Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
The Senate resumed the third reading of the bill, entitled “An act to
alter and establish certain post roads.”
On motion, to add the following after section third:
“_And be it further enacted_, That two post roads shall be laid
out, under the inspection of commissioners to be appointed by
the President of the United States, one to lead from Tellico
block-house, in the State of Tennessee, and the other from
Jackson court-house, in the State of Georgia, by routes the
most eligible, and as nearly direct as the nature of the ground
will admit, to New Orleans.”
It passed in the affirmative--yeas 17, nays 10, as follows:
YEAS.--Messrs. Anderson, Armstrong, Baldwin, Breckenridge,
Cocke, Dayton, Franklin, Jackson, Maclay, Nicholas, John Smith
of Ohio, John Smith of New York, Samuel Smith, Stone, Sumter,
Venable, and Worthington.
NAYS.--Messrs. Adams, Bradley, Hillhouse, Logan, Olcott,
Pickering, Plumer, Israel Smith, Tracy, and White.
And, sundry other amendments having been agreed to,
_Resolved_, That this bill do pass as amended.
_Seat of Government._
The bill for the temporary removal of the seat of Government of the
United States to the city of Baltimore was taken up for its second
reading.
[The debate which took place on this occasion, had progressed to some
length before the reporter entered the House. Mr. WRIGHT was then on the
floor, and had made a motion to postpone the further consideration of the
bill until the first Monday in May.]
Mr. W. assigned as reasons for this motion, that it was not his intention
in presenting the bill, that it should pass; but that it had been offered
with the view of acting as a spur to the inhabitants of Washington to
effect a more complete accommodation of Congress. He trusted and believed
it would have that effect; and the operation of the postponement would,
by hanging the bill over their heads, most powerfully tend to produce the
desirable result of a concentration of the city, and an augmentation of
accommodation.
Mr. JACKSON followed, and, in terms of appropriate energy, condemned
the proposition of removal. He said he should not have believed, but for
the express declaration of the gentleman from Maryland, that he would
have brought forward a bill the sole object of which was to frighten the
women and children of Washington. So far from the measure having the
desired effect avowed by the gentleman, if it had any effect whatever, it
would be to shake all confidence in the Government, to repress the very
accommodation desired.
Mr. J. denied the moral right of Congress to remove the seat of
Government; it had been fixed under the constitution, and without its
violation could not be changed.
Such a measure would indicate a prostration of plighted faith; would
destroy all confidence in the Government, from one end of the continent
to the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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