GALES & SEATON'S Kegister of Debates in Congress. TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS...SECOND SESSION: FROM DECEMBER 3, 1832, TO MARCH 3, 1833. DEBATES IN THE SENATE. } LIST OF THE MEMBERS. MAINE-John Holmes, Peleg Sprague. PENNSYLVANIA--George M. Dallas, William Wilkins. NORTH CAROLINA--Bedford Brown, Wilie P.Mangum. Calhoun. GEORGIA-George M. Troup, John Forsyth. MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton, Alexander Buckner. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1832. At 12 o'clock, the Senate was called to order by the Secretary, Mr. LOWRIE, (the VICE PRESIDENT being absent, and the President pro tempore, Mr. TAZEWELL, having resigned his seat in the Senate,) and thirty-two members appearing in their seats, and there being a quorum, Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, moved to proceed to the election of President protempore, which was agreed to. Mr. POINDEXTER said he understood it was the intention of some of his friends to bestow their suffrages on TYLER, SMITH, 15 15 2 The Senate proceeded to a fifth ballot, which resulted as follows: Mr. WHITE, TYLER, SMITH, 17 14 1 The Hon. HUGH L. WHITE, of Tennessce, having received a majority of all the votes, was declared duly elected PRESIDENT of the Senate, pro tempore, and being conducted to the chair by Mr. TYLER, of Virginia, returned his acknowledgments to the Senate, as follows: him for President pro tempore. He desired to state, in "To the members of the Senate, I tender my sincere advance, that his duties as Senator of the people of Mis- acknowledgments for the distinguished honor conferred sissippi would require his particular attention on the floor | by their vote. VOL. IX.-1 "No person, who has been so long a member of this body, could have been selected, who has made the rules of its proceedings less an object of his study. This circumstance will make my errors more numerous than might be anticipated, and will throw me oftener on the kind indulgence of the Senate. "Whatever my errors may be, I have the consolation of knowing that they can be revised and corrected at the instance of any member; and I beg every one to believe, that so far from feeling hurt at the correctness of my decisions being questioned, it will be matter of gratification, that the sense of the Senate may be taken, in every instance, when it may be supposed I am mistaken. "Whatever industry and attention can do towards removing defects in qualifications, I promise shall be done; and I shall take the chair, determined that, in anxious de sire to do that which is just towards every member, and that which will most promote the correct discharge of the important business we may have to perform, I will not be exceeded by any who have preceded me." On motion, it was ordered that messages communicating the election of Mr. WHITE as President pro tempore, be sent to the House of Representatives, and to the President of the United States. Messrs. GRUNDY and FRELINGHUYSEN were appointed on the joint committee, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the readiness of the two Houses to receive from him any communication; and After the usual resolutions respecting the supply of newspapers, &c. the Senate adjourned. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4. The sitting to-day was occupied in receiving and reading the President's Message, [for which see Appendix] of which 5000 copies were ordered to be printed. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5. No business of importance was transacted to-day--the Senate remaining in session only a few minutes. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6. The President laid before the Senate a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, containing the Treasury report of the state of the finances, for the year 1832; which was ordered to be printed. VETOED BILL. with the Government, and which, in its consequences, and from analogy, might not only call for large payments from the Treasury, but disturb the great mass of individual accounts long since finally settled, I deemed it my duty to make a more thorough investigation of the subject than it was possible for me to do previously to the close of your last session. I adopted this course the more readily, from the consideration that as the bill contained no appropriation, the States which would have been entitled to claim its benefits could not have received them without the fuller legislation of Congress. The principle which this bill authorizes, varies not only from the practice uniformly adopted by many of the accounting officers in the case of individual accounts, and in those of the States finally settled and closed previously to your last session, but also from that pursued under the act of your last session for the adjustment and settlement of the claims of the State of South Carolina. This last act prescribed no particular mode for the allowance of interest, which, therefore, in conformity with the directions of Congress in previous cases, and with the uniform practice of the Auditor by whom the account was settled, was computed on the sumsexpended by the State of South Carolina for the use and benefit of the United States, and which had been repaid to the State, and the payments made by the United States were deducted from the principal sums, exclusive of the interest; thereby stopping future interest on so much of the principal as had been reimbursed by the payment. I deem it proper, moreover, to observe, that both under the act of the 5th of August, 1790, and that of the 12th of February, 1793, authorizing the settlement of the accounts between the United States and the individual States, arising out of the war of the Revolution, the interest on these accounts was computed in conformity with the practice already adverted to, and from which the bill now returned is a departure. With these reasons and considerations, I return the bill to the Senate. December 6, 1832. ANDREW JACKSON. The Message was laid on the table, and ordered to be printed. Adjourned to Monday. MONDAY, DECEMBER 10. The PRESIDENT announced to the Senate the appointment of the following standing committees for the session: ON FOREIGN RELATIONS.--Messrs. Forsyth, King, Bell, The following message was received from the President Mangum, and Tomlinson. of the United States: WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 6, 1832. To the Senate of the United States: I avail myself of this early opportunity to return to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An act providing for the final settlement of the claims of States for interest on advances to the United States, made during the last war," with the reasons which induced me to withhold my approbation, in consequence of which it has failed to become a law. This bill was presented to me for my signature on the last day of your session, and when I was compelled to consider a variety of other bills of greater urgency to the public service. It obviously embraced a principle in the allowance of interest different from that which had been sanctioned by the practice of the accounting officers, or by the previous legislation of Congress, in regard to advances by the States, and without any apparent grounds for the change. Previously to giving my sanction to so great an extension of the practice of allowing interest upon accounts ON FINANCE-Messrs. Smith, Tyler, Silsbee, Johnston, and Forsyth. ON COMMERCE-Messrs. King, Dudley, Silsbee, Johnston, and Bibb. ON MANUFACTURES--Messrs. Dickerson, Clay, Knight, Miller, and Seymour. ON AGRICULTURE-Messrs. Seymour, Brown, Robinson, Waggaman, and Foot. ON MILITALY AFFAIRS--Messrs. Benton, Troup, Kane, Clayton, and Tipton. ON THE MILITIA-Messrs. Robinson, Clayton, Waggaman, Clay, and Hendricks. ON NAVAL AFFAIRS-Messrs. Dallas, Smith, Robbins, Webster, and Bibb. ON PUBLIC LANDS-Messrs. Kane, Tipton, Moore, Holmes, and Prentiss. ON PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS--Messrs. Poindexter, Naudain, Prentiss, Ruggles, and Knight. ON INDIAN AFFAIRS-Messrs. Troup, Benton, Poindexter, Wilkins, and Frelinghuysen. ON CLAIMS-Messrs. Ruggles, Bell, Naudain, Brown, and Moore, |