MEMORIAL.

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

The memorial of the undersigned, inhabitants of the city of Boston, and its vicinity, respectfully represents: That they have regarded, with the deepest interest, the various measures which have been brought before Congress, for several years past, for the purpose of affording encouragement to the domestic manufactures of the United States, by enhancing the duties on imported articles of foreign growth and manufacture. Your memorialists are fully aware of the delicacy with which a subject, so intimately connected with the industry of the community, and the great interests of society, should be approached, and the discernment, experience, and matured wisdom upon which all measures, so deeply affecting the vital interests of society, should be founded: still, having, after much reflection, aided by considerable experience, become fully convinced that any further increase on the duties now charged upon certain species of woollen goods, would be productive of great injury to the United States, taking into one comprehensive view its most extensive and important interests, we beg leave most respectfully to express this opinion, in reference to the measure now before Congress, upon that subject. Your memorialists express this opinion the more readily, from a conviction, that a measure of this description must derive its support mainly from the aid of strong and enlightened public opinion; and because they believe that it has been usually represented, and believed, that public opinion, in this part of the United States, was in favor of the proposed increase of duties on woollen goods. Had the attention of this section of the United States been earlier awakened upon this subject, your memorialists entertain no doubt that vast numbers would have concurred with them in the opinions here expressed, and that very numerous memorials would have afforded unquestionable proof of a strong prevailing public opinion against the policy of further extending the duties on certain species of imported woollen goods, in the manner now proposed.

Your memorialists are firmly convinced that the proposed increase of duty, by further multiplying the restrictions upon commerce, would paralyze many branches of useful industry, and be productive of extensive injury. But they have neither time, nor is there occasion, at this late moment of the session, to go into the general argument upon the subject. They, therefore, at the present moment, confine themselves to the expression of their opinion, a strong and deliberate opinion. against the measure, and their earnest hope that this great change of policy, in regard to the most important interests of the country, will not be adopted, without mature deliberation, and a clear and decided expression of public opinion, in its favor.

ed Session.

IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

MARCH 1, 1827.

The Committee to whom was referred the several messages of the President of the United States, of the 5th and 8th February, and a report and certain resolutions of the Legislature of Georgia, ask leave to make the following

REPORT:

The Committee have entered on the examination of the subject referred to them, with a deep sense of the magnitude of the questions which it involves, with a strong desire to preserve the respective rights of the United States, and of Georgia, so far as these may be affected by the action of the Legislative Department, and with a still more anxious solicitude to arrive, if practicable, at a result which, without violating the obligations, or committing the rights, of the Confederacy, or those of one of its members, might preserve, undisturbed, the peace and harmony of the Union.

They have believed that a view of this subject, so far as it is necessary to the purposes of this inquiry, may be presented to the Senate by a brief statement of facts, with reference,

First. To the grounds on which the Executive Government of the United States has interfered, and proposes further to interfere, with the proceedings of Georgia; and,

Secondly. To the claims of that State, and the principles on which she relies to support them.

1. Under an act of the Legislature of Georgia, passed in June, 1825, and the supplementary, and amendatory acts of the same Legislature of December, 1825, and 1826, surveys were directed of that portion of the territory of Georgia, the Indian title to which had been extinguished by the treaty of the Indian Springs, of February, 1825. By the terms of that compact, these lands were not to be surrendered by the Indians, until September, 1826; but the Government of Georgia was desirous of effecting its surveys, before the arrival of the period of surrender, under such arrangements with the Indians themselves, as would render the act acceptable to them. The measures which were adopted to effect this arrangement, the fact that one of the chiefs who had assented to it, was put to death, and the subsequent division of the tribe into hostile parties, both of whom sought the

nate. At this period, the Executive Government of the Union, interposed, and having made such inquiry, as it deemed proper, forbid the further prosecution of the surveys by Georgia. The Executive of that State, protesting against the measure, nevertheless submitted to the inhibition; and this state of things continued until the last session of Congress, when a new treaty was negotiated at this place, with certain Chief's and Warriors acting under the authority of a council of the tribe. This compact stipulated the surrender of certain lands, within limits which it defined, and the abrogation of the treaty of the Indian Springs. It was resisted by Georgia as a violation of her rights, and her representatives in Congress recorded their protest against the measure. It nevertheless received the Constitutional sanctions, and, so far as depended on the United States, has been carried into effect, by the payment of the stipulated price. In the result, it was found not to include all the lands occupied by the Creeks within the limits of Georgia, and the attempt to survey those which were excluded, was resisted, and the surveyors of the State of Georgia, have been stopped by an order of certain Chiefs of the tribe, who have appealed to this Government for protection.

The President of the United States, conceiving the survey by Georgia to be in violation of the laws of the Union, and applauding the forbearance of the Indians, as calculated to avert scenes of violence and blood, which he apprehends would otherwise result from these proceedings, has assured them of his protection, and has directed the arrest and prosecution of the officers of Georgia engaged in the survey. These prosecutions, and the measures which may be adopted to carry them into effect, are stated to be founded on the 5th, 16th, and 17th sections of an act of Congress, passed on the 30th March, 1802, to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers. Expressing his conviction that it was within the competency of the Executive to have resorted at once to military force, or to civil process, for the arrest of the officers of Georgia, the President proceeds to state the reasons which have influenced him to have recourse, in the first instance, only to the latter; but he adds the declaration, that the act of the Legislature of Georgia, under the construction given to it by the Governor of that State, and the surveys made, or attempted to be made under it, beyond the boundary line secured by the treaty of Washington, are in direct violation of the supreme law of this land; and, if persevered in, and the laws of the Union remain unaltered, it is declared that “a superadded obligation, even higher than that of human authority, will compel the Executive of the United States to enforce the laws, and fulfil the duties of the Nation, by all the force for that purpose committed to his charge." It is added, "that the arm of military force will be resorted to, only in the event of the failure of all other expedients provided by the laws, of which, (it is said.) a pledge has been given by the forbearance to employ it at this time" Finally, the President submits it to the wis

may be necessary or expedient, to meet the emergency which these transactions may produce."

Such are the circumstances under which this subject is presented by the President to the consideration of the Senate.

On the other hand, Georgia claims the right to exercise jurisdiction within the whole extent of her chartered limits, except only over that part of her original territory, which, by the compact of 1802, she ceded to the United States.

She claims the right to survey such lands within her limits, as may be within the temporary occupancy of an Indian tribe, or to inhibit their survey; and the right, also, to extinguish the Indian title at her own cost, if she shall think fit to do so. She questions the constitutional validity of the act of 1802, if construed to extend to the exercise of this power by a State, in relation to those lands of which she has the ultimate fee; but if its validity be established, her rights, even under the provisions of that act, she affirms will still remain. Such are the claims which she urges, independently of treaty stipulations between the United States and the Creek Indians.

Under the treaty of the Indian Springs, and by virtue of the con-tract of 1802, she contends that she has acquired an absolute relinquishment of the Creek title of occupancy, to all the lands within her limits; that she has vested rights under that treaty of which she cannot be divested by any act of the Government of the United States, or of any part, or the whole of the Creek tribe.

She founds her claim to exercise jurisdiction within the whole of her chartered limits, on the declaration of Independence, the parties to which became, ipso facto, severally, sovereign and independent States, owing no allegiance to each other, nor to any common head. On the result of the struggle which that declaration produced, and which eventuated in the recognition of the States, as severally sovereign and independent; and on the fact that this right, inseparably incident to sovereignty, has never been yielded to the United States. The exceptions to the principle, that her jurisdiction is co-extensive with her limits, she contends, exist only in those cases, where, in conformity to the Constitution, the United States. have by her consent, acquired exclusive jurisdiction over particular places; that in other cases provided for by the Constitution, the jurisdiction of the United States, within the limits of a particular State, is concurrent with, but not exclusive of, the jurisdiction of the particular State, unless the Constitution, in terms, or from the necessity of the thing, inhibits the action of the State over the subject.

As an evidence of her right, thus to exercise a jurisdiction co-extensive with her limits, she appeals to the whole history of her legislation, in proof of its continued, uninterrupted, and hitherto unquestioned, exercise; to her laws and resolutions of 1783, 1785. 1787, 1814, 1818, and 1819, on the subject of surveys of land. in the occupancy of Indian tribes, and to other acts of 1785 and 1788, relatively to the county of Bourbon, established by her authority on the banks