Columbian centinel. (Augusta, Ga.) 18??-????, September 20, 1806, Image 2

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*. -A yW #« *wr, although in the latter stages of the cTis cussicm, no reply tvas attempted. The doors were closed, and the minority whose motives were impeached, a.'.d whose persons were al most denounced, were voted down without de hate. In reply to the case of Louisiana, it was said that it was no precedent at all; that eve ry argument drawn from that source was utter ly inconclusive in the present instance; that no two cases were more dissimilar: that ex cept the patties being the same, there was no p >int of resemblance ; that, when Spain with held front us the right of deposit at New-Or leans. Congress had acted on its own instiga tion al me ; they bail not been apprized by the ex'-cn ivc of any hostile movement on the part of Spain ; the territory of the United States had not been insuite l, nor the persons of our citizens within our own jurisdiction, violated: It had not been officially announced to Congress «• that thsir protection, as well as the spirit ami honor of our country rendered the interposition of the national force indispensibte." The chief magistrate of the union heal not officially de clared that the ict of aggression in question was committed b persons acting by the or d"rs ami under th ■ sanction of the court of Madrid: on tlv- contrary the House of Rep resentatives had expressed b« a formal resolu tion, their belief, that the wrong in question had proceeded from the. u ueuthorised miscon duct <f a certain Spanish officer, and declared their determination, in case it should be sanc tioned by their government, to redress the in juries, and vindicate the rights of our citizens. On that occasion, congress avowed, that they rt sorted in the first instance to an amicable explanation with the Spanish court; on this, the fair experiment ol uegociaiiott had been tried, and “ after five months of fruitless en deavour, on our part,-to bring them to some definite and satisfactory result, had entirely failed.” And it must be vein 'inhered, that the acquisition of Louisiana, which put a stop to these aggressions of Spain, (for which no sa isfacrion had as \ct been rendered) was made, not from the pari by whom those of fences had been otic red, but from one in no wise connected with them. And admitting at the juncture, the proprie ty of our malting overtures for :he purchase of a country, the possession of which, i; wasc-on.- ceded on all hands, \v as highly desirable to us.: yet, what measures had we taken, or did we propose to take, for the refusal on the part of Spain, to “ ratify her convention with us, sign ed by her oven mi dster under the eye of his sove reign, pledging her to mate compensation for spoliations committed on our commerce during a preceding war; to indemnify our citizens for the renewal if the same practices, already of great am runt during the present war ; for the obstruc tion if the navigation of the Mobile ; for refus ing to come to ary fair ami amicable adjustment <f the boundaries if Louisiana; ami fora dar ing violation, by persons acting under the author ity of Spain, anil no doubt apprized of her senti ments and views of our undisputed limits, which she h vl solemnly recognized by treaty ? ’ ’ —N ONE! The denial of the stipulated compensation for the spoliations of a former war ; the reitera tion of. the same practices during the presen ; the obstruction of the Mobile ; the perempto iy refusal to adjust the boundaries of Louisia na ; the insults committed on our territory, and the violation of the property and persons of our citizens within our acknowledged limits: all seemed forgotten, in the zeal ro purchase Florida, or thrown with the national purse in to the scale. The bill nevertheless passed bv a large ma jority. A motion was then made to transmit, by a committee, the following message to the Senate : “ By the House of Representatives, Jan. I6:h, 1806 Gendemen of the Senate, We transmit you a bill which has passed the House, entitled, “ An act making provision for defraying any extraordinary expences at tending thein'ercourse between the U. States and foreign nation’s” and to which we require your concurrence. This bill has been passed by us to enable the President of the United S’ateS to commerce, with more effect, a nego ciation for the purchase of the Spanish territo ries lying on the Atlantic Ocean, and Gulph of Mexico, and eastward of the Mississippi. The nature and importance of the measure con templated have induced us to act upon the sub ject with closed doors. You will of conse quence, consider this communication as confi dential Mr. John Randolph then moved to strike out the words “ River Mississippi," and to insert “ Bay of Perdido," upon this ground, that the country between the Mississippi and the Perdido was in dispute between the U States and Spain, being a part of Louisiana, “ such as it was as possessed by France,” and convex ed by the treaty of Paris of SOth of April, 1803, to the U. States. The territory ia question (embracing the hanks of the Mo bile, and out of which all our differences with Spain, on the subject of boundary on this side of the Mississippi had grown) the Executive had advanced what they deemed an undoubt ed claim Upon this claim Congress had al ready legislated, having passed a law, erecting the shore and waters of the river Mobile into a collection district, and it was deemed, that the authorising the President to purchase that p irtion of the country, would not only be a commitment of the national honor, but might fa : rly be considered as a surrender on our part of all pretensions to the disputed territory. This motion, however, was negatived—Yeas 59 —Nays 68. It is perhaps worthy of remem brance, that, on this, as on most of the other questions arising out of this subject, many of the warmest advocates of the measures even tually pursued were in the minority. (See the secret journal, since published, page 33.) But to the message itself, as well as to the general course of proceeding, this strong, and (as i r is presumed) unanswerable objection was taken : That the direction which the Ho use of Representatives had chosen to per sue was to be prescribed, not to the Senate, but to the President: and that it would be im possible for the Executive, even with the in genu'ty of Oedipus himself, to divine, from a message to the Senate; what was the real in tentions of the Representatives of the people: that this message was not to be announced to him, bat to the other branch of the legislature, <* r - ; V ! ■ ar.d that, evenrifit were, his duty was to exe ; cute the laws, which should be enacted, and ; which could not be enlarged, restrained or mod ified in any degree whatsoever, by any mes sage from one house of Congress to the other: , and the appropriation being for any indefinite ■ purpose ts extraordinary foreign intercourse, and not made in consequence of any intimation, or recommendation from the President, he must • be presumed to be totally in the dark, “as to i the secret wishes " of the Senate and House of Representatives, and to be incapable of infer ring the intentions of the legislature from any thing but context of the law itself; much less should he be deemed responsible for the execu tion of plans, of which by the general maxims ! of legislation, as well as by the known principle of the constitution, he must be supposed td be altogether ignorant As 1 have said however, this, with every other difficulty that could not be solved was overruled: and on Thursday, 'I the 26th January, the engrossed bill, with the message above recited, was transmitted to the Senate.—On the day following, when the bill was no longer in the possession of the house or under its comroul, the dispatches from our min ister at London, on the IBth and 25th of Octo ber, 1805. which had been four weeks lying in the office of the Secretary were laid before i lie bouse. Those dispatches which had a most important bearing upon our Spanish relations, which had occupied the attention of the Mouse of Representatives for nearly three preceding weeks, during which their doors were closed, produced an instantaneous conviction on the minds of many, the best informed and most influential members of the house presumed to be in the confidence of the Secretary of State, that the dispatches had but recently arrived, and this inference was supported by this circum stance. that a single copy only (perhaps the original) was submitted to the two houses to be interchanged between them ; from whence it was concluded by many ; that sufficient time had not elapsed since their reception, to.enable the clerks in the office of foreign affairs to make out duplicates of the papers. But ibis fact wasimiv^y^uly-^paprovedbvMi. J. Ran dolph’s callmgatTiie Secretary of State’s office, where he learnt from Mr Wagner, the chief clerk of that department as well as from the secretary himself, that they had arrived a week before Christmas; that is, prior to the 21st of December. The House of Representatives having re- j solved to incur an expence for the purchase of i Florida, the second member of Mr. Bidwell’s i resolution, to continue for years, the i additional duty of two and a half per cent ad j valorem, imposed by the “ act further to pro tect the commerce and seamen of the U. States against the Barbary powers,” to make good thesame, came under consideration But this proposition was vehemently opposed by Mr. J Randolph, who stated, that lie deemed it an unconstitutional mode of voting to raise taxes in conclave : that if the members of that house should once come to levy impositions upon their constituents, with closed (jbors, whilst the votes which they should give (to say nothing of the discussion) from the very nature of the secret journal, remained conceal ed from their constituents, there was an end of the public liberties Congress might thus pass any law. however constitutional and op pressive, whilst the people would remain ignor ant of the part which their representatives had respectively taken, and be consequently unable to apply the proper corrective and that, however reasons of state might render it expe dient to proceed in ibis way against a foreign enemy or to give a secret direction to military expeditions against the common foe; those reasons were totally inapplicable to the im position of burthens upon the people or to any curtailment of their rights, with which that enemy could have no concern, and from the knowledge of which he could derive no ad vantage. The proposition was at that time withdrawn, but on the last day of the session, April 21, this tax was continued : the only os tensible motive is to be found in a message from the Executive of the 14-th of the same month, intimating the existence of an unfriendly dispo sition on the part of Tunis towards the United States. , In a future number, some remarks will be offered on the proceedings of Congress respect ing our relations with Great-Britain : a subject, which, if possible, has been more misrepresen ted, and less understood, than that of the pre sent communication. DF.CIUS. BOSTON, August 23. , (fRUISLVG SQUJDRO.XS. „ The master of a vessel which has ar rived at Liverpool (Nova-Scotia) re ports, that' on the 30th July, at night, he saw* 3(T leagues S. E. of Scattery (a small island near Cape-Breton, in lat. 46, long. 59, 30,) four sail of large ships, steering northwardly, close hauled, wind at E.—supposed them to be men of war, as one had a large lanthorn at her poop. We conjecture these ves sels to have been La Guerriere 44, La Revanche 44, La Syrene 44, La- Felicite 44, French frigates, which were nat long sines in the West Indies ; probably proceeding to Europe, or,from the high latitude they were in, bound against the British station at Newfsund land. A squadron supposed to be admiral Warren’s from the West Indies, was seen the 29th July, in lat. 43, long. 57, when the Scorpion brig ol 18 guns, Capt. Stansell, was dispatched for New foundland, to apprize the officers there of the approach of Jerome’s squadron. The British have but a small force on the Newfoundland station. The French squadron, under Admi ral Wallaumez, (the Mentor of Jtrome Bonaparte) was seen it is reported, on the 10th August, in lat. 37, 30, long. 63, 30, standing to the eastward. PHILADELPHIA, August 20. j Extract of a letter from London, dnua June 17, received at Boston. “ I have enclosed a lew papers by the Sarah. I wanted much to send The Times , cf this morning, which de nies the report of Lord Yarmouth’s having gone to Paris, to negociate with Talleyrand, or otherwise of carrying a favorable answer from Mr. box, to the proposal of a negociation for peace. I cannot conceive of a peace between this country and France, on any terms of safety, while one commands the con tinent and the other the ocean. This is the general op]fcp»n here, however the present administration may be in clined to peace on almost any terms, they dare not make it, unless it com bines security. “ As to a war with America I dont think it even probable. On a proper representation, by negociation, justice will be done where injtry has been re ceived. The Administration are much more friendly disposed towards the United States, than the People, more particular some of the merchants. “ Mr. Sullivan, private Secretary of Mr. Bowdoin, has arrived here from Paris. He is said to have brought dis patches for Mr. Munroe, and is only six days from Paris. Something about Spanish cessions is spoken of; but what I have not heard. Portugal, it is said, is to he extinguished as a kingdom, and become a Spanish province ; and Spain is to cede some of her maritime domin ion to France.” SF,PT. i . On Saturday last arrived at New castle, a French frigate, having carried away her mizen-mast and main-top ! mast, and received some other damage j in the late gale of the 23d ; she has a | nurnber-of British prisoners on board, 1 and from report only, we are enabled j to say, she is one of Jerome’s fleet, that 1 they have ail been in the gale, that one of them was obliged to throw over all her guns, that most of them had re ceived damage, that they were bound for the Chesepeake, that they had tak en upwards of 20 sail of British vessels, supposed part of the Jamaica convoy, and that they had a great number of English prisoners on board. NEW-YORK, August 27. Yesterday, about half an hour after one o’clock in the afternoon, the Pow der House at Brooklyn, to Mr. Lewis Sands, blefr upl ItcontuiTi ed four hundred casks of powder. The explosion was dreadful; but the persons employed in the house being at dinner, no lives were lost, The materials of the building were blown to a great distance; some of the fragments, it is said, were thrown into this city. The damage done the adjacent buildings, by the breaking of windows, Sec. is considera | ble. A rope walk near the spot was levelled with the ground ; and the nur sery garden of Mr. John Hastings sus tained much injury. An opinion pre vails that the explosion was-riot the ef fect of mere accident. August 28. On Sunday morning last, about 9 o’clock, as the ship Rose-in-Bloom , capt. Baker, from Charleston, S. C. was mak ing for this port, a sea struck her and immediately threw her on her beam ends. The cabin passengers were principally in their births, and the first notice they had of their frightful situa tion was the rushing of the water down the companion. They had only just time to seek the safety of their lives by getting upon deck, as fast as possible, without a moment to catch at a single article of cloathing. As many as could got out at the door. Some could not. Os those who did, some found them selves entangled among the bags of cot ton that lay to the leeward, and with them were washed overboard. The number and names of the lost are given below. Among them the fate of General Macpherson excites sin gular commiseration. Both himself and daughter were washed overboard on their coming out of the cabin ; be ing an excellent swimmer, General Macpherson made the quarter railing, but perceiving his daughter struggling in the waves and just sinking, he plung ed into the sea after her, seized her and brought her to the wreck ; but was himself washed oft'a second time, and again he made out to reach the quarter deck, but his strength was exhausted, and he had not enough left to get on board, even with all the assistance that could be then afforded; he was drowned. Mr. Booth, another passenger had the astonishing courage and presence ot mind to make his way through the water to the after cabin, where was his wife with her little son, to shove up the dead light, thrust out his wife and son, and jumped out after them. He was jin '.--.Dcs they, might get hold of the quarter ’-(k, hot it was beyond the power oi CK:-» r. He saved nimself, but botn v.ile anti w«re drowned* All that could saw tin. mselves clung to the quaiter railing, and it was soon contrived to cut away the masts, Ly which she righted, but full of water and lying level with the sea. 50 bales of cotton in the hold prevented her go ing down. Twenty-seven persons now found themselves on the wreck, without cloth ing or food, or any possibility of get ting any. They were obliged to lush themsplves on for the sea run tremen dously, and made almost continually u fair breach over them ; while the spat s and loose ropes and other matters that remained along side being washed a gainst them, cut and bruised them in a shocking manner. In this situation they remained all Sunday, and Sunday night, during which one or two perish ed, but about 8 o’clock on Monday morning they were spied by Captain Phelan, (an Irishman) of the brig Swift, St. Johns, about 5 miles distant, who immediately hove about, and the wind be ing light, sent off his jolly bout ahead to their assistance. This boat took off Miss Macpherscn, having hardly any signs of life in her, and the Hon. Mr. Rutledge, with one other person. The long boat was then dispatched which took ofl the remainder. The following is a list of persons saved : The fico/ile /t reserved rjere, Captain Stephen Barker, Capt. Oli ver champlin, lion. John Rutledge, Miss Eliza Macpherson, Mr. L. Petroy, M. Brennan, Jos. W. Page, B. Booth, D. Botifeur, John Davis, H. Turner, W. Perry, D. Crocker, and 14 seamen. The following ficrsons were lost: General Macpherson and Servant, Mrs. Booth and Son, Mr. Clarke, Jas. Miller, Jun. Thomas Tait, Doctor Bal lard and Servant, Mr. Henry Bower ing, ID. Botifeur’s Servant, D. Crock er’s Servant. Steerage Passengers and Seamen. William Whitledge, John Forcha, D. M’Carty, Wm. Robinson, Charles Bryce, Fortune Johnson, John Trusty, Adam Knott, and Harry Kid, the 3 last, men of color. Captain.Phelan went on board him self and fished up several trunks out of the cabin and about i 4,000 dollars, but night coming on, the passengers beg ged him to make the best of his way .to New-York, especially as a Philadel phia Pilot-boat had got along side the wreck and would probably save the rest. DOCT. BURKE, HAYING at length resolved, to make Augusta his future resi dence, informs the community, that he will resume the Practice. He lives in the large brick house, at the upper end of Broad-Street, belonging to the estate of Col. Watkins. July 26. (ts.) 1— Book Binding . o THE Subscriber informs his friends and the pubiic, that he has re moved from the herald Printing-Of fice to the Office of the Columbian centinel, where orders in the line of his business will be thankfully received and duly attended to. William Butler. July 19. 56 BROUGHT to Edgefield jail the 25th of August, an African Negro woman, who calls her name SALLY, she appears about 20 years of age, has the marks of the small pox in her face, she has a very shame faced, modest countenance, when spoken to, she says her masters name is Thomasse, she speaks very few words that can be un derstood, has no clouthes except one white plains petticoat—the owner is re quested to come forward, prove his pro perty, pay charges, and take her away. E. Whatley , Jailor. September, 13. 8— NOTICE. NINE months from the date hereof application will be made to the honorable the inferior court of Greene county,for leave to sell one hundred and fifty acres of land, be the same more or less, lying on Town creek, to be sold for the benefit of the heirs and credit ors of Elias Cozart, deceased. Robert Watt son, Acini'r. March 29, 1806. 40 *