Katherine Reed, Staff Assistant since 1985, who researched and composed the biographies of Committee members, assisted in the compilation of the project bibliography and assisted with research on the Petitions and this publication, all while earning her Master's Degree in European History from American University in 1987; Mike Flanigan, who has been associated with the Committee since 1979 and has served as Printing Editor since 1986, and Eileen Smith, who has been Editorial Assistant since 1987, both of whom provided valuable editorial help and prepared the document for publication; and Wm. Michael Kitzmiller, Staff Director and a member of the Committee staff since 1976, who conceived the project and has supervised research, editing and publication. Appendix II: Fourth Congress-Multiple Committee Actions.. INTRODUCTION Summary This legislative diary chronicles the daily activities of the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures during the Fourth Congress. The document contains all references to the Committee in the official records of the House of Representatives from its initial appointment on December 14, 1795 through March 3, 1797. Biographical sketches of Committee Members and several appendices accompany the compilation. The appendices provide supplementary legislative information not listed in the diary, including multiple actions taken on Committee referrals, summaries of Committee reports, and legislative histories of all Committee bills. The diary was compiled from a page-by-page scan of the 1826 Gales and Seaton editions of the Journal of the House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress (also published by Gales and Seaton in 1849), and the first volume of transcribed Committee documents, including reports. The Journal and the Annals, which were originally abstracted from contemporary newspaper accounts, provide the most accessible and complete compendium of daily Congressional activities during the period examined. The Committee Reports, in the Legislative Archives Division of the National Archives, list Committee referrals, reports, and legislation. All business contained in the Committee Reports, as well as pertinent references to its Members in the Journal and Annals have been mentioned. House debates on commercial issues relevant to Committee activities during the Fourth Congress also appear in the document. General Introductory Information The House appointed the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures on December 14, 1795, as part of a comprehensive revision of the Rules. In its instructions, Congress directed the Committee to "take into consideration all such petitions and matters of things touching the commerce and manufactures of the United States, as shall be presented, or shall or may come into question, and be referred to them by the House, and to report their opinion thereupon, together with such propositions for relief therein, as to them shall be expedient." On the same day seven Members were appointed to the Committee: Benjamin Goodhue (Mass.), Benjamin Bourne (R.I.), Edward Livingston (N.Y.), John Swanwick (Pa.), Samuel 1 Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, vol. 1, 3d Cong., 1st Sess.-4th Cong., 2d Sess., 1793-1797 (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1826); Annals of the Congress of the United States, vol. 4, Parts 1 and 2, 4th Cong., 1st-2d Sess., 1795-1796, 1796-1797 (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1849); Transcribed Reports of the Committee of Commerce and Manufacturers [National Archives microfilm M-1267, Reel 1], pp. 1-102. (Referred to in the Daily Journal entries as Committee Reports, or CR.) Smith (Md.), Josiah Parker (Va.), and William Smith (S.C.). Bourne, Livingston, and William Smith were attorneys. Goodhue, Samuel Smith, and Swanwick were merchants with close professional ties to shipping or manufacturing industries. Parker had pursued a military career prior to his election to Congress. During the Fourth Congress, 1st Session, four Committee Members were Federalists, two were Republicans and one Representative's party affiliation is unknown. During the 2d Session, Federalists again outnumbered Republicans four Members to two. The Committee was geographically well-balanced during the 1st Session with two Members from New England (Goodhue, Bourne), two from the South (Parker, William Smith), and three from the Mid-Atlantic region (Livingston, Swanwick, and Samuel Smith).2 The first Chairman, Benjamin Goodhue, was the only Member with extensive select committee experience dealing with commercial issues.3 Overview of Committee Business Prior to the establishment of the Standing Committee, the House handled commercial business either through cooperation with the Treasury Department, or through select committees. If the federal legislature received a petition from merchants and manufacturers favoring or opposing the duties imposed by a revenue law, the petition was reviewed by a select committee, the Committee of the Whole House, or by a drafting committee appointed to revise the existing statute. Requests by private entrepreneurs for bounties or subsidies to manufacturing industries were handled by a select revenue committee or by one established to consider the feasibility of expending federal monies to encourage manufactures. Other claims, submitted by merchants or ships' personnel contesting import duties due on goods arriving at ports of entry in the United States, were usually sent to the Secretary of the Treasury because the collection of such duties and the administration of customs houses fell under the jurisdiction of his Department. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton was one of the most influential, and certainly one of the most efficient, administrators during the first three Congresses. His Department, which handled many issues later entrusted to the Commerce Committee, functioned both as an arbiter of commercial claims and as a fact-finding arm of the federal legislature. After Hamilton's resignation in the winter of 1795, the House attempted to establish greater independence from the executive branch by appointing permanent committees to perform some of the functions previously handled by the executive departments. The establishment of these committees also 2 During the Fourth Congress, 2d Session, John Swanwick replaced Benjamin Goodhue as Chairman. Goodhue left the House to take a seat in the Senate. Josiah Coit, a Federalist from Connecticut, replaced Bourne. Samuel Smith, originally a Federalist, later switched to the Republican party. It is currently not known whether Parker, who continued to serve on the Committee during the 2d Session, was a Republican or a Federalist. The Committee was still regionally balanced, but the South gained another Member (Thomas Blount, a Republican from North Carolina) at the expense of the New England States. 3 For a discussion of the Committee appointment process during the early Congresses, see George B. Galloway, History of the House of Representatives (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1962), pp. 77-78; and Petitions, Memorials and Other Documents Submitted for the Consideration of Congress: March 4, 1789 to December 14, 1795, hereinafter referred to as P&M, [staff study prepared for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1986; Committee Print 99-AA), p. 13. |
