served us as the Irish insurgents did a banker, against whom they had a special spite, when they burnt all his notes in order to break him -in like manner they did some of us a very great service. Whenever any thing is wanted, we now can have the answer of old Caleb Balderstone, referring its absence to the fire at Wolf's Crag. I find, in the Journal of the Senate to which I have had recourse, this entry:

"Friday, January 23, 1807.

"On motion, by Mr. GILES, "Ordered, That Messrs. GILES, ADAMS, and SMITH, of Maryland, be a committee to inquire whether it is expedient, in the present state of public affairs, to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and that they have leave to report by bill or otherwise.

แ

"On motion,

Ordered, That the Message of the President of the United States, of the 22d instant, together with the documents therein mentioned, be referred to the same committee.

"Whereupon,

"Mr. GILES, from the committee, reported a bill to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for a limited time, in certain cases; and the rule was, by unanimous consent, dispensed with, and the bill had three readings, and was amended. Resolved, That this bill pass as amended; that it be engrossed, and that the title thereof be, An act to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for a limited time, in certain cases."

[In certain cases, said Mr. R.-not the cases which the constitution has declared shall be the cases in which it shall be suspended-I said certain cases-I should have spoken more properly to say in uncertain cases-for the certain cases are the cases of the constitution.]

"The committee also reported the following message to the House of Representatives; which was read and agreed to, to wit: "Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

"The Senate have passed a bill suspending, for three months, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, in certain cases, which they think expedient to communicate to you in confidence, and to request your concurrence therein as speedily as the emergency of the case shall, in your judgment, require.

"On motion,

"Ordered, That Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, be the committee to deliver the message to the House of Representatives."

"Monday, January 26, 1807. "Mr. ADAMS, from the committee, reported that the bill entitled, 'An act to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, for a limited time, in certain cases,' was correctly engrossed.

"Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, reported that he had carried the bill last mentioned, to the House of Representatives for concurrence."

And now, sir, let us turn to the House of Representatives because the bill was never printed; there is not an office copy of it to be found here; it was carried to the House of Representatives-and if not found there, there is no office copy of it in the world; though

[MARCH, 1826, there are copies equally entitled to credit with any office copy whatever. "House of Representatives, Monday, January 26,

1807.

"A message was received from the Senate, by Mr. SAMUEL SMITH, as follows:

"Mr. Speaker: I am directed by the Senate of the United States to deliver to this House a confi dential message in writing. Whereupon,

"The House being cleared of all persons except the members and Clerk, Mr. SMITH delivered to the Speaker the following communication, in writing: "Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

"The Senate have passed a bill suspending, for three months, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, in certain cases, which they think expedi ent to communicate to you in confidence, and to request your concurrence therein, as speedily as the emergency of the case shall, in your judgment, require.

"Mr. SMITH also delivered in the bill referred to in the said communication, and then withdrew.

"The bill sent from the Senate, entitled, 'An act suspending, for three months, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, in certain cases, was read the first time.

"A motion was made by Mr. PHILIP R. THOMP SON, [an old coadjutor of mine, said Mr. R., and I have no hesitation in saying, at my instance,] and seconded, that the House do come to the following resolution :

Resolved, That the message and bill communi cated to this House, from the Senate of the United States, and the proceedings of the House thereon, ought not to be kept secret, and that the doors of the House be now opened.

"And on the question thereupon, "It was resolved in the affirmative-yeas 123, nays 3.

The nays were Josiah Masters, David Thomas, and Nathan Williams, (two of them I know, and all three of them, I believe, from New York.)

"The doors of the House were accordingly opened, and the Speaker stated to the House, that the bill sent from the Senate having been read the first time, the question would be, Shall the bill be read the second time? Whereupon,

Opposition being made by a gentleman from Virginia, to the said bill, and debate arising thereon, the question (in conformity to the rules of the House) was stated by Mr. Speaker, to wit:

"Shall this bill be rejected?
"And on the question to reject,

"It was resolved in the affirmative-yeas 113, nays 19."

What is the most remarkable thing, said Mr. R., is, that of these nineteen nays, there is not one man from the Old Dominion-not one man. There were but four south of the River Ohio and south of the River Potomac-let me count them-Evan Alexander, of North Carolina, Elias Earle, of South Carolina, Thomas Sandford, of Kentucky, and Matthew Walton, of Georgia-I beg pardon, of Kentucky-the Yazoo led me into the error; I find, also, amongst the nays, on this occasion, the name of a cer tain Mr. Barnabas Bidwell, who commenced

MARCH, 1826.]

[SENATE.

"The following message was received from the House of Representatives by Mr. Beckley their Clerk: Mr. President-the House of Representatives do not concur in the bill entitled, 'An act to suspend, for three months, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, in certain cases;' and he withdrew."

But as the rule was unanimously dispensed with, and the bill had three readings in one day, unanimously, it is to be inferred from that fact for reasons which I gave to the Senate when the doors were shut, and which I don't choose to give now that they are open-there was no opposition here. Now, sir, not being able to find any trace of this bill here, it never having been printed-it never having been on file the question is, where is to be found? In the other House, if anywhere-if anywhere I say again-if anywhere!

That suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was the first oblation which the present Executive Magistrate made at the shrine of power, when he gave in his adhesion on the desertion of his federal friends! Up to that session, he had been as stanch an adherent of the federal opposition to Jefferson's administration as any man in this country! We know by a voice not from St. Helena, but from the south side of James' River-who was the sponsor who introduced him into the political church, who promised and vowed certain things in his name, which he has not yet disclosed; we hear that voice proclaiming from the Wigwam, and loudly calling upon him to come forward-now that he is an adult, 16 years having passed since his baptism at the new political font-and receive confirmation, and exonerate his Godfather-he who stood for him at the baptismal font-from all further responsibility on his account for his political sins. He calls on him to come forward, to get another endorser, for that he must take his name off his paper-that is a phrase which nowadays is much better understood!

Under these circumstances, said Mr. R., it has been to me a matter of wonder, that, during the late electioneering campaign-I have expressed myself to that effect to my good friend on my left, (Mr. MACON)-as I had but a shadow of preference amongst the contending parties, I did not mix myself with one side or the other in the election-I often expressed my wonder to him, for two years that preceded, that this fact had never been brought forward and used, as please God I would have used it, if I had had any interest in doing so; and I now discover the cause; it was not known-and permit me to say, it would never have been known to me by any industry of research or labor, if I had not been-whether fortunately or unfortunately-contemporary

lobby, from its origin-from the dissolution of the old Congress, which I saw expire, and a new butterfly come out of the chrysalis stateup to 1799, when I first took my seat in the Congress of the United States, with the gentleman who presides in the court below-(I do not speak as to jurisdiction-(the term is technical)

but in reference to the place where it holds its sittings,) with so much honor to himself and benefit to this country; from whom, though I may have differed in the course of a long political life, I have never withheld that respect, not even in conflict on the floor of the other branch of the Legislature, where he sat, during one session, in times when party spirit was at its height-I never, for a moment, lost sight of the immeasurable distance that separated me from that man, in every respect that could be mentioned, except age-and he was nearly old enough to be my father-for, where I meet with real worth-where I meet with a man of real talent-whether associated with him or notwhether placed in a situation where I was to appear only as a foil to his superior merits and ability, [pointing to the seat of Mr. TAZEWELL,] I can yield him that precedence which I shall never give to the assumption of superior merit, where I know and feel that it does not exist.

Sir, I consider that of all the stretches of power-talk about internal improvements!— of the expediency of suspending the privilege of the habeas corpus, in certain cases, in the teeth of the constitution! What says the constitution? That the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except in two cases. What are they, sir; what are they? You would not have had that privilege, even if there had been no restriction, in your power; because you have nowhere had the grant of power to suspend the grant of power-the restriction is exabundanti cautela-out of abundant caution, overweening care-like the restriction on the liberty of the press, in the teeth of which the sedition law was passed-like the restriction on an established church, in the teeth of which, for aught I know, an established church for the Catholics may be passed by this Congress, or by that of Panama.

These are in the amendments-take notice, there is no grant in the body of the constitution. Article 1, section 9. "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it."

Well, sir, here was a bill to suspend it-not in a case of rebellion or invasion; because all that was necessary would have been for the President to have sent a message, that there was rebellion or invasion, and to call for the suspension. There was no message from the President to that effect. I have no hesitation in saying that it was well understood that the channel through which the communication was made-not at all--I make no such allegation against Mr. Jefferson-but alleged to have been

SENATE.]

[MARCH, 1826,

cases.

Will the Senate pardon me for saying, that, to that suspension, was I indebted for my seat in the other House. At the preceding session of Congress, it was my misfortune not to see exactly with the eyes of people in power. I wanted some of that very laudable modesty which Chatham said that he admired whilst he despaired of imitating it-the modesty of the retainers of the Treasury bench-whose humility never allowed them to put their opinions in opposition to that of the minister for the time being. The next election came on in the April following this January, 1807. That bill-it was the panoply under which I sheltered myselfthe text from which I preached; and, as on the issue of the first battle greatly depends the fate of the succeeding campaigns-no opposition dared to show itself; from that day, Sertorius like, or like Eumenes, I carried on the war upon my own resources, or as the King of Prussia carried on the war against the combined continent of Europe-for seven long years -relying on my own resources, and on them alone, against the General Government, the State Governments, and, I believe, every press in the United States, and maintained myselfnot in the Peninsula, but in that district, where, in case of the worst that can happen, I look for refuge under any change of fortune, political or otherwise. My enemies never dared to face me and uphold this outrage upon the constitution; and do you think if I had been engaged heart and hand in this late election, I would have let this thing sleep? No, it should have rung like a funeral knell in the ears of the incumbent and the expectant. Let that pass-I did not disturb its sleep-I did not meddle with it; it was not for me to wake the adder-the rattlesnake-the good old rattlesnake-the emblem of liberty. "Don't tread on me!" I did not care one button which of the contending parties he bit-not one farthing.

Sir, I must take leave to express myself here, as everywhere else, in my plain fireside, plantation way. The little advancement-and I cannot say that I feel it very highly, sir-from a majority to a colonelcy, has never altered my manners, and never shall, either in this Legislature or out of it; and I shall continue to be the same man, I trust, both at home and abroad, that I was before. I would, therefore, respectfully move, that a message be sent to the

House an office copy of the bill sent to them by this House on Monday the 26th day of January, 1807, suspending for three months the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases. If it does not come from that House-and I am rather afraid it will not-I do not believe it has been burnt either-for I have some very obscure recollection in my mind of its disappear ing off the file of that House long before the war was declared, or there was any fire in the Capitol-I don't mean the library fire, but Ross's fire-John Bull, on that occasion, made himself an Irish bull: he tried to break his enemy the banker by burning all his notes that he could lay his hands on. I make you that motion, sir.

The PRESIDENT being about to put the question on agreeing to the motion

Mr. BELL, of New Hampshire, rose, merely to suggest that this motion was somewhat of an extraordinary nature, and he should be glad to take a little time to consider it. He did not see the motive which had induced the gentleman to make the motion, and at present he must acknowledge he should be very unwilling to send a proposition of this sort to the House of Representatives.

Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, asked whether it was not required by the Rules of the Senate, for a resolution of this kind to lie one day.

The CHAIR declared such was the rule, unless its immediate consideration was asked for by the mover; and Mr RANDOLPH not pressing its immediate consideration, it was laid on the table until to-morrow.

TUESDAY, March 14.

The Journal of yesterday having been readMr. RANDOLPH rose, and addressed the Senate nearly four hours, on the subject of the resolution which he submitted yesterday, and on various topics connected with that and other political incidents in the history of the country, particularly on the report made (by Mr. JOHN QUINOY ADAMS) from the Select Committee of the Senate, in 1807, in the case of John Smith, a Senator from Ohio, charged with being an associate in Burr's conspiracy-which report Mr. R. concluded by moving to have printed for the use of the Senate, (and withdrawing the motion that he made yesterday, in regard to the bill suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, that bill having been since found.)

The motion to print the report was negativ ed, without a count, and then, about 4 o'clock, The Senate, on motion of Mr. SEYMOUR, went into the consideration of Executive business.

[This day the final question on the celebrated Panama Mission was decided: and here is the place to insert the record of confidential proceedings thereon, ordered by the Senate, by a vote on this day, to be made public. Those proceedings are as follows, viz:]

MARCH, 1826.]

WEDNESDAY, February 15.

Secret Executive Proceedings.

[SENATE.

Resolved, That upon the question whether the United States shall be represented in the Congress of Panama, the Senate ought to act with open doors; unless it shall appear that the publication of documents, necessary to be referred to in de bate, will be prejudicial to existing negotiations. Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to inform the Senate whether such objection exists to the publication of the documents communicated by the Executive, or any portion of them; and, if so, to specify the parts, the publication of which would, for that reason, be objectionable.

On the question to agree theretoIt was determined in the affirmative-yeas 23, nays 20.

WEDNESDAY, February 22.

The Senate resumed the consideration of the motion submitted by Mr. RowAN on the 20th instant; and the same having been modified at the instance of Mr. WOODBURY, as follows:

Resolved, That it is the unquestionable right of the Senate to call, in respectful terms, upon the President of the United States, for such information as may be in his possession, and which the Senate deem necessary to the faithful discharge of the duties imposed upon it by the constitution; and, more especially, the duties resulting from matters which the constitution makes it the duty of the President to submit to the Senate, for its ad

vice and consent.

Resolved, That the two following resolutions, of the 15th instant, viz: "Resolved, That, upon the question whether the United States shall be represented in the Congress of Panama, the Senate ought to act with open doors; unless it shall appear that the publication of documents, necessary to be referred to in debate, will be prejudicial to existing negotiations. Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to inform the Senate, whether such objections exist to the publication of the documents communicated by the Executive, or any portion of them; and, if so, to specify the parts, the publication of which would, for that reason, be objectionable :"-requested information in the possession of the Executive, and in his possession only, which the Senate deemed important to guide its decision on a subject within the scope of its advising powers, and deeply interesting to the States and to the people of this Union.

out example, from that usage, and upon the motives for which, not being informed of them, I do not feel myself competent to decide "-does not give to the Senate the information requested, whether the publication of the documents," or "any portion of them," communicated by the Executive, as to the mission to Panama, "would be prejudicial to existing negotiations."

Resolved, That the Senate has the sole right in all cases to determine what shall be the "rules of its proceedings;" and that the President cannot interfere with the same, without violating the constitutional privileges of the Senate.

Resolved, That the Senate has the sole right to determine, what are its existing "rules of proceedings," whether founded on usage" or positive written regulations-and that the President cannot officially decide what those rules are, or whether any proposed mode of acting, is a departure from them "without example," or whether it be essential to the "public interest," that some supposed "usage" of the Senate should "be preserved unimpaired.'

66

dent, on a call from the Senate, to decline giving Resolved, That it is not competent for the Presi information, whether "the publication of documents necessary to be referred to in debate, will be prejudicial to existing negotiations," on the ground that he disapproves of the mode of proceeding which the Senate proposes to follow on the subject to which those documents relate.

On motion of Mr. BARTON, of Missouri, to postpone the same indefinitely, a division of the question was called for.

On the question to postpone indefinitely, the first resolution—

It was decided in the affirmative-yeas 24, nays 20.

On motion by Mr. COBB, of Georgia, The yeas and nays being desired by one-fifth of the Senators present,

Those who voted in the affirmative, are, YEAS.-Messrs. Barton, Bell, Bouligny, Chambers, Chase, Clayton, Edwards, Harrison, Hendricks, Holmes, Johnston of Louisiana, Knight, Lloyd, Marks, Mills, Noble, Robbins, Ruggles, Sanford, Seymour, Smith, Thomas, Van Dyke, and Willey

-24.

Those who voted in the negative, are,

NAYS.-Messrs. Benton, Berrien, Branch, Chandler, Cobb, Dickerson, Eaton, Ellis, Findlay, Hayne, Johnson of Kentucky, Kane, King, Macon, Řandolph, Rowan, Van Buren, White, Williams, and Woodbury-20.

On the question to postpone, indefinitely, the

24, nays 20. It was determined in the affirmative—yeas

third resolution, On the question to postpone, indefinitely, the

It was determined in the affirmative-yeas 24, nays 20.

On the question to postpone, indefinitely, the fourth resolution,