[41] The House was in Committee of the Whole, but still the speakers were held to the point, and hence the force and brevity, and instructive character of these early debates.
[42] It was not the custom then to adjourn the Houses to attend the funeral of a member. The burial took place before, or after, the day's session.
[43] In our service the time has been stated at much less—at every eight or ten years.
[44] The following extract from the celebrated report and resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, in the year 1799, speak the sentiments of the democratic party of that day on the subject of a Navy: "With respect to the Navy, it may be proper to remind you that whatever may be the proposed object, or whatever may be the prospect of temporary advantages resulting therefrom, it is demonstrated by the experience of all nations who have ventured far into naval policy, that such prospect is ultimately delusive; and that a navy has ever in practice been known more as an instrument of power, a source of expense, and an occasion of collisions and wars with other nations, than as an instrument of defence, of economy, or of protection to commerce." And among the resolutions then adopted, she instructs her Representatives and requests her Senators as follows: "To prevent any augmentation of the navy, and to promote any proposition for reducing it within the narrowest limits compatible with the protection of the sea-coasts, ports and harbors of the United States, and of consequence a proportionate reduction of the taxes."
[45] These assurances were given by the same Directory, and through the same Minister of Foreign Affairs, (Talleyrand,) who had refused to receive Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall; and, on receiving these assurances, another extraordinary mission of three eminent citizens was appointed to proceed to Paris. They were: Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; William Richardson Davie, late Governor of the State of North Carolina; and William Vans Murray, U. S. Minister Resident at the Hague. Before they arrived at Paris, the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire had occurred—the Directorial Government overturned, the Consulate established, and Buonaparte at the head of affairs. He retained Talleyrand in the Foreign Ministry, and that astute and supple character conformed as readily to the policy of the First Consul, (peace with the United States,) as he had complied with the contrary policy of the Directory.
[46] The allusions were to Mr. Jay and Mr. Ellsworth, appointed to foreign embassies while chief Justices—the former by President Washington, the latter by President John Adams.
[47] This was the famous Judiciary act, passed in the last days of Mr. Adams' administration, and increasing the number of federal judges, which gave so much dissatisfaction at the time, and which was repealed in the beginning of Mr. Jefferson's administration.
[48] The prints referred to by Mr. Trumbull, in his letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, are, first, a representation of the Battle of Quebec, and death of General Montgomery; second, the Battle of Bunker's Hill—both elegant engravings. They are placed on the right and left of the Speaker's chair, and are highly ornamental to the Representatives' Chamber.
[49] This was a skilful movement, and a fair one. It shifted the onus from the friends to the opponents of the President; and besides giving them the advantage of the defensive, impeded the supporters of Mr. Livingston's motion with preliminary and extrinsic questions from the start. It was a great party question in its day, and before the people chiefly turned upon the point that Robbins was an American citizen, while in Congress that point was given up, and the debate turned upon the legal right of the President to advise the judge to give up the man, and especially to giving him up without trying his claim to American citizenship. Though made, in the main, a party question, it was not entirely so in the vote, many of the democracy voting with the federal members in justification of Mr. Adams. It was in this debate that the (afterwards) Chief Justice Marshall made the speech which gained him so much fame.
[50] This speech is not reported.