Whether it had been consistent or not with the interest of the United States, Mr. L. was of opinion, that the Secretary had legally a right to bring all the money he had drawn for to America, except what was drawn prior to the third of March, 1791. This money was drawn out of the first loan; it was drawn, as declared, for the Sinking Fund; the first loan, for the reasons before stated, could not be applied, and consequently, till the act of the 3d of March, 1791, this money could not be legally drawn for the Sinking Fund. Perhaps this act caused the irregularity of this proceeding.
But is not the Secretary of the Treasury subject to blame? Mr. L. observed, he thought he was not altogether free from it. At the meeting of Congress on the 8th day of December, 1790, the President in his Speech informed both Houses, that the first loan had been accepted, and that the Secretary of the Treasury had directions to lay the particulars before them. But what did he do? On the 15th of December following, he began to draw money on account of this loan to America, for the Sinking Fund; though from his report on the 24th of February, 1791, he appears to have had a doubt as to the legality of this proceeding. He delayed giving information, in conformity to the President's Speech, till a few days before the dissolution of Congress. This conduct, Mr. L. said, seemed to argue a distrust of the Legislative Councils. Mr. L. dilated on the necessity of the purest and most confidential communication between the Secretary of the Treasury and the Legislature, and said, though he could not agree to the resolution then under consideration, there was one, subsequent to it, relating to this point, which he was sorry to find himself under the necessity of voting for.
Mr. Boudinot considered it as the duty of the committee in the discussion of the charges brought forward to confine themselves strictly to the points in question. The present examination differed from ordinary Legislative business. Specific charges are brought forward against a highly responsible officer; the facts brought forward to support those charges should be understood and considered, to form a right judgment on them. The Secretary is charged with having violated a law, by paying the interest due on a loan out of the principal of that loan. He went into some statements and calculations to show that the money paid on account of foreign loans, as stated in official documents, could not have been paid on account of interest of the late loans, from the disproportion of the sums.
He need say nothing more, he conceived, to show that the first charge in the resolution immediately before the committee is unfounded. If what he said was not sufficient to disprove it, he asked where is the evidence to support it?
He next turned to the second charge in the resolution, viz: that the Secretary had made the drafts complained of without the President's instructions. Here he noticed a mistake some gentlemen had fallen into, when speaking of the call of the House for information. This was a request to the President, and not an order to the Secretary. From the information communicated in consequence of this call, it did not appear that the Secretary had acted without, or contrary to instructions, and he insisted, that he ought to be presumed innocent till he was proved guilty.
He argued that the authority given to the President in the subject put it in his power to draw the whole fourteen millions to this country, if he thought fit; it could not, therefore, he contended, be insisted, that the amount of the drafts had passed the limits of the authority given. It is not denied, he proceeded, that there was a right to draw for the two millions appropriated for the reduction of the public debt. Well, it has appeared, on a certain occasion to the House, that our Minister in France negotiated a contract with the National Assembly, or their officers, for the payment of $800,000 of the debt due them, here; then certainly, the exigency of the case required that this sum should be drawn here for the purchase of provisions for St. Domingo, in which this payment was to be made. Here then was a positive necessity of drawing for $2,800,000 and as a discretionary power in the subject had been left to the Executive, they might have found it advisable, perhaps, under an expectation of additional payments in the same manner to have drawn over as much more as they might have thought prudent.
He adverted to the application of the Secretary to the Legislature to declare whether the loan obtained, for an interest of five per cent., exclusive of douceurs, might be considered as borrowed under authority of the $2,000,000 act. It was his (Mr. Boudinot's) opinion at the time, that no explanatory law was necessary; and that the Executive had power to construe the act in that sense. This was also the Secretary's opinion, and in consequence of that opinion he had drawn bills. He thought it however right to apply to the House and have every doubt removed, and the Legislature sanctioned his construction of the law.
It had been said, that if the Legislature had a right to confirm, they also had a right to reject the construction put upon the law by the Executive. This, he conceived, they would not have been warranted in doing, after a contract agreeably to that construction had been made; such a proceeding must have involved a breach of contract.
It had been repeatedly asserted and strenuously insisted on, that the Legislature were totally in the dark, as to the drafts from Europe. To disprove this assertion, he read several items from sundry reports of the Secretary, where sums received on account of loans are specified. It had also been said, that there was no evidence that any part of the loan was applied to or intended for the purchase of the public debt.
This also appears unfounded, from a note dated 25th of August, 1790, laid before the Trustees for purchasing the public debt, which expressly mentions, that a loan had been negotiated, part of which was destined for the purchase of the public debt, and that some points relative thereto were before the President for his approbation. This also showed that the President had knowledge of such intentions. His Speech, and the Report of the Secretary, in consequence of part of that Speech, which had been so repeatedly referred to, also unequivocally prove this point.