Mr.
Gallatin took his seat December 2, 1793.

The business of the session was opened by the presentation of a petition signed by nineteen individuals of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, stating that Mr.Gallatin had not been nine years a citizen of the United States.

This petition had been handed to Robert Morris, Mr.Gallatin's colleague for Pennsylvania, by a member of the legislature for the county of York, but he had declined to present it, and declared to Mr.Gallatin his intention to be perfectly neutral on the occasion--at least so Mr.Gallatin wrote to his wife the next day; but Morris did not hold fast to this resolution, as the votes in the sequel show.

The petition was ordered to lie upon the table.

On December 11 Messrs.