Sidebilder
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

Mr. BOON moved to amend the resolution whose authority, under this Government of by referring the investigation to the Committee laws and constitutions, he would never bow. on Indian Affairs. The letter assailed him, pot for an act done in

yeas and nays.

Upon this, Mr. STANBERY asked for the his individual capacity; but for a duty performed, and a right exercised, clearly and incontesMr. HAWKINS moved to postpone the sub-tibly within his officia! competency as a memject to the 10th of December next. ber of that House.

Mr. REED, of Massachusetts, called for the yeas and nays on this proposition.

Here the SPEAKER interrupted Mr. C., and requested him to reduce his motion to writing; which having been done, Mr. C. continued.

Mr. CLAY, of Alabama, suggested to Mr. HAWKINS to withdraw his motion. It was the Personally, Mr. C. said, he had no wishes anxious wish of many gentlemen, and of him- or desires to gratify in pressing the motion; he self among them, that the investigation › should considered it a matter in which the members of be proceeded in. that House, and through them the American Mr. HAWKINS assented, stating that he had people, were exclusively interested. Viewing offered it only from a belief that at this late pe-it in that light, and premising that he did not riod of the session it was impossible to go come here to vindicate his own rights, or the through with the investigation. rights of his constituents, by a resort to the vio

The question recurred on the amendment lence of arms, but by a faithful and unintimidatof Mr. Boox to refer the subject to the Commit- ed discharge of his duty upon this floor, he tee on Indian Affairs, upon which the yeas and felt bound to present this matter to the House, nays were ordered and taken, when it was ne-as well to apprise its members of the system by gatived, ayes 55, noes 125. which we were surrounded, as to make known Mr. BLAIR, of South Carolina, moved to to the people of this Union something of the. amend by adding the following words, and condition in which their representatives were that said committee be appointed by ballot of compelled to legislate upon the great and mothis House." mentous interests of our common country.

The amendment was negatived, and the ori ginal resolution was adopted.

The committee was ordered to consist of seven members.

Mr. LAMAR objected to the reading of the papers.

Mr. COOKE thereupon moved that the rule be suspended; on which question

Mr. DODDRIDGE demanded the yeas and nays.

Mr. COOKE, of Ohio, rose in his place, and said, that he held in his hand a note under date of May 12th, 1832, signed by E. S. Davis, one Mr. DICKSON said, that he understood that of the witnesses who had testified on the late the letter was brought forward as connected trial of Samuel Houston, which had been de- with the privileges of the House, and he sug livered to him since the last adjournment, by a gested whether, in that case, it would come person representing himself to be Alexander within the ordinary rule concerning the reading Dimitry, of Louisiana, as the friend of said Da- of papers. vis, which, together with a statement of facts connected with it, he asked leave to send to the chair, and have read for the information of the House.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Mr. WICKLIFFE suggested to the gentleman from Ohio, whether a better form of introducing this subject would not he by addressing a letter to the Speaker?

In submitting this request, Mr. C. said, he Mr. COOKE said, he had already stated the wished it distinctly understood, that, without substance of the case verbally, and did not waiving any of his legitimate rights, or intend- think that necessary. *.

ing o compromit, in the slightest degree, the Mr. LAMAR withdrew his objection to the constitutional powers of that body, it was nev-reading.

ertheless not his purpose, individually, to claim Mr. MERCER insisted that the paper be the institution of any proceeding whatever, read. on his own account, upon the subject matter of that communication. Such had not been his

Mr. POLK objected.

Mr. ARCHER remonstrated, and requested motives in presenting this matter to the House; Mr. P. to withdraw his objection.

his personal rights formed no part of the object The CHAIR now pronounced the motion to by which he was governed. Other and high-be in order, inasmuch as it related to a breach er motives prompted him to this step-motives of privilege, and was therefore a privileged which, overlooking every consideration of per- question.

sonal feeling and personal security embraced in Mr. THOMPSON, of Georgia, insisted that their regard, the very existence of that body-the motion should be put in writingthe inviolable rights of the people of this country, and the dignity and honor of this nation. The letter itself, he said, he understood was

Which having been done,

The question on the reading was put and carried, and thereupon the letter from Dr. Da

in the usual form of an original process in that vis, together with a written statement by Mr.

court, where, by a certain strange code, the COOKE, of the circumstances connected with rights and honor of suitors were lost or won by it, were read at the Clerk's table, as follows:

the pistol or the dagger-a tribunal whose ju

risdiction he had never yet acknowledged; in

whose practice he was uninstructed, and before

BROWN'S HOTEL, May 12, 1832.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

House of Representatives in the case of Gen another, including the bearer of his letter, Alex. Houston, you very impertinently asked, among ander Dimitry.

other questions, my business in this city. Mr. CRANE said it would be necessary Whilst the trial of General Houston was pend-hen to include among the matters to be ining, I deferred calling on you for the explana-quired into, the threat used in the House by tion which I now demand through my friend, Mr. Davis. Alexander Dimitry,

I am, very respectfully, your most obt.

E. S. DAVIS.

Mr. JEWETT, conceived then that they should inquire into the relevancy of one of the questions propounded to Dr. Davis by, Mr. Mr. COOKE vindicated the propriety of the On the trial of Samuel Houston for an assault interrogatory; it had been propounded while on a member of this House, which has just ter- the witness was under cross examination. Ev minated, a person by the name of E. S. Davis, ery lawyer aust admit at once, it was fairly was examined as a witness on behalf of the ac- within the rule. Its object had been to elicit cused, and, on his cross-examination, I pro- the degree of intimacy, and the identity of ob. pounded to him several interrogatories. After ject and pursuits between Dr. Davis and Mr. he had left the stand, and while on the floor of Houston, and thence to bring home, upon Dr. the House, he said, apparently referring to my. Davis the fact, if it existed, of his having par self, and in a tone of menace that there will ticipated in the outrage upon Mr. STASBERT. be another hauled up here soon." It was an every day practice in courts of law,

In connection with the foregoing note, I sub-COOKE, of Ohio. mit the following statement:

On Saturday last the accompanying note was and the interrogatory, before it was propoundhanded me by a person calling himself Alexaned; had been approved by older and wiser der Dimitry. To the persons, character, and heads than his. Indeed the same practice calling of these individuals, I am an utter had been sanctioned in more than one instance, stranger. during the same trial. The House had inquir

Had I considered this a mere personal matter,ed into the object of Luther Blake's visit to the I should have passed it by, without this notice; city, and also of his departure from it, and nobut all the circumstances of the case do, in my body had objected to those interrogatories as opinion, preclude the idea that it is so. And irrelevant. Mr. C. disclaimed all knowledge connected, as this is, with other instances of of Dr. D. and alf personal hostility towards attempts, by menance and violence, to overawe him. Such a feeling had not been indulged, the members of this body, and curb the freedom and should not be imputed to him. The interof debate, I have thought it my duty, in behalf rogatory had been propounded after full delib. of the American people, and especially that eration, not with a view of doing injustice to portion of them whom I represent, to present this matter to the House. E. COOKE, Representative from Ohio.

May 14, 1832.
Mr. CRANE, of Ohio, moved the following

resolution:

the witness, but to elicit facts having an im. portant bearing upon the investigation then before the House. Nothing short of incapacity to judge, or blear-eyed party prejudice could have discovered any thing irrelevant or improper in this interrogatory. That letter,in connection with the facts which accompany it, Mr. C. said, Resolved, That the communication of the Hon. could be regarded in no oth light than a part E. Cooke, a member from Ohio, be referred of the system of menace and intimidation, reto a Select Committee, consisting of seven cently introduced at the metropolis, to arraign members, and that said committee have power the representatives of the people, before an to send for persons and papers. unauthorized and irresponsible tribunal, for the Mr. C. referred to the former modes of pro-manner in which they discharge their public ceeding adopted under the like circumstances, duties, add to overawe and crush the freedom viz: by arrest, by summons, and by committee. of discussion in that House. It had not been, He had concluded the last mode the most fit on the present occasion.

Mr. BOON moved to lay the papers on the table, there, as he said, to sleep the sleep of death,

On this motion, Mr. VINTON demanded the yeas and nays.

Mr. COOKE, of Ohio, asked to be excused from voting.

therefore, his purpose, Mr. C. repeated, to present this subject for his own protection. He had indeed felt great reluctance in troubling the House with any matter relating to himself, however important to the people in its bearing upon the freedom and independence of the deliberations of their representatives. But in making them'acquainted with this matter, he had been impelled by an imperious sense of public duty. His design had been limited by a desire only to apprise the House and the So the motion of Mr. Boon was rejected. country, of the state of things by which we Mr. JEWETT moved to amend the resolu- were surrounded, with the view to the ulti tion by adding that the committee report whe-mate adoption of some general system for the ther the said Davis, in sending the letter, has protection of the honor and the lives of those committed a contempt and breach of the pri- who were assembled here; and whose days and vilege of this House. nights were laboriously devoted to the public Mr. CRANE accepted the modification with service. This had been the extent of his origi

They were ordered, and, being taken, stood as follows: yeas 73, nays 96,

nal object, in presenting the matter to the In doing this, it would be necessary for him to House. But since his honorable friend and col review the facts of a series of recent transacleague from Ohio, (Mr. CRANE,) had brought tions, of which the one now before the House the subject before the House, in the shape of a might be considered the finale. In the first resolution for an inquiry, he could not but feel place, he would say that his opinion as to the some solicitude to learn whether the House power of the House in such cases was unchang. was disposed to sanction such a state of things ed. He had no doubt of the power of the in a country pretending to be civilized, and House to punish in this case; nor had he any in a Government boasting of its fre dom and its doubt that the facts communicated to the House laws. He wished to know, by a deliberate de-by the honorable gentlemen from Ohio, (Mr. cision of that body, whether a member of that COOKE,) constituted a breach of its privileges; House was, or was not, liable to be called to that it was an attempt to overawe and intimi account, and arraigned before an irresponsible date the honorable member, in the discharge of tribunal, by any stranger at the me'ropolis, for his duties there, he had not a shadow of doubt. the discharge of his public duty, and placed in If not a challenge, it was equivalent to one.— a s'tuation where he must either consent to And when was it received? On Saturday-the abandon his principles, to violate the laws of very day after the yeas and nays were taken on earth and heaven, and to meet his fellow man certain points in Houston's case. They had, in mortal combat, or expose himself to be way-on that day, brought all this on themselveslaid and assailed by ruffians and assassins. The they had proclaimed aloud to the band of rufHouse was the only tribunal to which he could frans congregated in this city, and prowling or would appeal, and to them he would sub-about those walls, to come there and inflict mit the decision of the question. whatever punishment they might think proper

If the people were not to be protected in the on any members who shoul 1 dire to insult their free and undisturbed deliberations of their re- characters, or wound their feelings, even presentatives; if members were not to be pro- though justice to the country and their consti, tected in the discharge of their official duty-it tuents might demand it. Was it not doing this, the House should determine to truckle to ar- to say to them, you shall have free ingress and bitrary power-and to disregard its own safety, egress to this Hall-come armed-do as you diguity, and honor-it would be no longer a please-and the most we can, or will do, is to desirable place for him, and he for one should bring you before the Speaker's chair, as though be disposed to resign a seat upon that floor, it was all mere school-boys' play, and receive and to go to a place where he would find both a little reprimand? Why, Sir, (said Mr. An honor and protection in the bosom of his con- NOLD,) the very man who sent this letter, would stituents. desire no higher honor than that you should Some further discussion took place, in which send your Sergeant-at-Arms after him, that he,' Messrs. WHITTLESEY, of Ohio, CRANE, JEWETT,00, might be placed on the pinnacle of impor BURGES, HOFFman, and DoddrIDGE, joined. tance and glory, which the man whose friendMr. POLK deprecated the further continu-ship he boasted has just left-that he, too, ance of the discussion concerning the dignity might pass through the formality of a trial, and of the House at a time when so much public be acquitted, for such, in fact, he considered If the House business was undisposed of, and asked, whe-the decision in Houston's case. ther, after spending four weeks in debating a had the power to punish, it should have used question of privilege, the House was not com- it effectively. Surrounded, as they were, by a petent to come at once to a decision in the band of ruffians, nothing less than incarcerapresent case. He was opposed to the resolution could protect the members of that House tion, and moved the indefinite postponement. from their assaults. He knew to what he was He had been endeavoring, in conjunction with exposing himself, even in uttering these words; the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. DODDRIDGE,) out sooner, (said Mr. A.) than have my honest to organize a business party in this House, and feelings suppressed, I would lay bare my bohe hoped that is motion would be supported, som to the poniard of the assassin-I would rain order that their action upon the matters be- ther my heart's blood should be let forth by his fore them might not be any further impeded. blade, to run in the gutters of your streets, and Mr. McDUFFIE thought the only way to be lapped by dogs. These are times, Mr. save the time of the House, would be to refer Speaker, when every honest representative of the subject to a committee. the people is called on to speak and act fear

[ocr errors]

Mr. ARNOLD said, he should vote with his lessly, and I, for one, will do so, though at the colleague, (Mr POLK,) to postpone this mat-hazard of my life. The member from Ohio had ter indefinitely. He should do it with pain and very properly brought this matter before the reluctance, but he thought, under all the cir- House; but suppose, instead of doing so, he had cumstances, that was the best disposition which complied with the design of the man who sent could be made of it. As he had heretofore vo that letter, had gone forth to the field of morted in favor of the power of that House to pun-tal combat, and had been shot by his antago ish for breach of its privileges, and as his pre-nist, Would that have been as aggravated a sent course might look like abandoning his for-case as the one which had just terminated, and mer opinion, he hoped the House would per-in which the highest punishment thought to be mit him to state, briefly, the reasons by which deserved was a reprimand by the Speaker of he was governed in his present determination. that House? Suppose that his adversary had

shot him, but not mortally: that he had, how-committed in this case; that the House had vir ever, wounded him badly. What punishment tually refused to exercise its powers of punishcould the House have inflicted on this poor ment, in a case where the offence was of a much Carolinian, who was one of our own citizens, more henious character.

when a reprimand was thought punishment e- Mr. STANBERY said, he had, on a former nough in a more aggravate case, and where occasion, stated to the House, that the Presi the offender was a citizen of a Cherokee nation dent of the United States had used language somewhere beyond the Arkansas. Would they calculated to encourage persons to assault mem. inflict greater punishment on one of their own bers of that House for words spoken in debate. citizens, than on that man whom they had just Since that period the charge has been denied set at large-after telling him, by a majority of in the official paper. He wished now to repeat the House, that he should not be excluded from that charge, and to inform the House that he that hall; that, though he had beat and bruised was prepared to substatiate it; and could, in one of its members, though he had broken his half an hour, produce his witnesses at that bar. bones, yet he should still be permitted, with [A question of order was here raised, but not his pistols in his belt, and his dirk ready for being sustained, Mr. S. proceeded.] He had use, to stalk round your halls.

Mr. BOONE here rose to a question of order. He did not conceive it in order to allude to a case which had been already decided and act ed upon by the House.

mentioned this in answer to the member from Tennessee; and he would tell that gentleman, that if he was desirous to save the public time, and that th· ́deliberations in that House should go on uninterruptedly, he had better go to the Mr. ARNOLD did not conceive he was out palace, and use his influence there; where, of order in alluding to events out of which the as he pledged himself to prove, language had present subject directly rose; or to the conduct been held, calculated to encourage those asof that man who had said, close to the Speak-saults on members, which had led to so great a er's chair, that he would right the wrong wher-consumption of the time of the House. ever given, though it were in the court of hea- Mr. POLK said, in the course of his remarks ven; and, as they were told, it was with the on the subject, he had studiously avoided any utmost difficulty he was restrained, by a mem-reference to the member from Ohio; in the ber of that House, from carrying his threat into course of his remarks on a former occasion, be execution at the time. Yet this man a majority did say, that the attack on the Président of the of the House had decided to be a fit companion United States, by the gentleman from Ohio, of their deliberations. was unwarranted by facts. Mr. BURGES here The SPEAKER here informed the Member rose to a question order; upon which, howev from Tennessee, that it was not in order to re-er, no action was taken.] It appeared to him, flect on the decisions of the House. that an effort had been made on one side of the House, by certain gentlemen, to make an impression on the mids of the House, that there were bands of assassins in this city.

Mr. BURGES again rose to a question of order. He denied the propriety of aspersing the action of a majority of the House.

Mr. ARNOLD resumed. He did not wish to transgress the bounds of order; but he had felt it his duty to say thus much of a man, whom he believed to be prepared to execute any crime whatever, in the whole catalogue of human vil lany. Yes, (said Mr. A.) he might come there, and put a stiletto behind my ear-he might do Mr. POLK said, that that was the second time it near the Speaker's chair-and if he did, I he had been interrupted in the midst of his reverily believe it would be a question, whether marks by the member from Rhode Island, upon be or I ought to be expelled from these walls; the pretext of rising to order. What he had for he had heard it said on that floor, and by said was, that it had been endeavored to make members, that so far from Houston deserving an impression on the minds of the House, censure, he was worthy of commendation for through the neswpapers, that Houston had what he had done. How, then, could he vote been encouraged in his attack on the member for an inquiry, which was sure to result in the from Ohio, by the Chief Magistrate of the triumph of the accused? Who would talk of United States. In one newspaper it was aspunishment, that had seen the issue of the trial serted, that Mr. Houston had gone to the Presifor the wrong inflicted on his honorable friend dent's house; had shown the pistol, and confrom Ohio-for he would call him his friend, versed with the President on the subject. He, and was proud to do so, though he hd seen (Mr. POLK,) had said on the occasion alluded the attempt to degrade him, in caricatures, ex- to, and he would now repeat it, that such was hibited within those walls, in which he was rep not the fact. What, he would ask, was the resented as prostrated beneath the ruffian's blud- crime charged against the President. The geon, and imploring for mercy in the language very "head and front of his offending," was ascribed to him by the honorable Senator from this. He had dared to express his opinion as to Missouri; and he would take this opportunity the conduct of one of the co-ordinate branches to say, that he, (Mr. ARNOLD,) could not have of the Government. He had no doubt that stood by to have seen one dog so worry ano- that officer did entertain the opinion attributed ther; still less could he have come therein.i to him; that the House was exceeding its contate its whine. Mr. ARNOLD said, this was his stitutional powers; but that he had threatened objections to an inquiry into the breach of prior endeavored to intimidate any of its members, vllege, which he had no doubt had here been he had denied, and did then deny, toto cœlo,

and he challenged the member from Ohio, to the public eye-which might not sound well to the proof that he had done so. He, (Mr. P.) the public ear. [Several members here called was at no loss, however, to understand the on Mr. B. to tell them.] Who calls on me whole course of tactics adopted on this occasion; (said Mr. B.) to tell? Am I a gossip to relate he was too old in the school of politics not to what may be said either in this House or elseknow for what purpose certain suppositions as where? He did not say that such things would to Mr. Houston, and his connection with the be revealed; he had merely said, they might Executive, had been put forth in that House. be; as, who could tell what might not be in The member from Ohio had directed him to go the great volume of unwritten Time." He to the palace; he did not exactly understand kept no note-book of the rumours which were the honorable gentleman. In the first place, afloat; he let them pass him as the idle wind; he, (Mr. P.) should not call the house of the unless they were such as might affect the inChief Magistrate a palace; he was not quite so terests of his country. But, nevertheless, he regal in his notions. But what was he to go would warn the member from Tennessee not to there for? What was there in his conduct that provoke an unnecessary agitation of such quesday which had called for such advice from the tions. He had done so, and in a manner member from Ohio? He had said that he was altogether gratuitous. The member from Virfor a business party in that House; and he ginia, (Mr. DonDRIDGE,) had merely said, that thought that the state of business there would rumours to such and such a purport, had apjustify the wish; for what, then, was he told to peared in the newspapers; and he (Mr. B.) go the palace? Mr. P. concluded by regretting must protest against the course of the member that he had been drawn into this discussion; from Tennessee, as passing strange, to say the that he had been, was entirely owing to the re-least of it. He had, indeed, noticed with somemarks of the gentleman from Ohio; of whom | what of surprise, that whenever an allusion was he felt it his duty to say, that he had the pe- made to the dignity of that assembly, that genculiar faculty, whenever he rose in that House, tleman always took occasion to say, that he felt of producing excitement. none of it. That gentleman was welcome to Mr. STANBERY said, that what was assert-feel as humble as he pleased; but (said Mr. B.) ed there, either for or against the truth of his assertion, was of, little avail. He would offer an amendment to the resolution, which would at once put it to the proof, whether the President of the United States had acted in the manner charged, or not, by making it part of Whatever might be his feelings elsewhere, the inquiry of the proposed committee. Mr. S. when within those walls he felt himself standthen offered his amendment; but withdrew it,ing on the shoulders of his constituents, and he temporarily, at the request of Mr. BunGES.

for my part, I am too humble in myself not to feel elevated as the representative of 40,000 freemen-to feel that they have deputed me as the trustecs of their rights, their interests, and their liberties.

felt assured, that whilst he discharged his duMr. BURGES regretted, extremely, that ties there, he should be sustained by them in when all allusions to the executive had been that elevated condition; and with regard to the studiously avoided by the majority in this case, member from Tennessee, he would say thus the honorable member from Tennessee had much, that if he held the appointment, and felt thought proper to bring up the remarks, or no dignity from the station, he was not the man assertions of the newspapers on the subject; he his constituents took him to be, when they con. thought it a course, not only undignified, but ferred it upon him. Mr. B. contended that uncandid towards the members of that House. the question before the House was not as to the It was, in fact, a very serious, and he believed right of the member from Ohio, but the rights it a very unjust reflection, that a majority of of the House and the nation; he considered that House had endeavored to make an im- this as but a part of a system intended to awe pression on the country, through the medium hat assembly in its deliberations. With reof the newspapers. There might be men who 'gard to the person implicated, it, was not imcame into that House, who had not seats as re- probable, as had been suggested, that he might presentatives of the people, who would wil-feel himself elevated from a state of insignifi fully falsify its proceedings, and send abroad their misstatements to promote the ends of the party, of which they were the hirelings; but would the gentleman from Tennessee assert, that the majority of the members of that House were capable of tampering with the editors of newspapers, for the sake of producing a false impression on the public. He hoped not. For his own part, however adverse he might have been to the election of Andrew Jackson, as President of the United States, he had not, nor would he, utter words of obloquy against him, as such, either in that House or elsewhere. At the same time, he did think that the member from Tennessee ought not to provoke the agitation of things which might not look well to

cance, should the House take notice of his con duct. He could not tell-he knew nothing of the individual-it had indeed been whispered, that he had written this letter from a persuasion, that it would not be answered in an hostile manner; that if he had thought it would have been answered, blood for blood, he would not have written it, he had heard it rumored that he was a man who, if a hen should set up her feathers against him, would runaway. All this he had heard, but whether true or not, was of little consequence to that House. It had been further said, that he was a disappointed office seeker; if so, he should vent his spleen in another quarter. With regard to the business party, which it was the wish of the member from Tennessee, to form,

« ForrigeFortsett »