Richmond Enquirer

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

On motion of Mr. Johnson of Ky., it was

Resolved, That the House will on Monday next the 27th inst. take a recess from 4 o'clock P. M. to 7 o'clock P. M at which hour it will resume its session, and take into consideration the bill (No. 343,) to establish certain post roads and to alter and to discontinue others.

The following resolution submitted by Mr. Lecompt, on the 27th ult. was taken up:

Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the expediency of amending the Constitution of the United States, so that the Judges of the Supreme Court, and of the inferior courts shall hold their offices, for a limited term of years.

The question was propounded from the Chair, shall this resolution be now considered? and it was decided by Yeas and Nays—Yeas 41, Nays 127.

So the House refused to consider the resolution.

The Speaker laid before the House the following communication, viz:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 1832.

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States:

One of his associates not having arrived at Washington, and the other having declined to act in performance of the honorable trust confided to us by the Governor of Virginia, the undersigned takes upon himself the honor to transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States the envelope directed to him by the Governor of Virginia, covering the resolutions of the General Assembly, having claim to the remains of our illustrious fellow-citizen, George Washington; also covering a letter from the Governor of Virginia, accompanying the resolutions; and in the discharge of this duty he takes leave to remark, that while the people of Virginia are proud of the gratitude of their fellow-citizens of the United States for the eminent public services of the Father of his Country, and also for their high admiration of his patriotic virtues, manifested by the successive resolutions of Congress, they also justly anticipate the frank acquiescence of their fellow-citizens in the paramount claim of his native State to the sacred remains of her Washington.

FRANCIS T. BROOKE.

VIRGINIA, Executive Department,

February 20, 1832.

To Andrew Stevenson, Esq.

Speaker of the House of Reps. U. S.

Sir: The Hon. Francis T. Brooke, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Major James Gibbon, the friends and brother officers of Washington in the War of the Revolution, are the bearers of this communication, and of the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of this State, expressive of their feelings and those of the citizens of this Commonwealth, with regard to the contemplated removal of the remains of Washington from Mount Vernon by the Congress of the United States. Agreeably to the wish of the General Assembly, I have the honor to request you to receive and lay the resolutions of that body before the House of Representatives of the United States.

I am, Sir, with consideration and respect, your obedient servant,

JOHN FLOYD.

[Here follow the Resolutions of the General Assembly.]

CLAIMS OF MRS. DECATUR.

The House then went into Committee of the Whole. Mr. Spight in the Chair, on the bill for the relief of Susan Decatur, which bill was warmly debated until half past 4 o'clock.

Mr. Carson, with a view to conciliate those who would not vote for the bill unless it contained a provision for the nieces of Com. Decatur, moved (by consent of Mr. Pearce, who withdrew his amendment for that purpose) an amendment to the bill granting $10,000 to the Misses McKnight.

The amendment was opposed by Messrs. Wickliffe and Drayton, and advocated by Mr. Doddridge—when the question being put, it was rejected.

Mr. Pearce now renewed the amendment he had offered last week, the effect of which would be, to allow Mrs. Decatur $21,000, instead of $31,000, as her share of the $100,000 granted by the bill to the captors of the frigate Philadelphia, and to give the remaining $10,000 to the Misses McKnight. It was on this amendment that the debate turned. In its latter stages, it assumed a very painful character, in consequence of the introduction of letters from Mrs. Decatur and one of the Misses McKnight.

One of these was believed by Mr. Carson not to be authentic, as it was not written in a female hand; but on explanation, it appeared that the letter had been drawn up by that lady, although it might not be in her own hand writing:

Mr. Pearce stated that it had been handed to him by the brother-in-law of Miss McKnight, to whose honorable character very decided testimony was borne by Messrs. Wayne and Wilde; in consequence of which Mr. Carson withdrew the declarations he had made in reference to that gentleman. After a motion for the rising of the Committee had been repeatedly withdrawn by Mr. Watmough, it was at length renewed by that gentleman and carried;

when the committee rose and reported progress, upon which

The House adjourned.