Then the Secretary shall read the resolutions of the Senate, passed the 20th instant, with the preamble; after which the President is to proceed as follows, viz:
1st. Have you any thing to say in excuse or extenuation for said publication?
2dly. If he shall make no answer, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall take him into custody, and retire with him from the Senate Chamber until the Senate shall be ready for a decision, at which time the Sergeant-at-Arms shall again set him at the bar of the House, and the President of the Senate is to pronounce to him the decision.
3dly. If he shall answer, he is to continue at the bar of the House until the testimony (if any be adduced) shall be closed, and he shall retire while the Senate are deliberating on the case; and when a decision is agreed upon, the said Duane, being notified of the time by the Sergeant-at-Arms, verbally, or by a written notice left at his office, shall appear at the bar of the House, and the President of the Senate is to pronounce to him the decision.
Monday, March 24.
The Vice President communicated a letter, signed William Duane, requesting to be heard by counsel, and have process awarded to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, on the summons served on him the 22d inst., for a high breach of the privileges of the Senate; which letter was read.
A motion was made that William Duane be permitted to be heard by counsel, agreeably to his request; and, after debate, the said William Duane appeared at the bar of the House, agreeably to the summons of the 22d instant; a return thereon having been made in the words following:
City of Philadelphia, March 21, 1800.
Then I, the subscriber, Sergeant-at-Arms for the Senate of the United States, left a true and attested copy of the within at the office of the Aurora.
JAMES MATHERS.