April 16, 1860, Mr. Mason presented to the Senate the warrant for the arrest of Mr. Sanborn, with the return of the Deputy Marshal of Massachusetts to whom it was addressed, and moved its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary, with instructions to inquire and report whether any, and what, further proceedings were necessary to vindicate the authority of the Senate and to effect the arrest of the witnesses. This motion was agreed to. Mr. Sumner then moved that the memorial of Mr. Sanborn, with the additional papers, be taken from the table and referred to the same committee. Here Mr. Mason promptly interposed the very unusual motion that the memorial be rejected. The Chair decided that the motion “to reject” could not take precedence, and therefore the motion to refer was first in order. Then it was that Mr. Sumner spoke as follows.
Mr. President, I think that I ought not to listen to such a proposition as has been made by the Senator from Virginia with reference to this memorial, without one word in reply. Here is a memorial from a gentleman of perfect respectability, charged with no crime, presumed to be innocent, complaining of gross outrage at the hands of certain persons pretending to act in the name of the Senate. The facts are duly set forth. They are authenticated also by documents now of record. The Senator moves—without any reference to a committee, without giving the petition the decency of a hearing, according to the ordinary forms of this body—that the memorial be “rejected”; and he makes this unaccustomed motion with a view to establish a precedent in such a case. I feel it my duty to establish a precedent also in this case, by entering an open, unequivocal protest against such attempt. Sir, an ancient poet said of a judge in hell, that he punished first and heard afterwards,—“castigatque auditque”; and, permit me to say, the Senator from Virginia, on this occasion, takes a precedent from that court.
To this protest Mr. Mason replied: “The Senator from Massachusetts, it seems to me, makes an opportunity to use language in the Senate Chamber which, so far as my intercourse with the world goes, is not usual out of the Senate Chamber. There is nothing in it that I have a right to take as personally offensive to myself. The Senate is the proper judge and arbiter of the decorum of its own proceedings.”
Then ensued a debate on the return, in which Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, and Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, took part, when Mr. Sumner, at last obtaining the floor, remarked as follows.
Only one word. I presented a memorial to this body, setting forth an outrage. The Senator from Virginia moved its rejection, while he proposed that the case should be proceeded with. I characterized that motion as I thought I was authorized to do, referring to a precedent of antiquity, and that was all; and this is the occasion for a lecture from the Senator on the manner in which one should conduct on this floor. From the heights of his self-confidence he addresses me. Sir, I wish to say simply, in reply, that, when an outrage comes before this body, I shall denounce it in plain terms; and if a precedent from a very bad place seems to be in point, I shall not hesitate to quote it.
Mr. Mason rejoined: “I did not undertake to lecture the Senator, of all others, upon the subject of manners or propriety. I do not mean it offensively, but, for my own convenience, I should consider it time thrown away. All that I said was, that I was not accustomed, in my intercourse with the world outside of this Chamber, to hear language of that sort in the circles in which I move.”
April 17, 1860, the memorial of Mr. Sanborn was referred to the Judiciary Committee, according to the motion of Mr. Sumner.
June 7, Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the return of the Deputy-Marshal and the other papers, reported a “Bill concerning the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives,” authorizing the appointment of deputies. This was intended to meet the decision of Chief Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts.[23]
June 15, Mr. Bayard moved to proceed with the consideration of his bill. The motion was not agreed to,—there being, on a division, ayes 22, noes 25. This was the end of that bill.