The prosecution was for an alleged breach of the neutrality laws, in fitting out a vessel from New York against a Power with whom the United States were at peace, to wit, the King of Spain. The vessel was the Leander, and built for General Miranda, then engaged in his South American expedition. The implications of the Executive Government which the memorials charged, were voted, by the House of Representatives, to be unsupported and reprehensible, and ordered to be returned to the parties from whom they came. The following was the resolve, adopted nearly unanimously, on the motion of Mr. Early:
Resolved, That the charges contained in the memorials of S. G. Ogden and William Smith are, in the opinion of this House, unsupported by any evidence which, in the least degree, criminates the Executive Government of this country; that the said memorials appear to have been presented at a time and under circumstances insidiously calculated to excite unjust suspicions in the minds of the good people of this nation against the existing Administration of the General Government, and that it would be highly improper in this House to take any step which might influence or prejudice a cause now pending in a legal tribunal of the United States. Therefore, Resolved, That the said memorials be by the Clerk of this House returned to those from whom they came.
[32] The constitutional power of Congress to prohibit the importation of slaves into States, did not accrue till the year 1808; but Territories not being States, the constitutional prohibition had no application to them.
[33] This was the public commencement of Mr. Randolph’s separation from the Administration of Mr. Jefferson; but his dissatisfaction had begun before, at the retention of Mr. Granger, Postmaster-General, in the Cabinet, after it was known that he was the agent of the New England Mississippi Land Company.
[34] Since the statute of 13th William the Third, the British Judges are removable upon the joint address of the two Houses of Parliament, notwithstanding they are commissioned, since that statute, during good behaviour—quamdiu se bene gesserint. Before that time they were commissioned during the royal pleasure—durante bene placito: and it was usual, during profligate reigns, when convictions of obnoxious persons were required, to remove such of the judges as could not be relied on, and appoint a subservient set in their place. The act of William the Third made them independent of the King, but not of the Parliament representing the country. Their independence of the crown was completed by the statute 1 George III., which prevented the vacation of their commissions on the demise of the sovereign.
[35] This is the true view of the constitution, and of our policy, and the motive to the confederation of 1778, and to Union of 1787. Defence was the object, and the policy—so declared in the instruments of confederation and of Union, and so proclaimed by every consideration of policy. And for defence, the United States are the strongest power in the world. Her railroads in a few days would place a million of volunteers, if needed, on any point of land attack: her privateers would clear the seas of the enemy’s commerce. And these two great means of defence would be as cheap as effective; superseding the old expensive policy of “preparing for war in time of peace.”
[36] The practice of pronouncing funeral eulogiums over deceased members had not been yet adopted. Attending the funeral, and wearing the badge of mourning, were deemed the adequate honor; and well worthy was General James Jackson of it. He was a man of marked character, high principle, and strong temperament—honest, patriotic, brave—hating tyranny, oppression, and meanness in every form; the bold denouncer of crime in high as well as in low places; a ready speaker, and as ready with his pistol as his tongue, and involved in many duels on account of his hot opposition to criminal measures. The defeat of the Yazoo fraud was the most signal act of his legislative life, for which he paid the penalty of his life—dying of wounds received in the last of the many duels which his undaunted attacks upon that measure brought upon him.
[37] The item for contingent expenses of the Navy, comprises commissions to agents to foreign countries and in the United States, officers’ travelling expenses, expense of conveying seamen from one port to another, as for instance where seamen are entered in Philadelphia or Baltimore to join a vessel fitting out at Washington, the expense of nautical instruments, such as compasses, quadrants, spy-glasses, &c., charts, books, models, drawings, signals, lanterns, oil, candles, clamps, fuel, hammocks, trumpets, glass, cisterns, cases, mess kids, axes, gridirons, tea kettles, galleys, shovels, tongs, charcoal, sulphur, saltpetre, fire engines, fire buckets, bread bags, and an infinite variety of other such articles, not expressly provided by law.
[38] Two frigates.
[39] The item for ordnance comprises cannon, carronades, swivels, blunderbusses, muskets, pistols, swords, boarding-pikes, cutlasses, cannon ball of every description, musket and pistol ball, cannon, musket, pistol and priming powder, powder horns, priming horns, flannel and paper cartridges, cartridge boxes, slow match, lint stocks, worms, rammers, sponges, wads, gun-locks, screw-drivers, flints, cartridge thread, &c.