Ordered, That the said Message be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

WEDNESDAY, July 21.

Mr. CALHOUN, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the Message of the President of the United States, received yesterday, made a report; which was read, and committed to a Committee of the Whole.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the said report; and, after some time spent therein, the Speaker resumed the Chair, and Mr. KENNEDY reported that the committee had had the said report under consideration, and agreed to the same, with an amendment; which was read at the Clerk's table, and concurred in by the House.

The said report, as amended, is as follows: "Resolved, That it would be expedient to adopt the measures submitted by the Message to the consideration of the House."

A long debate took place on the adoption of this amendment. Mr. CLAY, and Mr. NELSON, of Virginia, spoke in favor of the amendment, and the policy of the measure. Mr. CALHOUN spoke in defence of the report of the committee, and in opposition to an embargo; as did, also, Mr. DUVALL, of Kentucky, Mr. TAYLOR, of New York, Mr. HANSON, Mr. GROSVENOR, and others. The question was then taken, to concur in the said report as amended, and passed in the affirmative-yeas 78, nays 51.

Ordered, That the said report be committed to Mr. GRUNDY, Mr. WRIGHT, Mr. ROBERTSON, Mr. BIBB, and Mr. FISK, with instructions to report a bill in conformity thereto.

THURSDAY, July 22.

Mr. GRUNDY, from the committee appointed yesterday, reported a bill laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States; which was twice read and committed to a Committee of the whole House to-day.

The question was taken, “Shall the bill be the order of the day to-morrow ?" and was determined in the negative-yeas 56, nays 79.

The said bill was then made the order for this day.

And the House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the said bill; and, after some time spent therein, Mr. SPEAKER resumed the Chair, and Mr. NELSON reported that the Committee had had the bill under consideration, and made several amendments thereto; which he delivered in at the Clerk's table, where they were again read, and concurred in by the House.

The question was then taken that the said bill be engrossed and read the third time; and passed in the affirmative-yeas 78, nays 56.

The bill was ordered to be read the third time

to-day, and accordingly was read the third time, when a motion was made by Mr. PITKIN that the said bill be postponed indefinitely; and the question being taken, it was determined in the negative.

The question was then put, "Shall the bill pass?" And passed in the affirmative-yeas 80, nays 50.

Ordered, That the title be, "An act laying an embargo on all the ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States," and that Mr. GRUNDY and Mr. ROBERTSON be appointed a committee to carry the said bill to the Senate, and inform them that the House have passed the same, in confidence, and ask their concurrence therein.

THURSDAY, July 29.

A message was received from the Senate, by Mr. CAMPBELL and Mr. VARNUM, their committee:

Mr. Speaker: The Senate do not concur in the bill passed by the House of Representatives, entitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States."

A motion was made by Mr. WRIGHT, that the injunction of secrecy imposed upon the proceedings of this House on the Message of the President of the United States of the 20th instant, be removed.

And the question being taken thereon, it passed in the affirmative.

DECEMBER, 1813.]

[SENATE.

MONDAY, December 6, 1813. The Second Session of the Thirteenth Congress commenced this day at the city of Washington, conformably to the act passed the 27th of July last, entitled "An act fixing the time for the next meeting of Congress," and the Senate assembled in their Chamber.

PRESENT.

NICHOLAS GILMAN and JEREMIAH MASON, from New Hampshire.

JOSEPH B. VARNUM, from Massachusetts. JONATHAN ROBINSON and DUDLEY CHACE, from Vermont.

JOHN LAMBERT, from New Jersey. MICHAEL LEIB and ABNER LACOCK, from Pennsylvania.

OUTERBRIDGE HORSEY, from Delaware.
SAMUEL SMITH, from Maryland.

PRESIDENT, elected JosEHи B. VARNUM their President pro tempore.

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled, and that the House is ready to proceed to business. The House have appointed a committee on their part, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled and ready to receive any communications that he may be pleased to make to them.

The Senate concurred in the appointment of a joint committee on their part, agreeably to the resolution last mentioned; and Messrs. ROBINSON and BRENT were appointed the committee on the part of the Senate.

After passing the usual resolutions for the

JAMES TURNER, from North Carolina.

JOHN GAILLARD and JOHN TAYLOR, from South Carolina.

CHARLES TAIT, from Georgia.

JESSE BLEDSOE, from Kentucky.
JOSEPH ANDERSON, from Tennessee.

THOMAS WORTHINGTON and JEREMIAH MORRow, from Ohio.

JAMES BROWN and ELEGIUS FROMENTIN, from Louisiana.

TUESDAY, December 7.

DAVID DAGGETT, from the State of Connecticut, and JEREMIAH B. HOWELL, from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, severally took their seats in the Senate.

Mr. ROBINSON reported, from the Joint Committee, that they had waited on the President of the United States, and that the President informed the committee that he would make a

WILLIAM WYATT BIBB, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, in place of WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, resigned, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his

seat in the Senate.

Ordered, That the Secretary notify the House of Representatives that a quorum is assembled, and are ready to proceed to business.

Ordered, That the Secretary wait on the President of the United States and acquaint him that the Senate have, in the absence of the VICE

President's Message.

The following Message was then received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fellow-citizens of the Senate and

of the House of Representatives:

In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture, it would have been highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just expectation from the respect due to the distin

guished Sovereign who had invited them by his offer

of mediation; from the readiness with which the in vitation was accepted on the part of the United States

SENATE.]

[DECEMBER, 1813.

Under such circumstances, a nation, proud of its rights, and conscious of its strength, has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the other.

To this determination, the best encouragement is derived from the success with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms, both on the land and on the water.

Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in the capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great inland waters, on which the enemy were also to be encountered, have presented achievements of our naval arms, as brilliant in their character as they have been important in their consequences.

On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry, having met the British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals, with a victory never surpassed in lustre, however much it may have been in magnitude.

On Lake Ontario, the caution of the British commander, favored by contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish an ascendency on that important theatre; and to prove, by the manner in which he effected every thing possible, that opportunities only were wanted, for a more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry of those under his command.

The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army transferred the war thither, and, rapidly pursuing the hostile troops fleeing with their savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in the capture of the British, and dispersion of the savage force.

This result is signally honorable to Major General Harrison, by whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the

been provisionally planned, were set on foot against the possessions of the enemy on the St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the delay produced, in the first instance, by adverse weather, of unusual violence and continuance, and such the circumstances attending the final movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was not realized.

The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities, has not been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned against us, no exertions to effect it have been spared. On our Southwestern border, the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors, were gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the unfortunate victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence, infuriated by a bloody fanaticism, recently propagated among them. It was necessary to crush such a war before it could spread among the contiguous tribes, and before it could favor enterprises of the enemy into that vicinity. With this view, a force was called into the service of the United States from the States of Georgia and Tennessee, which, with the nearest regular troops, and other corps, from the Mississippi Territory, might not only chastise the savages into present peace, but make a lasting impression on their fears.

The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with the martial zeal with which it was espoused; and the best hopes of a satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages, by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant command of General Coffee; and by a still more important victory over a larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major General Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his military talents.

The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid of the savages in all quarters, had the natural effect of kindling their ordinary propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those best disposed towards the United States, was ready, if not employed on our side, to be turned against us. A departure from our protracted forbearance to accept the services tendered by them, has thus been

*Governor Shelby.

DECEMBER, 1813.]

[SENATE.

our adherence to the retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close confinement, to abide the fate of those confined by the enemy; and the British Government has been apprised of the determination of this Government, to retaliate any other proceedings against us, contrary to the legitimate modes of warfare.

A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well known, all aliens complying with conditions limited to a shorter period than those required by the United States; and naturalized subjects are, in war, employed by her Government in common with native subjects. In a contiguous British province, regulations promulgated since the commencement of the war, compel citizens of the United States being there under certain circumstances to bear arms; whilst, of the native emigrants from the United States, who compose much of the population of the province, a number have actually borne arms against the United States within their limits; some of whom, after having done so, have become prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British commander in that province, nevertheless, with the sanction, it appears, of his Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war, and send to Great Britain for trial as criminals, a number of individuals, who had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our political society, in the modes recognized by the law and the practice of Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war, under the banners of their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety. The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual interposition in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of war were put into confinement, with a notification that they would experience whatever violence might be committed on the American prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.

It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly taken on the part of Great Britain would have led her Government to reflect on the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with the British, if not with the American sufferers, would have arrested the cruel career opened by its example.

This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and humanity, American officers and non-commissioned officers, in double the number of the British soldiers confined here, were ordered into close confinement, with formal notice that, in the event of a retaliation for the death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great Britain for trial, the officers so confined would be put to death also. It was notified, at the same time, that the commanders of the British fleets and armies on our coasts are instructed, in the same event, to proceed with a destructive severity against our towns and their inhabitants.

That no doubt might be left with the enemy of

It is as fortunate for the United States that they have it in their power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest, as it is honorable to them that they do not join in it but under the most imperious obligations, and with the humane purpose of effectuating a return to the established usages of war.

The views of the French Government on the sub

tion have received no elucidation since the close of your late session. The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris had not been enabled, by proper opportunities, to press the objects of his mission, as prescribed by his instructions.

To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite advantage in their cruises, it is of much importance that they should have, both for themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports and markets of friendly powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects or remove the doubts of the Executive authority to allow to the cruisers of other powers at war with enemies of the United States, such use of the American ports as may correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to American cruisers.

The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sackett's Harbor, and on Sandusky, have been vigorously and successfully repulsed; nor have they, in any case, succeeded on either frontier, excepting when directed against the peaceable dwellings of individuals, or villages, unprepared or undefended.

On the other hand, the movements of the American army have been followed by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Malden, by the recovery of Detroit, and the extinction of the Indian war in the West, and by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada. Battles have also been fought on the borders of the St. Lawrence, which, though not accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honor on the discipline and prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual victory. In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the South, over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most hostile also, of the Indian tribes.

If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has, at the same time, cherished and multiplied our manufactures, so as to make us independent of all other countries for the more essential branches, for which we ought to be dependent on none; and is even rapidly given them an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse with foreign markets.

If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has been applied to objects durable in their value, and necessary to our permanent safety.

If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean, and to predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of retaliating the former, and of providing protection against the lat

SENATE.]

ter;

demonstrating to all, that every blow aimed at our maritime independence is an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.

By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military discipline and instruction, by augmenting and distributing warlike preparations, applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valor with which they will be employed, and the cheerfulness with which every necessary burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights, and a longer duration of our future peace, are promised, than could be expected without these proofs of the national character and resources,

The war has proved, moreover, that our free Government, like other free Governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom; and that the Union of these States, the guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each, is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.

In fine, the war, with its vicissitudes, is illustrating the capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a flourishing, and a powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it is disposed to cultivate with all others; and authorized, by its own example, to require from all an observance of the laws of justice and reciprocity. Beyond these their claims have never extended; and, in contending for these, we behold a subject for our congratulations, in the daily testimony of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1813.

WEDNESDAY, December 8.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CAMPBELL, from the State of Tennessee; ROBERT HENRY GOLDSBOROUGH, from the State of Maryland; and DAVID STONE, from the State of North Carolina, severally took their seats in the Senate.

THURSDAY, December 9.

OBADIAH GERMAN, from the State of New York, and WILLIAM HUNTER, from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, severally took their seats in the Senate.

FRIDAY, December 10.

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House concur in the resolution of the Senate for the appointment of Chaplains, and have appointed the Reverend JESSE LEE Chaplain on their part.

On motion, by Mr. WORTHINGTON, the Senate proceeded to the appointment of a Chaplain on their part; and, on the ballots having been counted, it appeared that the Reverend JOHN BRECKENBRIDGE had a majority, and was elected.

MONDAY, December 13.

[DECEMBER, 1813.

MONDAY, December 20.

Trading with the Enemy.

The injunction of secrecy respecting a confidential Message of the President of the United States of the 9th instant, together with the proceedings of the Senate thereon, having been removed, they are here inserted.

[CONFIDENTIAL.]

THURSDAY, December 9.

The following confidential Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

To the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States:

The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws, in their present state, to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war, is more and more developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kinds find their way not only to British ports and British armies at a distance, but the armies in our neighborhood, with which our own are contending, derive from our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts and waters, are, by like supplies, accommodated and encouraged in their predatory and incursive warfare.

Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and from the ports or other countries, and often in British vessels disguised as neutrals by false colors and papers.

To these abuses it may be added, that illegal imviolators of the law, produced by undervaluations or portations are openly made, with advantage to the other circumstances involved in the course of the judicial proceedings against them.

It is found, also, that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive captures, and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.

To remedy, as much as possible, those evils, I recommend

That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted:

That all articles known to be derived, either not at all, or in an immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place, or in whatever vessels the same may be brought into the United States; and that all violations of the non-importation act he subjected to adequate penalties:

That, among the proofs of the neutral and national character of foreign vessels, it be required that the masters and supercargoes, and three-fourths at least of the crews, be citizens or subjects of the country under whose flag the vessels sail:

TUESDAY, December 14.

greater cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints will affect those most who are most ready to