United States oracle and Portsmouth advertiser — Portsmouth, N.H., 1802-06-12 00:00:00, page 1

SPEECH, info,port of his motion to re
commit the Report oj the Instigating
Committee.
1 WOULD pot make 'this motion,
if I did not fee a variety of Ratements #
in the report that may make an impief
fion on the public mind, which iadfs
will not warrant. 1 mean not to im
plicate the conduct of the committee
who made this report; but when iUhall
be reviewed, I am persuaded it will be
found to be calculated to make an im
pression that fads do not juftify. It
is not my intention to go into a full
difeuffion of the report, but barely to
notice fomc of those prominent features
whicli I conceive likely to mislead.
The firft relates to the removal of
the public officers from the feat of gov
erment at Philadelphia to this place.
The committee fay the expenditure of
money made on this occasion was not
warranted by law ; they fay that the
only legal provision made w@s by the
a& of 1790 that authorifed the removal
in 1800. But the true question is, were
these accounts fettled by the account
ing officers of the treasury, who had
the right to fettle them ; and whether
that settlement was correct or not, it
is not in the power of the legislature to
revise it. Those officers thought it was
impossible to remove the office without
also removing the officers. I think,
therefore, the committee ought to have
Rated that these accounts had been fet
tled by the accounting officers of the
treasury, who were authorifed by law
to fettle them.
The report contains a long Ratement
refpeding unaccounted balances in the
war & navy departments; aid chough
it may not follow by necessary inference
yet the report may induce the belief
that three millions in the war, and four
millions in tire navy department have
been expended, that are not warranted
by law,'and which have not been appli. °
ed to public pmpofes. The sass is di
r^ly the reverse. No account is fettled
uutila voucher is produced. The con
feq cnce is that the whole cliarge lies
againß the individual cilfhe brings in
h?s vouchers, for the last cent. In con
sequence of this mode of tranfading
business, these large hums remain open
on the books, when in fad very little
remains.unaccounted for. The report
states that in the navy department four
millions are unaccounted for or unsett
led. On enquiry, we were informed
by the accounting officer of the navy,
that vouchers had been sent forward to
the amount of two millions five hun
dred thousand dollars of this fam ; he
furfter Rated, that on winding up the
accounts there was not more than ten
thousand dollars due by persons who
had failed. Now, I Submit it to the
house, whether under these faffs it was
proper to fend in such a report, when
vouchers had been received for all but
500,000 dollars, and but to,ooodollars
appeared to have been loft. I can have
no idea that it was the intention of the
committee to mislead the public, but
such may be the efFea.
Further: So far as the committee
were able to examine, there was less loss
in the navy and war departments, by
public money going into the hands of
individuals who had failed, than could
have been expected ; and I believe that
few mercantile houses whose tranfaftions
amounted to thirty millions have loft
so little. For the purpose of placing
these tranfadtions on a true footing, I
move a re-commitment of the report.
&e committee could have had no in
mention to suppress fads, and th%will
undoubtedly agree, on recommitment
to add these fa&s. $
Further : The committee fay there
has been a misapplication^ of public
monef in the purchase of fix sites for
^iravy yards. This purchase was made
4n&r the old administration ; and
was made under the old secretary of
the Navy. He was written to by the
committee. He answered the enquiries
made. It was required by the minori
ty of the committee, which was divid
ed on many points four to three, to an
nex this letter to the report ; but the
majority refufed to annex it, I wifL
therefore the report to be recommitted,
when I will move an inßruaion to the
committee to annex that letter to their
report, that the public may judge
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whether the former Secretary of the
Navy has not Satisfactorily explained
the grounds on which he aded.
These naval sites were purchased sh
consequence of an appropriation made
by law ; the appropriation was for
budding fix seventy-sours. The secre
tary Rates that it was necessary to pro
cure navy y^ds in which to SUM the
seventy-sours. It is certain that Ships
cannot be built in the air or on the wa
ter. The yards must therefore have
been either purchased or hired. He
Rated the fiift to have been the mod
economical course, rand I think he was
fully juftified in taking it. We, who
were in the minority, thought that jus
tice required a Ratement of this expla
nation ; but the majority refufed to
annex the letter, and the report comes
naked before us.
There ate other things which should
have been imticed. Much is said re
fpe&ing the account of Mr. Tracy.—
It is said, that he received at the fame
time compensation as a Senator,and as
a public agent. The committee were
furnifhed from the treafi ry department
with the accou R of Mr. Dawson, with
the expences of his mission. It was re
quired by the minor ty that this case
should be added t> that of Mr. Tracy
—but this was refufed—Mr. Dawson
had been elected a member of this house
—he had been employed by the execu
tive to go to France. Th^glts^cre,
therefore, parallel. Ido not find fault
vith the case of Mr. Dawson, but when
one case was dated, the other ought to
have been also Rated.
Other things ought also to have been
Rated.
At the ] aft fefilcn Messrs. Stone,
'Sheaf and"Muhlenberg, retained their
featsin this House, till the 3d of March.
In virtue of their feats here they receiv
ed compensation for their travel home
and b^ck again, and they also received
at/the famelime compensation for their
travel home and back again as Senators.
This ought to have been Rated—This,
Another case, Rated in the report, is
the buildings eroded near Philadelphia.
The committee fay they cost <50,000
dollars, for which no appropriation had
been made. All the faffs attending
this translation are not Rated. The
fads are that the war department, con
sidering Philadelphia a central pofitiow,
a large sea-port, and considerably in
land, viewed it as a proper Situation for
an arsenal. Before these buildings
were ereded, the public Rotes were
lodged in private buildings, in which
fires might break out, and which were
therefore deemed improper to ' be fixed
in the centre of a large city.— The war
department deemed it proper to have
a good deposit. The former Secretary
of that department went on a large and
liberal plan. That plan may, perhaps,
have been too enlarged. But bethought
that he had a right to take the sum re
quired for this object from the appro
priation made for the quarter master's
department. I think he had the right.
As to the propriety of the extent of the
buildings, I am not competent tojudge,
and with great deference to the com
mittee, I think they are not competent,
to judge. I think that all thefetit-.
cumftaaces should have been disclosed
that the public might have had a full
view ofthe whole tranfa&ion.'
There are other things that ought
to have been noticed in the report. —
The committee Rate, that the late sec
retary of war (Mr. M'Henry) had re
ceived payment out of the contingent
fund of the war department, for a
house rented by him—The committee
ought to have Rated other fads ; they
ought to have Rated that he was Secre
tary of war ; that finding the govern
ment about to remove to this city, he
rented a house in Georgetown, and
that before the removal of the govern
ment, he had been removed. The com
mittee fay, that he resigned; but the
well known fa& is, that he was dismis
sed by a request or order of the Presi
dent, which is the fame thing ; the
committee ought to have Rated, that
in consideration of his difmiffion, he
thought that he ought to be al
lowed his indemnity for the expence
to which he had been put under the
contemplation of remaining in office
after the removal of the government.
Ihefe fails the committee ought to
h.ne mentioned, and have left to the
community to judge on thepropriety of
the meafuie.
th&minority demanded, that this letter
Ikomd be annexed to the report —But
this was refufed by the majority. I
do not doubt the propriety of|
building these stores , but there is no|
explicit appropriation fdr them ; and I,
believe the monies applied to them }
were taken from the appropriation for;
docks. We said that it was wrong in j
a former secretary to take money from
the seventy fours to purchase sites for
building them on, it was equally wrong 1
in the present secretary, to build pub-'
lie (lores without any express appropri
ation. In my opinion, there was no
misapplication of money in either case.
But I think that these cases should go
hand in hand, that the public tyght
fee whether the present admin^hation|
had not gone on the fame ground with"
the old administration. , 0 •
For these reasons, I make ''this mo
tion, to recommit the report, which I
would not make, did I not believe, that
it bears a different afped ffom that in
tended by the majority of the commit
tee ; and though late in the session, if
it' has a tendency to mislead, I think it
ought to be corrected.
ft, fE^XTTE' H - ~rot-La 41
-Extras fiom Mr. RUTLEDGE's
Speech on the repeal of the Judiciary.
r —o—
— electors chosen in the differ
ent states gave the fame number
of votes for Thomas Jefferfon and Aa
ron Burr ; there being a tie it devolv
ed by the direction of the Constitution
upon die House of Representatives to
make an election. We sincerely believ
ed that Mr. Burr was the best and the
most fit man to be President, and we
accordingly voted for him ; we con-,
tinned to vote for him fix and thirty
times ; we were anxious to have him
elected and we deprecated the election
of the other candidate, but when we
found gentlemen were determined not
to have the candidate from New-Yoi k
and said they would have him from
Virginia, President, or they would
have no President, we, who venerated
onr constitution too sacredly to do any
thing which should hazard the loss of
it, yielded. We believed Mr. Jefferfon
radically and on principle hostile to the
national constitution, we believed some
of the moR important features in it ob
noxious to him—we believed him de
sirous of destroying the independence
of our judiciary—we believed him op
posed to the senate as now organized,
and we believed him destitute of that
degree of energy necessary to maintain
the general liberty of the people of the
United States. With these impressions
deep upon our minds, we should have
been traitors to our country had we
voted for the gentleman from Virginia,
as long as there was any profpeft left
to us of elevating the gentleman fiom
New-York ; but when we found the ob
jed of our preference was so obnoxious
to gentlemen on the other fide, that
they would hazard the having of no
president rather than have him, we
ceased our opposition, And this is what
the honourable gentleman from Vir
ginia has been pleased to call “pushing
forward to immolate the constitution "
I regret, Mr. Chairman, being compel
led to mention names & fay any thing
of a personal nature, but I am obliged
to do it in pujfuing thegentleman from
VQginia, who in his cxtradoiinary
course has not only mentioned the
names of gentlemen but ascribed un
worthy motives for their conduct. He
has said Mr. Read and Mr. Greene
voted for the law under which they got
appointments. Although I have a
bundant proof that neither of these gen
tlemen solicited their offices, that they
were given Spontaneously and without
being expected, yet I will merely an
swer this observation by mentioning
what is very generally known to all
too, was under the present administra
tion. I do not Rate these circumßances
to implicate the measures of the present
administration, but to (hew that if One
case is Rated, the others Should also be
Rated. I find fault with the view taken
because it is it perfect ; it ought to
have embiac ! a?" parallel cases.
Another thing ^s,^o have been Rat
ed, and'which the committeewere requi
ed to Rate—the dores recently erected
The secretary of the navy was requir
ed to fay by what authority and from
what fund, these Rores were built. He
by the navy department in this city.—
answered the letter of the committee—
law gentlemen are now endeavoring to
repeal, Mr. Jay was appointed chief
judice, and about the fame time seve
ral gentlemen of this boule were ap
pointed to some of the most honorable
stations under our government —the
executive's intention it is well known
had not been previously notified to them
—it is known they all declined accept
ing the places proffered them. ler
mit me, fir, to give a brief hiftory of
the case of Mr. 'Greene, on which the
gentleman from Virginia lias dwelt so
much.
gentlemen who have been of late in the
councils of the nation ; it is that it
was the invariable practice of the form
er executive to appoint gentlemen to
office without previously advihng witli
them. It is well known that under the
The diftria judge in RhodeJfland
was appointed circuit judge, and Mr.
Greene was appointed district judge.—
On the fourth day ofMarch Mr. Greene
took his feat in the Senate ; the friends
of the administration objected to bis
keeping it ; they said he was a judge,
as appeared by the journals of the Sen
ate ; they here made a complete re
cognization of his appointment as[
judge, and he vacated his feat ; after ;
getting home he received his commif-I
fion/in which the blanks had been fil-;
led witli the words circuit judge, inßead 1
of enftria judge. Mr. Greene enclosed
his comniiftion to the executive in a:
letter mod profoundly refpedful, and I
requested the errors if the clerk inthe;
department of Rate might be corrected, 1
and his commission made to conform
to the appointment, as recorded on the ;
senatorial journal. To this letter which|
was in highly refpeßful terms, the Pre-i
fident would not deign to have any |
answer given; he pocketed Mr.Greene's'
commission and placed another gentle
man in his office—this is a hitlory of
the appointment of Mr. Greene, and
the manner in whicli the President "cor
reded the piocedure." To my friend
from New-York, (Mr. Morris) who
some days pad adverted to the Presi
dent's fydem of persecution, the hon
orable gentleman from Virginia fays
he is so ignorant of the exider.ee of any
such system that he cannot conceive
what is alluded to ; and my friend
from North-Carolina (Mr. Henderson)
who spoke of the deftruaive fpiric
which had' mounted in the' whirlwind
andfapw direds the llorm against one
half erf the community, he charges with
having winged his flight into the re
gions' of fancy—and tells us the spirit
he fees is a mere spirit thin as air, and
without real form or fubllance. Sir,
my honorable friend from N. Carolina
is under no magical delusion ; the ipir
it he noticed is a gigantic spirit, and
with giant's size unites a giant's appe
tite; it attacks the independence of
mind, and violates the right of opinion ;
it establishes a mental tyrranny ; tam
pers with integrity and poisons morals;
it has arranged one half of the com
munity against the other ; it denounces
as a " fra" in our country all those
whom the illustrious Wafnington took
to his confidence and invested with
his favour. It establishes boards of in
quisition to know Bowmen who are in
office voted at ihe last ele^ton, and if
they did not then fubferve the views of
the ruling party they areftript of their
offices. ' Many of the proscribed are
veterans of seventy fix ; they wafted
their youth and their fubdance in fight
ing our revolutionary battles, and as a
fmalt reward for great ferviccs they
had offices given to them by the diilin
guifhed Washington. Moll of those
who had been appointed by him, this
dedroying spirit has turned adrift, and
to those who are not yet dedroyed it
gives so the New-Haven reply) the
promise of Polypheme to Ulysses, and
fays " you thall be devoured lad," —
This is the spirit, fir, against which my
friend from North-Carolina Ims raised
his vwice, and if the honorable gen
tleman from Virginia will appeal to
the wives aiurchildrcn of ninety or a
hundred meritorious men who have
been hurled from office to make way
for those who are willing, without ex
amination, to yield a blind support to
miniderial meafurcs; to frog hozan
nas to the Prefidenty and bend to his
will, as the ozier does to the breeze ;
I fay, fir, ifhe will appeal to the wives
an^children of those gentlemen, who
have been degraded, disgraced, and
reduced to want as far as it was in the
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power of the executive to degrade and
reduce them, they will tell him UA ^
a spirit of fubdance, and not thro .^
air. Fatigued by its labours we 0 w
fee this great spirit reeling on its club ;
it no longer dilpatches its victim, 4,
heretofore by "hatchets, but, as Urenga
and appetite return, proscriptions me
continued though in detail. Since ife'
meeting of Cougreß there have be.ro,
many difmiTals—in the lull week aUy
I heard of that of a meritorious office:
who is an aged and war-worn Soldier
To this gentleman, who had grown
grey in the service ofhis country, gene
ral Washington gave an office which
might cheer the evening of bis days :
the duties of it were difeharged vita
indullry and fidelity. He has been a
ufeful citizen—he has thirteen children
and most of them are daughters, the
oldell has fcarccly numbered 18 years
and the youngest not more than eighc
months. This gentleman has been
placed on the proscribed lift ; not, fir,
because he had been negligent of any
of his duties, but because some of those
hands which (as it has been modellly
said) burst open the doors of honor &
confidence, were widely Wretched out
for rewards ; to give them loaves and
fillies they,have been taken fiom the
Support of this numerous and lovely
family. Sir, there not only exists, as
my fried from North-Carolina tells us
a great and deßroying spirit, but there
are also subordinate Spirits employed
in this goodly work of profcription—
the matter spirit, unable to take a view
of the whole ground, has its under
Spirits ; these minor Spirits, within the
Spheres of their refpeclive departments,
are frogling out objects of executive
vengeance. By some of the papers
which lie before me on my desk, I fee
the Poßmaßer-General is bufil, em
ployed ; every pollmaßer and every
little deputy poftmalter, who cannot
prove his claims to executive favor by
proofs of Conformity to the orthodox
faith of the day, is considered as a here
tic. In the persecution by the Pofc
master-General of those who are not
devoted to the party, I observe some.
thing truly ridiculous. Thinking, I
suppose, that public opinion would de
mand some juflification of this conduct,
he undertakes to assign reasons for it.
I observe in the paper of this morning
the Postmaster-general has removed
one of his deputies at Augulla in Geor
gia and makes a fore of an apology for
it. He tells the man it is because he
is a printer and the occupations are in
compatible. This gentleman writes to
him that he is not a printer and that
ne never was concerned diredly nor in
diredly in the publishing of a paper.
It seems then the Poßmaßer-General
was mistaken, but the deputy loft his
office. This leffeu will prevent future
explanations probably by the Postmas
ter-General. it will be more conveni
ent for him to wrap himfeli up in exe
cutive infallibility and infill " i'he king
can do no wrong." The gentleman
from Virginia has noticed the sedition
ad and fays, the present executive re
quires no such foield for his protection;
that he wants no artificial means of de
fence ; yet in the very fame breath we
hear the gentleman complaining of de
famatory Scribblers, and of the profli
gacy of our preties. It does not be
come the honorurable gentleman to
complain of the public prints. It is
well recolleded that when heretofore
we endeavored to check the licewiout
nefs of the press, he aid his friends i:•
titled that its licentioulmfs and liberty
were so closely allied tl%ttlhould we
attempt to touch this vein we would
run the hazard of giving a mortal
wound to the great arteries of the body
politic. This was formerly the lan
guage of gofylemeu wh^ are now it
seems Suffering from the effects of their
pad policy : they are now experiencing
wh^t they might have learned from a
good old book, "That who feweth the
wind will reap the whirlwind." it did
not becort them (to use pur Savioui s
exprefliofi) “ to call the tirß Hone."
I Rial! here, fir, elofe my observations
in answer to those offered by the gentle
man of Virginia, to whom 1 nave hap
occasion to refer '° often; permit me
however, before taking my leave (f
him to exprefsmy Sorrow il%he deem
ed it neccifary in ranging the wild field
he occupied to visit Mount v einon,and
attempt to ditlurb the allies of our po
litical father. This ikcumßupce was