The Mirror — Concord, N.H., 1798-03-06 00:00:00, page 2

The Legislature of Vermont
were in session at that place— Mr.
Lyon attended at a member, I at.
tended on bufineft.—The house
of Reprefencativer requested me,
though not a member, to examine
and report my opinion concern
ing certain debts due from per
foni whole effaces had been coofif
cated —I had made a report ac
cordingly, at some part of which
Mr. Lyon took offence. One
morning Mr. Lyon called at Mr.
Bradley's room, in which I was
then doing bufinek. No petfon
was in the room but Mr. Bradley,
Mr. Lyon and myfelf. Mr. Brad
ley and I fat writing at opposite
fidei of a table. Mr. Lyon took
a feat by the table at the fide of
Mr. Bradley, and entered into con
versation upon the fubje6t of the
report abovementioned. — He soon
dilcovered himfelf to be somewhat
irritated, and in a very rude and
pointed manner decla ed that no
man who had a spark of honesty
could have reported as I had done.
Attacked in this rude manner, I
retorted, in a passion, that he was
an ignorant Itifh puppy. Mr. Ly
on rose in a violent passion, grasp
ed at my hair, that was turned
back 'with a comb, which he
broke in the grafp—lwas at that
moment mending a pen—l in
stantly rose, intending to revenge
the infelt with the knife in my
hand ; but Mr. Bradley had Mr.
Lyon from behind, round the
arms, and drew him back a little,
upon which Mr. Lyon, bearing
bimfelf in Mr. Bradley's arm^
threw his feet upon the table, to
kick acroft. The awkward ap
pearaoce of Mr. Lyon at this mo
ment, and the grimaces of his
countenance provoked me to§
laugh. 1 droped the penknife,
fezed Mr. Lyon's feet, and, in
this manner, with the help of Mr?
Bradley, who still kept his hold,
carried him across the room, and
laid him on his back in a corner.
—Mr. Bradley and I returned to
our feats, laughing very merrily
at the scene. In the mean time
Mr. Lyon rose from his corner,
stood a ffiort time in apparent ag
itation, and without uttering a
word. At length, he turned up
on his heel, with these expreffioos
—"Damn it,l wil| not be mad"
—forced a laugh, and left the
room. Nothing ever afterwards
puffed between Mr. Lyon arid
myfelf upon this fubjea. I there
fore repeat, that Mr. Lyon's af
fertiou is wholly without founda
tion.
1 sfk pardon for the trouble I
have given the house upon this
business, and am, with refped,
&c.
NATH. CHIPMAN^
The Chairman of the Committee up
on the report of the Committee of
Privileges.
Some petitions of a local nature
and reports of Committees were
attended to ; when the House
wentintq a Committee of the
^hoieun the report of the Com
mittee on Privileges, for expell
ing Mr. Lyon, for gross mifcon-
Gen. Shepard commenced the
debate in favor of expelling the
Vet moot me mber, and exprtffed a
faitote indignation at the iode
ctc, ofchii epaduft , he *e tolj
Mr. Nicholas, agaioft
the report of the Committee—;
Mr. N. in a speech which fills up'
between two and three col
umns, rested his argument, on the
circumstance of the Houle not be
ing in session when the infuic was
offered.)
Mr. Otis said, he was one of
those who had a sincere wish that
the question Before the committee
could have been decided without
debate, and that the world might
not have been informed, that their
could exist a difference of opinion
in coming to a decifioo on this
question. For his own part, he
Should have thought, that the
standard of propriety and of mor
al decency—the finger of senti
ment, would have pointed coca
direct couffe on this occafibn ;
which if it we<e not taken, he was
convinced, when gentlemen were
called to serious refleaion upon it,
they would fee that they had been
instrumental in sealing the infamy
of the national leg fixture ; for the
prefect question, be fiid, was not
a question between the gentleman
from Connecticut and the gentle
man from Vermont, but between
the House of Repreferitacivei and
one of its members, who had brok
en down the barriers of decorum
which it had set up for the govern
meet —it was a question between
the people of the Voiced Sates,
whose sovereignty had been io fult
ed, and the delinquent ; between
the whole Union and the fate of
Connedicut, an integral part of
that Union, against a war of out
rage and indecorum, (bringing
from ungovernable p&ffion. Eve.
ry member was, therefore, called
upon to make one common tffort
to prevent their common infamy.
In considering this queftipp, he
would challenge eoy one to mew
so fhameful an ad of assault and
battery, committed without prov
ocation, at any former period, or
in any country. It, would be in
vain to look to any of the flatci of
Europe, agitated and convoked
as they are, for such an offence. —
No man conversant with the hifto
ty of the Six 'Nations, or with that
of any other Savage Tribe, could
point out an inftanee of outrage,
so monstrous and so abominable.
It was a conduct which could not
be (offered in a brothel, or ina
den of robbers! Every American
heart would grow sick at the reci
tal of it. He did not mean, how
ever, to attempt an aggravation
of the offence ; but it was an e
vent which had deeply affefted
him— he had thought of it by day,
and when on his pillow, he had
not forgot ir< h
What was laid in defence of
the member from Vermont ? No
attempt had been made co jollify
his condud, yet feme gentlemen
had brought forward circumstanc
es of extenuation. What where
they? It was laid some provoca
tion was given, and <that some al
lowance ought to be made on ac
count of the filiation of the
House at the time.
With refpe& to the provoca
tion, he would not now enquire
whether any provocation could
juftify the offence which had been
committed ; but on examination
into fa^i, it would be found that
the provocation ,s on the part o|
.the gentlemen from Vermont, as
: phii was an accufaipn founded in
error, whilst that of the gentleman
from Con. was founded in truth ;
VFTri "/
and that L>on was cashiered and
disgraced (wooden Iwordi from the
trmy was not denied ; whilst what
had been hid with refped to the
Representatives from Connecticut,
anting contrary to the sense of
their conftituerits, was founded in
falfehood. These were charges
made aloud, and which the gen
tleman from Connecticut, if he did
hear them, might have heard as
well as not. ,Aod (ball it be laid,
that members of th,t House who
qutit the comforts of home, the
pleasing society of friends, and
honorable employments, to serve
their country ; shall they be told
that their motives are venal ; that
the, are actuated by a wish to ob ;
tain offices in which they might
starve in splendor, and in which
they might be lbufed with impu.
nicy ? Yet this was laid by the
gentleman from Vermont ; so
that the provocation came from
him, and instead of fetkiog here
for extenuation, nothing but ag
gravation was found.
, With refoea to the fixation of the
House at the time, gentlemen who have
recourse to this circumstance, must fane
tion one or two petitions, viz. that the,
House was not in session, or that the
members of the House were to be pro
leded whilst in certain business, and not
in others. With relped to the House
not being in session, could it b^ said, that
after it had been regularly formed, it
could be dissolved without a vote for the
purpose ? Should it be said that whilst
ibe Speaker was in his chair, members
were fife ; but if he stepped out of it,
club la<w should immediately commence ;
that they wete to be protested on this
fide,and not on that fide the bar ; that
this fide was a fanauarj, but that was a
bear garden ; that in their feats they were
Case, but if they walked out of them they
were liable to be cudgelled ! Surely not ;
these mistakes arose from a mifonder
fandihg of the rules under which theyr
a&ed. They were intended to prevent
offences from being committed ; and was
it not as likely that offences should take
place after the Speaker had left his chair,
as whilst he das in it ! It could hardly be
supposed, that whilst the Speaker was in
his chair, and every member in his feat,
that any violence would happen. It could
not be expetted, that even the member
from Vermont would go and spit in a
mraWsfdct, or knock bitt iron, whilst he
was fitting in his place. It was when
members were outside of the bar, when
they were not under so much restraint as
at ether times, that the rules of the house
were most liable to be infringed ; and
members were ftirely proteaed as much
as if they were in their feats.
/The gentleman from Virginia had
flawed, that a great part of the members
were without the bar of the House ; but
was no refpea doe to those who were
within it ? They were certainly not in
strumental to the diferder.^ Wgld the
people have any confidence in th# Rep
refeatatives, if they had nothing to do
but to go out of the bar tofigbe , This
was a diftinaion which he never exped
ed to have been set op, and it certainly
arose from a prejudiced view of the fub
jed. He believed the American people
had already anticipated their decision,
and it could only be in one way that the
House and the country could be saved
from indelible infamy, , 1
The fame gentleman said, that all the
members might have left the House. If
this had been the case, or it a greater part
had left it, he fuppojed rhe,Speaker would
have said these was not a quorum, and
the befinefs could not have proceeded.—
Mr. & said he did not mean to go into
the fubjed of privileges, tho' he did not,
like the gentleman from Virginia, hate
tbat„or any other fubjed, the difcuffibn
^which was properly before them. He
thought, however, that the condua of
the member from Vermont in faying that
if the members from Conne6{cut were
to vote agaiaft a certain motion, which
was then the order of, the day, they Would
be turned out of their places, was a direct
attempt to control the freedom of de
bate ; the gentleman came reeking from
Conneaicut, where he said he had afeer
tained the fentimehts of the people, and
undertook to intimate and abuse the
members from that state. Was it not
clear that fuclr condua had a tendency
to provoke recrimination? And if it were
i admitted, it n^ft be tf&nt they had
nothing to expeA but <%„j er , blbocftM
and murder.. If gentiewien decided rfe
fonably, they must decide that there nev
er could be a greater outrage than this,
committed with so little provocation.—
,The resolution reported by the commit
tee of privileges was a proper one, and to
agree to it, was the pbly way in which
they could purge the house of its pollu
tion. It this was not done, it could not
be expeded that this would be the last af
v fray which would take place in that as
sembly; if nofdone the people would
lose their confidence ia their representa
tives; and if not done, he, for one,fhould
feel the honor of a feat in that house, as
greatly diminiffied and overshadowed—
as falling, as declining. Indeed, the on
ly fatisfa&ory mode would be, to fend
the member from Vermont back to his
constituents ; which would Shew to the
world, that a conduct like this could ne
ver receive the fandion of the American
• people. If this mode was not adopted,
it would be better for the house to ex
punge its rules, and trust to their own
forbearance foe the observance of order ;
or they had better adjourn, and leave the
public business undone, to have no rules
at all, than to fuffer them to be violated
with impunity.
Mr. Smith; (of Maryland) and Mr.
Gallatin, were opposed to the report ;
and Mr, Rutlege strongly advocated it.
Mr. R. Williams moved as an amend
ment, instead of the words “ be fer tbit
diforderl, behaviour efylled, and insert,
" is highly cenfarabli, and that be be repri
manded by the Speaker in the prejence of the
Heuje, t-
After debate, this amendment was
negatived 52 to 44.
The resolution 'amended as proposed
by Mr- Harper, for expelling Mr. Lyon,
wasthen taken. The Yeas and Nays ,
were as follow :—
} YEAS.— Mfrs. Baer, Bartlett, Bayard,
Brooke) Bullock, Champlin, Cbapman, Coch
ran, Coit, Crack, Dana, Davie, Dennis,
Dent, Evans, A. Fefer, D. Fofler, J. Free
man, Glenn, Goodrich, Gordon, Grove, Har* •
per. Hartley, Hindman, Holmes, Hofaer, Im
lay, Kittera, S. Lyman, Maebir, Matthews,
Morgan, Morris, Otis, Parker, I. Par
ker, Reed, Rutledge, Scburernan, Sewall,
Shepherd, Sinnickfon, Sitgreaves, N. Smith,
Sprague, Thatcher, Thomas, Thompson,. Til
lingbaft, Pan Allen, Wardfwortb —52.
NAYS.— Mfrs. Baldwin, Bard, Ben
ton, Blount, Brent, Bryan, Cabd, T. Clai
borne, W. Claiborne, Clay, Clopton, Daw- -
fen, Elmendorf, Findley, Fowler, „ F;ee
toan, Gallatin, Gillejpie, Gregg, Hanna, Ha
vens, Harri Jon, ,ones, Livingston, Locke,
Macon, M'Clenagban, M'Dowell, Milledge,
New, Nicholas, Skinner, S.Smitb,W.Smith,
'Sprigg, Stanford, Sumpter, A, Trigg, %
T^igg, Pan Cortlandt, Parnum, Venable,
° R. Wiliams-^.
The Speaker then declared the Yeas
to be 52, the Nays 44, and as the Con
stitution requires two thirds of the Mem
bers present so expel a Member, the Re
solution was not agreed to.
FEB, 13.
The meffige yesterday receive
ed from the President of the Uni
ted States, was read as follows :
" Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the Honjo of Reprej entatives,
" In obedience to the law, I
now present to both Houses of
Coogrefs, my annual account of
expenditure from the contingent
feed, during the year 1797, by
which it appears, that on the firft
of January lift, there remained io
the Treasury a balance of 15
thousand four hundred and ninety
four dollars and 24 cents, febjeft
to future dispositions of govern
ment;
"JOHN ADAMS.
" United States, Feb. 1% 1798."
It was ordered to be printed,
APPROPRIATIONS FOR i 798.9 8.
The unfinifhed business was post
poned, to take up the Appropria
tion Bill, which passed to be en
grossed for a third reading.
Mr. Coit moved an intends
menc to the Standing Rules and
Orders, resetting the recon(ider^
aiion of queftion#. Referred at
usual.
gfeb. 14. Mr. Oris reported
on the reitriburfements of mpoie#
advanced ts Coofols fa foreign
parts, Committed for Friday.