The House having agreed to consider the report,
Mr. J. Randolph called for the taking the yeas and nays on the question of concurrence.
Mr. Clark moved a postponement of the consideration of the report to the third Monday of March, merely with the view of making it give place to more important business, which he said must be attended to. He said he had voted against the resolution, not because he was inimical to the principle involved in it. With a small modification, he should be in favor of it; and he hoped the period was not distant when, with such a modification, it would become a part of the constitution.
Mr. J. Randolph hoped a postponement to so distant a day would not prevail. He was himself desirous that it should be postponed for a few days, in order to give notice to the House, that there might be a full vote on what he considered a most important measure. He appeared in this instance, as in many others, to be in a state of profound error. The amendment, or deterioration of the constitution, he had always considered to be a point of the greatest importance. But now, judging by the opinions of gentlemen, it seemed to be of lesser importance than the laying a duty of one or two per cent., to continue but for two or three years. It has, said Mr. R., been a subject of extreme concern to me, though not myself able to attend to the public business, to find, on inquiring daily of my colleagues, that the House has refused to do any business, because on a future day they expected some important business to come before them. I understand that a very important resolution of a gentleman from Pennsylvania, on a business so generally denominated the Yazoo as to require no other name, was postponed on the same ground that my colleague now wishes the resolution under consideration postponed. If there is such important business to transact, in God’s name, why not progress in it? But notwithstanding this immensely important business, which serves as an excuse for doing nothing, we make no progress in it, if by it I am to understand the state of our foreign relations. I have no wish, nor do I intend to allude to any thing which passed while we were sitting in conclave. But I did hope, when one or two members, who were represented as the only hindrances to the despatch of business, were withdrawn from the House for one or two weeks, every thing would have been completed. I expected the adoption of very different measures towards Great Britain. Instead of this, I find nothing done. And now, when an amendment to the constitution is brought forward, which is allowed to be very important, and when the resolution of the gentleman from Pennsylvania is called up, we are told by gentlemen, we cannot attend to these subjects; there is important business which we expect to have at some future day before us, and therefore we are determined in the interim to do nothing.
One word as to the remark of the gentleman on my left, (Mr. Conrad.) He belongs to a class of men which I highly respect, for the plain reason that I belong to it myself. He says, the time is approaching when every man engaged in agricultural pursuits must be anxious to go home, and therefore he does not wish at present to act on the resolution I have laid on your table. True; but when men, be they agricultural, mechanical, or of any other profession, undertake any business, it is their duty to go through with it at every hazard. I do not know a man in the House who has suffered more than the individual who now addresses you by his attendance here, and if I could have found an apology in my own mind, I should long since have been gone. If the situation of affairs warranted it, I should be willing to adjourn for two or three months. But I never can agree to adjourn in the present perilous state of affairs, and leave the country to a blind and fortuitous destiny. I must first see something like land, some foot-hold, something like certainty, instead of a political chaos, without form or body. Before I consent to go home, I must see something like a safe and honorable issue to our differences with foreign powers; and I must see, I hope, another thing—something like an attempt to bring the constitution of this people back to the principles on which this Administration came into power.[33] I take this proposition, and that of the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. Nicholson,) to be two important means of bringing that Administration back to those principles. My friend from Virginia says, he expects, at a future period, to obtain this reform. I fear, if delay be permitted, that we shall get into the situation of another deliberative assembly, of which every member agrees that reform is necessary, but that the present is not the accepted time. I am afraid that we are in this situation already. I believe it, because I see it. It is a most fortunate circumstance that we made hay while the sun shone; that we got in the harvest at the first session of the seventh Congress; that we did away the midnight judiciary and the internal taxes. If those institutions were now standing, I believe they would be as impregnable as any part of the system around which gentlemen affect to rally. I believe it, because I believe appointments would have their effect. Yes, it is but too true, that patriots, in opposition, are as apt to become courtiers in power, as courtiers in power are fond of becoming patriots in opposition. So far, then, from wishing to postpone this measure, I believe that delay will only serve to enhance the difficulty of obtaining it. It is a maxim laid down by every man that has written on national policy, that those abuses which are left untouched in the period of a revolution, are sanctified by time, and remain as the nest-eggs of future corruption, until they compel a nation, either to sweep them away, or to sink beneath them. This, without any exception, is the history of all corruptions; and those corruptions and abuses not reformed at the first session of the seventh Congress, what has become of them? Have they been suffered to sleep? If they have, is it not to be apprehended that they will rise refreshed from their slumbers with gigantic strength? Fortunate it was that, at the first session of the seventh Congress the midnight judiciary and the internal taxes were done away; and it would likewise have been fortunate, if another measure had been attended to at the same time. It would have been, in my firm persuasion, very different in its issue from that which it has been. If the great culprit, whose judicial crimes or incapacity had called for legislative punishment under the constitution, and which have given rise to the motion now before us, had been accused at the first session of the seventh Congress, that accusation would have had a very different issue. And why? Because it is perfectly immaterial what a man’s crimes are—every day that elapses between their commission and the time he is called to answer, lessens the detestation and horror felt for them, and, of course, enhances the value of his chance of an escape from punishment. I am persuaded that, in the remarks I have offered, I have been hurried into some observations that do not strictly belong to it. Yet these remarks furnish a sound reason for not deferring the proposition until the time moved by my colleague. I hope, therefore, the House will reject the postponement until the third Monday of March, and that a postponement will take place to some time when the House shall be fuller, when a decision can be made after mature reflection. For, truly, as to the provision under the constitution, can any man be so mad or foolish as to think of again trying it? I consider the decision of the last session as having established this principle—that an officer of the United States may act in as corrupt a manner as he pleases, without there being any constitutional provision to call him to an account.
Mr. Gregg.—I feel but little concerned as to the fate of this motion. I am ready at any time to give my vote on the resolution. As it now stands, I shall vote against it; but modified, as I have seen it in the hands of a gentleman from Virginia, I shall vote for it. But my principal reason for rising, is to say that a great part of the censure cast on the House by the gentleman from Virginia for not meeting the national business, is proper and applicable; and I regret that it is so. But if the gentleman reflects on the subject, he will acknowledge that a great part of the delay which has occurred, attaches to himself. I, four weeks ago, submitted a resolution to the House on some points of dispute between one of the belligerent nations and the United States; I was anxious that it should be taken up and promptly decided, one way or another. The gentleman from Virginia then called for certain statements from the Treasury, which he considered as having a bearing on the subject. Under that impression the consideration of the resolution was deferred from day to day; and the statements have not yet been received. I stated, at the time, that these statements could have no influence on my vote; but other gentlemen said, they would influence theirs. I regret that we have not been able to go on with this business. I do not know how long we are to be kept in this paralytic state. If the gentleman who has called for the statements, and other gentlemen will agree, I am prepared at once to go into an examination of the subject. But, as the gentleman from Virginia was the first to embark the House in this call, I hope he will take a part of the censure to himself.
Mr. Smilie.—I am sorry the motion of postponement has been made. I do not know any other time better than the present for the discussion of this subject. It is a subject of the last importance to the peace and happiness of the United States. I am a friend to an amendment of the constitution relative to the Judiciary Department. Whether that offered is the best that can be made, or whether it is going too far, I cannot determine until the subject shall have been investigated in this House. For my part, I am so sensible that that part of the constitution which relates to the power of impeachment is a nullity, that I see the utmost necessity for an amendment. From what we have seen, I do religiously believe that we cannot convict any man on an impeachment. The resolution before you goes to place the Judges of the United States on the same independent footing with those of Great Britain. Whether our situation requires that they should stand upon higher ground, is a proper subject for discussion. I am rather inclined to think they ought not.[34] It is contended, it is true, that, as they have, according to the opinion of some gentlemen, the right of sitting in judgment on our laws, they ought to be placed beyond the reach of a majority of Congress. This subject must, at some time or other, be considered, and some amendment in the constitution must take place. When the delays and various vexations, attendant on an impeachment, are considered, it will be evident that they will generally discourage the House from taking this step; and when it is likewise considered that a conviction can only take place on the votes of two-thirds of the Senate, let gentlemen say whether there is any chance of making the constitutional provision effectual. I despair of it. With regard to the particular modification which may be given to this resolution, that is another thing. I sincerely wish the House would take it up and consider it without any great delay.
Mr. Clark.—I hope my colleague will do me the justice to believe that I have not made this motion from hostility to his resolution. With a small modification, I am decidedly for it. I assure him it did not require the remarks he has made to-day, to show the insufficiency of the present system. Of that I had satisfactory proof the last year. But I doubt whether the resolution, in its present state, is correct. I do hope that my colleague will give it a little more consideration, and I assure him I shall be happy to harmonize with him. In the decision by a mere majority, the scales of justice are so near an equilibrium, that it is doubtful often to which side justice inclines. I, therefore, think there ought to be some modification of the principle contained in the resolution. But I principally wish the postponement to prevail, that the House may act on resolutions which I conceive all-important to the whole country, and peculiarly so to that part of the community represented by my colleague and myself. Every day’s delay increases the difficulty and urges on the ruin that menaces them. It is well known that there is not the best harmony between the merchants and planters. It is at all times the interest of the former to buy produce as cheap as they can, and never was there a better scheme for speculation to them than that furnished by the resolutions on our table. How easy it is for them to convince the planter that there will be a suppression of intercourse, and that his produce will be soon worth nothing. These are the effects that I wish to prevent. My colleague will do me the justice to believe that I have had no hand in the procrastination. I have offered no project. With regard to the proposed amendment to the constitution, I repeat it, I am in favor of it, with a small modification. Nor do I wish it postponed for any great length of time. I have no idea of leaving that to be done by our children which we ought to do ourselves.
Mr. Findlay said he was against the indefinite postponement of the subject, though in favor of its being postponed a short time. He thought it was a subject which ought to be fully investigated. He was decidedly in favor of the object of the resolution, but in a different form.