Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-12-16
CongreG Of the United States.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
FRIDAY, December IS.

}ITaken for the alexandria Gazette.
| Mr.. Southard offered resolution to ap
! point commit,ee to enquire into the expe
! diency Of passing law to establish Rod'
of taking evidence in cases OF contested
| elections of members of Congress, and t.
cempel the attendance of witnesses IN sucf
! cases. Adopted, and acommittee appoint
ed.
Mr.. johnson, from the committee o.
claims. on the case of John Murray, re.
ported, that the committee had no doubt Of
the Justice oil the petitioners claim, but
that his claim was barred by .he statute Of
limitation. They were therefore, agreeably
to rule they had laid down for themselves,
under the necessity of reporting against the
prayer of the petition. They reported the
following resolution: That the prayer g,
the petition ought nat to be granted. The
report was referred to committee OF the
whole house on Monday next.
mr.. 7roub offered resolutions for print.
ing sundry documents respecting the Yazoo
lands.
On motion of 1lr. Bacon the resolutions
were laid on the table until Monday next.
Mr.. Shefy called UP his resolutions laid
On the table some time since respecting the
Batture at New-Orleans.
Dir. w. Alst9n moved to refer them to
the committee on public lands. Lost.
Mr.. Morrow moved to refer them to the
committee of the whole house.-Air. Mel
son moved that they lie on the table. Car
ried.
Nr. Nelson then moved to discharge the
committee on public lands from any fur
Their considerationof then Orleans petition.
A1r. P9paras spoke at considerable length
on this subject, and with grea, animation /;
bur unfortunately for him, and for the cause
he advocates, he does not speak the En-
glish language plain enough to be under
stood.
Nr. Shelly made few observations in
favor of a reference Of the whole subject to
acommittre Of the whole house. He was
followed by Mr.. Aston who was for refer
ring the whole business to the committee
on public lands
jh. Smile and M,. Ross spoke on the
subject
IAc. Gardiner made very luminous
speech on the subject. He stated the
whole history of the business, and was for
taking back the petitions from New Or
leans, from the committee of public lands,
and for doing more. He would have Mr..
Livingston placed in the situation in which
the courts OF Orleans placed him.
Mr. .She6ey was against the committee of
public land, having any thing to do with
the New Orleans petitions, as those petit
ons had nothing to do with public lands
They were modess appeal to the benevo-
lence of the nation. ] inc petitioners mo-
cestly asked the nation to give them the sum
OF S 100000.
A1r. Rhea Tenn. called for the reading
Of lhe law of the tenth Congress, autt oriz-
ing the President to remove illegal settlers
from the public lands.
lir. Elacon was for having the business
go to the committee on public lands.
mr.. KY thought the committee on pub.
lie lands had nothing to do with this busi-
ness at PIeSeHt, iol tHe Pstilioneie hau ~ Ay
ed for the u States to give them their tile
70 the Batture. Now as it was clain on
orr charity, we ought to know frs, whether
we had any title before we pretended to give
that title away. If the property is Mr.. Ii
vings,on's, give the petitioners leave to
withdraw their petition, for we have nothing
to give them. Ifit should be determined
to belong to the United States, it will then
be time enough to talk about giving it away.
1Ar. Eppes thought the business ought
to go TO some committee, in order to ar
range and prepare the facts on the subject.
He was not ready to determine whether the
batture was part of the bed of the Missis-
sippi. or not. There were several other