And the question was put and negatived—38 to 33.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading to-morrow.
Wednesday, May 23.
Alien Enemies.
The bill respecting alien enemies was read the third time, when
Mr. R. Williams moved a recommitment of the bill. He said his objections did not lie so much against the provisions respecting aliens, as to the power proposed to be given to the President of issuing proclamations, which are to be binding on the Judges and other officers with respect to our own citizens. He would wish to designate every offence, and its adequate punishment, as far as it could be done. In order to effect this he made his motion.
Mr. Sewall said, so much discussion took place on this subject yesterday, that he did not expect any more to-day. The gentleman from North Carolina seemed not to object to the powers given to the President by the first and second sections of the bill, but he did not wish him to have any officers to execute his powers. If the President could carry the law into effect with his own hand, he might do so, but he objected to his having any aid from his officers or the people at large. He did not believe this kind of reasoning could have any effect in this House. If the President is authorized to issue orders, he must be authorized to require the aid of proper persons to execute them.
Mr. Gallatin called for the yeas and nays upon this question, which, being agreed to, he hoped this bill would be recommitted. He had no doubt that the committee, by paying due attention to the subject, instead of this general and vague bill, might report such rules and regulations as would be proper to be adopted on this occasion. He recollected seeing a bill from the Senate on this subject, in which something of this kind was done; and though he did by no means approve of that bill, yet it showed that the thing was not impossible. The objection made against a recommittal of this bill, was, that it was necessary to do something to provide means for securing and removing alien enemies, which did not apply as an argument against the recommitment of the bill. It was a good reason why a bill should be passed, but no reason why it should pass in its present form. The present bill, Mr. G. said, was grounded upon the principle that the President of the United States shall have the power to do by proclamation what ought only to be done by law.
In the first place, the Proclamation of the President is to determine the period when foreigners not naturalized shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. Mr. G. understood what was meant by apprehending alien enemies, and securing them, but he did not understand the word "restraining;" it was vague, he said, in its nature, and he did not know that it was a legal phrase. The committee could themselves explain it. By the bill from the Senate, it was intended to confine them within the place where they reside; perhaps this was their idea. The bill goes further: they are not only liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed, but "to be subject, with their goods and effects, to a just retaliation of any unusual severities, restraints, and confiscations, which shall be suffered by the citizens of the United States resident within the territory of the hostile nation or Government, and inflicted by their authority."
Mr. G. wished to have explained what was meant by "unusual severities." They must mean something more than confiscations—than apprehending, restraining, or removing—because they are specifically provided for. He wished, therefore, to know what these unusual severities were which, upon our own ideas of Government, we could retaliate? If any other severities besides those which are here enumerated were to be inflicted upon our citizens in France, he thought it would be disgraceful to that country, and he could not believe that either propriety or justice would warrant us committing a disgraceful act against the citizens of another nation, because that nation had committed a disgraceful act upon our citizens in their country.