The Republican ledger — Portsmouth, N.H., 1800-03-12 00:00:00, page 2

the cate of Thomas Nafh,otherwife Jonathan Rob
bins, to a committee of the whole boule, and as
another refutation proposed by Mr. Bayard there
upon had been dilpgfed of, the amount of which
resolution was an approbation of the conduit of
the Executive in his proceeding on that fubjeft,
prupofed the following resolutions.
Resolved, That it appears to the House, that a
person, calling himfeif Jonathan Robbins, and
claiming to be'a citizen of the United States, im
pressed on board a British (hip of war, was com
mitted* for trial in one of the courts of the United
States for the alledged crime of piracy and mur
der, committed on the high seas, on board the
British frigate Hermoine. That a requisition be
ing fubfeqnent to such commitment, made by the
BritiSh minister to the executive of the U. States
for the delivery of the laid perfon(under the name
of Thomas Na(h) as a fugitive under the 27th ar
ticle of the treaty with Great-Britain. The Fie
fident of the United Statesdid, by a letter written
from the department of State to the ,dge who
.committed the laid person for trial, officially, de
clare his opinion to-the said Judge that he “ con
sidered an offence committed on board a public
fllip of war on the high seas to have been commit
ted within the jurifdiltion of the nation to whom
the (hip belongs," and in consequence of fucli 0-
pinien and instruction did advise and requell the
laid judge to deliver up the person so claimed to
the agent of Great-Britain, who Should appear to
receive him, provided only that the Stipulated
evidence of his criminality Should be produced.-—
That in compliance with such advice and request
of the President of the United States, the laid per-'
son so committed for trial, was by the Judge of
the diftritt of South Carolina, Without any pre-
Tentment or trial by jury, or any investigation 0
his claim to be a citizen of the United States, de
livered up to an officer of his Britannic Majesty,
and afterwards tried by a court martial and exe
cuted on a charge of mutiny and murder. #
Resolved, That inasmuch as the Constitution of
the U. S. declares that Judiciary power Shall ex
tend to all queflions, arising under the constitution
laws & treaties of the U.S. and to all cases of admi
ralty & maritimejurifdiltion,and allo that the trial
of all crimes (except in cases of impeachment)
(hall be by jury ; and such trial fliall be held in the
State where such crime drill have been committed,
but when not committed within any slate, then,
at such place or places as Congress may by law
, have directed ; and inasmuch as it is directed by
law, thAt the offence of murder committed on the
high seas shall be deemed to be piracy and mur
der, and that “ the trial of all crimes committed
on the high seas, or in any place out of the jurif
diftion of any particular Rate, shall be in the dif
trift where the offender is apprehended, or into
which he may be firtt brought."—! herefore tne
several questions, Whether the adjudged crime of
Piracy and Murder was committed within the ex
clufivejurifdillmn of Great-Britain ; Whether it
Comes within the perview of the said twenty se
venth article; and whether a person Rating that
he was an\A'merican citizen, and had,,committed
the alt of which he was accused in .attempting to
regain his liberty from illegal imprisonment, ought
to be ftlivefed up, without any investigation ot
his claim to citizenfllip, or enquiry into the tact
alledged in his defence —are all matters exclusive
ly of judicial enquiry, as arising from treaties
laws, conftitiitional provisions, and cases ot Admi
ralty and maritime jurisdiction.
That the decision of those questions by the Lre
fident of the United States, againSt the jurisdiction
of the courts of the United States, in a case where
v those courts had already assumed and exer
cised jurifdiltidn ; and his advice and request to
the judge of the diftritt court that the person thus
charged Should be delivered up, provided only,
such evidences of his criminality Should be pro
duced as would justify his ,apprehension and com
mitment for trial, are a dangerous interference 0
the executive with judicial de-ifions ; and that the
compliance with such advice and request on the
part of the judge of the district court ot South-
Carolina, is a facrifice of the conftitutipnal inde
pendence of the judicial power, and exposes the
administration thereof to suspicion and reproach.
The question of reference to a committee of the
whole was taken and carried. Ayes 55.
Sufoenfan of Intercourse. ....
The engrofled bill entitled, "An Act further to ;
suspend the commercial intercourse between theU.
S. and France and the dependencies thereof," was
read, and on the question, '' ihall Miis bill pais ?'
Mr. Randolph called for the yeas and nays.
A long debate ensued on the. Raffing of the bill,
Meflrs. Macon, Eggledoton and Nicholas (poke
again! the palling, and Messrs. Marshall and Gal
latin in favour ofit. Yeas 68, Nays 28.
A meiTage was received from the President of
the United States, informing the House that lie
had this day approved and Signed “ An alt to sus
pend in part an aft to augment the army of the
United States, and for other purpdfes.”
Extract from a Speech of Mr. Erjkine on the Doc
trine of Libel.
THE time may come whenever, man in this
country who thinks it his duty to communicate to
the public his reflections omthe general principles
or temporary occurrences of Government and
Politics, will find it worth while to make himfelf
acquainted with the law of Libels. The heft men
and the belt writers are the most in danger where
the press is morf re trained ; for warmth of heart
and warmthsf didiori however entertaing or be
neficial to the public, are dangerous qualities for
an author to possess under a government jealous ot
investigation ; and though the truth of a fait may
sometime, be proved, who can give in evidence
the truth of an opinion ? Yet from the colli
sion of opinion, has all human improvement
proceeded in metaphyffcs, morals, goVern
• meut and religion. Ihe Reyd. Mr. Loggan, min
ister of the Gospel at Leith, published some years
ago observations,on the long continued trial of
Mr. Hastings, in which it was conceived that the
managers of the impeachment were improperly re a
fle&ed on. On motion,the Attorney General was
directed to prosecute the publisher Mr. Stockdale;
the obnoxious passages were (elected and the book
seller indicted. 1 think my readers will be oblig
ed to me for introducing to them the following
beautiful pa(Tages of forensic eloquence from Mr.
Erlkine's defence on that occasion. _
, ,' EDITOR.,
“ It'only now remains to remind you another
consideration has been Strongly prefled upon you,
and, no doubt, will be insisted on in reply. You
will be told, that the matters which I have been
justifying as legal, and even ff^rious have
therefore hot been made the f>bje& of complaint;
"and that whatever intrinsic merit parts of the book
be supposed or even admitted to
merit can afford no justification to the (elected
passages, some of which, even with the context,
carry the meaning charged by the information,
and which are indecent animadversions on author
ity.
Gentlemen to this I would andver (dill protefl
ing as 1 do again! the application of any one of
the innuendos,) that if you are firmly persuaded of
the singleness and purity of the author's inten
tions, you are not bound to fubjell him to infamy,
because, in the zealous career of a just and ani
mated composition,he happens to have tripped
with his pen into an intemporate f xpreflion in one
or two instances of a long work. If this severe
duty were binding on your conferences, the liber
ty of the press would be an empty found, and
no man could venture to write on any fubjelt,
however pure his purpose, without an Attorney
at one elbow, and a Council at the other.
From minds thus subdued by the terrors of pun
ishment, there could issue no work of genius to
expand the empire of human reason, nor any of
those masterly compositions on the general nature
of government, by whose help the great common
wealths of mankind have founded their eftablilh
ments ; much less any of those ufeful applications
of them to critical conjunctures, by which, from
time to time, our own constitution, by the exer
tion of patriot citizens has been brought back to
its Standard.
Under such terrors, all the great lights qf science
and civilization mull be extinguished ; for men
cannot communicate their free thoughts to one a
nother with a lash held over their heads.
it is the nature of every thing that is great and
ufeful, both in the animate and inanimate world,
to be wild and irregular ; and we mull be con
tented to take them with their alloys which be
long to them, or live without them. Genius breaks
from the fetters of criticism, but its wanderings
are fanllioned by its majesty and wifdpm, when
it advances in its path ; fubjeft it to the critic,
and you tame it into dullness.
#*##*#########*#*####
One word more, Gentleman, and 1 hare done.
Every human tribunal ought to take care to ad
minister justice, as we look hereafter to have jus
tice administered to ourselves. Upon the principle
which the Attorney General prays sentence upon,
my client.—God have mercy upon us. luftead of'
(landing before him in judgement with the hopes
and consolations of Chriltians, we mult call upon
the mountains to cover us ; for which of us can
present for omnifeient examination, a pure,, un
spotted, and faultless course. But 1 humbly ex
pect that the benevolent Author of our being will
judge us as 1 have been pointing out for your ex
ample. Holding up the great volume of our lives
in his hands, and regarded the general scope ot
them; if he difeovers benevolence, charity, and
good will to man beating in the heart, where he
alone can look ; —if he finds that our conduit, tho'
often forced out of the path by our infirmaties, has
been in general well directed ; his all fearthing eye
will assuredly never pursue us into those little'cor
ners of our lives, much less will his juitice felell
them for punishment, without the general context
of our exigence ; by which faults may be some
timesfound to have grown out of virtues, and ve
ry many of our heaviest offences to have been
grafted by human imperfection, upon the best and
kindest of our affections—No, Gentleman, believe
me, this is not the course ot divine justice, or there
is no truth in the gospels of Heaven. If the gen
eral tenor of a man's conduit be such as I have
represented it, he may walk thro' the flwdow of
death, with all his faults about him, with as much
chcertullnefs as in the common paths of Fife ; be
cause he knows, that instead of astern accuser to
expose before the author of his nature those frail
parages, which like the scored matter in the book
before you, chequers the volume of the brightest
and best spent life, his mercy will obfeore them
from the eye of his purity, and our repentance
blot them out forever."
I observed in my lad in the introduftory re
marks to the Quotation to Mr. Erlkine, that it
might soon become necessary even in this country
to underhand something of the doftrine of Libels.
1 might have (aid that the time was now come, for
the Sedition Law of 17'98 has introduced among us
all the principles of the English courts on the fub
je.ft of Libel. We are indeed permitted to give
in evidence here, the truth of any faft advanced,
but opinions on the motives and conduct of our
Rulers (tor that is now the fashionable phrase)
are hill obnoxious, to indictment under that act ;
and,he most ignorant, bigoted and subservient
men' of a diflrift, may be felefted to decide upon
the motives and tendency of the most finished com
pofitiop of the mod elegant writer, the molt pro
found politician, the most worthy and beft-iuten
tioned citizen of the country ; they may find him
guilty of what theycannot understand, and acourt
ofjo/tice appointed by the Prelident whole own
conduct may be the fobjeft of flricture, has the
power of condemnation in fine and imprisonment
for a publication that may be mod praise worthy
in its motives, and moll beneficial in its effects.—
To this date are we now reduced. However ab
surd and injurious to the country the laws of an
influenced majority of Congress may be — however
arbitrary and unconflitutional may be the atts of
a President—any publication that may directly or
indirectly tend to criminate the motives of such
persons, is now pimifhable under that act ; nor can
any writer in future expose the conduft of arbitra
ry power, nor can any citizen speak of it however
notorious, but under tie reasonable apprehension
oflofs of liberty and fofs of property. Much as
this question has been diftuffed, it is impoffiblethat
any reprobation of the tendency of such a law can
be ill timed ; nor do 1 think the public at large
are at th^ moment aware of the mischievous im
portance of it.
1 certainly am afoong those who think that the
Congrcfs had no,right whatever to make any such
Law. The Cpnftitution of the United States pro
hibits them from making any law abridging the
freedom of speech or of the press. Does this law
extensile freedom of speech or of the Press ? E
vidently no. Does it not inflict pains and penal
ties on the use of speech and of the press unknown
before ? Certainly it does. Where is the use of a
constitution if the plain meaning of words is to be
thus rendered useless. I fee no limitation whatev
er of the powers of congress in that conflitution
that may not be explained away quite as eatily.—
One Federal Judge (whole arguments on this oc
cafion have been adopted,)has surprised the legal
world by flaring the common law of England to
be part of the law of the United States ! Altho'
in no part of that confutation i§ there one fylbble
to authorize the adoption of it. But as the case
now stands, whether the law be obligatory or rot
under the Federal conflitutiup, that instrument
has now received a legislative conllroaion, which
however,mifchievous in its tendency, claims the
deference of every good citizen in a free country.
On the Sedition Bill.
till it can te conffitutionally altered—l wish that
alteration to take place : 1 with every future can
didate of congrels may be required to vote against
the continuance of this law : and therefoie I take
the liberty of calling the attention of my readers
to the subject.
Nothing is more certain than that the great bo
dy of the People both north and fouth, in the U
nited States, are very much alike in their maxims
of government, they wish the fame thing, theyfe
gtee as to principles, they are in general found re
publicans, they love the republicanism contained
in their date confutations, ahJ jn the federal con-
Ititution and amendments, as they were universal
ly understood and explained when they were a-,
dopted. ..
Let it be known to them then, and often confi
dered;<hat they all agree as to principles.. —But
they often differ as to falls ; they are so scattered
and so much engaged on other business, that it is
hard to make them under fland how matters of faft
are. To the northward they are told, that in the
southward they all anti federalifls—-that the whole
country is leagued in tub plots, clue-plots, and
schemes to blow up all order, religion and regular
government, and probably then to kill themfelyes,
as there would not be much inducement to live
afterwards. To the southward lihrtlat Tories are
told of the people to the northward—and thus by
the craftof a few defining men, the whole people
both north and and fpulh, are made jealous of
I. Os the numerous objections to this law, the
fir! and prominent objection is, that it has been
enalted in defiance of the plain and obvious mean
ing ofthe words ot the constitution, such a meaning
as a person of common understanding, as the pub
lic for whose benefit it was framed, would cer
tainly put upon it.
2. That it has opened a door for explaining a
way every other part of the conftitu;:on in the
fame manner, should a future congress and presi
dent think it expedient to try the experiment.
3. That a public fait relating to the officers of
government, may be fufficiently notorious to be
believed by all the world, while it may be next
to impossible for a private citizen to adduce Itrict
and legal proofs of it : proofs of this nature mud
in all cases be so difficult and expensive, as to de
ter a prudent man from dating any such fait,
however important to the public in its consequen
ces. In all such cases it ought at lead to have been
left to a jury whether the notoriety of the fait
was fufficent to authorize the writer or speaker to
argue upon it as true.
4. That (till more difficulty attaches to an in
diltment for opinion. Mho can prove an opinion
to be true ? Where is the infallible criterion of
speculative / truth ? How are we to get at truth,
how has it ever been attained, but by free difeuf
fion ? Under this law, 12 ignorant men in one
county may canfe a fellow Citizen to be imprison
ed, for what juries in every other County might
dismiss him with praise ! This is indeed an excellent
foundation for the glorious uncertainty of the law.
But why not combat argument by argument,
sass by fact, opinion by opinion ? Brutality and
ignorance may use the argumentum baculinum
and break a man's head who differs in sentiment;
but surely it does not become the Congress of
“ the molt enlightened nation upon earth," to as
sume those characters, and to punish reasoning by
fine and imprisonment !—
5. That we have adopted by this law, the well
known expedient of all bad governments to pro
tell themhlves. Those who dread invedigation
will prevent it if they can. The iron hand of
power in every despotic government bears hard
upon the patriot author—Fa&ipn, Sedition, Dema
gogue, Anarchy, Diforganizer—thefe are cant
terms in use in every nation whose rulers are ag
grandizing themselves at the expence of the peo
ple. Those who are but slightly read in Europe
an politics know the origin, and the use of these
words ;. and' the insidious purposes to which they
are applied. I have no Icruple to fay that when
ever the partizians of any government bring them
into play, it is high time for the people to enquire
whether there is not some hidden reason for their
introduction. I appeal to the reader whether it
would not have redounded to Mr. Adams's credit,
if when this law had been presented to him for his
fanition, he had replied. “ 1 want no prohibi
tions of inveliigation as to my conduit. Let
my motives be judged of by my actions and their
effelts. When they will no longer bear examina
tion, I shall no longer be worthy of the fituationl
hold. Calumny is a tax which every man high in
office niuft sometimes pay, but truth like gold will
come out unsullied and undiminished from the fire
of difeuffion. Let some future president more
confeious of impropriety than lam, fence round
his public conduct by such a bill as this.—l will
not."
6. Another objection to this bill is, the indeli
cate fixation in which it places most of the par
ties concerned in it. The president and the Con
gress make a law to abridge the freedom of inves
tigating their own public conduit ! a Citizen is
not only prohibited from ascribing any. obvious
motives to them directly, but to fay any thing
that indireltly,, tends to criminate them ! In Gods
name where is the end of this ? What will, or ra
ther what will not amount to a tendency to an in
direct crimination ? I folemly declare that 1 fit
down to write with a single, honest view to the
inftrultion of my fellow citizens on points of im
portance, wherein I may have thought more than
they—to expose the tendency of actions, but to
attain from the imputation of motives because L
cannot look into the heart.—l have examined also
these papers with a legal eye ; but in vain ; I fee
no defence in upright intentions against the ten
dencies of difcullion, and conttruflive criminalty.
1 mull go firaight forward and take my chance.
Again : Suppose an indictment against an au
thor for an indirect attempt to criminate the mo
tives of the President. This comes before Judges
appointed by the President ; the Juries are felelt
ed by the Mar(hall of the Court, who holds his of
fice during pleasure. Add to this the declared,
well known predilection of our present President
for those persons only who approve his measures
and principles ; and his determination as it is un
derstood, to exclude from office all others ; and
then let the public judge whether a bias bot^in the
Court and the jury may not reasonably be appre
hended on such a prosecution ? And whether
there would be much difficulty for legal ingenui
ty to (train the expressions of a well meant, honed
performance, into something like indirect crimi
nality ?
Fellow Citizens however upright the motives
of those, who enacted it, this law seems pregnant
with danger to the public interest and the princi
ples of republican freedom. Think well before
you vote in future for those who were prominent
•in supporting it.
From the Philadelphia Aurora.
each other, wrought-up to hatred, to energetic ^
measures, to tail tor more taxes and burthens laid*
on them, more severe government, more officers,'
more &larie~,more five million loans at 8 per
cent, laws for a landing army of 50.000 men, and
a public debt of a hundred million dollars !
No one thinks these things necessary to govern
himfelt or the part of the country where he lives,
but all are taught to believe they are necessary for
others at a distance ; but if all knew the falls re
fpelting other neighborhoods as well as their own,
they would fee at once that they are much alike,
and that they are coufidered asequally unnecessary
in every part of the country.
They are told that the handing army of 50,000
men which has been provided for by law, and the
loan of five million of dollars at 8 per cent, which
was made last year, and a smaller one whith is to
be made this year, are ueceffary to guard this
country against a foreign imafion.
There is not at the present time a more impor
tant political truth to be impressed on the mind
of every honest man than this, that there is no
difference in the great mass of the people in this
country as to the principles; that all the appear
ances of difference, which have so much diffracted
and burdened the country, arise from their being
imposed upon as to fails. The lawyers fay mat
ters of fait are always to be fettled by a jury.—
Let every man donfider himfeif a juryman, and
after a proper examination of the evidence now
before the whole country, he w ill probably be rea
dy to agree in a verdill, which shall aflabiilh
the following falls :—
1. That, from the moment our independence
was considered as certain, a few ambitious men,
who were made whigs only from the fear ot Eng
land and the fate of rebels, have been constantly
(Iruggling for the fame maflery over their coun-.
trymen, that England had before exercised.
2. That these ambitious men, though small in
number, in proportion to the rest of the people,
have formed themselves into clubs, in all parts df
the country, and have been constantly laboring to
counteract republican principles, ever Since our
republics have been established.
4. That at the time of making the present con
stitution. of the United States, they came out more
openly than they had done before, and did all a
their power to ellablifh for the constitution ofthrs
country a permanent Executive, and a permanent
branch in the legislature, w ith a power ofappoint
ing all date governors and juries, and a negative
on all date laws.
If the falls on this fubjelt were well underflood
by every man, the (lory of a foreign invasion would
appear equally ridiculous to all ; and there would
be but one opinion refpelting the landing army
of 50,000 men, and the 8 per cent loans of ten
million dollars.
5. That this junto who, in the language which
has been commonly used on these fubje&s, ma,
be properly called the ariflocrats of this coumry,
as well as in all others,haye already get a very un
due Ihare of the power and property of the coun
try into their ownhands, and very milch burdened
the mass of the people by multiplying offices, in
creasing salaries, and raising armies, not for any
necessary purposes, but to increase their influence
and extend their corps.
6. That as the furelt and shortest way to accom
plish their purposes, they have been unwearied in
their exertions, to plunge this country into all the
horrors of war, which has only been prevented by
the determined and manly refinance which that
fubje& met in every part of the union, and which
at lafl seems now to be given up by themfelves—
not through choice but from necessity and cunning.
If theje are found on examination to be facts,
and it is certain that a little enquiry will Satisfy
any man that they cannot be denied, there is no
need to go any farther to find the cause of all the
alarming appearances in our political horizon ;
far it is a good maxim, not to search for more
causes than are fufficient to explain the appearan
ces, provided we are convinced of their truth.—
Neither is there need to go any /farther to find the
remedy. Let the great body of the people be
strongly imprefled with thefefc@,they thenifelvest'
will find the remedy. Let them never forget that)
there can be no prejudicial difference among them {
as to principles. Let. them hold faft the ancient
maxims, and principles of their republican conjii
tutions, and honor no man with their confidence
and public trull, w hose principles are at all doubt
ful on these points, whom they do not know to be
launch and found as themselves in republican • '
principles. The aristocracy will then soon appear
so fmail and contemptible, as to diArm all resent
ment, and quiet aft-alarms ; more fmail and con
temptible than those, whom they call the swinish
multitude.
From the Independent Chronicle.
MR. RHOADES,
As members of the Legislature, who have afim
ed a right to caucus in favor of Mr. Strong, have
prejudged in favor of the Executive, it is proper
that the fame exertion Ihould be made for the nou
efettion of such individuals, as for the election of,
Mr. Gerry. There would be a degree of absur
dity to chufe the fame men who have already de
cided in favor of Mr. Strong, by those Republi
cans who Ihould vote for Mr. Gerry. The Re-,
publicans by this measure would lose their votes,
it there Ihould be no choice by>the people. The
members of the Legislative Caucus would be able
to effe& their purposes in the next Legislature,l
and provided Mr. Strong should not obtain^ne
third part of the votes of Mr. Gerry, yet they
would have it in their power to determine the
election of Mr. Strong.
It is therefore of importance that the lift of ,
SENATORS, should be carefully attended to ;
and particularly that the County ofEffete, in whose
department the PreJident of the Senate (and the
Chairtaan of a felf-created Caucus) reticles, should
exert themselves, and prevent an undue influence
in the next aflembly of the General Court.
The crisis is now arrived to destroy thut Aris
tocratic preponderancy, which has too long con-\
vulfed the United States. ' Jhe Caucus of the Le
giq^ture is aftrong feature of this influence, and
it now depends on the exertions of the free Elec
tors to baffle their designs. If Mr. Gerry is chosen,
it will have a tendency to defeat the purposes of
those who are in favor of War, and at the fame
4. That this junto has avowed these principles
ever Since ; that they never deny them to any man ;
and openly fay they despise the republican theory
of government : when they call themselves Feder
aliils and friends of the government, they general
ly take pains to Shew that they mean not the writ
ten Constitution of the United States, but the fall<
of the men in power, be they what they mav, and
that their maxims are in truth only, different
modes of expreflion for the bld tory doctrines, that:
“ the king can do no wrong, passive obedience,
and non-resistance."