This is the circulation from the office returns. We know, however, that a part of it is received at other offices, and is in passage from one to the other.

tion is $14,176,927.

So that the nett circula

1st Session.

JAMES H. PECK.

LETTER

FROM

JAMES H. PECK,

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, transmitting an explanation in answer to the charges preferred against him, as Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Missouri, by Luke E. Lawless.

APRIL 14, 1830.

Read, and committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.

WASHINGTON, April 14, 1830.

SIR: Permit me, through you, to avail myself of the permission of the Hon. House of Representatives, by their resolution of Wednesday last, to present to that body my explanation in answer to the charges preferred against me by Luke E. Lawless, Esq. with the documents referred to in that explanation.

With great respect,

To the Hon. ANDREW STEVENSON,

Your obedient servant,

JAMES H. PECK.

Speaker of the House of Representatives of the
Congress United States.

To the Honorable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the United States:

James H. Peck, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Missouri, availing himself of the permission granted by this Hon. House, on Wednesday last, to present any argument on the law and matters of fact now in evidence before the House, which he may think proper, in answer to the charges preferred against him by Luke E. Lawless, Esq. begs leave to represent, that the complaint of the petitioner grows out of the notice which the court felt itself constrained to take of certain strictures published by the petitioner in a Missouri newspaper, on an opinion delivered by the court in 1826, in the case of Soulard's heirs, against the United States a Spanish land claim presented for judicial decision, under the act of Congress of the 26th May, 1824.

To enable the House to understand these charges, and the answers which it is proposed to give them, it becomes necessary to take a cursory glance at the character of these claims, and the general legislation of Congress with regard to them, and then to present a distinct view of the opinion of the court in Soulard's case, and the character of the strictures on that opinion, published by the petitioner, which the court considered and punished as a contempt.

.

It is known to the House, that the province of Louisiana belonged originally to France; was ceded to Spain in 1762, though possession was not taken by Spain under that treaty, until 1769. That in 1800, the province was receded by Spain to France, by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, the Spanish authorities, nevertheless, retaining possession until, and after, the cession by France to the United States, by the treaty of Paris, of 30th April, 1803.

By the third article of this latter treaty, the United States stipulate that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess; and in execution of this article, so far as it respected real property, Congress immediately proceeded to establish, in various parts of the province, Boards of Commissioners, to examine and report upon all claims for lands made by the inhabitants under French or Spanish titles The claimants were all required to present their claims to these Boards within a limited time, under the penalty of having them perpetually barred; but the time was opened and extended by successive acts, and the most liberal provisions were made for the protection of all bona fide titles. Amidst all this liberality, however, Congress showed, by their laws, that they were perfectly aware of the temptation thus held up to the cupidity of adventurers inhabiting a frontier country, far removed from the restraints of their former European sovereigns, and, as is usual in such situations, not under the constant dominion of those moral restraints which prevail in ancient and long established settlements. This people, too, it was natural to believe, had had that salutary pride of character, which is the best pledge and preservative of moral purity, greatly weakened, if not destroyed, by the manner in which they had seen themselves transferred, and re-transferred, from master to master, like cattle bought and sold in the market; and Congress gave warning of the mischiefs which they apprehended, and which historical events, recently disclosed, prove that they had good reason to apprehend, by requiring the Boards of Commissioners to note especially, in every case, all false, fraudulent, and antedated claims. These laws are now collected in the