Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-01-01
ALEXANDRIA:
TUURSU.1T, J.i.SU.IRY /, 1878.
FROM OUR CoR2EsPoN AT WASH
IyGTOy,
WednssdaY, December 81, 1877.

The House Of Representatives was the
whole of yesterday most stensCusly &C.
cupied upon variety Of subjects Of such
a nature as rendered their LABOR, il most
cases. incODclu.iye. A resolution TO a.
mend certain law of ours, BY the con-
structio1 Of which, it is supposed, the
ships Of old Spain might, provided their
masters chose it, enter into our ports aud
reht, and do many acts which. by aro'her
law of ours. are forbidden to tire patriotic
colonists Of South America, was proposed
By Mr.. Miller, Of South Carolina, and
there was world of short tax SPIN il !;
but it appearing, upon the representation
of Mr.. Forsyth, that the whole affair was
already placed under the cosnizapce CT a
committee, in which it was in a fair way
TO be soon more advantageous a. lsted,
while no possible mischief could ersue
from suspending the present proposition.
the resolution was ordered to lie on the
table. An cid mode of parliamentary in
tcrment, from which the subjects do not
always rise az in.
Our long sojourner, the commutatisr
bill, was then, once more, brought under
consideration Of the house in committee,
and Mr.. Robertson offered an amend
Inent, 70 the effect that instead Of one
LuuIrcd dollars for one hundred and six.
ty acres, as the bill now has it, govern
ment should, by way Of communication.
give for the land one dollar an acre, pay
able in stock. On this, Mr.. Johnson, Of
Kentucky, moved that, as the amendment
was very important, the wAUIe subject
should be ordered TO lie on the tau! le; To
which molten the house assented, and
ordered the amendment TO be printed.
The bill for Incorporating the Alcxaa-
d-ia Columbian Insurance Company, was
ordered to be ensrossed, and read third
time on Monday.
The house then resolved itself into a
committee of the whole on the bill provi-
ding for the payment OF the militia claims
Of the state Of Georgia but after Mr..
Cobb had laid state of the case before
the house, proposing to hll the blank in
the bill with a sum Of l42,5S5 dolls. and
90 cts. Mr.. Storrs, on the ground that
time enough had not been allowed the
members to consider the various dDcu.
ments, and that the sum was a serious
one moved that the committee should
rise and report progress, which was a.
greed to-and the committee rising ac-
cordingly, the chairman reported prU-
gress and obtained leave to sit again.
On motion OF Mr.. Mercer, resolution
was passed that the committee TO whom
! the memorial Of the colonization society
was referred, should be instructed to en-
qnire into the expediency Of making fur
Their alterations in the laws prohibiting the
c;tlzcns OF the U. S. from engaging in the
African slave trade. Mr.. Mercer said that
if fol his Offering this resolution an apo
Iogy was necessary, it would be found IN
the late Presidents message. 1t would,
he said, be eploach to the nation if it
permitted a practice which had, Tor its
di>graceful character. been reprobated
and suppressed BY most Of the European
powers, aud which stu continued to oc.
cur under the American fag'