Friday, April 1.
Case of John Smith.
This being the day assigned for hearing counsel, the President said the Senate were ready to hear the counsel of John Smith, in any thing they had to offer why the resolution (for expelling him) should not be adopted.
Mr. Adams submitted it to the Senate, whether it was not most proper that the counsel should be permitted to show cause why the report should not be adopted. He remarked that in like cases the whole report, comprising the grounds on which the final resolution was founded, had been the subject of discussion, and of approbation or rejection. He considered this the correct course, that the world and posterity might know the grounds on which the Senate acted.
A short conversation ensued on this suggestion of Mr. Adams, in which the principles of the report were incidentally noticed. In reply to Mr. Adams’ remarks, it was said that it could not be expected that a deliberative body, however agreed in the guilt or innocence of the accused, would be able to unite in their agreement to a complicated report, embracing a variety of abstract and disputable principles.
Mr. Giles intimated the idea that this discussion was premature; that, as the Senate had by their vote determined to hear counsel on the report, it was proper that this course should, in the present stage of the business, be pursued. After having heard counsel, it would be for the Senate, as they then should see fit, either to decide on the resolution alone, or on the report connected with it.
This suggestion having been acquiesced in, without any vote,
Mr. Francis S. Key, of counsel for Mr. Smith, asked for subpœnas for Messrs. Davenport, Morrow, and Sturges, of the House of Representatives, to attest the credibility of witnesses; and likewise for a subpœna for General Wilkinson.
It was intimated that the usual mode of proceeding in such a case was to request the attendance of the members of the other House.
Mr. Key then opened the defence by a few very concise preliminary remarks. He observed that the counsel of Mr. Smith felt highly gratified in appearing before the Senate with a body of testimony sufficiently strong to flatter them with the assurance of a favorable result; that all the apprehensions which had arisen from the distance and the extent of the testimony were almost removed; and that although testimony was still coming in, they were fully satisfied with that they had already received.
He said they would be able to show that the testimony of Elias Glover was not worthy of credit. He admitted that if this testimony were correct, John Smith was unworthy of his seat; but they would be able entirely to destroy its weight by destroying his credibility. They would, likewise, be able to show that there was nothing else in the other testimony which materially affected the character of the accused. They would also, after this, enter into a consideration of the principles on which a decision in this case ought to be made; and endeavor to show that that decision could only be made according to legal evidence; that the Senate were bound by judicial principles, and that the accused was consequently entitled to the same privileges as he would be in a court of justice.
Mr. Key said he should first proceed to offer depositions to discredit Elias Glover. He would show that he had not only made charges, which were contradicted by respectable testimony, but likewise by his own declarations at other times. He would commence with the proof of his general character, and show that it had been such, ever since he entered into life, as to destroy the weight of his testimony; he would show that he had in several instances perjured himself. He would then show his inducements to perjure himself in this case, by establishing the existence of a combination, of which he was the head, to ruin Mr. Smith.
Mr. Key was about to read sundry depositions taken at Newtown, Connecticut. Previous to this he read the certificates of notice given by Mr. Smith to Mr. Glover, of his purpose to take depositions relative to his character. From these it appeared that Mr. Smith had, on the 10th of February, notified him of his intention to take depositions at Delhi, New York, on the 15th February, at Newtown, Connecticut, on the 20th, in the Mississippi Territory on the 25th, at Cincinnati the ——
Mr. Crawford objected to reading these depositions. He observed that they went seriously to affect the character of Mr. Glover; that the Senate had, in such a case, prescribed that the depositions should only be received in case of reasonable notice having been given to the person whose character it was intended to discredit: that in this case no such reasonable notice had been allowed; that the notice was too short to be of the least use to Mr. Glover.
Mr. Harper, of counsel for Mr. Smith, observed that as much time had been given by Mr. Smith as he could possibly spare. The times fixed for taking depositions at the several places, had been as distant as they could be, consistently with Mr. Smith’s getting the testimony forwarded to the seat of Government by the 1st of March; the period then fixed by the Senate for his hearing.
Mr. S. Smith stated that, although the resolution fixing the 1st of March for a hearing had passed on the 20th of January, the notices of Mr. Smith were not dated till the 10th of February, at Berrysville, in Virginia, where he had put them into the post office.
A short debate followed, in which the principal circumstances noticed were, that according to Mr. Smith’s affidavit, on which the first postponement had taken place, it was not expected that depositions to discredit Elias Glover’s would be taken at any other place than Cincinnati; that, if these depositions, though informal, were read, they would be taken by the Senate only for what they were worth, and that, if ex parte evidence was received in favor of Mr. Smith, it could not be rejected when against him.
On reading the depositions, seventeen members being a majority, rose in the affirmative.
The counsel then read the depositions of Calvin Chamberlain, Henry Peck, jun., Ely Perry, William Meeker, Daniel Wheeler, John Norfrog, Luther Bulkley, Zalmon Tousy, jun., Cyrus Sprindle, James Nicholls, Solomon Booth, Oliver Tousy, Gideon Fisher, Stephen Beers, jun., N. Hays, Joseph Michin, Solomon M. Sackriden, James Monger, Homer R. Phelps, Joshua H. Brent, Gabriel North, John T. Moore, Philip Gabehart, Cyrenus Foote, Roswell Hodgkiss, Benijah Beardley, E. K. Granger, Henry Tyler, John B. Judson, Samuel Stephen, George Fost, Asa Tyler, Nathan T. Tyler, John S. Gano, Francis Dunlavy, John Sellman, Stephen Macfarland, George Gordon, Edward H. Stall, Thomas N. Still.
These depositions are made by persons residing in the States of Connecticut, New York, and Ohio.
About four o’clock the Senate adjourned.