These considerations, he said, had weighed on his mind. If the motion for striking out prevailed, he declared it would distress him beyond any circumstance that had occurred to him during his public life, especially at this period, and under the present circumstances of affairs. He should consider the prevalence of this motion as tantamount to a declaration, that the House and their constituents did not feel their confidence in the President unimpaired.
Mr. Livingston lamented the situation which the drafted Address reduced the House to; but he could not give his assent to it as it stood; he should vote for striking out the word "undiminished," if a question on it should be urged. He did not conceive himself called to a seat in the House to express opinions, much less the opinions of others, but to make laws. He felt so much the delicacy of the situation which the wording of the Address had placed the House in, that he wished the dilemma of a vote might be avoided. The gentleman last up also lamented the situation, and justly observed, that striking out the word was tantamount to a declaration that the confidence reposed in the President was diminished. But he begged to remind him that it was the framers of the Address, and he was one of them, that involved the House in this disagreeable situation.
He declared himself so young in the parliamentary proceedings, as not exactly to know how to avoid a question on the present motion. He declared he was not prepared to say what the opinion of his constituents concerning the President was. The confidence of many of them he knew was shaken; that of others was increased.
He moved, if in order, that the committee should rise, and the Address be recommitted.
This was carried, and Messrs. Freeman and Baldwin added to the committee.
Adjourned.
Wednesday, December 16.
Thomas Claiborne, from Virginia, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat.
Address to the President.
Mr. Madison, from the committee to whom had been recommitted the draft of the Address in answer to the President's Speech, brought in a report. The clause now added consisted of a modification of the clause objected to yesterday. On motion, the House went into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. Muhlenberg in the chair. The amendment was unanimously agreed to. Mr. Giles then moved an amendment in the third line of the last paragraph. It was thus: for "the several interesting subjects which you recommended to our consideration will receive every degree of it," read of attention. The committee then rose, and the House agreed to the report.