there ought to be no prejudice occasioned to you by the last paragraph of my decree, which expresses, that, if, within three years, the major part of the establishment shall not have been made good, such families as may first present themselves, shall be located within the twelve leagues destined for the settlement which you have commenced; and this shall only have effect two years after the course of the contract shall have again commenced to be executed, and the determination of his Majesty shall have been made known to you. You will always remain persuaded, that, on my part, I will observe religiously the engagements I have contracted; a principle which has constantly distinguished the Spanish nation. God preserve you many years. The BARON DE CARONDELET.

To BARON DE BASTROP.

New Orleans, June 18, 1797.

The above statement contains all the title papers which have been presented, and which were before the Land Commissioners for the Western District of the late Territory of Orleans, who reported against the legal representatives of De Bastrop, or the right of De Bastrop to any part of the intended grant of twelve leagues square, as will be seen by their several reports, as made and numbered in their report upon land claims in said Western District, made to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, upon the 14th December, 1812.

The Land Commissioners of the United States having refused the confirmation of this claim, as aforesaid, the owners now present themselves, and ask that Congress will confirm to them the aforesaid twelve leagues square, which they claim as deriving a legal title from De Bastrop.

From the evidence and documents which have been before the committee, it is proven that many persons were introduced under the contract of De Bastrop, but not to the number contracted, for; and, without touching, the question as to the individual right of De Bastrop to the land, or of any person claiming under him, by purchase or otherwise, except those who came to Ouachita under the contract, the committee think, that, in equity, the Government of the United States ought to confirm to every person, or th osc laiming under them, who went to Ouachita, under the contract with De Bastrop, the number of acres of land which the Governor General of Louisiana agreed to give to each family or person, according to said contract. The Government of the United States resists the confirmation of this claim to De Bastrop, or those claiming under him by purchase or otherwise, for the following reasons, amongst others, viz:

1st. That the contract and grant, if any there was, were for the 500 fami-
lies De Bastrop was to settle upon the lands, and not to De Bastrop in
his individual right, so that he could sell or dispose of the same.
2dly. That the conditions never were fulfilled.

3dly. That the contract was revoked by the Spanish Government
4thly. That the contract was never approved by the King of Spain.
5thly. That the Governor General had not the power of making such
contract without the authority of the Spanish Government.

Gthly. That, if De Bastrop was entitled to any part of said land, it could only be for the surplus after the 500 families had taken, each family 400 arpents, according to said contract.

In support of these objections and others, to the confirmation of this claim, or any part of it, to those who hold under De Bastrop in his individual right, a reference has been made to the documents aforesaid.

From a careful examination of the foregoing documents and evidence, the committee are of the opinion, that the decision, in the present claim, (as to the right of De Bastrop, or or those who claim under him in his individual right) depends entirely upon a question of law, and upon the examination of many witnesses, as to several important points; and that an examination of it by Congress would be attended with great delay and many difficulties, and that justice to the interested, as well as to the Government, requires a reference of this particular point to the United States' Courts. The committee are also of opinion, that, in case it should ultimately be decided that the said land belongs to the United States, it would be but fair and just to extend to all those who were settled upon the said land at the time the United States took possession of that part of the country, the same provisions, and privileges, and donations, as were granted to the actual settlers under the act of Congress of the 2d of March, 1805, and the amendments thereto, as well as all other privileges extended to the inhabitants of Louisiana, settled upon other public lands, by any subsequent act of Congress, so as to place the settlers upon the said land upon an equality with the settlers upon other public lands.

To prevent further delay, and with a view of finally adjusting the claim upon what the committee considers to be fair and equitable principles, they report a bill.

1st Session.

SLAVE TRADE.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 412.]

APRIL 7, 1830.

Mr. MERCER, from the select committee to which the subject had been referred, made the following

REPORT:

The committee to whom were referred the memorial of the American Society for colonizing the free people of color of the United States; also, sundry memorials from the inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, and a memorial from certain free people of color of the State of Ohio, report:

That the leading object of the memorialists has been often brought to the view of Congress, as will appear from a reference to the accompanying documents, containing an act of Congress and various resolutions and reports of committees and proceedings of this House, the earliest of which bears date the 11th of February, 1817. (See Appendix.)

A wish to provide, somewhere beyond the limits of the United States, a country to which the free people of color of the several States and Territories might voluntarily remove from their present abode, has long been widely diffused.

The State of Virginia, early in the administration of Mr. Jefferson, sought, through the agency of the General Government, to obtain such an asylum for this class of her population. Her efforts for the accomplishment of this object were repeated before as well as shortly after the acquisition of Louisiana, to the Western borders of which her hopes were at one time directed. (See Appendix.) Disappointed in this direction, after the lapse of more than ten years, her General Assembly adopted, with great unanimity, the first of the resolutions annexed to the memorial of the Board of Managers of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color: (See Appendix.) This resolution requests the Executive of the State "to correspond with the President of the United States, for the purpose of obtaining a territory upon the coast of Africa, or at some other place not within any of the States or Territorial Governments of the United States, to serve as an asylum for such persons of color as are now free, and may desire the same, and for those who may be hereafter emancipated" within the Commonwealth. This resolution, further, requests the Senators and Representatives of the State in the Congress of the United States to contribute their best efforts, in aid of those of the President, for the attainment of its object,

A few weeks after the introduction of this resolution into the General Assembly of Virginia, a number of gentlemen of great respectability united, in the City of Washington, to form the Society in behalf of whose purpose the first of the memorials referred to your committee is addressed to Congress by their Board of Managers. (See Appendix.)

It does not fall within the compass of this report to trace, through all its details, the history of the colony already planted by this Society on the coast of Africa, further than to say that its position, remote from any rival European settlement; its soil and climate, yielding two productive harvests in the year; its present population and commerce; its past growth and future. prospects, recommend it as a judicious and fortunate selection for all the purposes which the memorialists, its founders and patrons, hope to accomplish. (See Appendix.)

Passing by the other benevolent objects of the memorialists, there is among them one so intimately connected with the prosperity, the character, and honor,of the American Government, that your committee deem it an indispensable duty to draw to it the particular attention of the House of Representatives.

The Government of the United States is not only empowered, but bound, by every consideration of expediency, as regards its immediate constituents; of humanity, as respects another continent; and of fidelity to the obligations of an existing treaty, to abolish, if possible, a trame which has long been denounced, in vain, by its laws. (See Appendix.)

The slave trade still exists to a great extent, in despite of the concurrent treaties of England, Spain, and the Netherlands, and the separate legislation of all the Christian States of Europe for its abolition. (See Appendix.) The courts of mixed commission, established by these treaties, and the occasional appearance of a few armed ships on the coast of Africa, by imposing the necessity of greater caution, expedition, and vigor, on the part of the trader, have served only to augment the horrors, and, with them, the profits of the trade. (See Appendix.)

Since the rejection of the treaties, negotiated by the President of the United States, with Great Britain and Colombia, all efforts to abolish this iniquitous commerce, by international exchanges of the right of search, have ceased; and the hopes of the patriot and the philanthropist, that the traffic will ever disappear, are now limited to the agency of such colonies on the coast of Africa, as the African Institution of England and the American Colonization Society have planted at Sierra Leone and at Montserado.

Scattered along those shores of that continent, which are now frequented by the slave trader, such colonies will serve as so many citadels to guard against his approach, and will open, at the same time, as many markets for the various productions of African industry.

A colonial system, such as your committee contemplate, for which the United States furnish most abundant materials, would strike at the root of the African slave trade, by substituting an innocent commerce in the fruits of African labor for the persons of the laborers themselves.

One objection to the establishment of such a system of colonization the committee have anticipated, with a view to suggest for it an adequate and secure remedy.

A responsibility, on the part of the American Government, for the safety of such colonies, would involve consequences difficult to reconcile to the established policy of the United States. The purposes of the Colonization

Society have not seemed to your committee to require a departure from this policy. The American colonists of Liberia, in their weakest condition, found themselves secured, by their own strength, from the hostility of the enfeebled African tribes in their vicinity: and the committee confidently believe, that the humanity of the civilized world will hereafter afford to them protection from maritime depredation, more effectual than the American navy could, of itself, supply..

By the, diplomatic arrangements, which one of the subjoined resolutions proposes to make, through the Executive of the United States, with the several maritime Powers of Europe and America, for the future peace and neutrality of all such colonies of free people of color as may arise on the coast of Africa, each colony, so long as it merits respect by its conduct, will be secured against external violence, from the only quarter whence it might be seriously apprehended.

For an exemption from domestic causes of inquietude, it must rest mainly upon its own prudence and capacity for self-government. The moral influence of its American founders and benefactors will continue to promote its prosperity, and to shield it from danger, in the only way in which the peculiar climate of tropical Africa, so fatal to the white race, will permit them to exercise their benevolence towards this injured continent.

The committee, entertaining the opinion that all the States of the Union are alike interested, if not in an equal degree, in the removal from their bosom of such part of their free colored population as may he desirous to settle in Africa, have proposed, in the accompanying bill, to appropriate the sum of twenty-five dollars, without discrimination, between various parts of the United States, to defray 'he passage of every colored emigrant who may leave America, with intention to make a permanent settlement in Africa.

The memorial from the free people of color of the State of Ohio, referring to a recent decision of the courts of that State, when taken in connexion with certain resolutions subsequently adopted by the colonial Legislature of Upper Canada, presents a case indeed, which, while it confirms the policy of the course recommended by the committee, towards the free people of color in general, makes a special and urgent appeal to the humanity of Congress. It has suggested the provision of the second section of the accompanying bill, for equalizing the bounty which it offers between emigrants from the vicinity of their port of embarkation, and those who have to reach it from a considerable distance, at an increased expense of transportation.