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Another act of this session, of which most of the provisions still remain in force, regulated the authority and 1792. duty of American consuls appointed for foreign ports. They were to receive and authenticate all protests and declarations made before them by American citizens, or by foreigners in relation to any American citizen, copies of which, under their seals, were to have the same validity as the originals. They were to take possession of the property of all American citizens dying within their consulate, and having no partner or legal representatives; to make an inventory of it, with the assistance of two merchants, Americans, if there were any in the neighborhood, to be transmitted to the Secretary of State; to convert the property into money; to collect and pay the debts due to and from the deceased, and to remit the balance to the treasury of the United States, in trust for the heirs. In case of the stranding of any American vessel within their consulate, they were to take all proper steps, at the expense of the owners, for saving both ship and cargo; also to provide for and send home, at the expense of the United States, American seamen left abroad. Except at the Barbary ports, where the consuls acted as diplomatic agents, no salaries were allowed, but only certain fees, in some cases an abundant, in others a very insufficient compensation-a system still adhered to.

Some further action was also had on the subject of the public debt. There still remained outstanding certificates not subscribed to the new loans to the amount of ten millions of dollars. Further time was allowed to the holders of these certificates to become subscribers, and provision was made meanwhile for paying the interest. Provision was also made for paying off in full, both principal and interest, the certificates held by the foreign officers who had served in the Revolutionary army. An

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attempt to procure a further assumption, in case of the CHAPTER more deeply indebted states, was very warmly met by Giles, who took occasion to deliver a bitter philippic 1792. against the whole funding system, and the Secretary of the Treasury as its author-a species of eloquence for which he afterward became famous. Madison and Findley, on behalf of the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania, insisted upon extending this assumption, if made, to that part of the state debts paid off since the peace, and in that way succeeded in defeating the proposition.

Taking up the suggestions thrown out by Madison in the debate on the original Funding Act, the officers of the Massachusetts Continental line had drawn up a memorial to Congress, had sent on Hull, one of their num ber-afterward very unfortunately distinguished-to call attention to their claims, and had invited the officers of the other Continental lines to co-operate in the same movement. The Massachusetts petition admitted that the first two armies, those which served in the campaigns of 1775 and 1776, had no ground of complaint, because in their time there was no depreciation. It was admitted, also, that those who had enlisted in 1780 and afterward, had no claim in equity, because the large bounties they received on engaging might be considered as an offset to what they afterward lost. But very different was the case of those who had enlisted into the permanent army prior to 1780. Having served through the most important campaigns, they had been obliged to accept their large arrears of pay, and the compensation allowed them for the depreciation of the paper money, in certificates unsupported by funds, and having no value beyond their market price, which was not more than a fifth, a sixth, or even an eighth of their nominal amount. This loss the United States were bound to make up, and

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CHAPTER they might do it, notwithstanding the liberal provision already made for the holders of the certificates, without 1792. paying any thing more in the whole than had been originally promised. Of the interest of six per cent. originally payable on the certificates, there had been kept back from the holders, under the terms of the new funding system, two per cent. for ten years on the principal amount, while the over-due interest had only been funded at three instead of six per cent. Out of this reserved fund compensation was claimed for the army. It was late before this memorial was presented, and no action was had upon it at the present session.

The new election of president, to take place before the next session of Congress, suggested the necessity of providing by law for the formalities to be observed on such occasions. An act still in force required the states to appoint, in such manner as the state Legislatures might prescribe, within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday of December, 1792, and of every fourth year thereafter, electors of president and vice-president, equal to the number of senators and representatives to which they might respectively be entitled at the time when the president and vice-president to be chosen should enter upon their offices. The electors were to meet, for the purpose of giving their votes, at such places as the state Legislatures might determine, on the first Wednesday of December following their appointment, and were to sign three certificates of the result, to each of which was to be annexed a list of the electors, certified by the governor of the state. Two of these certificates were to be sent to the President of the Senate, one by a special messenger, the other through the post-office. The third was to be delivered to the federal judge of the district within which the election was had; and in case neither of the

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other lists reached the seat of government by the first CHAPTER Wednesday of January following the election, the Secretary of State was to dispatch a special messenger to 1792. bring it. On the second Wednesday of February the certificates were to be opened and counted by Congress, and the successful candidates declared.

The same act provided for filling temporarily the executive office, in case of the inability, resignation, removal, or death of both president and vice-president, the power to regulate this matter by law being conferred on Congress by the Constitution. This subject had been a

good deal discussed in the former Congress. The Secre tary of State, the Chief Justice, the President of the Senate, and the Secretary of the Treasury, had all been respectively proposed for that purpose. The present act selected the President pro tempore of the Senate, or, in case there were none, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to act till the removal of the disability or a new election, to be held in such cases on the first Wednesday of December, after two months' notice of the vacancy given by the Secretary of State to the state executives. These provisions, contained in the bill as it came from the Senate, met with some opposition in the House. It was denied that the President of the Senate was an officer in the sense of the Constitution. The friends of Jefferson seemed to insist, almost as a personal matter, upon the claims of the Secretary of State to act as the temporary president. Considering that the contingency could not be foreseen, and was not likely to occur once in a century, it was somewhat hypercritically urged in reply, that to select any head of a department would be to give to the president the appointment of his own temporary successor. The objection to the Chief Justice was more solid. It was his duty to officiate in the Sen

CHAPTER ate in case of the impeachment of the president, and he IV. might, by possibility, if acting president, be called upon 1792. to preside over his own impeachment. It was proposed

to substitute the senior associate justice of the Supreme Court; but finally the bill passed without alteration, and its provisions on this subject, as well as on others, still remain the law of the land.

The appropriations for the service of the year 1792 exhibited a great increase of federal expenditure. They embraced $611,270 46 for the civil list, diplomatic intercourse, and sundry claims, including the expense of ten cutters for the revenue department; $532,449 71 for the ordinary expenses of the War Department, including pensions and Indian affairs, with $673,500 for the new regiments; making, with $2,849,194 73, to which the interest already payable on the public debt was calculated to amount, an expenditure for the year of $4,666,414 94-a far greater annual sum than the general government had ever yet paid, except by the assistance of paper money or loans. A standing order, adopted at this session, and ever since continued in force, required the Secretary of the Treasury, at an early day of each session, to communicate to the House an accu rate statement of the receipts of all public moneys, and the expenditures under each head of appropriation, with the unexpended balances of appropriations.

Pending the session of Congress, a Convention met in Kentucky to frame a Constitution for that new state. The master spirit of this body was George Nicholas, like most of the other inhabitants, an emigrant from Virginia -the same person who had moved, in the Virginia Legislature, for Jefferson's impeachment during the inva sion of Cornwallis, though subsequently and at present one of his political friends. The Constitution drafted by

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