☞ Throughout the entire debate on the bill, there was not a word of objection to the bounties and allowances falling with the salt tax.
[46] The motion to “reject” a bill is one of indignity to it. It is equivalent to declaring that it is unworthy of consideration, and therefore to be driven out of the House on learning what it is from the first reading, (which is only for information,) without going to the second reading, which is for consideration.
[47] Only five dissentients, and they both from free and slave States, and dissenting upon matters of detail. So that the prohibition of the trade itself may be considered unanimous.
[48] The bill from the Senate to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus had been rejected in the House, and this movement was for the better securing the privilege in future. Although prospective in its terms and object, the debate upon it was chiefly retrospective, looking back to the arrest of persons in New Orleans as accomplices of Burr; and thus possesses a double interest, as connecting itself with history while discussing a question of the greatest interest to the liberty of the citizen.
[49] This alludes to the early conspiracy to separate Kentucky from the Union, while the Spaniards held the mouth of the Mississippi, and, with it, a check upon the exports of the West. The conspiracy existed—the Spanish Governor General at New Orleans, and some leading citizens of Kentucky, the parties. Spanish money was paid to some of these citizens—some were even stipendiaries, receiving annual sums for their treacherous service to Spain. General Wilkinson had the misfortune to be implicated in this conspiracy, but the proof of it was never made out.
[50] He had been tried at Richmond, Va., (Chief Justice Marshall presiding,) on two indictments—one, for high treason, in levying war against the United States; the other, for a misdemeanor in setting on foot, within the United States, a military expedition against a power with whom the United States were at peace, to wit, Spain; and had been acquitted on both trials, under instructions from the Court. First. That the acts proved under the treason indictment, did not amount to levying war against the United States. Second. That the military expedition against Spain was set on foot in Ohio, and not in Virginia, and therefore not triable in Virginia. Col. Burr was recognized to appear and answer to this charge in Ohio, but forfeited the recognizance, and the United States for many years.
[51] It was dated 29th July.
[52] Joseph Hamilton Daviess, of Kentucky, the able lawyer, brilliant pleader, and ardent patriot, killed at Tippecanoe at the head of a night charge upon the Indians.
[53] Yeas.—Messrs. Adams, Anderson, Bradley, Breckenridge, Brown, Cocke, Condit, Dayton, Gaillard, Jackson, Mitchill, Moore, Smith of Maryland, Smith of New York, Smith of Ohio, Smith of Vermont, White, and Wright—18.
Nays.—Messrs. Baldwin, Ellery, Franklin, Hillhouse, Howland, Logan, Maclay, Olcott, Pickering, Plumer, Stone, Sumter, and Worthington—13.