H. of R.]

Appropriations for Fortifications.

[JAN. 30, 1826.

will be. I concede that two of these works have exceed- "St. Mary's River, and Savannah, in Georgia; Beaued the estimate. One of these is Fort Delaware, where it was discovered that the ground sunk under the weight of the erection, and this occasioned an extra expense, and swelled the amount beyond the estimate: and at Fort Monroe, where an alteration took place in the plan of the Fortress. With these two exceptions, all the works which have been built have been completed for a sum less than the estimate.

If the gentleman wishes a minute statement of the alteration in Fort Monroe, with a full explanation of the causes which led to it, he will find them in the document to which I have referred. Again, therefore, I ask, where is the want of more information? Whenever we arrive at a point where any particular fact is needed, I find it in a document which has been before this House for six or seven years. I said that the whole system of defence contemplated the employment of a regular army and a well disciplined militia. We have seen that a regular army of less than five thousand men, is sufficient to garrison this whole line of fortifications in time of peace. But how are they to be defended in time of war? The plan proposes, that, in addition to the garrison, a draft should be made on the neighboring militia. Instead of waiting, as some gentlemen have suggested, for a standing army, it is proposed to receive into the forts, the requisite number of militia. Protected by the works, and supplied with every thing they need, militia will here be efficient; and may, with safety, be relied on. Here, then, is your system: an army, a navy, a system of internal communications, and a line of fortifications, garrisoned with regulars in time of peace-with regulars and militia in time of war. Could you have a better system? And are gentlemen prepared to stop the progress of it? Though I have already, I fear, exhausted the patience of the House, I must ask leave to read one short extract from the Engineers' report, in explanation of the whole :

"A defensive system for the frontiers of the United States, is, therefore, yet to be created. Its bases are, first, a navy; second, fortifications; third, interior communication by land and water; and fourth, a regular army and well-organized militia. These means must all be combined so as to form a complete system.

fort, Charleston, and Georgetown, in South Carolina: will be examined and surveyed in the course of this year.” This embraces all the works contained in this bill. This system was recommended to Congress in 1819--20: so much of it as referred to the system of fortifications, was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs; and so much of it as related to the expense of the system, was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. Both committees reported in favor of the plan. The Military Committee gave their fullest sanction to the details of defence; and the Committee of Ways and Means reported a bill making the necessary appropriation to commence the works. The House adopted the report, and passed the bill: thus sanctioning the entire system, as wise and proper. Congress sanctioned it in the only mode in which they could sanction it. To have passed a law declaring that every part of this system should ever after be adhered to, would have been most unwise; because a system so extensive, founded on a reconnoissance not yet perfectly completed, must necessarily be subjected to change in some of its details. Congress approved and adopted the system, as a great whole; they said they would appropriate money to carry it into effect; and they did appropri ate; but they left the system under the care of the Board of Engineers, that they might carry on and complete their surveys, and gradually perfect the plan. The system has long been under review: has any thing been produced to shew that it is unwise? Nothing that I have ever heard of. If there has been any improvidence in the expenditure of the money, hunt it out, let it be produced, and then punish the offender. But, in the mean while, I say that it is not only not wise, but that it is not delicate, to be insinuating mal-practice against the gentlemen employed.

Gentlemen ought to reflect, Mr. McL. said, on the high and elevated station which they occupied as members of this House. Persons might talk, out of the walls of this House, and say there is corruption here, and there is corruption there. Such language, out of this House, passes by as the idle wind: unless some fact is stated, no one listens to it. But no member can rise on this floor, and say that corruption does exist in the Government, without its having its effect. The word of a gentleman goes for something in this House, and will never go for nothing until this House itself is thoroughly corrupt. If there has been corruption, root it out-expose it and correct it. But, because any member chooses to insinuate it, will you abandon your whole system of national defence, and put a stop to the works which you have already begun? Mr. McL. hoped gentlemen would not act so unwisely. "On these considerations, Burwell's Bay, in James' Have these works progressed too rapidly? Have they River; and Charlestown, near Boston, have been espe-progressed too rapidly for the means of the Government cially recommended by the commission, as the most pro-Have they progressed too rapidly for their own efficiency per sites for the great Naval Arsenals of the South and of or utility? Certainly not, as far as he understood the subthe North. Hampton Roads and Boston Roads as the chief rendezvous; and Narraganset Bay as an indispensable accessary to Boston Roads. See reports of 1819 and

"The Navy must, in the first place, be provided with proper establishments for construction and repair; harbors of rendezvous; stations, and ports of refuge. It is only by taking into view the general character, as well as the details, of the whole frontier, that we can fix on the most advantageous points for receiving these naval depots, harbors of rendezvous, stations, and ports of refuge.

1820.

"It is also, from an attentive consideration of the whole maritime frontier, of the interior, and of the coastwise navigation, that Mobile Bay, on the Gulf of Mexico; St. Mary's, in the Chesapeake; the Delaware; New York Bay; Buzzard's Bay; New London; Marblehead; Portsmouth; Portland; the mouths of the Kennebec and Penobscot, and Mount Desert Bay; have been fixed upon as stations and ports of refuge; as necessary and essential to our merchant vessels as to our Navy.

"Smithville and Beaufort, North Carolina; Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland; New Haven, Connecticut; Salem, in Massachusetts; and Wiscasset, in Maine; have, likewise, been examined with attention, with a view to secure them from attack by sea or land. See reports of 1819, 1820, and 1821.

ject. Are we less able to carry them on now than we were when we commenced the system? We began tais great work when our debt was double as much as it is now We did not stop then to inquire, within a few thousand dollars, of what were the means in the Treasury. We began our march with the whole of the war-debt on our back and shall we stop now, when we have entirely freed ourselves from that burthen? If there is to be any change in our course, we ought to go on faster; because we can now go faster with less fatigue.

This system of defence has been approved, not only by Congress, but by the People of this country; it has been sanctified by their approbation, and they are not prepar ed to abandon and give it up. If there be any extreme on this subject, it is that the People of this country are rather too sensitive in regard to it. They have considered these defensive works as almost too sacred, and too much beyond the reach of Congress. So much were the efforts of a portion of this House to sift and reduce the ex

JAN. 30, 1826.]

:

penditures for these objects disapproved, that they pro- less than fifty-three thousand. All these are regular cured for the authors of them, in some parts of this coun- troops. In addition to these, you call out the militia. You try, the epithet of Radicals. Although the motives of then have both the regulars and the militia to support. these gentlemen were good, their design patriotic, and You place raw men in the midst of a camp, and you very its fruits generally good-for Mr. McL. admitted that the shortly have sickness breaking out among them. In the exertions they had made had had some beneficial influ- mean while, the enemy manœuvres in such a manner that ence-yet bitter fruits had also sprung from it. The Peo- it is concluded he means to attack New Orleans, or that ple of the country, thinking this system of fortifications he means to attack New York. It is only a manœuvre ; was about to be assailed, were the first to rally around but as this cannot certainly be known, it forces you to them and one of the bitterest fruits of this exhibition of march your troops, and, by the time you have discovered popular sentiment was to be found in its effects upon the it to be only a manœuvre, your troops have been in full public prospects of one of the best and ablest men of that march, they cannot be recalled but at an immense exday. I hope, said Mr. MCLANE, I may be permitted now pense: perhaps cannot be recalled at all before the enemy to speak of the late Secretary (Mr. Crawford) without is attacking another point of your sea board Now, the fear and without reproach. He is, so far as regards my-expense of keeping such an army on foot for six months, self, beyond the reach of hope or envy. I may be per- has been estimated at seventeen millions of dollars. The mitted to speak of him as I knew him. He was, of all documents are before you, and gentlemen may estimate men, the least obnoxious to the charge of hostility to the for themselves to which must be added the interruption system of permanent defence. Nay, he was one of the of the labor of the citizen. You take him from the com.principal founders of that system. His able report on the mon occupations of life—you fill him with all the vices of subject, whilst Secretary of War, to which I refer with a camp, and, by this system, you bring home to his family, pride and pleasure, originated this system-inviting here left in distress, all the horrors of a war which he is endea the able engineer, whose services have been continued voring to avert from the rest of the country. To all which under the enlightened auspices of those who have since must be added, that the loss of such a citizen, when he had charge of that Department. I speak of the high merit falls, is far greater (generally speaking) than that of one of that distinguished individual who has now withdrawn of your regular troops, who are, for the most part, insulafrom public life, without invidious sentiment: for I am not ted beings, without family connections, or helpless chilone of those who sit down and grieve and grumble over dren, depending on their exertions. Add to all these, what has passed. I look to the future, and would so act that which is beyond all calculations, the moral considerahere, that, when the future comes, it may find the People tions connected with this subject, and you have a mass of happy and the country prosperous. With regard to that evils, attending this system of defence, which wants but distinguished individual, however, I know that a cardinal one feature to complete it-which is supplied by the adpoint of his policy was a vigorous prosecution of the sys-dition of a long and onerous list of pensions. Now, take tem of maritime defence; and I wish him to hear, in his the other plan of defence-the plan by fortifications-and retirement, that the friends who stood by him in the hour compare the expense of a six months campaign. In the of trial, still abide by his principles-that he may be able first place, you will want five thousand regular troops to to say of his friends as he has magnanimously said of his guard your forts: in addition to which you must draw out adversaries, "let them be judged by their measures."the requisite portion of militia; and the calculations in the This system, sir, is established by Congress, and approved report will shew that the cost of these will be five mil by the People. It is ours, and we cannot abandon it. lions. The cost on the other plan, was seventeen millions; The gentleman from Pennsylvania thinks that we are leaving a difference, in six months, of twelve millions, proceeding in this system too rapidly. He would prefer to build forts with; so that the additional expense of a the application of our resources to works of internal im- single campaign's defence, will defray the cost of the enprovement. But, sir, look at our system of internal im- tire line of fortifications proposed by the engineers, and provement. During the last session of Congress, we ap- then, it must be remembered, that your forts, when once propriated more than one million of dollars to objects of built, are permanent; but your army must be renewed. that description; so that, if our estimate for fortifications, Nor must it be forgotten, that the disbursements for the instead of being 795,000 dollars, had been a million of erection of forts, are made in a time of peace, when the dollars, it still would have been within the amount which country is prosperous, and your Treasury comparatively we willingly gave last session for internal improvements.full: but armies must, for the most part, be raised in time And, sir, if we appropriate the public money for the of war, when the commerce of the country is deranged construction of roads and canals, must we not spend it in and its Treasury drained-when every dollar that is exthe same ratio on fortifications to defend those roads and pended is raised by loan. Can gentlemen forget the loans canals? We are told of the expense, and it is represent- of the late war? To all this must be added the fact, that ed as likely to be ruinous to this nation. Sir, nothing is this mode of defence transfers the war from the land to easier than to raise a phantom of financial dangers. But, the ocean. Though the enemy's fleets may be thunderlet us put our hand on this expense, and let us see, froming at your ports, the country, in the interior, is at coman exposition of facts, whether laying out this amount on the defences of the country, is or is not likely to ruin the country. Let us suppose a state of war, and let us suppose that war to take place without the existence of any such system. The enemy would attack New Orleans, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or Narraganset Bay. Suppose him to have concentrated about twenty thousand men at Halifax or Bermuda, and with this force to come down to attack you. How are you to resist him? As you cannot tell on which of these points the attack will fall, you must have at each of the points exposed, a body of men equal to at least one-half of the attacking force. Such, at least, is the computation of the ablest and most experienced military men. These stationary troops would amount to sixty-seven thousand; in adclition to which, you must have a corps of reserve of not VOL. II.-77

parative repose: the war is scarcely felt at the home of the husbandman-he neither sees a foreign soldier nor is he oppressed by a load of taxation from his own Government. Your roads and canals proceed without interruption, and the labors of the plough and of the loom go on as happily as if no war was raging.

I, therefore, take it for granted, Mr. Speaker, that the House will not abandon this system; that it will not cast away all that is useful, all that is great, all that is sublime in the national policy-all that is calculated to give us safety at home, and glory abroad. You will not, with sacrilegious hand, prostrate and destroy all that you ought to prize as citizens, and cherish as statesmen.

If, then, we are now in this system, and cannot stop, the question recurs, at what rate shall we proceed? The committee ask for seven hundred and ninety-five thousand

dollars. Is it enough? is it too little? is it too much Sir, how can we tell? We must go to the estimates that have been furnished us; these are the data, and the only data, from which we can form a judgment. If gentlemen can impeach these estimates, let them do so. But if they cannot prove that these estimates are falsely made, then we must receive them as our guide, in making this appropriation. The officers of Government tell us, that this sum will be required to proceed with these works in the best and most economical manner. Let us remember that it will complete these fortifications, and that it will put the system into entire operation over one portion of the country, and fully cover it with the mantle of protection. But, if gentlemen are unwilling now to commence the work at Bienvenue, they can reduce the appropriation to seven hundred thousand dollars.

[JAN. 30, 1826.

tion is for materials only; and, during the succeeding years, the work is generally heavy, and proceeds, and must proceed, very slowly. But, as the fortification rises from its foundations, and comes up into view, the work to be performed is of a lighter kind, and more labor can be performed in the same time. This, alone, would produce an increase in the appropriation; but to this is, in general, to be added another sum for the commencement of another new work. This is the regular course of things; it is the proper course of things; and it cannot be avoided until our system of defence shall have been completed.

But, while gentlemen complain of an increase in the expense of this particular branch of the military service, they should not forget that there are other branches of that service. I hold in my hand a comparative statement of the entire military expenditure for the years 1825--26, and, by A gentleman from Pennsylvania, whom I have now in comparing the two, it will be perceived that the expense my eye, (Mr. BUCHANAN) says that you must add an un- of the military service of this country for the present year, expended balance from the last year, which will, in fact, is eighty-five thousand dollars less than it was last year: make your this year's expenditure amount to a million of and that after giving the seven hundred and ninety-five dollars. That gentleman is usually extremely accurate in thousand dollars which is now asked for fortifications. fact, and sound in argument; but he appears, on this oc- The gentleman, therefore, need not be alarmed for the casion, to have taken a strange view of this subject. I re- safety of the Treasury. The gentleman from Pennsylvamember that a gentleman in this House once favored us nia, to whom I last alluded, tells us that we should not go with an explanation of what was meant by unexpended farther in granting money for fortifications, than we do for balances of appropriations; from which he would have us the Navy. This argument is not a sound one, and facts to understand, that it means, in fact, a sum of money in the will shew that it is entirely inconclusive. A ship does not Treasury which has never been appropriated at all. But take the same time to build it as a fort, and you may, in a the gentleman from Pennsylvania has fallen into an error very few years, build and equip a fleet, while it will take still greater than that; for he makes a balance of appro- forty years to erect the works proper for its protection. priation for 1825, to mean the same thing as an appropria- What is the fact on this subject? Did we last year approtion for 1826! This is the amount of his argument. If priate only five hundred thousand dollars for the Navy? it does not amount to this, there is nothing in the argu- Or did we not, in addition to that sum, give five hundred ment. He says there is an unexpended balance of 1825, thousand dollars more to build sloops of war? But the and that, if we appropriate seven hundred and ninety-five gentleman from Pennsylvania does not do justice to this thousand dollars now, it will be in fact, an appropriation comparison. He does not include in it all the sums apof one million of dollars for this year-but how can this propriated for dock yards, for naval stations, for repairs; be, unless the balance of an appropriation for 1825, is the these, sir, are stated expenses-they are incurred for the same thing as an appropriation for 1826? The gentleman gradual increase of the Navy; yet they are not paid out of says there was a balance unexpended. Yes, sir, there the gradual increase fund. I do not regret that the Navy was a balance unexpended; but does not the gentleman receives this appropriation. Sir, do I hear the gentleman understand that, though that balance might not actually from Pennsylvania deny the correctness of this statement › have been paid out in 1825, yet, that it was under contract Mr. BUCHANAN said, he was very glad the gentleand engagement for works done in 1825, and that it can- man had asked him the question, for he did not like to not, by law, be applied to any other objects than those interrupt gentlemen, when speaking, in order to explain. belonging to the year 1825 and that, if it is not expend- But he thought the gentleman had not done him justice ed on those objects, it goes, by law, to the surplus fund, entirely, in that and some other particulars. I do not and can, by no process, be brought into the expenditures mean, said Mr. B. to be drawn in as an enemy to fortificaof 1826? The Department made its contracts for the year tions. I never have been, and never will be, opposed to 1825; the appropriation of that year was made to meet the system. My object, on Friday last, was to procure a these contracts; it can go to nothing else; and though at postponement of the bill, and not to defeat it. Mr. B. the end of 1825, the contractors might not have demanded made some observations explanatory of the alleged unexand received their money, yet, if the gentleman will in- pended balance, and then said, that, with regard to a comquire, I will venture to ensure him that he will find all parison between the Navy and fortifications, he had utterthose moneys both demanded and paid in the first quarter ed but one sentiment; which was, that, in 1823, the apof 1826. But the gentleman asks, are we to appropriate propriation for fortifications had been fixed at five hundred more for fortifications than for the Navy? Sir, the gen- thousand dollars, in analogy to the annual appropriation tleman has looked only at the unexpended balance for of like amount, for the increase of the Navy; and that he fortifications. If the gentleman had looked farther, he was not willing to go further now, until he had seen the would have found there was a still larger unexpended report of the Committee of Ways and Means. He had balance of the appropriation for the Navy. He would not said that he would not go farther-he did not say se have found, also, that, instead of five hundred thousand yet. Mr. B. concluded by thanking the gentleman for dollars, more than a million of dollars was last year appro- the compliment he had paid him, and could sincerely say priated for the increase of the Navy, viz: Five hundred to the gentleman, in the words of a celebrated author, thousand for the regular annual sum, and five hundred" Laus est a te laudari."

thousand more for building ten sloops of war. It was true Mr. McLANE resumed. The gentleman is surely misthat, formerly, only five hundred and twenty-five thou- taken. Sir, I have not mistaken or misstated his argu sand dollars was asked for the annual appropriation for ment. [Here Mr. McL. quoted from the published fortifications, and that it has grown, in successive years, Speech of Mr BUCHANAN.] until it has now reached seven hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars. Do gentlemen ask how it is that this increase has happened? The answer is easy. Whenever Congress authorizes a new work, the first year's approprias

Now, I say, sir, that not one cent of moneys appropriated for the year 1825, can go to any new objects or purposes of the year 1826, and therefore that balance is not to be added to this calculation. I shall not, sir, at this time, ge

JAN. 30, 1826.]

Appropriations for Fortifications.

[H. of R.

ing the 95,000 dollars. Mr. Speaker, the alarm on this subject is altogether unnecessary. For myself, I am never afraid of liberally expending the public money, provided it is expended on useful objects, and you are obliged to resort to no taxation to get it. Sir, it refreshes the country like the rain upon the pastures. It stimulates industry and multiplies domestic happiness. If gentlemen will take twenty-four millions from our imposts, and spend it among the citizens of the twenty-four States, they will conter on them a blessing, and not an injury. There is no fear of our liberty's being endangered by liberal appropriations for the public defence.

Look at the condition of the country, said Mr. McL. Eleven years ago, we came out of the war without a dollar in our Treasury, and an immense debt on our hands. We have almost got clear of the debt during the interval: besides, we have created a considerable Navy; we have carried on internal improvements; we have purchased Florida; yet the Treasury is full-every man is happy, and the country is prosperous. This great nation is on its march, which will not, and ought not, to be interrupted. Does any man suppose, whilst the nation is thus improving, un der a wise administration, building up its defences, and developing its resources, that it is to be impeded by a dispute about a few thousand dollars, more or less, to be expended, within a given time, on fortifications?

into the argument of the gentleman in relation to the pub-of defence, or will be materially benefitted by withholdlic debt. I will give the gentleman the data from which I have made the calculation, that the war debt will be paid in 1829. The debt amounts to forty millions, (six per cents.) It is only necessary to pay the interest which remains on this sum, and you extinguish the debt, by the necessary operation of the Sinking Fund. The estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury informs you that there is an annual surplus of five millions. Supposing, then, that we leave two millions in the Treasury every year to meet the current expenses, you will have annually a disposable balance of three millions, which, in four years, will amount to twelve millions, the sum necessary to extinguish this debt. But, Mr. Speaker, although I have asked you, as it was my duty to do, to appropriate $795,000 this year for fortifications, yet, if any gentleman thinks that the rate at which we are proceeding is too rapid, I am willing to go with him, at least, into an inquiry, which shall have for its object the limiting of the appropriations to this object hereafter. But I cannot consent to limit it now contracts have been made in part for these works, and authority has been given by the Department to make other contracts for their completion. It is the habit of the Department to make their contracts in advance. They do right. It is their duty to look not only to the present, but to the coming year. In doing this, they are governed by the estimates; and I again repeat, that, if the estimates are wrong, let gentlemen impeach their accuracy, and prove them to be wrong. But until the opposers of the bill can furnish us with estimates, of a more correct character, we are bound by those we have got. We are bound by them on the principle of confidence. I do not mean a slavish confidence, but I mean that sort of confidence which admits the use of reason, but which resists suspicion and insinuation. I mean, said Mr. McL., that liberal confidence which is reposed by a frank and upright mind in those whom we know to possess both skill and integrity. I mean, sir, such a sort of confidence as the constituents of the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania feel, that he will perform his duty on this floor, with that ability and uprightness with which he does perform it. It is a confidence that those who have been employed by the Government on account of their high and justly merited reputation for skill and integrity, will not wilfully violate their duty. Sir, the individual who is at the head of that Board, from his high station and long course of military achievement, is entitled to receive it. So is every man, who, by a course of useful and virtuous action, has obtained the regard of his fellow-citizens. This confidence is his reward: it belongs to his place, and you injure him if you refuse it. When he has been elevated by his fellow-citizens to an exalted situation in his country's service, if you assail him with suspicion, and without reason withhold from him your confidence, you contract the sphere of virtuous ambition.

No man of virtuous sensibility will either seek or accept the high stations of the State, if, as soon as he arrives there, he is to be assailed by surmises and suspicion on every side. By such a course, you leave the avenues to the most important stations in the country open to a set of men who are insensible to the value of reputation, and dead to the opinion of their countrymen.

A gentleman from Tennessee has said, that, throughout this bill, whenever two sums are mentioned, he will always vote for the smallest. But why, Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman pledge himself to vote for the smallest sum? Is it because he knows that the smallest sum will always be the best? How can he know this, but from the estimates? And once more I say, if you refuse to trust these estimates, show that they are wrong.

But, sir, permit me to ask, if the members of this House really do believe that the finances of the country will seriously suffer by granting 795,000 dollars for these works

Mr. McL. repeated that he had nothing at stake in this bill, but his share in the public interest. He professed himself to be the advocate of the great national system, which combined the Navy, Army, Fortifications, Internal Im. provements, and the Militia. The men who steer by that chart, (said he) are my men, because those measures are my measures; and I will sustain any Administration that will take hold and cherish those measures; and I will sustain none that will not. Nothing but public considerations had induced him to occupy so much of the time of the House to-day. The performance of the duty which he discharged, was not sought for by him, but devolved upon him by the selection of others. He had discharged his duty, and submitted the bill to the pleasure of the House. He put himself, for a defence of the bill, on the merits of the system; and he stated, from authority, that the Department could not well get along with its engagements for the current year, with a less amount of appropriation than the Committee of Ways and Means had proposed.

Mr. FORSYTH rose, after Mr. MCLANE concluded, to disclaim the hostility to the system of fortifications, imputed to him, in common with others, who desired a postponement of this bill. The question of postponement involved no such consideration as hostility to that system. Whatever might be the motives or objects of other gentlemen, Mr. F. said, his object had been distinctly announced, and it remained for gentlemen to do him the justice to believe his explicit declarations, or not. The gentleman from Delaware had distinguished between the object of the motion and the motive of the mover: the Parliamentary or Congressional usage allowing him to question the one, but not the other. The observation which he was about to make, was, therefore, not directed to what had fallen from the gentleman from Delaware, but to what passed outside of, and around this House. I have been denounced, by venal presses, for making what is called a factious opposition to this bill; and the arguments which have been addressed to the House in debate, not only this day, but on other days, go far to sustain this denunciation. An attempt to arrest the discussion, a simple motion to postpone it until information is received, is an attempt to break down the defences of the country! These, sir, are chimeras of the imaginations of gentlemen in this House, and infamous fabrications of persons out of it. Mr. F. said, he was animated by the same motives as other gentlemen,

Congress of Panama.

Mr. F. said, he thought he had demonstrated, from the face of the documents, that there was a want of accurate information on the subject of this system of fortifications. He did not pledge himself to use it when received. All he meant to shew was, that it ought to be before the House, Mr. MITCHELL, of Tennessee, said, that he had not and might be applicable to the bill now pending. So far risen for the purpose of objecting to the resolution, but as regarded the amount of appropriation proposed for spe- merely to obtain information. He wished to know what cial objects, Mr. F. said, he never did, and never would, end the mover proposed to attain. He understood that vote to reduce the amount of an appropriation on the bare this subject was now before the Senate: [Mr. M. was here suggestion of any member, that it was proper to lessen it. called to order by the Chair, it being contrary to rule to He made no objection to the amount of appropriations pro-refer to business pending in the other branch of the Legis