The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-12
THIRTY.FIR ST CONG ESs
SECOND SESSION.
IN SENATE.
WEDNESDAY, Dec. IL, 1850.

Mr.. HALE presented memorial from citi-
zens of Portsmouth, n. H., referring to the late
Army Court Martial at Fort Constitution, N. IN
and praying some amelioration of the law of
punishments in the army. Mr.. HALE moved
that the petition be referred to the Military Com
mittee, and printed.
MIR. JEFFERSON DAVIS was opposed to
the object of the memorial, and thought that it
was one of those things which originate in Il
false philanthropy.
Mr. HALE commended that the private soldier
and the private in the navy could only look to
Congress for their protection against cruel and
unjustitiable punishments.
The memorial was refused, and the question
of printing was turned over to the committee on
that subject.
Mr.. FOOTE gave notice of a bill for the re-.
lief of the late Charge d Afiaires to Sweden aud
Norway
Mr.. BORLAND gave notice of a bill for the
relief of w. e. Eastman.
WESTERN ARMORY.
Mr.. BENTON, in pursuance of previous no.
tice, int oduced bill to authorize the President
of tho United States to select and procure site
for Western ArmOry, and to commence the
erection of the buildings thereon.
MIR. BENTON explained the objects Of the
bill, and the necessity of Western Armory
For forty years the subject of Western Ar
mory had been discussed in both houses from
time to time, and without any practical result
Col. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, had urged it upon
Congress fortwcnty or thirty years, and volumes
of reports recommending it had been printed
All these efforts, and all these recommendations
had failed, because OF the difficulty of locating
the site by law. If bill was introduced in the
Senate, the Western Senators each commended
thnft Inp tin hair fi,,a
States If the bill came up in the House. the
contention extended to the Congressional dis
tricts. And thus the Western Armory had
failed at various times for the last forty years.
We can have 10 Armory unless authority is
somewhere given to select the site lie proposed
to give the discretion to the President Of the
United States. There could be no party dis
pute about it, for he was not the President Of
any party. Mr. b., at all events, was willing to
abide by his decision He enlarged upon the
Importance of Il Western Armory, from the en-
tent of our Western frontiers and the import
ancc of supplying their defensive forces with
arms; upon the inequality of the disbursements
of the Federal resources between the East and
West; and upon the propriety of Mt least divid-
ing the disbursements for the manufacture of
arms between the scaboard and the great Mis-
sisSippi valley.
ne Dill WAS Tedu TWICE., a1lu TclcTTeu W INC
Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr.. PEARCE introduced joint resolution
providing for the rc-appointment Of Richard
Rush of Pa and Joseph e. Totten, of WASH
ngton, as Regents of the Smithsonian Insttu-
ton.
OBITUARY.
The Clerk of the House having announced
the proceedings of that body in respect to the
memory of the Hon. Amos f. Wood, late
member of the House from the 9th Congressional
District of the State of Ohio who died ut Fort
Wayne, Indiana, Oct 18th, last past,
Mr.. CHASE rose, and delivered brief his
tory Of the deceased, coupled with an appropri-
ate eulogy upon the virtues which marked his
public and private life and moved two rcsolu-
tons in conclusion: First. Expressive of the
sympathy of the Senate with the relatives of
the deceased in their loss. Second. Requiring
the Secretary to transmit to them certified
copy of these proceedings. Adopted unani-
mously.
On motion of Mr., HALE, the Senate adjour-
ned