Friday, April 20.
General Wilkinson.
The Speaker laid before the House the following letter, which was read:
Washington, April 19, 1810.
Sir: After a tedious passage from New Orleans I arrived at Baltimore on the 16th instant, and reached this city the next day. My absence has been necessarily protracted by the selection of papers, from a mass of twenty years' accumulation, for the establishment of facts, to refute the multifarious and diversified calumnies by which I have been assailed.
I now present myself to the Representative body of the nation, the guardians of the public weal and the protectors of individual rights, to express my earnest desire that they may constitute some impartial tribunal, which may be governed with strictness by the principles of the constitution and the laws of evidence, to investigate the conduct of my whole life, civil and military, whereby justice may be done, and my unexampled persecution be terminated.
I aver my innocence of the foul offences which are imputed to me, and declare my ability to support it before any unprejudiced court. Through you, sir, I appeal to my country, and I claim that right which is not refused to the most profligate—the right of confronting my accusers. The Representatives of the people will not, I am persuaded, suffer a fellow-citizen who has been devoted to the public service more than twenty-five years, and has nothing left him but conscious fidelity and attachment to his native country, to sue in vain for justice.
The enclosed letter to the Secretary of War was written anterior to the receipt of my notification of recall from the command on the Mississippi, and will evince my readiness and my desire for a full investigation of my conduct.
With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
JAMES WILKINSON.
Hon. J. B. Varnum, Speaker, &c.
Naval Establishment.
Mr. Randolph, from the committee to whom was referred the resolution respecting the reduction of the Naval Establishment, reported the following bill; which was twice read, and referred to a Committee of the Whole:
[Here follows the Bill.]