Sans Dessein. On the 28th of September last, the sitting Delegate served on the petitioner a general notice in the same form with that first received by him from the petitioner, concluding in the following words "Which depositions, at each of those places and days, will be taken for the purpose of proving that the election, in each of the townships, for a Delegate to the Congress of the United States from the Territory of Missouri, was not held on the first Monday of August last past, according to law, in the following particulars, to wit: That a place in each township had not been named for holding such election agreeably to law; that the elections were not held at the places appointed for holding the same in each of the townships; that no notice of such election, and of the times and places of holding the same, had been given by the respective sheriffs; that the polls were not opened according to law in the several townships; that no judges of election had been appointed by the circuit courts; that no judges of election were chosen by the people, and none officiated or were sworn according to law; that no clerks were appointed nor sworn; no pollbooks kept, and no legal votes given to you; that illegal votes were given for you as Delegate, and legal votes given for me as Delegate, rejected by the judges; that the oaths of the judges and clerks are not prefixed to the poll-books; that the poll-books have not been signed by the judges and clerks; that the returns have not been made of votes legally taken for me, and improper votes have been admitted, and the votes counted for you; that the polls have not been opened and the votes counted by the clerks and two justices; and that the voters have not been permitted to give in their votes freely, and many who wished to vote for me, have been, by threats and violence, prevented from so doing."

No notice was given by either party of the names of the electors objected against for want of qualifications; nor was either party notified by the other that the particular qualifications of the electors would be investigated, nor were the names of the magistrates stated before whom depositions were to be taken.

The sitting Delegate contends that he considered himself authorized, under his general notice, to examine witnesses to every point of objections which he might find himself able to support in the course of investigation. And the petitioner alleged that he did not suppose an investigation into the qualifications of the electors and the persons for whom they voted, to be admissible; that the only case in which that inquiry had been made in his behalf, related to the votes in the township of Cote Sans Dessein, which was done without his instruction or consent.

In the case of Joseph B. Varnum, a Representative from the State of Massachusetts, whose election was contested at the first session of the fourth Congress, the Committee of Elections, (we adopt the words of their report,) "as well from the difficulty of the case, as from a desire to have uniformity in proceedings of this kind, were induced to pray the instructions of the House as to the kind of specification that shall be demanded of the petitioner, and the manner in which the evidence shall be taken."

Upon this application, after several days' debate in the Committee of the Whole, the House resolved, "That the names of the persons objected to, for want of sufficient qualifications, ought to be set forth prior to the taking of the testimony."

The rule prescribed in this resolution was adopted by the committee, in the case of McCoy and Porter

H. OF R.

field, at the last session of Congress, and, as far as your committee are advised, has been uniformly adhered to; it is important, not only to the parties, but to this House, that it should be preserved. The committee were, therefore, of opinion that the evidence taken in pursuance of the beforementioned general notices, ought not to be received.

If the House concur with the committee in this opinion, it follows that no evidence has been submitted by either party, enabling the committee to investigate the qualifications of the electors.

The committee are further of opinion that evidence cannot be procured in season to enable the committee to investigate the qualifications of the electors during the present Congress. From Howard county on the north, to Arkansas on the south, as the roads run, is about eight hundred miles; the settlements extend west of the Mississippi from fifty to one hundred and seventy miles; the Territory is divided into nine counties and about fifty townships.

In addition to the difficulties arising from the extent of territory, the law of Missouri prescribes no mode of taking evidence in cases of contested elections for Delegate to Congress; nor is there any territorial authority to compel the attendance of witnesses for that purpose. The great distance of the Territory from this place, renders it impracticable, even if the power should be granted to send for the persons whose evidence is considered essential for the purpose of examination before the committee: the committee, therefore, respectfully submit to the House the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Committee of Elections be discharged from further investigation into the qualifications of the said electors."

BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. CALHOUN, from the Committee on the National Currency, to whom was referred a resolution, directing them to inquire whether the Directors of the United States Bank have adopted any arrangements by which the specie portion of the second instalment can be evaded or postponed, made a report, as follows:

The Committee on the National Currency, to whom was referred the resolution of the House, directing them to inquire "whether the President and Directors of the Bank of the United States have adopted any arrangement by which the specie portion of the second instalment can be evaded or postponed, and, if such arrangement has been made, the expediency of adopting some regulation by which the payment of the specie portion of the second instalment may be enforced at the time required by the act of incorporation, or within a limited time thereafter"

Report, that they have availed themselves of the opportunity of obtaining the information required by the House, through the honorable James Lloyd, one of the directors of the National Bank, now in this city. In answer to their inquiries the committee received from him the letter which accompanies this report; and, on mature examination of the facts disclosed by it, they are of the opinion that the bank, in adopting the arrangement, were actuated by a sincere desire to effect the great objects for which it was instituted, as well as a regard to its own immediate interThe committee are unanimously of opinion, that it would be inexpedient to adopt any regulation; and therefore report the following resolution:

est.

Resolved, That the Committee on the National Currency be discharged from further proceeding on the above recited resolution.

COMMITTEE Rooм, Jan. 9, 1817. DEAR SIR: The Committee on the National Currency have, by the vote of the House, been directed to inquire, "whether the president and directors of the Bank of the United States have adopted any arrangement by which the specie part of the second instalment can be evaded, or postponed;" and I have been directed by the committee to request you, as one of the directors of that institution, to inform them whether any such arrangement has been adopted; and, if any, of what character. Should there be any such arrangement, the committee would be gratified in knowing the object and reasons of the bank in adopting it; and, in making this request, they wish it to be distinctly understood, that they do not consider it any part of their duty to inquire into the expediency of the arrangement, provided it be within the limits of the chartered powers of the bank. With sentiments of esteem, &c. Hon. JAMES LLOYD.

J. C. CALHOUN.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 1817. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a note from you of this date, as chairman of the Committee on the National Currency, informing me that the committee have, by a vote of the House of Representatives of the United States, been instructed to inquire "whether the president and directors of the Bank of the United States have adopted any arrangement by which the specie part of the second instalment can be evaded or postponed," and requesting of me, as one of the directors of that institution, to inform the committee whether any such arrangement has been adopted, and if any, of what character?

With that readiness springing from the high degree of respect to which every branch of the National Government is entitled, and which it cannot fail to command, I proceed, sir, respectfully to comply with your request; first premising, that I have neither authority nor instruction, nor indeed any intimation on the subject from the directors of the bank; and although I have had the honor to be a member of the board, it may now be uncertain whether I am or not still in the direction; the result of the recent election not being yet known, and no wish having been expressed by me for the continuance of that confidence with which I had been honored on a former occasion.

The committee, therefore, will be pleased to consider the remarks which may follow, as having no other weight than may be derived from their coming from an individual, whose situation, perhaps, enabled him to form a judgment on grounds not so open for observation to the public at large as to himself.

It has been the earnest desire of the directors of the Bank of the United States so to conduct the preliminary measures and organization of that institution as to insure, as speedily as possible, the accomplishment of some of the great ends of its establishment; and among them, pre-eminently, that of aiding in restoring the currency of the United States to a specie medium; in this desire the direction has always been unanimous, and a single dissention on this head has not, to my knowledge, existed among its members.

JANUARY, 1817.

One of the earliest measures of the bank has been to send an agent to Europe, for the purpose of purchasing and importing into the United States an amount of specie, which, when received, cannot fail to have a very favorable effect on the money circulation of the country. In this measure and object several of the State banks have united; and from the respectability of the agent selected for this purpose, and the means and powers with which he is invested, there appears to be no reasonable ground for apprehension of a failure in his accomplishing the object of his mission.

Prior to my leaving Philadelphia, (December 31,) no discount had been made by the bank, or any of its branches. A resolution had been adopted by the Board of Directors, on the 18th of December, of the following tenor, to wit:

Resolved, That on the 31st instant, the board will proceed to discount notes or bills not having more of the United States, secured by a deposite of an equal than sixty days to run, and made payable to the Bank amount of the stock of this bank, or an equal amount of public debt, at ninety per cent. on the par value thereof, with power to sell and transfer the said stock, or debt, in default of payment, when due, of the notes which may be discounted as aforesaid; and that the respective boards of directors of the offices of discount and deposite at Boston, New York, and Baltimore, be authorized to discount, in like manner, upon the same terms and conditions, and to an extent not exceeding one-tenth of the amount of the subscription to the capital of the bank, at their respective places.

This resolution was subsequently modified on the last day of my being at the board prior to my leaving Philadelphia, and, among the alterations, on two points named by myself, the one was that the notes on which discounts might be made, should be payable at maturity in specie, or bills of the Bank of the United States; and the other, that no stockholder should be entitled to a discount under the resolution, unless he paid into the bank the stock proportion of the second instalment due on his shares. I believe, also, that the resolution was so modified as to make it apply to the subscribers to the bank; but I do not recollect that there was any preventive provision, which would deprive a stockholder, who had previously paid in the specie part of his instalment, from availing himself of a discount under the resolution. I think no such restriction existed.

As the resolution of the 18th of December was modified, and as I do not find among my papers a copy of it when amended, and as I was much occupied at the time in preparing to leave the city, I cannot be so precise, as I should wish to be, in the communication I have now the honor to make to the committee; for the same reasons I cannot trust myself to detail the motives which induced the passing the resolution as it was ultimately adopted, lest I should be guilty of an injustice to the views of the gentlemen with whom I had been called to act, by giving an opening to any unfavorable imputation, to which they could alone be exposed by the inaccurate medium through which their sentiments would in that case pass. In compliance, however, with what I understand to be the wish of the committee, I will, with their permission, briefly state my own impressions on the subject.

It has been, and still is, my most earnest desire, in common with that of the other directors, to carry this bank into the most speedy and extensively useful op

tion, and with scarcely a single minute to refer to, or even the law establishing the bank before me, to solicit your indulgence for any deficiencies it may exhibit, and also to allow me to express my full confidence that, while the directors of the bank ought to feel grateful for the wakeful vigilance that is manifested towards them, they would derive great satisfaction from submitting all their proceedings to the inspection of any agent or committee who might be appointed for that purpose by the honorable House to which you be long; as they would be desirous of an opportunity to prove that they have at least endeavored to merit that countenance and patronage which they are sure of receiving, when merited, from the National Legislature; and on which, crippled and environed as the institution must be in its outset, with difficulties arising from the perplexed state of the different local currencies of the United States, the directors have calculated, as affording to them the surest basis to sustain the bank in the due estimation and confidence of the public, and to insure to it that degree of usefulness to which the interest of the Government, the magnitude of its capital, and the important duties it has to fulfil, so justly entitle it. I have the honor, &c.,

JAMES LLOYD.

To the Hon. Mr. CALHOUN, Chairman, &e. Mr. FORSYTH observed the report and documents were of so singular a character, that he could not, for one, pretend to decide on them on merely hearing them read through, and moved that they lie on the table, and be printed.

After some conversation between Messrs. CALHOUN, FORSYTH, and PITKIN, on the nature of the evidence adduced by the committee, &c., the motion for printing was agreed to.

ARMY APPROPRIATION.

The House then, on motion of Mr. LOWNDES, went into Committee of the Whole, on the bill making a partial appropriation (in blank of course) for the subsistence of the Army during the year 1817.

The reason stated by the Committee of Ways and Means for reporting this bill at present was, that, it being usual to advance a certain sum to contractors for rations, it was necessary to make a partial appropriation for facilitating the contracts about going into operation.

The blank was filled with $400,000. Mr. CLAY rose, not to object to the bill, but to observe, that the great expenditure annually required by the Military Department, which this year would probably exceed six millions, must have struck every one, and on the necessity there was that the House should be certain that a proper investigation and scrutiny into these expenditures should take place; as he believed there were three committees who might each very properly consider the duty as devolving on them. Mr. LOWNDES stated the course adopted by the Committee of Ways and Means, in acting on the estimates for the Military Department; the limited power of that committee in controlling those estimates, &c.

Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, made some remarks to show that the appropriations heretofore made were necessary for the military ser

JANUARY, 1817.

vice; and stated the different branches of the War Establishment, the Indian department, the Ordnance department, fortifications, arsenals, &c., the expenses of which were defrayed out of the annual military appropriations, though the great loss in the destruction of military stores, and at the manufactories of arms, &c., had swelled the expenditures beyond what ought hereafter to exist; and expressing his anxiety for economy in every branch of the Government, and his wish to reduce, as soon as practicable, the public burdens, &c.

Mr. Roor explained the course adopted by the select committee (of which he is the chairman) in examining the accounts of the War Department; their measures to prevent improper allowances; and their efforts to ascertain the possibility of, and to produce retrenchment in the public expenditure.

Mr. CLAY still thought the Government paid more money and got less military services than any other country in the world, and his object was to know if any proper examination had been made to ascertain whether the extraordinary expenditure of the Military Department might not be retrenched, &c.

He re

Mr. RANDOLPH expressed his pleasure at hearing in this House the long-exploded word economy, and at witnessing the most distant ray of promise of a return to old Democratic principles; and then went into a pretty general view of what he termed the extraordinary expenditures of our Military Establishments, which, in the Army, amounted to about $900 a man, and in the Navy to nearly $1,000 per man. ferred to his motion at the last session to reduce the Army, and its failure, and the resolution he had taken to make, during the remainder of his public life, no further attempt to reform public abuses, &c. He commented on the enormous amount of the civil expenditures of the Government, which arose not from enormous salaries, (for, he said, many of their officers were abso lutely starving,) but from the great number of officers, greater than in any other country, under the General and State Governments. Having, as this House had, no patronage whatever, but only the odium of every obnoxious public measure, they ought to still feel the necessity of scrutinizing into the public expenditures; and as it was impossible, in the nature of legislation, divided into opposite parties, for a member of the minority to make any effectual attempts to correct abuses, he called on the members of the majority to perform that duty, and expressed his pleasure at hearing those gentlemen (Messrs. CLAY and JOHNSON) using the almost unparliamentary word economy, and talking about retrenchment, &c. To the bill under consideration, however, he had no sort of objection.

Mr. CLAY, in reply, said that if he had been alluded to, his opinions had undergone no change, since he had voted on Mr. RANDOLPH's motion at the last session; that he did not yet think the Military Establishment ought to be destroyed, but that now, as always, he desired to know whe