Wednesday, April 6.
The President communicated a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, respecting roads and canals, prepared in obedience to the resolution of the Senate, of the 2d of March, 1807; which was read.
Case of John Smith.
The Senate resumed the consideration of the first report of the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of John Smith, a Senator from the State of Ohio, as an alleged associate of Aaron Burr.
Mr. Smith attended, together with Messrs. Robert Goodloe Harper and Francis S. Key, counsel on his behalf.
Messrs. Russell and Gardenier, Representatives from New York, were examined as to the credibility of several of the deponents on the part of Mr. Smith.
Mr. Harper then rose and addressed the Senate, first, in a legal argument sustaining the views of his associate counsel; and then proceeded:
If, therefore, Mr. President, we had no defence, or only a weak one, on the facts in the case, I should insist that this prosecution, being for an offence cognizable by indictment, and resting on evidence which the law excludes, ought to be dismissed. Standing, however, as my client does, strong on the facts; holding in my hand abundant proof of his innocence, I shall by no means rest his defence on this legal ground, impregnable as I deem it; but having entered in his name, and in my own, as one of the American people, this protest against a proceeding which I regard as a violation of our constitutional privileges, I now proceed to investigate the evidence adduced in support of the charges against Mr. Smith, and to contrast it with that whereby his innocence is completely established.
I am to premise that the charge against Mr. Smith is, that he was connected with Colonel Burr in the late conspiracy. This connection is alleged as the sole ground of expulsion; and it is attempted to be proved in various ways.
1. By the conversation stated by Elias Glover and McFarland.