubt, with equal complaisance, permit me to demand some admittance of the same nature from them. A government can then by construction or inference derive from a constitution the power of plundering the state, and may legitimate the act to that individual, into whose hands the plunder may fall, shall be able afterwards to defend their possession of it in courts of justice. Because no literal prohibitory declaration exists in the constitution of the United States, any more than in

the former constitution of Georgia, to guard against what honestly could never have foreseen, their government too may legitimately transfer, for a trival consideration, to its own members or to favored individuals for their private emolument, the best property of the nation, to any amount. Congress can now constitutionally pass a law to divide the contents of the treasury among the friends of the individual members, for imaginary or trivial services, after stipulating a participation; because it has the power to give compensation to those who may render real services to the nation. Nay, because the senators and representatives may by their own vote, take a compensation for their services from the treasury, they might, also, applying a loose construction to the term compensation, divide the contents of the treasury amongst themselves, to indemnify them for the long privation of domestic happiness they are here compelled to undergo; and they would be liable to nothing more, therefore, than the neglect and contempt of their constituents.
These positions admitted, I could not refuse to grant, that the legislature of Georgia of 1795, could have legitimately sold to companies composed of their own members and others, for a price less than the annual quit rent the same lands would have paid formerly to the crown of Great Britain, 40 millions of acres of the finest lands in the world belonging to that state. But in granting it I should deem it my duty immediately to move this House to take into consideration, with all speed, the necessity of increasing the list of prohibitory clauses in the federal constitution. I would recommend along with numbers others which would be as necessary, the following:—The senators and representatives shall not plunder the treasury under pretext of requisitioning themselves for their services: the members of the government shall not engross to themselves the national possessions. Certainly, if it is maintained that a subsequent legislature could have no power of punishment or of resumption, where the plain letter had not been disregarded, such prohibitions as these ought, without delay, to be adopted into the federal constitution. If otherwise, then is the Yazoo tenure ridiculous indeed, for by that doctrine alone could it be supported.
My respect for our opponents in this question still prevents my concluding here. I will endeavor to show them that that tenure was contradictory, not only to the general laws of equity, but also to the then existing constitution of Georgia, and accordingly, absolutely null. I have always understood that in equity a bargain, (share all for land) though quite clear of any other symptom of fraud, could not be valid unless it included a valuable consideration: That the circumstance of the consideration being so ridiculously trivial, as what was agreed to be accepted by the legislature of Georgia, would be sufficient to cancel any bargain for land between individuals, even if it came into the hands of a subsequent purchaser, if he had made his purchase after open denial of the contract, and public reclamation by the original owner. This was not only a rule of equity in Georgia, but a principle recognized by a positive law of that state—(See Maurice's digest of the laws of Georgia , page 116.)
The price agreed to be paid to Georgia, was one cent and one fourth of anoth. cent for the acre. The lands sold were in great part among the most fertile of the earth, situated in one of its finest climates, and adapted to all its richest productions. They were sold too not to citizens of the state alone and men with agricultural views, but in a great measure to strangers, and altogether to speculators, who meant to demand some hundreds of cents from the sub-purchaser with cultivating intention. This immense difference would soon have disappeared, swallowed up in luxuries; perhaps the farmer would have been ejected from his farm, because his toil did not produce fast enough for impatient appetite. The people of Georgia, the true owners of these lands, immediately reclaimed them, as I have shown, in the most public manner; and among other stronger reasons, upon the ground of the insignificance of the consideration stipulated for by their trustees; they instructed their next representatives to resume them. These representatives did so. Their act of doing so was solemnly ratified by a convention.
But many gentlemen here contend, notwithstanding that the law was irregular, and that the contract made by it, however irregular, was valid and indefeasible. I shall make no other reply to them than to endeavor to expose still farther, the illegal foundation of that contract, taking my eyes for a moment from the fraudulent nature of it. I will endeavour to look seriously into the constitutional character of the pretended law, which established it. I will examine more nearly the ground upon which it was framed. I trust I shall be able to show that it stood on a basis of perjured misconstruction, which the first honest breath blown against it completely
overturned. It is not requisite to shew that the legislature of Georgia, which convened in D. cember, 1794, had no powers but such as were directly, or through honest inference, granted to it by the convention of 1789. The members of that legislature themselves claimed no others. It is not necessary, either for us to search throughout that instrument for a special grant of power to support the law of January 7, 1795. The members themselves selected the head which they pretended to believe, contained that grant; let us examine it; "The general assembly shall have power to make all laws and ordinances which they shall deem necessary and proper for the good of the state, which shall not be repugnant to this constitution." Under such a narrow and flimsy cloak did they expect to hide this giant fraud. But this was the peculiar folly of those times. Under such another, did certain political assassins, not long after, attempt to strangle unseem the infant liberty of America.
The very next section of the constitution lays "the general assembly shall have power to alter the boundaries of counties and to lay off new ones out of them as well as out of the other vacant territory belonging to the state;" again, "and when any new county shall be laid off in the vacant territory of the state, such county shall have a number of representatives, &c." How could it be other than repugnant to the constitution, to render entirely nugatory this important provision of it? Does not the constitution plainly enough prescribe a division into counties before a sale by this provision for a representation in that case, and by totally neglecting to make any kind of provision for the case of sale before a division? Is it possible the framers of the constitution could have foreseen, imagined, or deemed possible, the case which actually happened, and at the same time have used the language they did? If the term county was understood to imply representation of course and the constitutional power to divide remained after the sale, why was so particular provision made for representation in those counties to be formed out of the waste and unappropriated lands? A power is expressly given to lay off counties within other counties, or in the vacant or appropriated lands of the state, with a view that representation should co-exist with population. The territory, after the sale was neither; of course no power remained to divide it into counties; but that power being expressly given, none could have been given to defeat it; yet that was completely done by the law on which these claims rest. One preceding legislature had laid off the county of Bourbon on the Mississippi, no doubt supposing that to be the true meaning of the constitution, which we have given, and had actually proceeded to make grants or sales of land within it. Another had rejected an application to purchase the territory in conformity with the report of its committee consisting of one member from each county in the state, which report it is likely was founded upon the construction we maintain. One it is true had acted otherwise; but the eagerness with which the succeeding one seized an occasion which presented itself for retracting the steps of the former, is an additional proof that what we contended for was the sentiment of the state. But the legislature of 1795, actuated by the motives I have displayed; its prime movers, perhaps instigated by certain juggling politicians from the North, who preferred to attain the justly desired end of separating that territory from the state, and thereby diminishing the dangerous size of Georgia by intrigue rather than the plain means since adopted; the legislature of 1795, I lay in contempt of the general sentiment of the state, in open violation of the constitution, made one sweeping sale of the whole territory for a contemptible price. Nay, with the words of their oath "I solemnly swear I will give my vote on all questions as in my judgment will best promote the good of the state;" with these words yet vibrating on their tongues, they rejected 4.5 lbs of a million offered at the same time on the same terms of payment, and to promote the good of the state according to their peculiar judgment of it, we must suppose took one half million. But perhaps they knew that those who offered the eight hundred thousand dollars were not as sure paymasters as themselves; or perhaps they thought the honorable body of notables of Georgia, which, although numbers of it expressed a noble disdain and indignation at the transaction, was yet fully represented in the companies; perhaps they thought that that was the true thing meant by the term state in the constitution. Such an hypothesis was not unfashionable in those days, above all in what were supposed the most enlightened parts of the union.
I might have been abruptly stopped by an observation that we had no right to consider the constitutionality of the laws of Georgia, any more than the morality of her lawgivers; but a shield which has blunted so many darts, that the stoutest of our foes of the present day seem fonder of making feints, than
hurling seriously at it, stands interposed between me and that attack. I have only to repeat that in considering the question before us, we must pronounce between the law of '95 and that of '96. That to execute the trust we have undertaken for Georgia, we must decide upon her discordant legislation. I will go on with considering further the constitutionality of the law of '95. Those particular arrangements which we have shown were made by the Georgia constitution of '89 for the incorporation of the western territory into the state, surely ought to have extinguished, even in the womb of infancy, all embryo construction for alienating the territory from the jurisdiction of the state, & the law of 1785 did most completely alienate the jurisdictional right of Georgia along with the soil. The territory, after the grant, could not have been divided into counties. Its inhabitants, by an express provision of the grant could not be taxed by the ordinary legislature until represented, nor could they have been represented in it under the then existing constitution until divided into counties. The provisions of the constitution for the incorporation of the territory could not have applied after the grant, for they were expressly made for vacant and unappropriated lands. The jurisdiction of the territory was then lost to Georgia, and of course transferred, though informally, yet substantially and no doubt designedly, to the United States: Delinquently, I make no doubt, for by this renunciation of state jurisdiction, thus artfully interwoven into the contract, the value of the lands was so plainly enhanced. Purchasers from abroad and from the other states would have come forward in greater numbers and with much greater alacrity, knowing privately that the territory would come immediately under federal jurisdiction, and be soon erected into new states. Who can believe that the associates and those who held under them, once settled in their territory, and this hidden grapple, I have endeavoured to discover, once thrown out by them upon the federal government, the strength of Georgia could have broken it? But until the constitution of 1788, no power ever existed in Georgia, unless in the whole body of the people collectively, to make an alienation of the territory of that state. Authority for that since made to the United States, was given by the convention of '98, and such a power, it seems to me, can properly flow only from that prime source in any of the states.
That there is a necessary and inherent power even in our national government to alienate & acquire territory at will, I am not ready to admit. It cannot be necessary where a recurrence to the primary authority is so frequently, so easily and so safely made as with us. To say it is an inherent power in all governments, from the nature of government, even though not absolutely necessary, would be looking abroad again for analogies, and so far relinquishing our own peculiar and excellent theory. Having purified so well the turbid waters we drew from the political fountains of Europe, better to cut off all communication with their impure sources, than again to admit from them any little rill which might once more discolour our now almost transparent stream. I can never admit a right in any government which is founded upon the sovereignty of the people, whose sole legitimate end is their good, to grant monopolies of the unappropriated soil. No possible restrictions can in my opinion, prevent such monopolies from operating powerfully against that good and against the essential principles of such governments. Besides, many individuals among the people have, according to my idea, just claims upon the nation for free grants of such lands. Poor men who have lost their limbs or their health in defence of their country, even though they may have received a pittance of daily pay; poor persons upon whom nature has bestowed an uncommonly numerous offspring, poor and virtuous citizens who have married early in life, and having the prospect of families to maintain sooner than the savings of labor could accumulate sufficiently to ensure that maintenance against accidents to the parent, which might suspend the power of labor. All these, I contend, have the right, and it is at least as well founded as that of the famishing for subsistence, from society.
There are certain conditions, it is true, not improper to notice here, though not altogether pertinent, upon which alone this right should be acknowledged on the part of government. These are, an actual settlement of the lands immediately, an abandonment of the right of alienation during the first lives, an equal division among successors. This right is necessarily admitted by the calls for new establishments of those who are able to purchase, which arise continually from the increase of numbers, and of agricultural capital. By answering such at a just price, the national strength which consists in the number of proprietors, is equally increased as by gifts, and at the same time the national resources are enlarged in the most desirable way, the voluntary contributions of the able. The liberality of a nation
is true, like that of the rich individual, should always keep in view the ratio of necessary expence, to the amount of the certain and natural resources. It should be more ready, yet at the same time not less prudent and discerning. But by monopolies of the soil, this right of certain citizens which I have mentioned, is destroyed, liberty itself, is extinguished; the national resources are sacrificed for the pernicious aggrandizement of those already too high, to the still greater debasement of those already too low. Innumerable are the evils arising out of them, which appear at once to the examiner's eye, and demonstrate that the power to grant them cannot constitutionally exist in any of our governments unless especially delegated.
If this view I have endeavoured to lay open to the grant from Georgia, which is the basis of these claims, be fairly taken, no one I think, can seriously apprehend the legal ejectment from their possessions, of those who may make purchases or receive donations from the United States in the territory pretended to be claimed by the Yazoo adventurers. I cannot believe myself that they will ever venture into the courts of justice of the union with their fictitious title paper in their hands; in every line of which the word fraud will appear at once in large and indelible characters. If they should, contrary to my expectation, be daring enough, I cannot think so injudicious of any judge of the union, as to apprehend, that maintaining the power, which sold, to be legitimate, shutting his eyes upon the unexampled perfidy of the sellers, denying the early publicity of the fraudulent nature of the transaction, rejecting the authority of the subsequent legislature to resume the property upon evidence of these, and also the paramount authority of the convention to annul the law, which was acknowledged by the adventurers themselves in withdrawing their money; last of all, declaring the consideration paid by the original purchasers to be sufficiently valuable; he will pronounce the law of Georgia, of 7th January '95, to be binding and to preclude equity from the state. No! every judge on the bench of the union will, I firmly believe, at once declare this law null, all contracts made under it void, and all considerations given upon them reclaimable. If I thought otherwise I would readily acquiesce in any, however strong, remedial measures. I would vote for a law forbidding the admission of such evidence into our courts. If no thing else would do, I would even give my voice in this House for imposing a heavy penalty on the man who should dare to assert such a detestable claim to the indisputable property of the nation, and thereby disparage the property. Our opponents say, the danger of being dragged into courts of justice at any distant day, however uncertain the apprehension of that anxiety, which the most distant prospect of being dispossessed in our old age of buildings, orchards, gardens, established by our own hands, must naturally create in men, will keep all purchasers aloof, will effectually prevent all sales, and keep our most important and most exposed frontier forever weak and defenceless. I answer, let those lands then remain un sold: the nation will sustain no damage in its interest thereby, for it has more at market elsewhere than the demand is likely to take for a great length of time. It is even my opinion that interest will be materially forwarded by the suspension of sales there at this time. It is not now I say a weak and defenceless frontier which it is so necessary to strengthen immediately with new settlers, that the attainment of that end could justify our giving a bounty to fraud. The most vulnerable point of the union is now removed many hundred miles farther from the centre, and every settlement made elsewhere at present contributes to diminish our means of covering that point with the impenetrable armour of a republican militia.
Shall we permit those motives of policy to govern us in this happy time of assured peace, unexampled prosperity and rare tranquility and unanimity, which we should always reject with disdain if it were not that, if not the stratagems and deceits, at least the forbearances towards fraud, vice and crime often necessary in actual war, are thought in some degree justifiable, also in certain other periods of national danger, embarrassment or difficulty. For myself I never could have lent my voice in this House to support that policy even when such reasons had their strongest force. Much less can I acquiesce now. I cannot consent that this government should draw a veil over its eyes to admit the approaches of fraud. I cannot give my consent that it should tamely suffer itself to be bullied out of such a glorious portion of the national wealth, as 2,500,000 dollars, which a former act of these houses has led our commissioners to offer in order to quiet these unfounded claims. I have yet the strongest hopes we shall dismiss them unsatisfied by rejecting this bill. Surely we will not by padding it ennable with legislative favor the mysteries of speculation; we will not hold out to the tribe of speculators an
expectation that this government will in future gratuitously and write on all their land adventures, if they will be moderate in their insurance. Our bounty to the innocent sufferers will do no telling mischief by removing from credulity its only restraint, timidity and doubt, which otherwise must have been greatly fortified by this distressing example. I hope however we shall extend that bounty to them. But upon the adventurers themselves, or on those who knowingly embarked with them in this desperate and infamous scheme, the nation's forgiveness and its silence is the only boon I will ever give my voice to bestow. We shall, I ardently hope, grant them no other here. If they reflect I think they will accept that and retire: let them do so, and in retiring let them silently return thanks to the great Creator of all things for his bounty to man in granting him through this life a free will uninterrupted, unrestrained by heavenly interference. But for this bounty, the wrath of Heaven would have arrested them in the commencement of their scheme. They have made that use they thought best of Heaven's favor: they have coolly projected, and pursued their own chosen plan for advancement in life; let them not look to this government for aid to bear them up under the disappointment of its failure. But a few days since their hopes were high; they expected immediately to attain by our largeness the end of their forcibly moderated desires. Thank Heaven, by the bold use of its most noble gift, which was then made by one gentleman particularly in this House: they were suddenly stopped in their progress, and that hope, unless they are thoroughly blundered by their own ardor, completely extinguished. They escaped the thunder of Heaven, but they have not the certain earthly punishment. Since that day they have stood in the eyes of an indignant nation, riven, blasted, stopped of all the lovely foliage of reputation by the lightning of eloquence.
WASHINGTON CITY, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
A tolerable idea may be formed of the nature and extent of the insurrection, as it is termed, in West Florida, from the following facts. Mr. Kemper, the leader of the association, was for some time in the service of Mr. Smith, of Tennessee, to whom he became indebted to a considerable amount. Being prosecuted, he fled to Florida, where at the head of thirty men, he raised the standard of revolt. These are the circumstances attending an occurrence which it is attempted to magnify into vast importance!
The Minister of Spain has left Philadelphia for this city.
On the 4th instat, the election for Governor, and members of the federal house of representatives took place in Vermont. The few returns received do not enable us to decide any of the results.
Thomas Vowell is chosen president of the Bank of Potomac.
In a late number of the National Intelligencer we took occasion to notice in terms of strong commendation the liberal provision made by the state of Connecticut for the support of schools. We held forth her conduct on this important point, so far as it involved the endowment of schools, as worthy of the imitation of every state in the union; and we availed ourselves of it as a cogent argument in favor of the superiority of republican institutions, remarking that "Connecticut, in the STRUCTURE of her government, was the most republican state in the union."
This language, we find has been misunderstood by some, and misapplied by others: among the last description of persons it has been made use of by a writer in the Courant as amounting to an indiscriminate commendation of the manner in which the government of Connecticut has been administered, and a consequent censure of the opponents of such administration. Nothing, however, is more remote from the true meaning of the paragraph, or from the belief of its writer. The ascription of republicanism is exclusively to the structure of the government, and not to the administration of it. The one may be perfect, and the other vicious—

"For forms of government (says Pope) let fools contest,"
"Whatever is best administered is best."
And does not the incessant censure of the administration of the general government by federalists, in the same breath that they avow an idolatrous devotion to the Constitution, prove that there is no inconsistency between a warm approbation of the structure of a government, and a strong disapprobation of the manner in which it is administered? The truth is, they are absolutely distinct things, and that no inference can be drawn of the approbation of the one from that of the other.
Called upon, as we are, by the Courant unequivocally to express our opinions of the manner in which the government of Connecticut is administered, we shall take the liberty of making some remarks which should not otherwise have been drawn from us. We will it to be understood that they are on this occasion extorted inasmuch as they are only means of preventing a misuse of our previous remarks.
We consider, as we have before said, Connecticut, in the structure of her government, the most republican state in the union. Why? Because, not only her Governor, Assembly men, and Councillors are chosen every year; but because all other Executive and Judicial officers, superior or subordinate, are likewise annually appointed by men elected by the people. There are various senses in which the term "republican" is used. It will, however, be apparent to any man that reads our remark, that we used the term in its most popular acceptation, and that when we called the government the most republican, we meant that, according to its structure, it flowed most directly from the people. In this acceptation the accuracy of the declaration will not be impeached.
We did not mean to say that although this government was the "most republican," the Constitution was therefore the best or the most republican. Here again are two distinct terms meaning different things. The government is not the Constitution. Sometimes the terms are used as synonymous. But it is evident that they are not always so, from the fact that all countries have governments, while many have no constitutions. We believe this to be the case with Connecticut; and are therefore rejoiced at the prospect of her soon obtaining one by the efforts of her best patriots.
We did not mean to say, nor did we say, that the liberal allowance made for the support of schools was properly applied. On the contrary we had great reason to believe that it was not. Still this consideration did not, in our mind, derogate from the magnitude of the object. We hope these remarks will be allowed to be unequivocal by the writer in the Courant, and as that print has, as we conceive, misrepresented the observations previously inserted in this paper, we trust it will consider itself under an obligation, at our request, to insert the above.
To illustrate the remarks we have made, we add the following, communicated by a correspondent.
"Whatever may be the external appearance of the government of Connecticut, we have as little republicanism here as in Turkey. The people are amused with frequent elections, but they are so managed as to be of no service to them. The Governor and Council actually possess the whole power of the state, they have all the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of the state, and have power to control the elections; they are bound by no constitutional limits but their own arbitrary will."
"I will give you a brief statement of these four branches of power, each one in their order."
"1st. By the charter of King Charles II. to the colony. (for we have no constitution) the executive power of the state is lodged with the Governor and Council; it has always been exercised by them."
"2d. The Governor and Council are one branch of the legislature, called the upper house, and the Governor has no power but as president of that body. The house of representatives amount to about 195, a majority of which are judges and justices of the peace, dependent on the upper house for their annual appointment to the offices which they
hold, or to which they may hope to be promoted; they are uniformly reappointed to office every year, provided they are faithful to their masters at the elections, and will vote for every bill proposed by the upper house, so that the tenure of their office depends on their being tools and sycophants, for as soon as they refuse to vote in the house of representatives, or at elections, according to orders from the upper house, they are dismissed from office, traduced, and abused. In addition to all these judges and justices in the house of representatives, are generals, colonels, majors, captains, and a host of military officers, who know full well the way to promotion, and that the least disobedience of orders would blast all their hopes. There are also sheriffs, sheriffs' deputies, clerks of courts, and various other classes of men, making in the whole at least three fourths of the house of representatives, directly or indirectly dependant on the upper house, so that the upper house make and repeal what laws they please, and the other house are of no use but to give a false impression to the people; a majority of the house of representatives are as servile to the upper house as a slave to his master."
"3d. The Governor and Council by an act of the legislature, are made the Supreme Court of Errors, and this court is the dernier resort by way of law or equity. And while they have power to reverse every judgement of the courts below, they can remove every judge and justice without assigning any cause."
"4th. If the power of the upper house will not apply with equal force in controlling the elections of state representatives, yet they have great influence, and besides it has been shown that they could control a majority of the members when elected, which answers their purpose equally well. They can and do control their own elections, that of senators and members of Congress. They have engaged in their service 6 judges of superior courts, 40 judges of county courts, 28 judges of probate, and five hundred and ten justices of the peace, 8 sheriffs, about 40 deputy sheriffs, several hundred military officers, between 2 and 3 hundred clergymen, with all the proprietors and petitioners of and for banks, turnpike roads, insurance companies, and monied corporations; these chosen men are placed in every town and section of the state, with as much care and reference to their local situation, zeal and ability to secure the election, as a good general would station his guards and sentries around a camp in the night season, expecting the approach of an enemy. What adds greatly to their power and success is, that members of the Council and Congress are first voted into nomination, say 18 or 20 at a time, not by districts, but by a general ticket: the upper house make out the list, including themselves and friends, send copies to all their faithful servants, and the people have little or no knowledge of the candidates; so that the judges, justices, sheriffs and deputies, clerks of courts, generals, colonels, majors, subalterns, clergy, &c. &c. inform the people when a semblance, that the federal candidates are the most pious and enlightened in this or any other state, that their opponents are infidels, enemies to order and good government, to religion, to God and to every thing good, and in this way gain the election. Hence it is that not a member of the upper house (excepting one by accident & he was re-appointed the next year) has failed of a re-election in forty years, unless denounced by the upper house, and it is a certain fact that the people of Connecticut were never represented in Congress—hence is the question so often asked by strangers, why has every member of congress from Connecticut uniformly advocated tory principles? The answer is, they were not elected by the freemen of the state, they do not represent them, they neither represent the state or the people, but the upper House in Connecticut."
NEW-YORK, Sept. 17. Our latest accounts from Europe, by the way of London, gave us information of the extreme probability of a continental war: at least that the Emperor of Russia and the king of Sweden had shown a disposition indicative of an intention of shortly commencing hostilities against France.
In confirmation of this news, we have received the following important particulars of movements in Russia, received from Capt. Hiller, of the ship Centurion, arrived here last evening in a short passage from Cronstadt.
On the 14 of July, the day on which Capt. Hiller failed, the Russian fleet of 11 sail of the line and 4 frigates, were ready for sea—and he was informed that day by an officer of one of the ships of the line, whom he supposed to be a native of England, & whom he saw on shore, that general orders had just been read in the fleet, that they were to sail with all possible expedition, to join the British. From this circumstance, together with that of a more rigid discipline among the Russian troops, there was but little doubt of their being speedily called into service.
The Emperor of Russia, in a peculiar degree, was personally attentive to Americans.—It was no uncommon thing
for him to seek opportunities to speak to the commanders of American vessels; and that he paid the utmost attention to Mr. Harris, the American Consul at that place, who was highly gratified at the signal honour conferred on his nation.
Capt. Hiller is the bearer of dispatches from Mr. Harris to our government.
SAVANNAH, Aug. 29. The Vice-President of the United States arrived, we understand, a few days since at St. Simons in a vessel from Philadelphia, in perfect health, and entirely freed from the hydrocephalus which afflicted him in the neighbourhood of that city.
Sept. 1. By a gentleman who passed through this place a few days since, from Fort Wilkinson, we were informed that the ranking of the lower line was completed; and that the treaty lately held between the United States Commissioners and the Creek nation had terminated in the extinguishment of the Indian claim as far as the Oakmulgee river.
From the MONTREUX, [July 10, 1804.]
Different reports are spread throughout Europe, of the ambitious views of the French government; which could only have originated in the malignity of the enemies of France, who have an interest in propagating such insinuations.
From among these reports, we select the following:—
The emperor is going to unite to his dominions the Italian and the Ligurian Republics, the Republic of Lucca, the Kingdom of Etruria, the Papal state, and also Naples and Sicily, Switzerland and Holland are to have the same fate; and Hanover and its connexion will furnish the emperor with the means of becoming a member of the Germanic body. From these suppositions various are the inferences that are drawn;—thus it is inferred, that the Pope will abdicate, and that Cardinal Fesch or Cardinal Ruffo, will be raised to the pontifical throne.
We have before said, and often repeated it, that if France was to interfere in changes relative to the sovereign pontiff, she would rather exert her influence to increase the happiness and the consideration of the holy see and its dominions, and not to diminish them.
As to Naples, the aggression of Mr. Acton, and his uniform hostile system, would have formerly afforded France very just motives for making war, which she never would have entered into with the intention of uniting the two Sicilies to the French empire.
The Italian and Ligurian Republics and the kingdom of Etruria, shall not cease to exist as independent states; and most assuredly it is rather improbable that the emperor should disregard at the same time the duties attached to the power which he holds from the committee of Lyons, and the personal glory he has acquired in twice restoring the independence of states which he had twice conquered.
With regard to Switzerland, who presented its annexion to France previous to the act of mediation? That act, the immediate result of the attention and of the thoughts of the Emperor, restored tranquility to its inhabitants, and the pledge of their independence and security, as long as they themselves do not break that axis, by substituting for the elements of which it is composed, the will of one of the constituted bodies and of one of the parties.
Had France been anxious to annex Holland, Holland might be French as well as Belgium. If it be an independent power, it is because France felt with respect to that country, the same as she felt with respect to Switzerland, viz. that their locality required an individual existence and a particular organization.
The supposition of annexing Hanover, is still more ridiculous. The annexion of that province would be the most fatal prospect that could be made to France, which requires but a slight reflection to perceive. Hanover would become a bone of contention between the French people and that prince, who has proved himself the friend and ally of France, at a time when all the rest of Europe had conspired against her.
In order to retain Hanover, a military force would be required, the expenses attending which exceed all proportion to the few millions which constitute the whole revenue of that state. Would a government that has sacrificed to the principles of the necessity of a line of demarcation, simple and contiguous, even the very fortifications of Strauburg and of Mentz, on the right bank, be blind enough to its interests to endeavor at the incorporation of Hanover? But such a possession it is said, would bring with it the advantage of being a member of the Germanic body. The title, alone of emperor of the French is a sufficient answer to that absurd supposition. The Germanic body is composed of kings, electors, princes, and with respect to itself, but one imperial dignity. Besides it would be a glaring misconception of the noble vanity of our country, to imagine it possible that it
could consent to enter as an element into any particular body. If such a thing were compatible with the national dignity, who would have prevented France from preserving its right to the circle of Burgundy, and the claim which gives her possession to the palatinate? We may ask, indeed, with the coucilouels of a well grounded pride, who prevented France keeping part of the dominions of Baden and of the territory of Suabia?
Nor will France pass the boundary of the Rhine! neither shall their arms ever attempt to cross it, unless it be necessary to guarantee the Germanic empire, and secure those princes who inspire so powerful an interest not only from their affection for her, but also by the assistance they may afford in maintaining the balance of Europe.
If the suppositions we have alluded to arise from idle curiosity, we have sufficiently answered them.
If, however, they owe their birth to the restless jealousy of certain powers, constantly in the habit of crying out that France is ambitious, in order to cloak their ambition, another answer may be given them. Thanks to the two coalitions successively formed against us, and to the treaties of Campo Formio, and of Lunéville, France has bordering on her territory no province that she should be anxious to retain; and if in events that are past, she evinced a moderation unexampled in modern history, she derives from it this advantage, that she no longer will feel it necessary to take up arms.
The capital of France is situated in the centre of Europe; her frontiers are surrounded by small states, which complete her political system; she has geographically nothing to desire of what belongs to her neighbours, she has therefore no natural enmity to entertain against any one; and as for her there exists no other Finland, no other lines of the Inn, she finds herself in a situation, which belongs to no other power.
Reports of a different defection are on the other hand, circulated at the same time. At one time our camps are in a state of mutiny; only the day before yesterday, 30,000 Frenchmen refused to embark at Boulogne. Yesterday, our legions fought ten against ten, standards against standards. The four departments of the Rhine were told, that we were going to surrender them to their former domination. To day, perhaps, it is said, that the public treasury is exhausted of money; that every work is suspended; that discord is abroad, and that the taxes can be levied nowhere. If the emperor visit the camp, he is said to hurry thither to quell disturbances.
In short, whether he remain at St. Cloud, whether he go to the Tuileries, or whether he return to Malmaison, just so many reports are circulated, the one more absurd than the other.
And if these rumours so industriously and simultaneously bandied about in foreign countries, had, at the same time for their object, to excite alarm at the ambition of the emperor, and to inspire boldness at the weakness of his administration, respecting such unbecoming and erroneous proceedings, we should have to repeat what a minister was instructed to say on his leaving a court. The emperor of the French does not wish for war with any one, neither does he dread it with any one. He does not intermeddle with the affairs of his neighbours, and he has a right to expect a reciprocal conduct. A long peace is the wish that he has invariably manifested; but the history of his life affords no room to imagine, that he is of a temper to allow himself to be insulted or dictated to.
London, July 23.
Private letters from Paris, of the 10th, state a new proof of the hostile spirit of Bonaparte in his conduct towards Russia and Sweden. He has adopted a system of rigour and persecution against all the subjects of these two powers, whether travellers or merchants in France, Italy, Switzerland and Holland. His military gens d'arms, commanders and police agents, are ordered to insult, oppress and arrest them upon the slightest pretence. The least informality in their passes, any complaint that ingenuity and suspicion can devise, is considered a sufficient ground to detain their persons. Those who are going to France are stopped at the frontiers, under the pretence that they ought to have new passes from Paris; and those who are leaving France are detained under the pretence that their passes are not correct. During these last five weeks, no Russian or Swedish ship has been permitted to clear out and fail; and notwithstanding the demands and representations of the consuls of their respective nations, the only answer that has been obtained is, "Such are the will and pleasure of the emperor." This measure is generally supposed to be a prelude to an embargo.—Many circumstances tend to confirm this suspicion. Among these is the great activity of the police agent to discover and ascertain the property of Russian and Swedish subjects in France, and to prevent any transfer or removal of it. Should a rupture with these countries take place,
an event considered in France very probable, there is little doubt but that Russian and Swedish subjects will experience similar treatment to that which British subjects in France experienced last year.
Bonaparte and the Pope. Letters from Italy, brought by the Grenenburgh mails of yesterday, relate the progress of Bonaparte's negotiation with the pope, or rather his requisition of his holiness to perform the revolutionary coronation ceremony. Upon Cardinal Fesch's first mentioning this subject, Pius VII. referred it to the sacred college of Cardinals, who, except Fesch, were unanimous in their advice to the sovereign, to decline it, as no such act has been performed by a foreign potentate, for seven centuries—and it would offend the Holy See of Austria, as Pius VI. in 1790, refused the same demand made by Leopold II. the father of the present emperor of Germany. Informed of this answer, Bonaparte wrote a letter with his own hand, in the most abusive language, and threatening style, telling the pope, "that he owed to him alone and to his moderation, both the temporal and spiritual power enjoyed by his holiness. That it was an insult to his glory, and to the high dignity the great nation had conferred on him, only to hesitate; and that as he had made Frenchmen again christians, so he would be able to make them muslimmen, should the ungrateful conduct, superstitious scruples, or pusillanimous fears of his holiness force him to such an act." In return, Pius VII. offered to give full powers to Cardinal Fesch to perform on his part, and in his name, the coronation ceremony; a letter of recommendation from madame Bonaparte, the ci-devant emperor's mother accompanied this answer. It had, however, no other effect than to enrage her son the more—who wrote to the pope these few words: "We desire the holy father to choose between a retreat to a convent, or a journey to France. Paris, May 29, signed, Napoleon." Copies of these transactions and letters are handed about, all over Italy. It is said that the pope has demanded the mediation of Austria, and even offered to resign; but that his holiness has been advised, for the peace of the church, to submit to the circumstances of the times. General Chaptalier has therefore been sent to Rome to elect the pope to France; a journey which the Italians compare to that of an unknown predecessor, Pius VI. who after suffering many indignities, at Rome died a victim of republican ferocity, in a French dungeon.
SPAIN. There appears no prospect of a rupture between Great Britain and Spain. The government have just published a regulation for the taking of convoys to Spain for a year to come.
NOTICE. THE subscriber intends to petition the next General Assembly for an act of insolvency to release him from debts he is unable to pay. SAMUEL S. HARWOOD. Montgomery County, Maryland. September 21—3t
NOTICE. A meeting of the citizens comprehending all that part of the city east of west Third street, and north of South Street are requested to meet at Steele's hotel, on Saturday next at 6 o'clock, P. M. for the purpose of forming themselves into a Fire Company agreeable to an act of the City Council, passed July 24th, 1804. The importance of such arrangements must be obvious to every person; a punctilious attendance is therefore earnestly requested. GRIFFITH COOMBE, Director of the 4th ward. September 21—
Bank of Columbia. THE Board of Directors having declared a Dividend for this half year, ending this day, at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, the same will be paid to the stockholders or their representatives. WM. WIGNALL, Cashr. September 21, 1804—4w
THEATRE. THE LAST NIGHT BUT TWO. At Mr. McLaughlin's Hall room George Town, by the Philadelphia and Baltimore company of Comedians. On Friday September the 21st, 1804. WILL BE PERFORMED A NEW PLAY CALLED THE MAID OF BRISTOL OR THE Lady of the Hay-stack. End of the play A DOUBLE HORNPipe. By Master HARRIS & Miss HUNT. After which the favorite Farce of the FARMER.
The doors will be opened at 6 and the performance begin at 7 o'clock. The public are respectfully informed that the Theatre will positively close for this season, on Wednesday, the 26th of September.

CHARLES VARDEN, MERCHANT TAYLOR. Has received from Philadelphia in addition to his former stock, a hand- some assortment of goods, consisting of the best London and Spanish fur- niture, white and fancy Marcellas, co- lored and white Jacon, India nankeens, cotton calimeres, black silk and satin Florentines, with a variety of other articles suitable for the summer season. M. B. Ladies habits, regimentals, and navy uniforms made in the best style of fashion. New Jersey avenue near the Capitol, June 8—tf
REMOVAL. THOMAS CARPENTER, TAYLOR, Has removed to the house above Mr. Rhodes (late Lorne's) Hotel, near the President's Square. In addition to the present stock of goods, an Handsome Assortment is expected immediately. Gentlemen at a distance, by sending a line by post, will be waited upon with all possi- ble expedition. T. C. will pledge himself to execute any order with a rate, expedition and moderation of charge, which shall not be excelled by any. April 16—tf
TO RENT, A THREE STORY BRICK HOUSE in the city of Washington, situated on that beautiful ridge north east of the Seven Buildings, on Lot No. 3, square 106, at present occupied by Mrs. Scott. Possession may be had the 1st of August next. Under said house is a good dry cellar, on the bank of the lot is a stable, and near the premises a pump of most excellent water. Enquire of Mrs. Scott, or of the subscriber High Street at Doctor John Scatery's George Town. ABSALOM JOY. June 29—tf
FOR SALE. The following City Lots, ON A LIBERAL TIME, Upon Special Terms, viz. LOTS—3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, in square No. 919.—Lots 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, & 16, in sq. No. 938. Lots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, & 16, in sq. No. 986. Lots 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19, in square No. 1042. Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13, in square No. 1066. Apply to CHARLES MINIFIE, Washington City, or to RICHARD C. JONES, at Philadelphia. Washington, August 3—tf. N.B. C. M. has country other lots for sale or ground rent (on easy terms to improvers,) and in eligible situa- tions.
DOCTOR MACRUDIE, HAS for sale a few hogheads 4th proof Jamaica spirits, lined and lamp oil, spirits of turpentine, window glass, glaziers, diamonds, glue, lamp black, white lead, span- ish brown, yellow ochre, chalk, Spanish whiting, Venetian red, red lead, verdigris, drop lake, blue white patent yellow, rose and Dutch pink, king's yellow, Turkey um- ber, gold and silver leaf, painters and sweep- ing brushes, camel's hair pencils, water colours in boxes, Spanish indigo, fig blue, arnott, red wood, alkavet, madder, logwood, turmeric, salt petre, alum, copperas, sweet oil, pearl barley, timothy and clover seed, tamarinds, castor oil, marble mortars, spring trifles, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, Chings worm destroying lozenges, an assortment of paper hangings, playing cards, copy slips, ink powder, English Latin, Greek and French school books, large family bibles, and his usual complete assortment of drugs and medicines, patent medicine, surgeons in- struments, &c. George Town, July 20—tf
HAT MANUFACTORY. The subscriber informs his customers and the public generally that he has discontinued business in the city of Washing- ton, and has opened shop on Bridge street near the Union Tavern—he solicits the continu- ance of former customers, and hopes that all others who may chuse to call and purchase his manufacture will be amply suited, if neatness and goodness be requisites. JOEL BROWN. George Town, Feb. 17—tf
Travellers Hall. THE subscriber has lately been induced from the rapid increase of his custom to purchase a lot of ground adjoining that on which he lives for the purpose of building a dining room and off mry room, each 54 feet by 32 feet to inches with six additional lodg- ing rooms, and intends to finish them before the ensuing winter; which together with his tavern and house will occupy a front of near one hundred feet to the most agreeable part of the town and in the center of business being on the highest part of the public square. He has considerably increased the furniture &c. of his house and stable. His domestics and servants are of the most faithful disposition, and properly qualified for the departments to which they are assigned. He has a constant supply of the best stable forage; imported and country provisions, imported liquors, &c. of the first quality, foreign newspapers, &c. And his bed will most probably last through the hot weather. The distinguished preference which the first characters have already given him, fills him with gratitude. He offers his sincere thanks to all his good friends and begs leave to assure them that neither his time nor his pursuits will be spared in attempting to render the Travellers Hall a house of entertainment, for Gentlemen GUESTS ONLY, equal to any in America. P. BRADLEY. Lexington, Kentucky, June 12, 1804. A Stage runs from the Travellers Hall to the Olympian Springs in the summer and to Brancefort during the sessions of Assembly. June 29—3m
A TEN THOUSAND Dollar Prize, Now to be had for the small sum of SIX dollars! SCHEME OF A Lottery for the use of THE GERMAN TRINITY CHURCH, IN SIXTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, Which will positively commence drawing at the State House in this city the fourth Mon- day of November next, prizes will be re- ceived in payment for such tickets as may re- main for sale during the drawing, or the cash advanced for the same, on allowing a small dis- count. From the great proportion already sold, it is expected that the tickets will soon be raised to six dollars and an half.
   Dollars.     1 Prize of 10 thousand dolls. 10,000   1 Three thousand 3,000   1 Two thousand 2,000   1 One thousand 1,000   4 Five hundred 2,000   10 Three hundred 3,000   20 Two hundred 4,000   35 One hundred 3,500   90 Fifty 4,500   100 Twenty 2,000   6000 Seven 42,000   1st drawn No. on the 10th day 500   1 15th 500   1 20th 500   1 25th 500   1 30th 500   1 35th 500   1 40th 1,000   1 45th 1,000   1 50th 1,000   1 55th 1,000   1st drawn No. on the last day 6,000   when there shall be only 600 tickets in the wheel,  
6274 Prizes. Dollars,—90,000 Considerably less than two blanks to a prize. The prizes to be paid 30 days after the close of the drawing.—Subject to a deduction of 15 per cent. Tickets for sale by, GEORGE TAYLOR, Jun. No. 85, South Second Street, or MATTHEW M'CONNELL, No. 82. Chestnut Street. ADAM PREMR, No. 134, fourth fifth & ANFRY. HOOKLEY, } Commissioners. No. Corner of Green } and third streets, } CHARLES BOWMAN, } No. 16. Build Street. Whole tickets—6 dollars Half tickets—3 25 Quarter tickets, 1 75 Prizes in other lotteries received in payment. Letter addressed to either of whom, post-paid and inclosing the cash, will be duly attended to. Aug. 27 h—2aw t15N.
To be Sold, On Thursday the 27th day of September on the premises to the highest bidder, if not disposed of by private sale before that day. THE tract of land whereon I now live in Fairfax Co. Virginia, on Pope's Head creek, containing 55 acres, the situation is agree- able and healthy; there is on it an excellent mill seat on the above mentioned creek, with an inexhaustible quantity of grey free stone, and an abundance of good red and white oak, poplars, and hickory timber to erect the dam and necessary buildings on the spot; there is on this creek which washes this tract, for about two miles, a very considerable portion of the best quality meadow land, there is a considerable quantity of Irish land, just opened, and nearly half of the tract to cut; it is situated about 20 miles of George Town, Washington, Alexandria and Dumfries, it is considered the best piece of forest land in the country—the terms of payment will be one third paid down, one third in 18 months and the other third in three years; an indispensable clause will be made to the purchaser. The public is assured that the sale will take place if not privately disposed of before the day of sale, as I am determined to remove to the State of Kentucky this fall.—Also on the same day and place, will be sold, all my flock of every sort, plantation utensils, household and kitchen furniture and the present crop now on hand for ready cash. THOMAS POLLARD. August 22—tdof
FOR SALE. A Tract or parcel of land, containing one hundred thousand acres, surveyed in tracts of one thousand acres each, lying on the great and little Satilla rivers in the counties of Wayne and Telfair in the State of Georgia, distant about 40 miles from the town of St. Mary's and the sea. This land is an undivided moiety of two adjoining tracts containing each 100,000 acres, and is remarkable for its extensive forests of large and valuable yellow pine, and the luxuriant growth of natural grasses, affording an inexhaustible range of pasturage for cattle. A great bargain may be had to a purchaser of the whole undivided moiety; for terms of sale apply to JOHN BECKLEY. City of Washington. Sept. 12—tf
TO BE SOLD By private contract, an estate called Chi- chester, lying on the banks of the Eastern Branch, immediately opposite the city of Washington. This estate extends from near the foot of the Bridge to a little below the Navy-Yard, and contains 695 acres of land. It is laid off in lots of from 83 to 117 acres. Dyers Ferry is on it. The price and conditions of sale may be known on application to captain Mar- bury of Blue Plains opposite Alexandria, to colonel Hanson, of the Navy-yard, or to the subscriber. Captain Marbury who has a plat of the estate, may be spoken with on any Thursday at the Bank of Columbia. ANTHONY ADDISON. Barnaby Prince-Georges County. September 12—2aw3w
SALE OF HOUSEHOLD FURNI- TURE. PURSUANT to an order of the Orphan's court for the county of Washington will be exposed to public sale at the House of the late John Burchan deceased on Monday the 24th of September next at 10 o'clock A. M. Sundry household goods, consisting of mah- ogany tables, a chest of drawers, chairs, bed- steads, looking glasses, andirons, &c. The terms are six months credit for all purchases above twenty dollars by giving bond with approved security with interest from the day of sale.—Sums under twenty dollars to be cash. JOHN GRAVEN } Executors. JOS. STRETCH, } Sept. 14—tdof
American Printed goods. Gloves, Shawls, Pocket Handkerchiefs, &c. manufactured by the subscribers near Baltimore, and sold at No. 13 Calvert Street. To remove that distrust often felt respect- ing new undertakings, and so prejudicial to manufacturing attempts in America, they think it proper to observe, that nothing is wanting in the business to enable good arti- s to perform their work here as well as in Europe. That they have these artists; that two of the partners were bred to the business in a factory of the best repute carried on by their father, & long afterwards by themselves. They trust that while foreign goods are received without a question, an unreasonable suspicion will not prevent their countrymen from giving that trial to their goods, which only can prove their value. Besides a natural doubt, they know that certain interests, national as well as individual, will suggest objections to their undertaking. They have no difficulty in saying, that work of the like kind shall be as well executed here, as in other countries. The colors capable of being fixed, will be found as permanent; the cloths perhaps better substance, and the prices lower than of the imported cottons. M'CULLOCH & LUNNUN, Baltimore, No. 13 Calvert Street. Sept. 17—tf
(BY AUTHORITY.) Scheme of a Lottery. To built an Asylum in the city of Richmond. Dollars.     1 Prize—last drawn ticket, having a blank to its number, 20,000   1 do. 10,000   1 do. 5,000   6 do. of 1,000 make 6,000   6 do. — 500 — 3,000   10 do. — 200 — 2,000   20 do. — 100 — 2,000   100 do. — 50 — 5,000   250 do. — 30 — 7,500   420 do. — 25 — 10,500   1,500 do. — 20 — 30,000   3,000 do. — 15 — 45,000   1st drawn ticket after 1,000 having a blank to its number, 250   1 do. after 2,000 do. 250   1 do. do. 3,000 do. 250   1 do. do. 4,000 do. 250   1 do. do. 5,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 6,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 8,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 10,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 12,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 13,000 do. 500   1 do. do. 14,000 do. 1,000   5,325 prizes, 150,000   9,075 blanks, not two to a prize,   15,000 tickets at 10 dollars each, 150,000   N. B. Prizes subject to a deduction of 15 per cent.  
This lottery has been authorised by the legislature of Virginia, for the laudable pur- poses of erecting a seminary of learning in or near the metropolis of this State. With this view, it is contemplated to raise 20,000 dolls. and 2,500 dolls. in addition, for defray- ing the expenses attendant on drawing the lot- tery. Citizens of the first respectability have been selected as trustees, and they have pledged themselves to use their utmost exert- ions to carry it into effect. The scheme was the advantage of giving to each adventurer a chance for some very large prizes, whilst the proportion of prizes to blanks, is so great, as to invite the friends of the intended insti- tution to partake in the lottery, with very little risk of their becoming losers. The treasurer of the State is to be appointed to re- ceive the money for the tickets as they are sold, and to pay the amount of the prizes to the fortunate adventurers. It is believed that the above considerations will induce rapid sale of tickets, and the drawing will com- mence as soon as a sufficient number shall be sold to authorise it—which it is believed will be on the second Monday in Decem- ber next. Richmond, March 2—tf Tickets to be had of Robert Pollard Esq. John Brockenbrough, jun. Wm. Price (Esq.) Samuel Pleasants, jun. and William Pritchard.
THOMAS W. PATRO, RESPECTFULLY informs the ladies and gentlemen, and the public of the city and vicinity, that he has opened store at the west corner of the Seven Buildings, where he intends to keep always a full assortment of dry and fancy goods. He imports his broad cloth and other woollens &c. &c. himself, and buys the rest at Philadelphia, chiefly for cash. He therefore is able to sell as low as any merchant, and hopes that his reasonable terms will induce the citizens of Washington to en- courage him. City of Washington, 19th Sept. 1804—3t
WAS committed to the goal of Fre- derick county, on the 25th July last, negro JOE, about 28 years old, five feet 8 inches high, o- yellowish complexion, has scars on each of his hands, with burns, particularly on the left hand: His clothes are tow linen shirts and trowsers, a blue great coat, &c. He says he belongs to col. WILLIAM WINN, of Har- ford county, North Carolina, and that he has been absent from his master about two years. If his OWNER does not release him he will be sold for his GOAL FEES agreeably to law. GEORGE CREAGER, Sheriff of Frederick county. Aug. 22—1aw8t.
50 Dollars reward, STRAYED or stolen from the commons of Washington city, between Saturday and Monday the 7th and 9th of July, inst. a pair of bright BAY HORSES, of the following descriptions:—One about fifteen and a half hands high over the shoulders, and about two inches lower over the hips, supposed to be eight years old, black mane and tail, mane on the right side, trots and canters, a star in the forehead, both hind angles white, and has partly on the inner side of each, uniform- ly placed, about one inch above the hoof of black spot of about three quarters of an inch diameter; no other striking natural marks are recollected. This horse is supposed to be three fourths English blooded; he is when in flesh very handsome, and moves with ease and elegance. He is now much reduced in appearance by a long journey, his back some- thing injured by the saddle, and has old marks of similar abuse. The other horse is about fifteen and a half hands high before, and the same behind, six years old, not so handsomely built in any respect as the other, but carries himself very well, trots hard, canters easy and racks a little. His mane and tail are likewise black; his mane thin and on the right side; set hind angle white; has a star in the forehead, and a scip in the nose, mostly inclined to and run- ning into the left nostril; a circular brand on the left shoulder, with a character in the center believed to be intended for an A. He is not so low in flesh as the other, the new saddle marks are worse, but he has few or no old ones, except a slight appearance of a former naval gall. They were shod all round. If stolen the above reward will be paid on conviction of the thief; if strayed and found within 20 miles of Washington city a reward of 20 dollars will be given, and if beyond that distance, 40 dollars, expenses included, on their return to Phineas Bralley, Washington city, or Renner and Buffard, George Town. August 1—1awtf
MEDITERRANEAN PASSPORTS Notice is hereby given, that it has been deemed expedient to change the form of the Mediterranean Passport if used to vessels of the United States, that from the eighth day of July next tho' of the new form will be issued at the custom houses to every vessel, for which application may be made on a compliance with the terms prescribed by law and surrendering the former passport of which she may be possessed, if any, in which latter case no fees will be required for the exchange; and that by an arrangement agreed upon by the Barbary powers, with whom we are at peace, either the old or the new form of passport will be sufficient to protect the vessels of the United States, from cap- ture until the 1st of July 1805, after which the old form of passport will be unavailable and the new one alone in use. Department of State, } 23d of May, 1804. } The printers of the laws of the United States are requested to insert the above in their Gazettes twice a week for the space of six months, and the Col- lectors of the Customs to keep copies of it posted up in their offices. May 30—2aw6m
This is to give notice, THAT the subscriber, of Calvert County, in the State of Maryland, hath obtained from the Orphan's Court of said County, letters of Administration on the personal estate of Nathan Smith, late of the county aforesaid, deceased. All persons having claims against said deceased, are hereby warned to exhibit the same, with the vouchers thereof, to the subscriber, at or before the tenth day of April, eighteen hundred and five—they may otherwise by law be excluded from all benefit of the said estate. Given under my hand this eighteen h day of Septem- ber, eighteen hundred and four. THEODORE HODGKIN, Adm'r. September 19—1aw3t
NOTICE. BY Virtue of a decree of the high court of chancery of the State of Maryland will be sold at public auction at Cato's tavern in the city of Annapolis at twelve o'clock on Saturday the twenty ninth day of the present month, the lot of ground now in the occupa- tion of Wm. Brown of the city of Annapolis. This lot begins at the intersection of North East Street and Scotch Street, and bounds on Scotch Street one hundred and seventy five and an half feet, then with a line parallel with North East Street to the Severn river, then bounding on and with the river to North East Street and taken with N. East Street to the be- ginning. The improvements are a large conven- ient brick dwelling house beautifully situated on the river kitchen and out houses of differ- ent kinds and a pump of excellent water. Any further description is thought unnecessary as persons who are disposed to purchase, will probably make themselves acquainted with the property previous to the day of sale. The terms of sale are that the purchaser shall give bond with security to be approved by the trustee for paying the purchase money with interest within six months from the day of sale. NICHOLS BREWER, Trustee. September 10—wjt
Ten Dollars Reward. RAN Away from the subscriber on Fri- day, the first inst. a negro Wench called RA- CHEL, about twenty years of age, no pe- ceptible mark—She is stout made, has a habit- ual look when spoken to, speaks quick, appar- ently far advanced in pregnancy. Her clothing cannot be described as the took with her several articles belonging to her mistress. I will give the above reward if she is lodged in any jail in the State, and all reasonable charges if brought home. FRANCIS CLARK. Aug. 29—wtf.
Patent Machine, For hulling Clover Seed, bearing Barley, and taking the white cap from Wheat. The encouragement which the subscriber received last season from a number of re- spectable farmers, for the invention of the above machine, has induced him to spare no labor or pains in its further improvement; in those endeavours he has so far succeeded as to render it superior, it is presumed, to any ma- chine ever before applied; as a proof of this assertion the following instance of expedition can be offered as a real truth, by several disinterested reputable persons, viz—Three men employed at it, have hulled in one hour a bushel of clover seed. We may now make what deductions we please for the clover being well filled, for its being previous to well cleared of straw, and for extra exertions, to know the extent of what the machine was capable of perform- ing; and after those deductions it will be granted, that five bushels per day must be a very moderate average; and yet this quanti- ty is sufficient to give general satisfaction— it will however be found more commonly to exceed than fall short of this last quantity. The machine occupies about the same room as the Corn Fan, and is equally portable; its frictional parts are few, and those composed of durable materials; in short, it is acknow- ledged, by those who have had experience of its utility, to be an interesting & almost indis- pensable implement of husbandry. A number of them may be seen at the sub- scriber's shop in Frankfort, five miles from Philadelphia, in preparation for the ensuing season, where they are sold at 30 dollars. Persons who apply for permits to make them must produce recommendations of good char- acter, and be professional machinists; such only will meet with encouragement. Persons inclined to purchase the Machine for their private use, will please to observe, that no one is authorised to make and sell them, but such as are furnished with engraved plate certificate, attested by the subscriber, one of which certificates is to accompany each machine, and will be the purchaser's vouch- er to use it. JACOB WORRELL. Frankfort, August 31—wjt
NEW Store. BY WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. The subscriber informs the public that he has commenced business in the house formerly occupied by MR. QUINN, F. Street; And has on hand, a general assortment of dry goods, Groceries, wines and spirituous liquors. Porter, Hardware and Cutlery, Queenware, China and Glass, Flour, Corn, and Corn-meal, Oats, and Chopped rye, Candles and Soap by the box, Country whiskey by the barrel, and a few casks of genuine old Irish whiskey, All of which he will sell low for cash or country produce. The HIGHEST prices, given for country pro- duce, CASH. FRANCIS CLARK. Aug. 29—wtf.
PROPOSALS BY JOHN DIXON, For printing by Subscription, a Periodi- cal Work, to be entitled the VIRGINIA MAGAZINE, OR, Monthly Miscellany. CONDITIONS. I. The work to contain 68 pages (Octavo) monthly, of selected miscellaneous prose, and of original prose also, whenever the exertions of the Editor, and his Assistant, and the communications of correspondents can supply it. II. Improvements and experiments in Agri- culture, with which the Editor hopes to be furnished by the Farmers, &c. of this and other states, or to select himself. III. Debates in Congress. IV. Of Foreign and Domestic Intelligence. V. Of Selected Poetry, and Original too, when- ever good can be procured and not other- wise. VI. Of Marriages and Deaths. VII. Of Prices Current. VIII. The work to be printed on good paper, and with a neat type. IX. The price to subscribers, to be Five Dollars per annum, one half to be paid on the delivery of the first number, and the balance at the expiration of six months after. X. The work to be put to press as soon as 300 Subscribers are obtained.
PROSPECTUS. THE utility and rational amusement deriva- ble from well conducted Magazines, probably will not be controverted. They afford an asylum for many fugitive essays, that might otherwise meet with a more ri- gorous fate than they merit. The brevity of their articles and their longer duration of existence than that of some other periodical publications hold out an inducement to that indulgence, too frequently the attendant of genius, and to those pressed by the cares of business, to devote an hour or two to their own entertainment, and the pleasure and in- struction of the community, while the greater variety of subjects they comprise, gives them a decided superiority over several other works, —For they contain something to suit the Pa- late of every one, and may be particularly pleasing and instructive to those who have not the inclination or the leisure to peruse more prolix writings. There are few coun- tries, where a love of reading prevails and science is regarded, in which magazines are not numerous and well received. A distinct Subscriber thinks he is correct in saying that not one is published in the United States of Virginia. He desires to publish one, principally of a Literary complexion, provided he obtains adequate support in which case he flatters himself, that it will prove fully satisfactory to his patrons. For some reluctance to subscribe, arising from a non compliance of any persons who may have offered proposals, similar to the foregoing, the subscriber has it only in his power to say that he pledges his honor to comply with his en- gagement, if supported by the public. September 7. J. DIXON.