The next transaction that he should quote, Mr. L. said, as favorable to his doctrine, was the Message of the President of the 5th December, 1793, and the measure to which it gave rise. The President says: "As the present situation of the several nations of Europe, and especially those with which the United States have important relations, cannot but render the state of things between them and us matter of interesting inquiry to the Legislature, and may, indeed, give rise to deliberations to which they alone are competent, I have thought it my duty to communicate to them certain correspondence which has taken place."
This Message, Mr. L. said, accompanied the papers relative to France, to Great Britain, and to Spain; and a question would immediately occur, what were the deliberations to which the President then thought the Legislature alone was competent, and which he therefore thought it his duty to communicate. All our disputes with the nations referred to in the Message, were such as on the new construction of the Treaty power he could have adjusted by compact, without any reference to the House of Representatives; but it is plain, by the express words of the Message, that he did not believe that construction. It was no answer, Mr. L. said, to the argument drawn from this transaction, to say that the President only submitted the question of War or Peace to the Legislature by this Message.
1. Because the Message related to the three principal nations in Europe, and he never could have imagined that Congress would have deliberated on going to war with them all.
2. This was evidently not his intention, because as soon as measures were proposed in that House, which he supposed would lead to a rupture with one of those nations, all these measures were palsied by the appointment of an Envoy, and the commencement of negotiation.
It was clear, then, that the President thought the matters communicated by his Message, which related to commerce and boundary, were constitutionally vested in the discretion of Congress. The idea was corroborated by the words of a Message relative to the negotiation with Spain:
"And, therefore, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, I appointed Commissioners Plenipotentiary for negotiating and concluding a Treaty with that country, on the several subjects of boundary, navigation, and commerce, and gave them the instructions now communicated."
Why, said Mr. L., communicate the instructions to the Ministers? Because they related to commerce, to navigation, to boundary, on all which subjects the President must have thought the Legislature had a right of decision. He must have thought so at that period; but, unfortunately, all precedent of free communication ended here; Mr. Jay's negotiation began, and a different construction was assumed.
From this view of the acts of Government, Mr. L. said, he trusted that a far different impression would be made, than that the doctrine he contended for was a new one, originating in opposition to the English Treaty, and a desire to disorganize the Government. That, on the contrary, it had been declared by the President, acquiesced in by the Senate, and acted upon by the House of Representatives.
March 21.—In Committee of the Whole on Mr. Livingston's resolution:
Mr. Williams observed much had been said upon the subject of the present resolution, and so much time consumed, that he should confine his observations within a narrower compass than he at first intended.