House of Representatives.

MAINE.-Joshua Herrick, Robert P. Dunlap, Luther Severance, Hannibal Hamlin.

MASSACHUSETTS.-Robert C. Winthrop, Daniel P. King, William Parmenter, Charles Hudson, (Vacancy), John Quincy Adams, Henry Williams, Joseph Grinnel.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.-Edmund Burke, John R. Reding, John P. Hale, Moses Norris, jr.

RHODE ISLAND.-Henry Y. Cranston, Elisha R. Potter.

CONNECTICUT.-Thomas H. Seymour, John Stewart, George S. Catlin, Samuel Simons.

VERMONT.-Solomon Foot, Jacob Collamer, George P. Marsh, Paul Dillingham, jr.

NEW YORK.-Selah B. Strong, Henry C. Murphy, J. Philips Phoenix, William B. Maclay, Moses G. Leonard, Hamilton Fish, Jos. H. Anderson, R. D. Davis, Jas. G. Clinton, Jeremiah Russell, Zadoc Pratt, David L. Seymour, Daniel D. Barnard, Wm. G. Hunter, Lemuel Stetson, Chesselden Ellis, Charles S. Benton, Preston King, Orville Hungerford, Samuel Beardsley, J. E. Cary, S. M. Purdy, Orville Robinson, Horace Wheaton, George Rathbun, Amasa Dana, Byram Green, Thos. J. Patterson, Charles H. Carroll, Wm, S. Hubbell, Asher Tyler, Wm. A. Moseley, Albert Smith, Washington Hunt.

NEW JERSEY.-Lucius Q. C. Elmer, George Sykes, Isaac G. Farlee, Littleton Kirkpatrick, Wm. Wright.

PENNSYLVANIA.-Edward J. Morris, Joseph R. Ingersoll, John T. Smith, Charles J. Ingersoll, Jacob S. Yost. Michael H. Jenks, Abrah.

R. McIlvaine, Henry Nes, James Black, James Irvin, Andrew Stewart, Henry D. Foster, Jeremiah Brown, John Ritter, Rich. Brodhead, jr., Benj. A. Bidlack, Almond H. Read, Henry Frick, Alexander Ramsey, John Dickey, William Wilkins, Samuel Hays, Charles M. Read, Joseph Buffington.

DELAWARE.-George B. Rodney.

MARYLAND.-J. M. S. Causin, F. Brengle, J. Withered, J. P. Kennedy, Dr. Preston, Thomas A. Spence.

VIRGINIA. Archibald Atkinson, Geo. C. Dromgoole, Walter Coles, Edmund Hubard, Thomas W. Gilmer, John W. Jones, Henry A. Wise, Willoughby Newton, Samuel Chilton, William F. Lucas, William Taylor, A. A. Chap man, Geo. W. Hopkins, Geo. W. Summers,

Lewis Steenrod.

NORTH CAROLINA.-Thomas J. Clingman, D. M. Barringer, David S. Reid, Edmund Deberry, R. M. Saunders, James J. McKay, J. R. Daniel, A. H. Arrington, Kenneth Rayner.

SOUTH CAROLINA.-James A. Black, Richard F. Simpson, Joseph A. Woodwan John Campbell, Artemas Burt, Isaac E. Holmes, R. Barnwell Rhett.

GEORGIA.-E. J. Black, H. A. Haralson, J. H. Lumpkin, Howell Cobb, Wm. H. Stiles, Alexander H. Stevens, A. H. Chappell.

KENTUCKY.-Linn Boyd, Willis Green, Henry Grider, George A. Caldwell, James Stone, John White, William P. Thompson, Garrett Davis, Richard French, J. W. Tibbatts.

TENNESSEE. Andrew Johnson, William T. Senter, Julius W. Blackwell, Alvan Cullom, George W. Jones, Aaron V. Brown, David W. Dickinson, James H. Peyton, Cave Johnson, John B. Ashe, Milton Brown.

OHIO.-Alexander Duncan, John B. Weller, Robt. C. Schenck, Joseph Vance, Emery D. Potter, Joseph J. McDowell, John I. Vanmeter, Elias Florence, Heman A. Moore, Jacob Brinkerhoff, Samuel F. Vinton, Perley B. Johnson, Alexander Harper, Joseph Morris, James Mathews, Wm. C. McCauslin, Ezra Dean, Daniel R. Tilden, Joshua R. Giddings, H. R. Brinkerhoff.

LOUISIANA.-John Slidell, Alcée Labranche, John B. Dawson, P. E. Bossier.

INDIANA.-Robt. Dale Owen, Thomas J. Henley, Thomas Smith, Caleb B. Smith, Wm. J. Brown, John W. Davis, Joseph A. Wright, John Pettit, Samuel C. Sample, Andrew Kennedy.

ILLINOIS.-Robert Smith, John A. McCler nand, Orlando B. Ficklin, John Wentworth Stephen A. Douglass, Joseph P. Hoge, J. J. Hardin.

ALABAMA.-James Dellet, James E. Belser, Dixon H. Lewis, William W. Payne, George S. Houston, Reuben Chapman, Felix McConnell.

MISSISSIPPI.-Wm. H. Hammett, Robert W. Roberts, Jacob Thompson, Tilghman M. Tucker. MISSOURI.-James M. Hughes, James H. Relfe, Gustavus B. Bower, James B. Bowlin John Jameson.

ARKANSAS.-Edward Cross.

James B. Hunt.

Territorial Delegates.

FLORIDA.-David Levy.
WISCONSIN.-Henry Dodge.
Iowa.-Augustus Č. Dodge.

The election of Speaker was the first business on the assembling of the Congress, and its result was the authentic exposition of the state of parties. Mr. John W. Jones, of Virginia, the democratic candidate, received 128 votes on the first ballot, and was elected the whig candidate (Mr. John White, late Speaker) receiving 59. An adverse majority of more than two to one was the result to the whig party at the first election after the extra session of 1841-at the first election after that log-cabin, hard-cider and coon-skin" campaign in which the whigs had carried the presidential election by 234 electoral votes against 60: so truly had the democratic senators foreseen the destruction of the party in the contests of the extra session of 1841. The Tyler party was "no where❞—Mr. Wise alone being classified as such—the rest, so few in number as to have been called the "corporal's guard," had been left out of Congress by their constituents, or had received office from Mr. Tyler, and gone off. Mr. Caleb McNulty, of Ohio, also democratic, was elected clerk of the House, and by a vote of two to one, thus ousting an experienced and capable whig officer, in the person of Mr. Matthew St. Clair Clarke-a change which turned out to be unfortunate for the friends of the House, and mortifying to those who did it-the new clerk becoming a subject of indictment for embezzlement before his service was over.

CHAPTER CXXVII.

MR. TYLER'S SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

THE prominent topics of the message were the state of our affairs with Great Britain and Mexico-with the former in relation to Oregon, the latter in relation to Texas. In the same breath in which the President announced the happy results of the Ashburton treaty, he was forced to

questions which concerned the interests of the United States, while settling those which lay near to the interests of Great Britain. The Oregon territorial boundary was one of these omitted American subjects; but though passed over by the government in the negotiations, it was forced upon its attention by the people. A stream of emigration was pouring into that territory, and their presence on the banks of the Columbia caused the attention of both governments to be drawn to the question of titles and boundaries; and Mr. Tyler introduced it accordingly to Congress.

"A question of much importance still remains to be adjusted between them. The territorial limits of the two countries in relation to what still remains in dispute. The United States is commonly known as the Oregon Territory, would be at all times indisposed to aggrandize themselves at the expense of any other nation; but while they would be restrained by princiof nations as well as that of individuals, from ples of honor, which should govern the conduct setting up a demand for territory which does not belong to them, they would as unwillingly consent to a surrender of their rights. After the examination of the subject, the United States have most rigid, and, as far as practicable, unbiassed always contended that their rights appertain to the entire region of country lying on the Pacific, and embraced within 420 and 54° 40′ of north Great Britain, those who have preceded the latitude. This claim being controverted by present Executive-actuated, no doubt, by an earnest desire to adjust the matter upon terms mutually satisfactory to both countries-have ment propositions for settlement and final adcaused to be submitted to the British Governjustment, which, however, have not proved heretofore acceptable to it. Our Minister at London has, under instructions, again brought the subject to the consideration of that Government; and while nothing will be done to compromit the rights or honor of the United States, every proper expedient will be resorted to, in order to bring the negotiation now in the progress of resumption to a speedy and happy termination."

This passage, while letting it be seen that we were already engaged in a serious controversy with Great Britain-engaged in it almost before the ink was dry which had celebrated the peace mission which was to settle all questions-also committed a serious mistake in point of fact, and which being taken up as a party watchword, became a difficult and delicate point of management at home: it was the line of 54 degrees 40

minutes north for our northern boundary on the Pacific. The message says that the United States have always contended for that line. That is an error. From the beginning of the dispute, the United States government had proposed the parallel of 49 degrees, as being the continuation of the dividing line on this side of the Rocky Mountains, and governed by the same law-the decision of the commissaries ар

pointed by the British and French under the tenth article of the treaty of Utrecht to establish boundaries between them on the continent of North America. President Jefferson offered that line in 1807—which was immediately after the return of Messrs. Lewis and Clark from their meritorious expedition, and as soon as it was seen that a question of boundary was to arise in that quarter with Great Britain. President Monroe made the same offer in 1818, and also in 1824. Mr. Adams renewed it in 1826: so that, so far from having always claimed to 54-40, the United States had always offered the parallel of 49. As to 54-40, no American statesman had ever thought of originating a title there. It was a Russian point of demarcation on the coast and islands-not a continental line at all-first assigned to the Russian Fur Company by the Emperor Paul, and afterwards yielded to Russia by the United States and Great Britain, separately, in separating their respective claims on the north-west of America. She was allowed to come south to that point on the coast and islands, not penetrating the interior of the continent-leaving the rest for Great Britain and the United States to settle as they could. It was proposed at the time that the three powers should settle together-in a tripartite treaty: but the Emperor Alexander, like a wise man, contented himself with settling his own boundary, without mixing himself in the dispute between the United States and Great Britain. This he did about the year 1820: and it was long afterwards, and by those who knew but little of this establishment of a southern limit for the Russian Fur Company, that this point established in their charter, and afterwards agreed to by the United States and Great Britain, was taken up as the northern boundary for the United States. It was a great error in Mr. Tyler to put this Russian limit in his message for our line; and, being taken up by party spirit, and put into one of those mushroom political creeds, called "platforms

(wherewith this latter generation has been so plentifully cursed), it came near involving the United States in war.

The prospective war with Mexico on the subject of Texas was thus shadowed forth:

"I communicate herewith certain despatches received from our Minister at Mexico, and also a correspondence which has recently occurred between the envoy from that republic and the Secretary of State. It must be regarded as not a little extraordinary that the government of Mexico, in anticipation of a public discussion, which it has been pleased to infer, from newspaper publications, as likely to take place in Congress, relating to the annexation of Texas to the United States, should have so far anticipated the result of such discussion as to have announced its determination to visit any such anticipated decision by a formal declaration of war against the United States. If designed to prevent Congress from introducing that question as a fit subject for its calm deliberation and final judgment, the Executive has no reason to doubt that it will entirely fail of its object. The representatives of a brave and patriotic people will suffer no apprehension of future consequences to embarrass them in the course of their proposed deliberations. Nor will the Executive Department of the government fail, for any such cause, to discharge its whole duty to the country."

At the time of communicating this information to Congress, the President was far advanced in a treaty with Texas for her annexation to the United States-an event which would be war itself with Mexico, without any declaration on her part, or our part-she being then at war with Texas as a revolted province, and endeavoring to reclaim her to her former subjec tion. Still prepossessed with his idea of a national currency of paper money, in preference to gold and silver, the President recurs to his previous recommendation for an Exchequer bank-regrets its rejection by Congress,— vaunts its utility-and thinks that it would still aid, in a modified form, in restoring the currency to a sound and healthy state.

"In view of the disordered condition of the currency at the time, and the high rates of exchange between different parts of the country, the consideration of your predecessors a propoI felt it to be incumbent on me to present to sition conflicting in no degree with the consti tution or the rights of the States, and having the sanction-not in detail, but in principle-of in the executive office. That proposition consome of the eminent men who had preceded me templated the issuing of treasury notes of denominations not less than five, nor more than

one hundred dollars, to be employed in payment of the obligations of the government in lieu of gold and silver, at the option of the public creditor, and to an amount not exceeding $15,000,000. It was proposed to make them receivable every where, and to establish at various points depositories of gold and silver,

CHAPTER CXXVIII.

notes, so as to insure their convertibility into specie. No doubt was entertained that such notes would have maintained a par value with gold and silver-thus furnishing a paper currency of equal value over the Union, thereby meeting the just expectations of the people, and fulfilling the duties of a parental government. Whether the depositories should be permitted to sell or purchase bills under very limited restrictions, together with all its other details, was submitted to the wisdom of Congress, and was regarded as of secondary importance. I thought then, and think now, that such an arrangement would have been attended with the happiest results. The whole matter of the currency would have been placed where, by the constitution, it was designed to be placed -under the immediate supervision and control of Congress. The action of the government would have been independent of all corporations; and the same eye which rests unceasingly on the specie currency, and guards it against adulteration, would also have rested on the paper currency, to control and regulate its issues, and protect it against depreciation. Under all the responsibilities attached to the station which I occupy, and in redemption of a pledge given to the last Congress, at the close of its first session, I submitted the suggestion to its consideration at two consecutive sessions. The recommendation, however, met with no favor at its hands. While I am free to admit that nits that the necessities of the times have since become greatly ameliorated, and that there is good reason to hope that the country is safely and rapidly emerging from the difficulties and embarrassments which every where surrounded it in 1841, yet I cannot but think that its restoration to a sound and healthy condition would be greatly expedited by a resort to the expedient in a modified form."

PRINCETON MAN-OF-WAR: THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.

ON the morning of the 28th of February, a company of some hundred guests, invited by Commodore Stockton, including the President of the United States, his cabinet, members of both Houses of Congress, citizens and strangers, with a great number of ladies, headed by Mrs. Madison, ex-presidentess, repaired on board the steamer man-of-war Princeton, then lying in the river below the city, to witness the working of her machinery (a screw propeller), and to observe the fire of her two great guns-throwing balls of 225 pounds each. The vessel was the pride and pet of the commodore, and having undergone all the trials necessary to prove her machinery and her guns, was brought round to Washington for exhibition to the public authorities. The day was pleasant-the company numerous and gay. On the way down to the vessel a person whispered in my ear that Nicholas Biddle was dead. It was my first information of that event, and heard not without reflections on the instability and shadowy fleetingness of the pursuits and contests of this life. Mr. Biddle had been a Power in the State, and for years had baffled or balanced the power of the government. He had now vanished, and the news of his death came in a whisper, not announced in a tumult of voices; and those who had contended with him might see their own sudden and silent evanescence in his. It was a lesson upon human instability, and felt as such; but without a thought or presentiment that, before the sun should go down, many of that high and gay company should vanish from earthand the one so seriously impressed barely fail to be of the number.