During the past summer, your memorialist, to be enabled to perform the work which he was appointed to do, was compelled to contract liabilities, in the purchase of necessary material, to a large amount; and this he could do only upon assurances given that at the close of the present session of the Assembly those liabilities would be paid in specie funds or their equivalent. Your memorialist believing that he would receive such funds at the time specified, and being anxious to complete his contract with the Territory in due time, felt authorized, if not compelled, to give these assurances.

Present appearances, however, induce the belief that no such funds will be received, perhaps for many months to come: and although territorial certificates, which it is proposed to issue, may answer your memorialist to pay the hands in his employ, they will not be taken in payment of his liabilities abroad, contracted for the benefit of the Assembly. He will, therefore, if he pays these debts at all, be compelled to turn the certificates into the common currency of the country— i. e. Illinois paper, at a discount-(for he does not believe, from the failure which has occured to redeem the certificates of last winter, that the certificates of the present winter, if it be possible to dispose of them at all, can be sold at par,) and then to submit to an additional shave of ten or twelve per cent, in applying these funds to the liquidation of his liabilities.

It is not the intention of your memorialist to charge upon the Assembly any blame in the premises. The represntatives have done all that could be done to preserve the faith of the Territory and pay its debts. The difficulty and trouble have arisen from the failure of the General Government and its officers-the first, to make appropriations for the expenses of the Assembly at the proper period, and the second, to forward the amount of these appropriations in due time after being made. These matters, of course the Territorial Assembly, by any act of its own, cannot remedy.

But your memorialist would respectfully suggest, whether under the circumstances which have been adverted to, it would not be proper to allow an additional compensation for printing-sufficient in amount to make up the heavy discounts which have to be submitted to, and to pay for the delay and trouble which have occurred during the past two years and which are likely again to occur.

consin, and Dacotah, on the St. Croix rivers, to Fort Snelling, on the

Mississippi.

Approved, February 16th, 1842.

A Memorial

TO CONGRESS RELATIVE TO DUTIES ON LEAD.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The Memorial of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin, respectfully represents:

That the Territory of Wisconsin is unsurpassed by any other region of our country in its mineral wealth, more especially in that of lead; and the production of our mines already in actual operation, together with the inexhaustible stores of galena or sulphere of lead, remaining unexplored in the bowels of the earth, afford the certain prospect of our ability, not only to supply the demands of the United States for crude lead and all the various manufactures of the mineral, but also to enable us to add an important article to our exporting trade.

That protection, in a great degree, has heretofore been granted the miners and smelters of lead in the mineral region of our country, by various acts of Congress herein referred to, and that such protection was always considered as just due to a laborious, industrious, enterprising and meritorious class of our fellow-citizens, at the same time that it guarantied to our common Union of States the effectual and immediate supply of an important munition of defence, whenever imperious necessity should demand the last resort of a nation either to secure acquired liberties, or to repel foreign aggression.

By the act of Congress of May 19, 1828, a duty of three cents per pound was laid on lead in pigs, bars, and sheets, and five cents per pound on litharge, orange mineral, lead manufactured into pipes, and on red and white lead, dry or ground in oil.

By the act of Congress of July 14th, 1832, a duty of two cents per pound was laid on old and scrap lead, from and after March 3rd, 1833, and so much of the act of May 19, 1828, as is provided for by this act, is repealed, provided that nothing in this act shall be so construed as to reduce the duties on red lead, white lead, litharge, or sugar of lead.

By the acts of Congress of March 2nd, 1833, it is enacted that from and after the 31st December, 1833, in all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports by the act of 14th July, 1832, or by any other act, shall exceed twenty per centum on the value thereof, one tenth part of such excess shall be deducted; from and after 31st December, 1835, another tenth part shall be deducted; from and after 31st December, 1837, another tenth part shall be deducted: from and after 31st December, 1839, another tenth part shall be deducted; from and after the 31st December, 1841, one half the residue shall be deducted; and from and after the 30th June, 1842, the other half shall be deducted. And all articles paying a less rate of duty than twenty per centum ad valorem, before the said 30th of June, 1842, from and after that day, may be admitted to entry subject to such duty, not exceeding twenty per centum ad valorem, as shall be provided by law.

By the act of Congress of June 30th, 1834, it is enacted that the duty of three cents a pound on lead in pigs, bars, and sheets, shall be considered as extending to all articles manufactured of lead, the value of which does not exceed double that of the raw material of which it is composed, excepting lead manufactured into pipes, and old, and scrap lead, which shall pay the same duties as heretofore, provided that nothing in this section shall extend to, or affect the present duties on red and white lead, shot, sugar of lead, and litharge; and the provisions of this section shall be subject to the reduction in duties provided for in the aet of March 2nd, 1833.

On review of these several acts of Congress; and their several effects on the mining and smelting operations of our citizens in the mineral region, as well as on the various manufactures produced by the labor, industry, enterprise, and employed capital of another class of our fellow citizens, who by their demand for the crude material of lead, stimulate, encourage, and reward the producer from the earth,

your memorialists believe that on the 30th of June, 1842, no adequate protection by the then remaining duties on lead in pigs, bars, sheets, old, or scrap lead, shot, white, or red lead, litharge, sugar of lead, and other manufactures from lead will by law exist.

We, therefore, representing the people of Wisconsin Territory, respectfully ask that the duties, as laid by the provisions of the act of 19th of May, 1828, the act of 14th of July, 1832, and the act of June 30th, 1834, in respect to lead and the several manufactures from lead, be revived and continued from and after the 30th of June, 1842. Approved February 17, 1842.