Friday, February 1.
Postmaster-General.
The Speaker laid before the House the following letter from Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General of the United States:—
February 1, 1805.
Hon. Nathaniel Macon, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States.
Sir,—I have received information, from various sources, that both my public and private character and conduct have been arraigned on the floor of the House of Congress by a member of that House, in a debate of the 29th, and in another of the 31st ultime, in a case where no examination of my official conduct was proposed. As there is not, within my knowledge, any instance of a similar abuse offered to an officer of Government, I know not of any precedent whereby to regulate my conduct. I wish at all times, and more especially on an occasion so extraordinary and unprecedented, to approach the representatives of the nation with all that respect and regard to which they are entitled. My feelings do not allow me, at present, to exercise that coolness and judgment which I might call to my aid in a case less interesting.
Conscious of the purity of my conduct, and that no charge can be made or supported against me consistent with truth and justice, it is a duty which I owe to my country—to the government which has confided in me—to myself and my family—to declare (and I do now most solemnly declare) that every charge or insinuation which has been made against my private or public character, or against my fairness and impartiality, or of my attempting, by bribery, or in any improper manner, to influence any member of Congress upon any question pending before that honorable body, is absolutely and altogether untrue, and founded at least in error only.
The high respect due to your body and every member of it during your sessions, will not allow me to hazard a conjecture as to the motives of the gentleman who has proclaimed these charges.
I court and solicit of Congress an investigation into my official (and if they please my private) conduct, from the first moment the Post-Office Department was committed to my charge to the present period. Nor have I any favor to ask, save only this, that an investigation may be had the present session.
I pray you to communicate this to the House of Representatives; and I tender to that honorable body, and to you, their Speaker, the assurance of my high esteem and respect.
GIDEON GRANGER.[24]
Mr. Varnum moved that the letter of the Postmaster-General be referred to a select committee to inquire into the subject.
Mr. Nelson hoped the motion would not prevail, as no good purpose could be answered by the inquiry. It appeared to him to be an affair of honor between two gentlemen, and Congress had nothing to do with it. If, upon investigation, the charges were found to be true, Congress had no power to remove the Postmaster-General from office. For what purpose, then, were they to waste the time of the House in such an inquiry? That was not the proper place to make the application; it should have been made to the President, if made at all, as he had the power of removing officers. The session was far advanced and limited in its duration. A variety of important business still remained unfinished, and he feared some of it would remain so; yet, notwithstanding, the House was called upon to take up private quarrels between gentlemen. He hoped the motion would not prevail, and that the gentlemen would be left to settle the dispute themselves.
Mr. Bryan called for the yeas and nays.
Mr. Elliot.—This House was informed by a member, (Mr. Randolph,) in language too strong to be misunderstood, that corruption had found its way within these walls, and that indirect advantages had been taken to influence the decision of the House upon a question pending before them. An officer of the Government, who considered his conduct much implicated, has informed the House, by letter, that he has been informed that his public conduct has been arraigned, and prays an investigation into it. In my opinion, nothing can be more just and reasonable than to grant it.
Mr. Nicholson.—I recollect but a single instance in which the conduct of an officer of the Government has been inquired into, at his request; that was the case of Mr. Wolcott, the late Secretary of the Treasury, who, upon his resignation, addressed a letter to the House, requesting an investigation into his conduct. That letter was couched in decent terms, and the language was such that no member could take umbrage at. Had the letter of the Postmaster-General been written in the same style, I should have had no objection to the investigation, although I can see no good likely to result from it. But it is couched in such language as this House ought not to listen to. We are told in it, that charges made by a member of this House are untrue. Are we to sit here, and suffer such language to be used? I trust not, sir; had I known the language of the letter, I should have opposed its being read. If gentlemen wish an investigation into their conduct, they ought to ask it in decent terms; and I should not oppose it, although, as I before observed, I can see no good likely to result, for I trust that the Postmaster-General will never be dignified with an impeachment. If the charges against him are true, the President ought to remove him, and it is to him that he ought to justify himself. If, however, gentlemen are anxious that an investigation should take place, let them lay a resolution to that effect on the table, and I will give it no opposition; but I will never agree that such a letter as the one now on the table be referred to a committee, and, by that means, give a sanction to the language contained in it.
Mr. Gregg regretted that such business had been brought before the House, especially at so late a period of the session. He did not know for what purpose an inquiry was to be made; for, supposing the charges to be true, the House had no power to remove him. The Postmaster-General was not one of those officers who could be impeached; and the President was the only one that could remove him. He was opposed to the motion, conceiving that too much important business remains unfinished, to take up new matters, which would answer no good purpose whatever.
Mr. Clark was opposed to the reference of the letter, on account of the language which it contained. It charged a member of the House with having uttered falsehood. In his opinion, such language ought not to receive any sanction from the House.
Mr. Lyon.—I feel, Mr. Speaker, a sympathy for the Postmaster-General, who, as well as myself, was so egregiously belied yesterday by the member from Virginia, (Mr Randolph.)
[Here Mr. Nicholson called Mr. Lyon to order, whereupon the latter sat down, when the Speaker decided that the words were out of order.]
After this decision was made, Mr. Lyon again rose to proceed, and was again called to order, but the Speaker determining that he was in order,
Mr. Bryan appealed to the House, and
Mr. Nicholson called for the yeas and nays.
The question was then taken, “Is the decision of the Chair correct?” And it was determined in the affirmative—yeas 81, nays 34.
Mr. Lyon, upon this, immediately said, I give up my right; and would not proceed.
Mr. Elliot.—However surprising it may appear to some gentlemen, it is not so to me, that the language of innocence should be warm and pointed. We have been told that the letter is couched in disrespectful terms. For my part, I cannot perceive any thing of the kind in it; and I am surprised that, as it respects the gentleman who made the charges against him, that he is so moderate. Gentlemen have said that an inquiry would be of no service; because, if the charges are true, the officer cannot be impeached. If gentlemen will advert to the constitution they will find that “all civil officers are liable to impeachment,” and removal from office. Surely it will not be contended that the Postmaster-General is not a civil officer. The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Nicholson) differs very widely from his friend from Virginia (Mr. Randolph) as to the Postmaster-General. The former considers him as holding an office too insignificant to be dignified with an impeachment, while the latter deems his patronage and influence sufficient to influence or to bribe the majority of this House. However insignificant the gentleman from Maryland may think the Postmaster-General, still he is a civil officer, and as such is liable to be impeached, and removed from office. We have been told that a combination has taken place between some of those who have avowed themselves republicans and the federalists, and that the liberties of the country will be endangered. Sir, we have no danger to apprehend from monarchists, aristocrats, or federalists.
Our liberty can only be endangered by those description of persons against whom the gentleman from New York (Mr. Root) so emphatically exclaimed—I mean political demagogues and popular leaders! They have been the curse and destruction of every Republic, and I fear will be our destruction. We are cursed with them in this country, and even in this House. But I trust that the majority of this House are opposed to them. The great objection which gentlemen make to the inquiry is, that the letter is couched in too disrespectful terms. Will they please to bear in mind the charges made against the officer, and, viewing them, is it not a matter of astonishment that he is so mild? As the letter respects this House, it is remarkably respectful. Upon what ground, then, can the investigation be refused? If the charges made are true, the officer ought to be removed; if untrue, this House ought in justice to him whose character has been so assailed to declare that they are so. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph) informed us yesterday that the Postmaster-General kept in his pay a jackall, who went prowling about this desolate city at midnight, when honest men ought to be asleep, offering bribes to the members. Sir, the gentleman must have keen optics to discover this jackall, when he is asleep; for he informs us that he only goes about when honest men ought to be asleep; and surely the gentleman is one of that description. Upon every view which I can take of this subject, I can see no objection to the inquiry, but the strongest reason in its favor; and justice demands that it should be made.
Mr. Nelson would offer a few remarks to the House, why he was opposed to the motion. He would not undertake to give an opinion as to the character of the Postmaster-General, or whether the charges made against him could be substantiated. His objection was, that the House had nothing to do with charges made by a member against any individual. If the charges were true, the President (and not the House) was the proper person to apply to, to remove the officer. But it had been said that the House had the power to impeach all civil officers, and, therefore, could impeach the Postmaster-General. But because the House was invested with that power, he asked whether they were bound to exercise it? Surely not. And he hoped they would not, when they could get rid of the officer by a more summary mode. Late experience had taught them the trouble and expense attendant on impeachments, and he trusted that no officer would ever be impeached that could be removed by the President. It would be better to let them remain in office, although guilty of misbehavior, than to spend so much time as they would be obliged to do in cases of impeachment. Suppose the motion should be agreed to, and the committee appointed, he asked what power they would possess? Were they to declare whether the charges were true or false? A determination either way would have no effect upon the House, because they could not, he trusted, impeach the officer. He was not disposed to do any thing to hurt the character of the Postmaster-General, but he would not give his sanction to a measure which would spend so much of the time of the House in deciding what he considered an affair of private honor and private feelings between two gentlemen. He also considered that the adoption of the resolution would pass a censure upon the gentleman who made the charges, and he asked whether the House were disposed to censure one of its members for any warm and unguarded expressions about an officer of the Government? He trusted not. How many times had charges been made in the House against the President of the United States; but that officer had never thought it proper to apply to the House for an inquiry into his conduct; nor did the House ever pass a vote of censure on the members who made them. He looked upon this as a question of dispute between two gentlemen, and no tribunal could be erected in the House to decide on it. He should, therefore, vote against the motion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Varnum,) and hoped it would not prevail.
Mr. Huger knew not what was the opinion of any gentleman as to the merits of the question, but he was satisfied that a calm decision of it could not take place at that time. They were about to establish a precedent, which might be of importance, and it ought to be done after the utmost deliberation. He called upon gentlemen to say, whether it was possible that a calm and impartial decision could be given after so much irritation had been displayed in the debate? In order to afford an opportunity to gentlemen to give the subject a cool and dispassionate investigation, he moved to postpone the further consideration thereof until Monday.
The question was taken thereon, and determined in the affirmative—yeas 93.
The resolution (Mr. Varnum’s motion to refer Mr. Granger’s letter to a select committee) was never after called up.
Georgia Claims.
The unfinished business of yesterday on the Yazoo claims was resumed—the amendment offered by Mr. Clark, under consideration.
Mr. Holmes observed that as he was a member of the Committee of Claims, from whom the report under consideration emanated, he thought it his duty to state to the House the part he acted on that occasion. I was, said Mr. H., in all our deliberations upon this subject, decidedly opposed to the adoption of the report, and in every stage of its progression used all fair means in my power to produce a different result; in this, however, I was unsuccessful. My conduct was governed by a firm conviction that the present claimants had no right in law or equity to the lands in question, and that policy did not demand the interference of the National Legislature. Most of the arguments that operated upon my mind then, and will influence my vote now, have been adduced by gentlemen who preceded me. It is not my intention to detain the House with a repetition of them; one or two, however, have occurred to me as worthy of consideration, that have not been urged. This must be my apology for addressing you after the able and lengthy discussion the subject has received. I am of the opinion, Mr. Speaker, that the Legislature of Georgia, of 1795, were not authorized to dispose of the lands in question, even if they had been honestly inclined to do so.
Mr. Matthew Lyon.—From the drift of the speeches delivered by the member from Virginia, from his call for the Postmaster-General’s report of a list of his contracts, and from the invitation he has given to an examination of that report, I am led to consider it a duty I owe to myself, in this House, and in the face of the world, to take up that report, and explain the nature of the contracts which there appear in my name. I find my name seven times mentioned in that report: the first is in the 12th page, for a contract for carrying the mail from Cincinnati to Detroit; the second in the same page, and is from Marietta to Cincinnati; these two contracts I never solicited or bid for, but the Postmaster-General having advertised for proposals, and having received none that he thought reasonable, they being new routes and to be let for one year only, he wrote to me offering the price they stand there at, and I undertook to get the business done. For the performance of the latter contract I gave every cent I received, and without saving one penny for a great deal of trouble, risk, and perplexity, I had taken upon myself to get it effected. From the other I saved a few dollars toward paying me for the care, trouble, and responsibility I had sustained on the occasion. Long before these contracts were out, I informed the Postmaster-General that I should take neither of them again, and the contract from Cincinnati to Detroit was let to another person at $105 60 more than was given to me; this may be seen in the 22d line of page 20 of the same report.
The third time my name is mentioned is in the same 12th page, and is from Hartford to Fort Massac, a distance of about 180 or 190 miles, for which $654 75 is paid; out of this $65 is to be paid for ferriage. For some parts of this route I am obliged to give much more than a proportionate share of what I receive; some other parts I give a trifle less; sometimes my own horses carry the mail. I cannot with precision tell what is lost or gained in it, but it cannot be $50 either way. The fourth contract is also in the same page, it is from Russelsville to Eddygrove, or, rather, Eddyville; it is 80 miles, for which $240 is paid; this is as low if not lower than the price given any where south or west of this place, and I give to the person who performs it the whole amount of what I receive. The fifth and sixth time my name is mentioned in that report is in the 28th page—those are merely a renewal of the two last-mentioned contracts, which had expired in 1803; all of those contracts were made before I was elected to my present seat in this House, before I had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with the present Postmaster-General, and before I ever spoke with him.
The seventh contract is noticed in the last page of the Postmaster-General’s report, which is from Massac to New Madrid, from Kaskaskias to Girardeau, from Cahoka to St. Louis, a distance of more than 200 miles, for $515, out of which more than $150 must be paid for ferriage, at the rate ferriages stood at the time of the contract.
This is the true history of the contracts by which it is insinuated that the Postmaster-General has bribed me. I never was bribed, sir; it is not all the lands and negroes my accuser owns that could tempt me to do a thing which honor or conscience dictated to me to avoid. I could, sir, if it was pertinent, show how the over-vigilance of the present Postmaster-General has deprived me of the benefit of the only profitable contract I ever made with the Government—a contract made with his predecessor which he very improperly, in my opinion, considered void on account of some words in it not being exactly consonant with the intention of the contracting parties; believing, however, that the Postmaster-General designed to do what he thought right, he has not lost my esteem, nor do I think his character can be injured by the braying of a jackall or the fulminations of a madman.[25]
Mr. J. Clay.—It was not my intention to have troubled the House with any observations on the subject, but I think a view may be taken different from any exhibited by the gentlemen who have preceded me. Some of the gentlemen who have advocated the appropriation of the land to satisfy the New England Mississippi Land Company, have been content to rest the claim upon the ground of policy. They have said that if some mode should not be taken to satisfy the Yazoo speculators, they would be incessantly troubling Congress. If these men have any title, it must be by right of pre-emption; and yet that title it was not practicable for them to acquire, as the State of Georgia could not extinguish the Indian title. Notwithstanding, however, their imbecility, the Legislature of Georgia, of 1796, undertook to grant an estate in fee simple. It will require more time to examine this question, and perhaps more abilities than I possess; but I cannot conceive how Georgia had a pre-emption title to the land, while the Indian title still existed. The Congress of the United States possessed the sole power of extinguishing the Indian title to lands within their territories; no individual State has either the right or the power of extinguishing the Indian title to any lands they may claim. Of course, Georgia had no right to grant a title in fee simple.
We are told of the policy of compromising with these speculators, and that they are innocent purchasers. How are they so? Are they not the very men who purchased a fraudulent claim, and does not their deed carry on the face of it a proof that they knew it to be fraudulent? There is also a strange coincidence: These people’s deeds are dated February 13th, 1796, the very day that the rescinding act was passed, but these instruments were not all executed until May following. [Here Mr. J. Clay read several passages from the pamphlet published by the agents of the New England Yazoo Company, and compared them with the resolution of Congress passed on that subject, from which he inferred an acknowledgment of the present claimants, that they purchased a disputed title.] He went on to state that Governor Strong, who was at that time a Senator of the United States, was made acquainted with the whole transaction; and it could not but be presumed that he and the Massachusetts delegation communicated to their constituents the circumstance.
The general notoriety of the fraud, said Mr. Clay, is such as to convince any man that the present claimants are not innocent purchasers. The very conditions under which they purchased, demonstrate this. They undertake to stand in the shoes of men who had defrauded the State of Georgia through a corrupt Legislature, and when they paid their money, they conditioned that it should not be repaid them, by reason of any defect in the title. The petitioners take it for granted, that, whatever was the fate of the original compact, though bottomed in fraud and consequently null, they have no other resource than in the mercy of this House. Why did they make that stipulation in their deed? Why not take a general warrantee? If the deeds had been executed in the usual manner, they could have recovered their money from the party who had practised upon them. But, notwithstanding that article, I still think they should have recourse to the original grantees; let them go to them, and a court of equity will do them justice.
I have no idea of supporting questions of property upon grounds of mere policy; I shall never be inclined to squander millions of the public money, because a gang of swindling speculators may enter this House and prove troublesome to its members. The agents of these men have accidentally acknowledged that they cannot extinguish the Indian title, and, therefore, they cannot get possession of the land. What is a man to get by a contract, when it is impossible to comply with the terms? I was in hopes, that the representation from the State of Pennsylvania would have been unanimous on this question: they ought to know, from the salutary experience of their own State respecting land speculations, whether it relates to the Connecticut, Susquehanna, or Delaware Companies, who have kept a part of our State in a continual broil for fifty years, while another set of men, under the garb of the Population and Holland companies, have thrown their warrants over the north-western corner of the State, and are likely to defeat the great objects which the Legislature had in view, when they disposed of the lands to actual settlers alone. I trust, however, that they will be defeated, and that the courts of justice will determine the case in the manner in which it was recently decided. I regret that the oldest member of Congress from our State, should, at this late hour, abandon those republican principles which he has so long and so ably maintained, to support a band of Yazoo speculators. For my part, I must be an altered man indeed, if I ever consent to a compromise with a gang of speculators holding a title founded in fraud and speculation.
The yeas and nays were then taken on the resolution of the Committee of Claims, and decided in the affirmative—yeas 63, nays 58, as follows:
Yeas.—Willis Alston, jun., Simeon Baldwin, Silas Betton, Phanuel Bishop, Adam Boyd, John Boyle, John Campbell, William Chamberlin, Martin Chittenden, Clifton Claggett, Jacob Crowninshield, Manasseh Cutler, Richard Cutts, Samuel W. Dana, John Davenport, John Dawson, John Dennis, William Dickson, Thomas Dwight, James Elliot, Ebenezer Elmer, William Eustis, William Findlay, John Fowler, Calvin Goddard, Gaylord Griswold, Roger Griswold, Seth Hastings, William Helms, John Hoge, James Holland, David Hough, Benjamin Huger, Samuel Hunt, John G. Jackson, Nehemiah Knight, Simon Larned, Joseph Lewis, jr., Henry W. Livingston, Thomas Lowndes, Matthew Lyon, Nahum Mitchell, Jeremiah Morrow, James Mott, Thomas Plater, Samuel D. Purviance, Erastus Root, Henry Southard, Joseph Stanton, William Stedman, James Stephenson, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, Samuel Thatcher, David Thomas, George Tibbits, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Joseph B. Varnum, Peleg Wadsworth, Matthew Walton, Lemuel Williams, and Marmaduke Williams.
Nays.—Isaac Anderson, David Bard, George Michael Bedinger, William Blackledge, Walter Bowie, Robert Brown, Joseph Bryan, William Butler, Levi Casey, Thomas Claiborne, Christopher Clark, Joseph Clay, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Frederick Conrad, John B. Earle, John W. Eppes, Peterson Goodwyn, Andrew Gregg, Thomas Griffin, John A. Hanna, Josiah Hasbrouck, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, Walter Jones, William Kennedy, Michael Leib, John B. C. Lucas, Andrew McCord, David Meriwether, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore, Roger Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, jr., Joseph H. Nicholson, Gideon Olin, Beriah Palmer, John Randolph, Thomas M. Randolph, John Rea of Pennsylvania, Jacob Richards, Samuel Riker, Thomas Sammons, Thomas Sanford, Ebenezer Seaver, James Sloan, John Smilie, John Smith, Richard Stanford, John Stewart, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, Isaac Van Horne, John Whitehill, Alexander Wilson, Joseph Winston, and Thomas Wynns.
The resolution was of consequence agreed to.
Mr. J. Randolph.—On this question I have nothing more to say than to congratulate my friends on the vote just taken. We are strong in the cause of truth, and gentlemen will find that truth will ultimately prevail. When I compare the votes of this session with some of the votes of the last, my objections to refer this subject are almost done away. In whatever shape the subject may be again brought before the House, it will be my duty, and that of my friends, to manifest the same firm spirit of resistance, and to suffer no opportunity to pass of defeating a measure so fraught with mischief.
[On a subsequent day, a bill was introduced for compromising the claims; but it was not acted upon by the House during the remainder of the session.][26]