GENERAL LAND OFFICE, May 2, 1832. SIR: In reference to the resolution of the House of Representatives, passed on the 20th ultimo, in the words following, to wit: "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to communicate to this House a statement showing what amount of the sales of public lands has been paid in the notes and bills of the United States' Bank, in each of the States and Territories, respectively, where public land has been sold, in each year, between the 1st of January, 1828, till the 1st of January, 1832; and, also, what amount of such sales has been paid in the notes of other banks, in scrip, by law made receivable for public land, or in specie, within the same time, in such States and Territories," and which you have referred to this office; I have the honor to report that the receivers are required, by the Secretary of the Treasury, to make an endorsement on each receipt, showing the various denominations of bank notes, or gold and silver coins, of which each payment is composed. From causes, however, some of which can easily be conjectured, growing out of the hurry of business at the public sales, there are so many interruptions of these endorsements on the receipts, that they do not afford a continuous view of the various denominations of money received in any one of the land districts, so as to admit of furnishing the information required. In case the receivers had invariably made their endorsements, as contemplated by the department, on each receipt, it is to be remarked that the constant giving of change, both in notes and in coins, would so materially vary both the denomination and kinds of notes and coins on hand, which they would actually deposite into bank, that there would be little identity with the denomination and kind of notes and coins indicated by these endorsements, although the value would, of course, remain the same. It has been ascertained that, during the period mentioned in the resolution, there were 81,985 receipts issued at the several land offices; and, from the foregoing causes, it will be perceived that the means do not exist, in this office, of affording the information required as to the various kinds of notes, bills, and specie, for which those receipts were given. In compliance with that portion of the resolution which requires a statement of the amount of scrip received in payment, at the land offices, during the period mentioned, I beg leave to submit the enclosed statement, marked A. I have the honor to remain, Your obedient servant, Honorable LOUIS MCLANE, ELIJAH HAYWARD. A. STATEMENT showing the amount of military scrip, and forfeited land scrip, received at the Land Offices in 1828. 1829. 1830. 1831. TOTAL. $42,064 44 $121,182 72 $46,216 61 $117,635 36 5,580 94 24,907 58 9,333 41 112,544 78 $327,099 13 11111 13,161 50 7,227 40 9,711 86 1,588 90 23,275 61 3,945 05 1,437 58 37,289 29 15,642 61 644 50 233 77 615 20 402 16 1,037 50 2,986 91 200 00 9,169 50 11,200 00 2,084 16 1st Session. LETTER-PETER S. DU PONCEAU-SILK. Letter from Peter S. Du Ponceau, upon the subject of the bill (H.R. No. 294) to promote the growth and manufacture of Silk. MAY 10, 1832. Read, and committed to the Committee of the Whole House to which the said bill is com mitted. WASHINGTON, 8th May, 1832. SIR: The present session of Congress being far advanced, and business pressing on your honorable House from every side, I think it my duty to solicit again their attention to the bill for promoting the growth and manufacture of silk," now pending before them, and to state some reasons why it is important to the nation that it should be acted upon as soon as possible, and, above all things, that it should not be suffered to go over the present session. As there are many members of the present House who are unacquainted with the history of this bill, and who may not understand on what grounds I take the liberty to address them through you, I beg leave to give here a brief statement of it, which, while it serves as my apology, will, I believe, throw some additional light on the important subject to which your attention is most respectfully requested. When, at the beginning of the first session of the last Congress, I had the honor to present to them a copy of the "Essays on American Silk," then lately published by Mr. D'Homergue and myself, I had nothing in view but to give them a mark of my profound respect, and, at the same time, through them, to extend the knowledge of the facts which the book"contains. I was highly flattered by the honor which the House did to that little work, by referring it to their Committee on Agriculture; still, I had no idea that that reference would lead to the recommendation of a legislative measure. だ The idea of deriving a national advantage from the exportation of raw silk was entirely new, at that time, in the United States. Until then, the culture of that rich production of our soil had been considered only with a view to domestic manufuctures. This is so true, that, in the able report of the Committee on Agriculture, made to the House on the 2d of May, 1826; in the Manual that was prepared and published on their recommendation; and in the answers that were sent from all parts of the United States to the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Rush, in consequence of his circular queries, (as far as those answers have come to my knowledge,) the importance of the exportation of raw silk, as an article of commerce, is not any where suggested. Thus, our agriculture, as far as silk is concerned, was considered only as auxiliary to domestic manufactures; while the idea first thrown out and developed in the "Essays," contemplates solely the advantage of the agricultural interest of our country, which alone is to be benefitted by the sale of our produce to foreign nations in the form of a raw material, manufactures may follow or not, as it may happen. In either case, our country is to be benefitted by the sale of an article exclusively the fruit of agricultural industry. When we consider that the small country of Piedmont exported, in the year 1829, near five millions of pounds of her raw and thrown silks, we shall better understand the value of this suggestion. France does not permit the exportation of her silks, unless manufactured. These reflections could not but forcibly strike the minds of the enlightened committee to whom the work was referred. That committee did me the honor to address me through their chairman, and desired my interference to retain Mr. D'Homergue in this country. I was requested by them to ask him on what terms he would accept to be placed at the head of a national school of filature; in consequence of which, after having ascertained the lowest terms that could reasonably be offered to him, and obtained his assent, not without difficulty, as his pretensions were higher, and these I found justified afterwards by a letter from his father, in which, appealing to his experience of forty years, he told him that forty thousand dollars would hardly be sufficient to enable him to execute what he had undertaken; I submitted a plan, which the committee immediately adopted, and presented to the House in the form of the present bill, to which they subjoined my letter to them, and an able report, warmly recommending the measure, in which is found this remarkable expression, that it would be a national misfortune if Mr. D'Homergue were suffered to leave this country. That report was made on the 12th of March, 1830. The session was then far advanced, and the House could do no more before their adjournment than order six thousand copies of the report, with my letter to the committee, and the "Essays on American Silk," to be printed. The Senate, to whom a copy of that work had been also presented, referred it to their Committee on Agriculture, and manufactures, with whom I had some correspondence, which, however, produced no result, as the subject had been so fully taken up by the House of Representatives. Under these circumstances, sir, I thought myself in honor, if not in duty, bound to justify the confidence placed in me by retaining Mr. D'Homergue in this country, at least until another session of Congress. At the same time, I determined to prove to Congress, and to the nation, by the evidence of facts, the great importance of the contemplated measure, so that it might be popular by the time it should come again before the National Legislature. I went with Mr. D'Homergue to Connecticut, to see how the people there managed the silk culture, and their so much spoken of domestic manufacture of sewing silk. My object in going thither was also to purchase cocoons, of which, however, I could obtain but a small quantity, as the people thought that they might employ them otherwise to more advantage. We, therefore, supplied ourselves, in that and the succeeding year, from other sources. On my return to Philadelphia, I erected an experimental filature under the direction of Mr. D'Homergue, in which American women were |