ave
so nearly completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently
received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is
reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next
session, appointed for the 22d of May of the ensuing year.

The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for
slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the late
war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in
the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the
subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of the
commissioners, or serve as a substitute for it.

Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies
throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may
be employed in the service of the United States. The magnitude and
complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects
may account for the fact that, long and often as both of them have
occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems
have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the
community the duties prescribed by these grants of power. To conciliate
the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of personal
liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts, is the
difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are objects
of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is precious in
the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the classes
essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring nurture, and of
the sex entitled to protection from the free agency of the parent and
the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more indispensable
to the liberties of the country. It is only by an effective militia that
we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid defiance to foreign
aggression; it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed
nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense in the presence of all
the other nations of the earth. To this end it would be necessary, if
possible, so to shape its organization as to give it a more united and
active energy. There are laws for establishing an uniform militia
throughout the United States and for arming and