CONGRESS.
PHILADELPHIA
HOUSE of representatives,
W 1 DfsESDAY, Feiruaky 8.
hi committee of the -jjholt, on the Fijhery Bill.
On the motion to iti ike out the words l( bounty now allowed,"
and 10 inferx ' ailowaiice now made,' &c.
"jVT R - GILES observed, tliac he conceived the
-LVJL vote of yesterday againit fti-iking out the
firfl fedtion, was a decision in favor of the poli
cy of granting governmental aid to the fiiheries ;
the inquiry of to-day will be 011 what terms this
aid /hall be granted ?
lie felt, he laid, but little regret at the deci
sion of yelterday, because he had himfelf pre
vioutly contemplated some reasons, not unim
portant, to jnflify that decision, ancl others had
been luggeited by several gentlemen in the course
of .he debate : The principles of this policy,
lie thought however might be combated by rea
sons of at lead equal, and as far as he was able
to judge, of paramount importance; but as he
admitted r.onfiderable weight in the reasons on
each fide of the question, he was not particu
larly tenacious of the preference which his own
opinion suggested. When he firfl mentioned his
doubts respecting the principle of the bill, it was
with diffidence, and those doubts in some mea
sure arose from an idea that the bill contained a
direct bounty upon occupation ; upon a more
minute examination lie thought tjie term bounty
unneceffiirily introduced into the bill, and that
the objetfi of it could be anfvvered without the
use of terms, which might hereafter be deemed
to contain a decilion upon the general principle
of the conditutional right to grant bounties ; it
was to avoid any thing which might wear the ap
pearance of such a decision, that induced him to
make the present motion.
He proceeded to remark that as great a dif.
ference of opinion often exilled refpedtir.g the
precise meaning of the terms used, as the conse
quences which flow from them after attaining
such precision of meaning ; and it is of impor
tance to the present difcufiion that an accurate
definition of the terms used in the bill, and those
proposed to be used, fliould be had.
The avowed object of the bill is not to increase,
but to transmute the sum or a portion thereof
now allowed to the fifheries in lieu of the draw
back upon fait, from the merchant who is now
supposed to receive the sole benefit, to the fifh
ermen really employed in the fifliing veflels :
I his is a mere chimerical project, but if it be ad
mitted that this is the object to be effected by
the bill, the term bounty is improperly applied.
A gentleman from Maflachufetis (Mr. Antes' l
who rests the defence of this bill almost folelj
upon this position, that those who receive the
benefit intended by it, are of right entitled to
such benefit in consideration of a previous ad
vancement in value, and that this bill contains a
nteie permission to them to retain their own, has
at the fame time declared, that he thought' the
term bounty the most proper and technical, to
convey this idea—in this, the gentleman appears
to have deviated from his usual accuracy. A
bounty is the granting a benefit without a" cor
-1 efpondent return in value—a drawback is the
retaking of lomething in consideration of a pre
vious advancement ; this is always founded up
on a consideration pteviouflv received—that is *1
grant of favor ex mero motn. '
But the great charatfteriftic diflinttion between
bounties and drawbacks as they efl'entially relate
to the adminiltration of this government, con
-1,1 tilc governmental objects to which they
may severally be applied : Drawbacks are ne
ceflarity confined to commercial regulations
bounties ma y be extended to every pofiible object
»>i government, and may pervade the whole mi
nutia of police, they may not only be extended
to commerce, bat to Wa/ai, agriculture, ttiaun-
Jaatjre j and even the fast tine ft of religion will
ue found too feeble to furnifh complete protec
tion from their influence. The people of the
United States have always been scrupulously te
nactous of a conilitutional security for the mofl
free and ec-un! exercil'e of this right, but through
t>ic mcu'jjmit bounries even this right may be
mvac.eJ, and the only security againit such in
valion innft be governmental discretion.
1 he fame ch»radteriftfc difliniftion will attend
that Jpectei of bounty which may incidentally
relult from commercial regulations; and direct
01111 tics i.pon occupation founded upon the broad
bafts o( di.c; euonary right : the fpecification in :
the ccnfhttuion of the right to regulate com- 1
merce, way pofilbly in fctne cases give rife to '
this indirect species of bounty, not from any
right in the conltitution to gra,nt bounties,/but
as the necelfary result from tlie fpecified right to
make commercial regulations—and this fpecifi
cation can be the only foundation of juftification
ro this ihdireot species of bounty, but there is no
fpecification in the coultitiition of a right to re
gulate learning, agriculture, manujatturcs or reli
gion, and so far as the sense of the constitution
can be collected, it ratherforbidsthan authoi ifes
the exercise of that right.
Aigunients used to deduce any given authority
fiom the term general welfare, abiiractedly from
the fpecification of fotne particular authority, are
dangerous in the extreme to rights constitution
ally i eferved, and ought ever to be viewed with
! g reac caution and suspicion ; they serve diredtly
to fliew that this government is not only consoli
dated in all its parts, but that it is a consolidated
government of unlimited discretion, that it con
tains no constitutional limitation or reftriJiion.
If any given authority }>e inferred from the
term general welfare in the abftrsuft, any other
authority is equally deducible from it, 'because
the term is applicable to every poflibie object of
government, and differs only in degree, as to
the several governmental objects.
He could not fee the force of the novel andcu
rious distinction taken by a gentleman from Con
necticut (Mr. Hillhoufe) between general weljare
and particular weljare ; for every particular wel
fare however minute, maybe in a degree for'the
general welfare, and if the- decision refpeiting
the existence of this diftinttion, have no other
limitation than congreflional discretion—it is e
qually deltruitive of all confth'utional rellraint.
Gentlemen who have advocated this principle
of conltru<tion, appear'ftartled at forne confe
quetices fuggelted to result from it, and have de
nied that they have made the admiflion of such
consequences ; this is true, nor have tbofe in re
ply so aflerted, but they have taken up the prin
ciples of construction furnifhed by its advocates,
and made the application of it to the consequenc
es which they themfdves infer ; and if the prin
ciple be admitted, it is undeniable but that the
conclusions drawn from it will necefl'arily follow
in their utmost latitude.
A gentleman from South-Carolina (Mr. Barn
well) confidently spoke of the inherent rights of
this government ; this is a new source of aucho
lity, and totally inapplicable to this government
if there be inherent rights in governments at
all, they mull belong to governments growing
out of a (late offociety, and not to a government
deriving all its authorities by charter from pre
viously existing governments, or the people of
those governments. In such a government, the
exercile of every authority not contained in the
lnftruinent, or deducible from it by a fair and
candid conltruciion, is an nnjuflifiable assump
tion j}nd usurpation.—-He did not mean, he said,
to analife this fubjetfi further at this time, and
had been led into thefegeneral remarks, because
the impatience of the committee to have the
question upon striking out the fecftion, had caus
ed him to refrain from delivering ih e f e senti
ments at that time. '
He would remark further, that bounties in all
countries and at all times have been the effect
of favoritifin , they have only served to divert
the current of industry from its natural channel
into one less advantageous or productive ; and
in fa<ft they are nothing more than governmen
tal thejts committed upon t'he rights of one part
of the community, and an unmerited governmen
tal munificence to the other— In'this country and
under this government, they present an aspect
peculiarly drsadjul and dejor?ued.
I To contemplate the fubjetSs upon which boun
ties are to operate in the United States, the na
ture of the government to dispense them, the
date preferences which now do and will forever
•more or less, continue to exist, the impoffibilicy
of an equal operation of bounties throughout the
United States, upon any subject wha'ever, should
beconfidered ; and one of these two effects will ne
cellarily follow the exercise of them—either 'the
very exidence of the government will be dedroy
ed, or its adminidration ui 11 it be radically chamr.
Ed it mult be converted into the molt complelc
lyitem of tyranny and favoritifin.
. He observed, that it is not unfreqiient at this
time to hear of an eaflern and southern interest,
and he had tor some time filcntly and indignant
ly leen, or thought he saw, attempts by this mean
to influence the deliberations of this House upon
alinolt every important question ; so far as be
was the inliilted objedt of tliefe attempts, he felt
that contempt for their authors, which appeared
to him to be the correspondent tributeto theim
punty of their designs s yet he thought that this
had been the molt formidable and effectual ,ni
mfttrial machine which had been yet tifed in the
adii'imftratton of the government. Butoneo-reat
mi. chief he apprehended from eftablifhine the
pt inc.p.e ■) t, 1 e unrcftrained right to grant boon
be > tl,ac u >nake the difference of
th eaflern and font hern, so far as
iey differ in their refpedtive flares of maimfac-
370
IS™;' l g n; C ntke e t'ha?p' ar 7 y h S,,tSi
artificial The jealousies and fufpieions arifinff
from party will then have a fubrtantial founda^
pn, which now have no foundation in fadt but are
ingeniously Simulated by a few fnrrh-' r
of effecting particular
vernment fliall be adminidered liberally & im
ally, as long as the principle of reciprocal de
inand and supply between east andfouth (hall re
main in violate,fo long there can exilt,,o eflential
diflmtt interest between them ; but. the instant
bounties or governmental preferences are granted
to occupation that instant is created a separate*
wholly between ealt & foiHr
but between the man ufacturer and the cultivato'-
ofthe foil ; there will still ex ist a community 0
agricultural intweft throughout theUnitedStates
and he hoped the time was not fardiftant when
a common sympathy will be felt by the whole of
that class of the community.
For these reasons, he hoped the motion would
prevail. IU
WEDNESDAY, Makch 14.
A meflage from the Senate was delivered by
Mr. Secretary Otis, notifying, that they had, oil
their part, agreed to the report of the managers
of the conference, on the disagreeing amend
ments of both Houses to the " bill to ascertain
and regulate the claims to half pay and invalid
pensions." ;
Th n °I d * r of f l,e d »y bein g called for, oil the
contelled Georgia eleifiion, ( ,
A motion of Genera] Jackfoii's, " that thede
cifion of the Senate of the State of Georgia on
the impeachment of judge Ofborne, so far'as it
refperts the Camden return for a member to re
present the slate of Georgia, on, the 3d day of
January, 1791, be received as evidence in the
prefentfria] of that eleiftion, toeltablift the cor
ruption of Judge Olborne," w 3 s the fubjetftofa
lengthy debate, in which the extent ofthe right
of the Ho life to judge in all cases of concerted
ele<siions, was fully difcufled.
The question being at length taken on the mo
tion, it parted in the negative—yeas 20—Hays 41.
Messrs. A (lie, Baldwin, Boudinot, Clark, Ger
ry, Giles, Gregg, Grove, Heifter, Jacobs, Key,
Kirchell, Macon, Schoonmaker, Steele, Sumpter,
Thatcher, Tread well, Tucker, Willis—2o.
NAYS
Meflrs. Ames, Barnwell, Benfon, S. Bourne,
B. Bourne, Brown, Findley, Fitzfimons, Gilmau,
Goodhue, Griflin, Hartley, Hillhoufe, Huger,
Kittera, Lawrance, Learned, Lee, Livermore,
Madison, Mercer, Moore, Muhlenburg, Murray,
Page, Parker, Sedgwick, Seney, J. Smith,
I. Smith, W. Smith, Sterret, Sturges, SyJvefter,
Venabie, Vining, Wadfworth, Ward, White,
Williamfon— 41.
Mr. Lewis, counsel for the fitting member,
then proceeded to reply ; and having canvafled
the evidence refpetfing the Effingham election,
The House adjourned.
THURSDAY, March 15.
A meflage was received from the Senate, by
Mr. Secretary Otis, informing the House that tbe
Senate have palled a bill, entitled, " An a<ft de
claring tbe consent of Congress to certain ac r tsof
the dates of Maryland,Georgia,and Rhode-Iflan<i
and Providence Plantations, so far as the fan:e
refpecls the dates of Georgia, and Rhode lilaiid
and Providence Plantations."
'The House proceeded in the trial of the Geor
gia elctftion. Mr. Lewis finifhed his remarks on
the evidence brought forward by the petitioner,
Mr. Jackson, at the close of which, he renewed
his propoikion for a postponement of the deci
lion of the house for a few days.
Mr. J ackson rejoined in a speech of fonie length,
and concluded by faying heihould confidein tbe
wifdoiii and justice which ihould guide the deci
sion of the House.
When Mr. Jackson finiflietl liis speech, a clay
ping of hands took place in the gallery.
Mr. Baldwin then renewed (he motion which
he made foine days Since, the substance of which
was, that certain papers tranfinitted to him by
the Supreme Executive of ihe state of Georgia,
being proceedings of the Hoiife of Reprcfenta
tives of that (late, relative to die election of a
member for the eaflern diftri(ft of said ftate,fhould
be received by the House This motion occa
floned a debate, which was finally determined by
calling for the previous question, in the follow
ing words—Shall the main question he now put r
This being determined in the negative, tiie
House adjourned.
FRIDAY,
Sundry petitions wore read and referred.
The report of a feleft committee to which was referred the re
port of the Secretary of the Treasury on the petition of ccitain
ioan-officcrs, was read rhe firft and fccoad time, and referred to a
committee of the whole House. . ,
Mr. Boudinot after adverting to some irregularity which too
place in the gallery yesterday, and remarking on the im;>o'
of the freedom of elections, laid the following motion on the tab c. .
Resolved, That whenever in the opinion of the Speaker, 01 o
the Chairman of the committee of the whole H uufc, any difjru c -' r *
YEAS
March 16.