Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-12-15

fore before the Aoo'' - ;o.la+
called upon to act upon paper wRici' ln's''
~ vario.usly published in various Prlnss'
xbu.-on paper such as the secretary % '. ~;
.had ,houelt proper to transmit 10 our hi'-
naa = r ondon. MIR. w. SAID ne tnerc
s,,rs wanted not to know what had appear
- =. !, rive new spapers, but what lad oeen
s...,.d.d 70 our. Minister in London; 70
obtain this an application to the president
was the proper mode, and he could not see
hv there should be any objection to Its De-
AZ. 7,roup said he had voted in favor OF
The latter part Of this resolution, and against
he Grst and he must now be compelled to
vote against both combined. re deemed
the object OF the resolution to be 'nproPsr'
hrcanse on the face OF 1T it appeared that the
na,sr asked for was All Unofficial letter. Ii
procuring copy of it from the Office OF the
Sc retary of state would establish its authen-
t;citv. there could be no objection to the
call. But the communicating or withhold
inp would not stamp authenticity on It, be
cause it was a document OF winch the de-
nartment of state could not have an ofhclal
copy. -,
consequence to this motion as either lis ad-
vocates or opponents appeared to do. The
object was to get a paper which mad oeen
published in all the newspapers OF the y.
States, Mr.. Iackson's Circular, which 1t
was clear could not be sent to the house In
an official form, because it was not address
sed to any department of our government,
| but to the British consuls. The other pa
pcr asked for was a document with the sub
stance of which every one was acquainted.
Without ENDURING what was the object Of
the call, if any gentleman wanted a copy of
any paper in the department. of state, he
would never object to crafty them. 1t
had been said that the house should NOT
call for it, because it was addressed to the
British consuls but, Mr.. Macon said, it
was known to have bcen written by Mr..
Jackson, because If it had not it would long
ago have been denied. 1t was Called sn ap-
peal to tie people SO was Genet's-but
iMr. M. said, he had never cared any thing
about these appeals, he should not care if
! MIR. Jackson should make another, because
he had no apprehension Of any effect such
things could have in this country. 1t could
not be positively ascertained whether or
not the letter in question was written by
Mr.. Jackson, but by calling on the print
ers; and he had no idea Of nleddling with
| them he only claimed tie privilege of be-
heving what he pleased of their publica-
tons. MIR. NJ. was in favor Of the reso-
luton, because other gentlemen wished the
| papers tor their information.
Mr.. !S2mncy said that the Importance of
this resolution lay ia this that the House
was called upon (by the resolution from
the senate to decide on the contents of a
paper the existence Of which was first made
known to them by communications from
the executive. When CALI upon in this
way, was it not a duty the house owed to
itself to ask for the papers on which it was
to express an opinion The house would
not do justice to itself if it did not ask for
them after the intimation they had received
that they were in possession Of the secre-
tary Of tate.
A4r. GARDENER remarked that he took it
tor granted, that the more carefully the
mouse proceeded, the more fully it posses
sed Itself OF all the documents on the sub
l-Jsect on which they were about to legislate,
the more impressive upon their own coun-
try and upon the world, to whom in part
the resolution appeared intended to be adj
dressed, would their decision be. The de-
termination to be made should appear not
to result from passion, but from a deliber-
aslon and GOODNESS worthy the representa-
tlVes OF great nation. He professed sin.
cerely that upon the subject of the resolu-
'loa from the senate, he had formed no o.
Pihon' neither should he vote for the pre-