The people in these neighborhoods take more papers, said he, than many other places of twice their age and four times their population, and must be a reading people. This is, no doubt, true; and where we find a reading people, we always find a moral and industrious people, who patronise schools and other Institutions that enlighten the mind and elevate the character of man. The population that are flocking to that country are both enterprising and industrious. By their exertion they are opening farms, building towns, and constructing the canal. The face of the country is undergoing a wonderful change: what was but a few days ago a desert for wild beasts to roam through, has become the peaceful abode of civilized man. It is in that country, and for the benefit of these people, that I have endeavored to describe that I wish to establish a port of entry, and to improve the navigation of their river.

Strong inducements have been held out to the people to purchase and settle western lands. Men who have emigrated to the West, and divested themselves of the commercial facilities to which they were accustomed in the Eastern States, look to the General Government to extend these facilities to their new homes; and the Government owes it to the people to diffuse its blessings to all parts of our country, where it can be done with convenience, as it can in this case.

I am not one of those that believe that a law of Congress establishing a port of entry, confers power to appropriate money to improve rivers: all that has been said and written upon this subject, has not changed my mind. I entertain no doubt but the power exists to appropriate money to improve rivers in any part of the United States, or their Territories, where the business of the people require such improvement.

The eighth section of the first article of the constitution of the United States, granting powers, reads thus: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States."

The same section concludes as follows:

"To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing pow. ers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

Here is a grant of power by the constitution itself, authorizing the legislative department of the Government to make all laws necessary and proper for the public interest. The ordinance of Congress of 13th July, 1787, is older than the constitution, and binding on the parties to that instrument, (which has, unfortunately, been too much overlooked in this whole transaction.) The Wabash is a reserved public highway; free to all the people of the United States; and I propose to establish a port of entry on that river, and to improve this public highway. I can find no limitation on the power of Congress or the President, as regards appropriations to improve the navigation of rivers, and to establish ports of entry, beside their own discretion. Does not the constitution and constant practice of the Government authorize the improving of this river? And the interest of a large por

tion of our constituents seems to demand it.

There is an additional reason for establishing this port of entry: it will remove a difficulty from a certain quar ter that I have found extremely inconvenient. It can cost nothing-it will violate no principle; and where it is within the power of Congress to do so much good, without violating the former practice of the Government, or creating new expenses, I think it will hardly be denied us.

It may be asked why this motion was not made last year, before the Wabash bill passed? It was introduced

[SENATE.

by an honorable member of the other branch of Congress, at the last session; but, owing to the press of business in that House, did not get through. I am desirous to get an expression of the Senate on this proposition, at as early a day as may be convenient, that it may have an opportunity of becoming a law before we adjourn. This motion looks to establishing a port of entry, and improving the river. Near half a million of people reside on the Wabash and its tributaries, all deeply interested in the steps taken here to extend to them commercial facilities. Every gentleman conversant with the New Orleans market for the upper country produce, will testify that the rise of the Wabash, to let our boats pass the rapids of White river, has an influence upon the sales at New Orleans. Should not the river rise to let boats out early in the spring, our produce, consisting of flour, corn, pork, and beef, is locked up at home, and prices are high in the lower country. When the river rises, and boats get off, they are thrown all at the same time into the market below. Our produce is mostly carried to market by our farmers, who, anxious to return to their farms, and dreading the disease of a Southern climate in the sickly season, sell at great sacrifice. Many of our people fall victims to the disease, and find graves in that country. Hundreds of lives and thousands of dollars are sacrificed in that unhealthy climate every year. A portion of these can be preserved by the improvement proposed.

The delegation are not urging this measure upon Congress of their own accord. Our Legislature has frequently memorialized Congress upon these subjects, and I have no doubt will do so again at this session. We do no more than reiterate here the wishes of those we have the honor to represent, with a hope that a deaf ear may not be turned to our request.

In submitting a resolution to the Senate a few days ago, I alluded, in the most temperate language, to a publication made in the Globe last summer, as I then believed, to array the Jackson party in Indiana against me, for advocating the improvement, by the United States, of the navigation of the Wabash. For this I am again assailed, and insinuations made calculated to injure me, and to prejudice this measure. It is true that I live on the Wabash, and, like other men of industry who settled there at an early day, own some land, but far from a great estate, as charged by the Globe. And, were it true that I have a large estate, is that good ground for the Globe to oppose improving the river, and thereby injure the people of more than one State?

If any person have charges to prefer against me, either in my public or private capacity, let them be brought forward; I stand ready to meet them at all times and places. I have no favors to ask; but, if it is expected to deter me from my duty by such attacks, they are mistaken. I shall vote according to my own sense of right, without being driven from my course by threats or insinuations.

The resolution was then adopted.

COLONEL LEITENSDORFER.

dorfer coming up as in Committee of the Whole, and The bill for the relief of Colonel John Eugene Leitensthe bill having been read

to read the report, which was done, as follows: Mr. BENTON requested the Secretary of the Senate "The Committee on Military Affairs, to which has been referred the petition of Colonel John Eugene Leitensdorfer, respectfully report:

"That the services and sufferings of the petitioner in the American cause, as set forth in his petition, are well and sufficiently proved by the evidences adduced, and seem to have been amply proven to the Congress of 1811, by which body an act was passed for his relief.

"The chief question which the committee have found themselves called upon to decide is as to the sufficiency of the relief then granted; and they are of opinion that it was not sufficient.

"The three hundred and twenty acres of land then granted to him, to be located west of the Mississippi, where no land office was opened for seven years afterwards, could be but an inadequate compensation for the risk and trouble of a journey from Grand Cairo to Upper Egypt, in search of the exiled Bashaw, Hamet Caramalli, of Tripoli; an enterprise in which the petitioner had a double danger to encounter-of death from the Turks, as a deserter to the Mamelukes under Elfi Bey, then at war with the Sublime Porte, and death from the Mamelukes, as a spy from the Turks. It also bears no proportion to the value set by the American Government on the co-operation, by land, of Hamet, the exiled Bashaw, with the squadron of the United States, in their maritime attack upon the reigning Bashaw in Tripoli. From General Eaton's journal it appears that he advanced the petitioner but fifty dollars when he set out upon his perilous expedition, being most scantily supplied himself with funds by the American Government, and entirely pennyless before he had accomplished his enterprise. It is shown that the House of Representatives, in 1811, had proposed to raise the petitioner's compensation of land to six hundred and forty acres; and the committee now recommend this to be done, by granting him an additional quantity of three hundred and twenty acres, as requested in his petition.

"For his military services the act of 1811 allowed the petitioner the pay, without emoluments, of a captain of infantry, while the act itself, which made the allowance, recognised his true rank of adjutant and inspector general; and General Eaton attests that his rank was that of colonel, and his important services, both in the march from Alexandria to Derne, and in the military operations at that place; a rank not to be considered extraordinary in an officer who had served in the finest armies of Austria; had been a colonel of chasseurs at the battle of Marengo; and was chief of the staff and director of artillery to the Turkish army in Egypt when he joined the enterprise of General Eaton, and placed all his hopes of rank and fortune upon the restoration of the true sovereign, Hamet Caramalli, to the throne of Tripoli. The committee therefore recommend that he be paid as colonel of cavalry during the seven months that he served, deducting therefrom the amount paid as captain of infantry.

"The third item of compensation is the extra pay at the time of discharge. This was not given at all in the act of 1811, though always given in the American service, and fixed at three months' pay, without emoluments, and intended to defray travelling expenses from the place of discharge to the place of residence. It is believed that no case could occur in which the commutation for travelling expenses could be more properly allowed than that of the petitioner. Induced to quit the Turkish service to enter the American; discharged on a foreign shore in the midst of victory; compelled to abandon every thing-horses, tents, and baggage-and to go on board a ship at midnight, and by stealth, to escape massacre at the hands of those whom he was compelled to desert; a wanderer for four years before he could get to the United States; at one time sold into slavery; at another an enlisted soldier; and arriving at last, destitute and a foreigner, in the United States, which he had fixed upon as his last asylum and home. Under such circumstances, the ordinary allowance for travelling expenses would seem to be an obligation of duty upon the Government of the United States.

"The application for a pension, preferred by the petitioner, if the pension system of the United States stood as it did at the close of the late war, would not be

[DEC. 24, 1834.

favored by this committee; but, since so many are receiving pensions who have done so little, no reason can be perceived upon which it should be denied to one who has done and suffered so much.

"To complete the view of Colonel Leitensdorfer's case, the committee have to remark that he stands before Congress in a very different point of view now, from what he did in 1811. He was then an alien, and might be taken for an adventurer; he is now a citizen of the United States, married to a native American, father of a family, for twenty-two years a cultivator of the ground near St. Louis, and, during all that time, an honorable and industrious man.

"The committee accordingly report a bill.”

The reading being finished, Mr. BENTON proceeded to recall to the recollection of the Senate some historical facts which illustrated the case of the petitioner, and showed his ample claim to the relief which was now proposed to be granted to him.

The enterprise of General Eaton, he said, was author. ized by the Government. His plan of co-operation with the naval attack on Tripoli, by a military movement from the interior, received the sanction of Mr. Jefferson's administration, and he was directed to execute it. The first step in this plan was to find out, and bring into its views, the exiled Bashaw, Hamet Caramalli, then a fugitive from his country, and wandering, it was not known where, in some part of Egypt. For this purpose General Eaton was carried to Alexandria in a national ship, and proceeding thence to Grand Cairo, there learnt that Hamet was in Upper Egypt, in the camp of Elfi Bey, then at war with the Turks, and the Turkish troops occupying the intermediate country. It was evident that, without the instrumentality of a faithful agent, who could pass both among the Turks and Mamelukes, his enterprise was at an end. Colonel Leitensdorfer, then in Grand Cairo, and in the Turkish service, became that agent, succeeded in the perilous undertaking, and returned with Hamet to Alexandria. There an expedition, savoring more of romance than of history, was set on foot. About one hundred Christians, collected from the stragglers and adventurers of all nations; four or five hundred Moors and Arabs, a hundred camels to carry baggage and provisions; undertake to cross the desert of Lybia, six hundred miles, to dethrone the Bashaw of Tripoli, restore the rightful heir, and release four hundred Americans from the chains and dungeons of Tripolitan slavery. They were fifty-six days in the desert, suffering every thing incident to such a journey, and such a mixture of nations and religions. Twenty-five days they were without meat; fifteen without bread; often without water, and sometimes drinking it from cisterns from which the bodies of murdered men had first to be hauled out. Almost every day the Arabs mutinied; sometimes for more pay, sometimes for rations; always with threats to the Christians, who were constantly standing to their arms against their associates. At the end of neartwo months they arrive at Derne, capture it, augment their forces to twelve or fifteen hundred men, defeat the Bashaw's troops in the field, and have every prospect of marching as conquerors upon Tripoli. At this juncture (13th of June, 1805,) the United States frigate Constellation anchors before Derne, and every heart beats high with the prospect of the promised naval co-operation, and the immediate march upon Tripoli. On the contrary, she came from Tripoli, brought news of the treaty of peace and amity, just signed by Mr. Lear with the reigning Bashaw, and sent for General Eaton to come on board immediately, with his Christian followers, the exiled Bashaw, and his principal officers, in conformity to the third article of the treaty, which bound the United States to withdraw their forces immediately from Derne, and to give no aid to the rebel subjects of the

misfortune, and by whose biographer he is thus mentioned:

"In December, 1809, he was visited by Leitensdorfer, or Eugene, the man whom he sent to Upper Egypt in search of the ex-Bashaw, and who acted as a colonel in the battle of Derne. No man ever appeared to be more gratified than General Eaton by this unexpected visit. Leitensdorfer tarried several days, then took his departure for the City of Washington, having first received from Eaton certificates of his unrewarded services, and recommendations to General Bradley, of the Senate, and other members of Congress, to enable him to substantiate and obtain his dues."

He carried a letter from General Eaton to President Madison, of which the following is a copy:

[DEC. 24, 1834.

hesitate as to his strict adherence to truth in those points in which I could decide on his veracity, and therefore am willing to give him credit for the truth of his account of himself throughout.

"During the time of my acquaintance with him, his personal conduct has been most scrupulously honorable and virtuous. Far from having any habitual vices, he is abstemious in all his enjoyments. He submits, without a murmur, to perform any duty, however menial, by which he can secure an independent existence; and has rigidly and perseveringly refused all gifts and subscriptions for his support. He has actually maintained himself since his arrival. As to his knowledge, it is very evident that he has had a liberal education, and is a good field engineer. He speaks several living lan

son.

"BRIMFIELD, Dec. 23, 1809. "The bearer, Colonel John Eugene, of Leitensdorfer, served with me very faithfully in character of adjutant and inspector general in my expedition on the coast of Barbary in 1805. He exhibited talents, courage, and perseverance. Before the battle of Marengo he commanded a regiment of Tyrolese chasseurs. He was extremely useful to us in passing the desert and at Derne. He seeks asylum in this country, and I hope he will find patronage.

"With profound respect, I have the honor to be Your excellency's very obedient servant, "WILLIAM EATON.

"His Excellency the PRESIDENT

of the United States."

At Washington Colonel Leitensdorfer became a petitioner to Congress, and at the end of two years ob. tained the pittance which is mentioned in his petition, namely, three hundred and twenty acres of land, for his perilous enterprise in drawing Hamet Caramalli from the Mameluke camp in Upper Egypt, which land was to be located west of the Mississippi, where no land office was opened for seven years afterwards; and the pay of a captain of infantry, without emoluments, for the seven months which he served with General Eaton; the very act which paid him as a captain, reciting his true rank of adjutant and inspector general.

During the two years which he spent at Washington engaged in this solicitation, said Mr. B., the petitioner lived upon his own resources, occupying an unfinished room in the north wing of the Capitol, granted to him by Mr. Latrobe, cooking for himself, and doing any kind of labor to gain a subsistence. Mr. B. said it was due to the petitioner to read the letter which Mr. Latrobe gave him on this occasion. It was a letter to General Bradley, of the Senate.

Copy of a letter from Mr. Latrobe.

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 1811.

"Sin: In compliance with your desire, expressed in your letter of yesterday, I cheerfully add my testimony to that of others, respecting the character of Mr. E. Leitensdorfer. Mr. E. Leitensdorfer was brought to me for the purpose of enabling him to explain his situation and his wants to Congress. He was at that time without any means of providing the common necessaries of life. I employed him in my office in drawing and writing, and in the field in surveying and levelling for the Washington canal and turnpike road companies. With his history, prior to my knowledge of him, I could only be acquainted from the written testimonies in his possession, which no doubt have been all before you, and from his own information. I never had reason to

of the vine, and the management of fruit trees, he is so well acquainted as to have been of singular service in the gardens of many of the inhabitants of this District. He professes, also, to understand the business of raising silk worms, and of the culture of the olive; and, in general, to be master of those branches of culture which all the nobility of Tyrol, and the nobles of Italy, depend upon for their incomes. To his virtuous and peaceable demeanor the inhabitants of the part of the city near the Capitol can bear unanimous testimony. I have known him, and narrowly observed him, for more than a year. His conduct has been uniform, and I have no hesitation in declaring him to be a man whose principles and actions would honor any country; and whose knowledge, industry, and talents, may be exceedingly serviceable to our own.

"Yours, very respectfully,

HENRY LATROBE.

"The Hon. General BRADLEY."

The land warrant which he had obtained, and which was to be located west of the Mississippi, turned his face towards the Territory of Missouri, where he married, became a cultivator, father of a family, and, for twenty-two years a model of labor, of industry, and of irreproachable propriety of conduct. His mode of cultivation is strictly European; garden, orchard, vineyard, bees; every thing the best of its kind, and selling in the market of St. Louis, with the same hands that raised them, the fruits of his daily labor.

Mr. B. said he had confined himself to that part of the petitioner's history which was necessary to make out his title to the relief which he prayed; but what he had related was the most inconsiderable portion of his eventful life. Educated for the priesthood, he betook himself to arms at the age of fifteen, and was cadet of hussars at the siege of Belgrade under Marshal Lau. dohn. At the breaking out of the wars of the French revolution, he served under Marshal Clairfait, in the low countries; afterwards under the Archduke Charles on the retreat of Moreau. Then he served in Italy under Alvinzi, Wurmsur, and Melas. Forced to quit the Austrian service, for a duel with a brother officer, he ran for four years a career of adventure, embracing Europe, Asia, and Africa, almost rivalling, in reality, the fabulous inventions of the Arabian Nights. A pedler of watches in Switzerland, a Capuchin friar in Sicily, a pilgrim at Jerusalem and at Mecca; the keeper of a cafe in Alexandria; a traveller in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; a Turkish dervis at Bagdad; a physician at Trebizand; his various fortune brought him to Constantinople, where he took service in the Turkish army destined to Egypt to reduce the Mamelukes, and arrived at Grand Cairo in 1804. At this point his history connects itself with that of General Eaton and the expedition to Derne, and is known to the Senate.

Mr. B. added that, for nearly twenty years, he had

personally known the petitioner, and never knew a more exemplary citizen. Reproach had never been coupled with his name. He had the respect of every gentleman of intelligence, and was able to add to the information of all; for he spoke ten languages, and was familiar with the great events which had convulsed Europe, Asia, and Africa, for twenty years of their most eventful history. His pride now is to live en philosophe, as he calls it, working for his family and educating his children. But he wants, what he thinks is due to him, the six hundred and forty acres of land which the House of Representatives voted to him in 1811, for bringing off Hamet Caramalli at the double risk of his life, and which the Senate reduced to three hundred and twenty acres; and the pay and emoluments of colonel and adjutant general, which was his real rank in our service, instead of the pay, without emoluments, of captain of infantry, which he was not. And then a pension for the remainder of his life.

Mr. POINDEXTER objected to the bill, and inquired whether General Eaton had ever received land for his services at Derne.

[SENATE.

Mr. MANGUM said there were also two or three other important letters which it was necessary to have printed; he would, however, confine his motion now only to the reference, and withdraw the motion to print.

Mr. CALHOUN also withdrew his motion to print the debates, and expressed a hope that the honorable member [Mr. MANGUM] would attend to it at the proper time. The communication and documents were then referred.

ADMINISTERING OF OATHS.

Mr. POINDEXTER reported a bill from the House, to authorize the receivers and registers of the public lands to administer certain oaths, &c., without amend

ment.

Mr. WEBSTER was understood to remark that General Eaton had received no land.

Mr. PRESTON expressed a desire to extend to the petitioner the most liberal justice, but found it inconsistent with his sense of national policy to vote for the pension clause.

Mr. BENTON, on the suggestion of Mr. PRESTON, and several Senators, moved to strike out the pension clause, which was done.

The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

Mr. WEBSTER then moved that, when the Senate adjourn, it will adjourn to meet on Saturday next; which was agreed to.

The Senate then adjourned.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27.

Several private bills were reported in the Senate today, and two or three memorials received and referred; wben

The Senate adjourned.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29.

The Senate met to-day, and, after transacting some business of minor importance, Adjourned.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30.

RELATIONS WITH FRANCE.

A message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. DONELSON, his private secretary, communicating a report from the Secretary of State, and the papers relating to the refusal of the French Government to make provision for the execution of the treaty of July, 1831, between the United States and France. The message was in response to the resolution submitted by Mr. CLAY and adopted some days ago. Mr. MANGUM moved that the papers be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and that they be printed.

its indefinite postponement.

It appeared that the Commissioner of the General Land Office had prescribed the form of an oath which was to be administered to all persons making entry of public lands, requiring of them to swear that they had been upon the lands which they proposed to enter, and there was no one there who possessed a right of preemption. This was a regulation calculated to throw great difficulties in the way of the purchasers of public lands. The committee could find no law in existence authorizing the administering of such oath; nor, as far as he was informed, was there any authority given to an officer of the Government to prescribe any oath at all.

In connexion with this subject, he was instructed to offer the following resolution, and to ask for its consideration at this time, in order that the Senate might be enabled to act on the bill at an early day. He then offered the following resolution, which was considered and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office be directed to lay before the Senate a copy of any oath or oaths prescribed by the Department of the Treasury to be administered to all persons who may become the purchasers of the public lands subject to entry at private sale; and that the said Commissioner report to the Senate under what act of Congress the said oath or oaths was authorized to be prescribed and administered. BARRACKS AT NEW ORLEANS.

Mr. BENTON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, to which have been referred the bill making an appropriation for the repair and completion of the barracks at New Orleans, reported the same without amendment.

Mr. WAGGAMAN explained the character of the bill, [which appropriates $170,500 for the object.] It related to the barracks at New Orleans, which were now in an unfinished state. He referred to a report of the quartermaster general, made at the last session, and read extracts from the same, showing the state and importance of the works. He had recently seen the works, and could say that, as they had progressed, the work was faithfully executed. It was necessary for the public service that these works should be speedily finished, and he was induced, therefore, to ask the Senate to proceed now to the consideration of the bill.

The Senate then proceeded to the consideration of