Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1816-02-17

| ~AOuSS iC lulS enquiry Wholly un
necessary. Mr.. Il. said, If he had under
stood the honorable gentleman's argument.
| during the discussion of the ques tion lately
| decided by this House, respecting the trea.
| ty. he should have been led to believe, tina,
OF all the members of this body, he was
that member to whom the necessity of such
an enquiry would be most obvious, and the
proprlety OF 1T most readily acknowledged
MIR. X. SAID, he was not without eXpecta-
tons, knowing the honorable gentleman
lead in this HOUSE, that he would be a
member OF the commit :e, if raised, and
would have an opportunity of shelving
much more satisfactorily than he had done
this morning, of establishing, by facts and
deductions too, that the appointment of Pc
ter Is Porter was not contravention of
the constitution. The enquiry would do
very little harm, in any view. MIR. r. said,
that, for one, he was certainly not much
pestcred with committee business, and if
the enquiry should devolve on him, he
should endeavor to exc cute it to the best Of
his capacity-he certainly would present
report that would embrace all the facts :;
and he would endeavor to state even the
law OF the case as well as he could IN h :
hobbing way-not being even journeyman
In the profession. If thus enquiry was de-
med, Mr.. X said, he could easily come at
MS OBJECT in another way he had only t.
lay resolution on the table, that such an
appointment was contrary to the provisions
OF the constitution. But, If facts were
wanted, a committee ought to be appointed
to get them. We ought to reason from
facts, and not TO them. AS to the legal
question, MIR. X. said, he should rot set
much value on this particular clause of the
constitution, it it were not that it was
parts OF it, and his vote could not put it
In or eXpunge it--he was no cons itution-
monger or financie.-he took the constitu-
ton, ia serbia est as he found it. This
clause was not, he repeated, of any value,
as to its effect ; it was about as coed fence
around this house against the temptation of
office, as the accountability at the Treasury
was fence around it against the public
roober. III you want mischievous stock on
your farm or plantation. he said, you must
keep bad fences you would have roguish
nogs, COWS, and horses, keep bad fences
those who would not otherwise have ven
tured to Jump over straw will in that way
soon learn To jump, as we say in the Souti.-
eTn country, over ten rails and rider
AS tenre round the purity of this house,
he sad, this paLt Of the constitution was of
little or no value-he considered il ofnonc.
and rather worse than none. The warn
lngs OF Patrick Henry and George Mason
on this article of the constitution were vet
ringing IN his ears. This clause, he sail,
was stalking horse, put into the constitu-
ton, as II there was some guard set aga nst
the appointment of a member of the house
by the Executive TO ofhce-sorne guard a.
ganst the establishment of Executive iufiu-
ence over this body. There is none, said n.
tits as good a defence asa fishing seine would
be against a constant shower of rain. You
may dart straws through it. 1t was so easy
a thing, he said, to put new men in old Of
ces, and old men in new, that the only thing
that astoniShed him in this business was,
the indccency OF the appointment Of such
man to such an Office, in ContraventiOn Of
the constItuton-such a man, he said, for
he had the honor of serving on the COM
mttce OF foreign relations with him durine.
the session which ended in the declaration
OF Wharf.-The gentleman had been at that
time chairman of the committee of foreign
relationship he had vacated that Office.
Mr.. X. said, he had nothing to do with that
honorable gentleman, except in his public
character as member of this body-and.
knowing the agency which he had had, at
least at the eleventh hour-he returned to
the war.feast at the eleventh hour-know-
ing the agency he had had in bringing about
~ ~ was Ohiy dSJO1lSilSC WnGn ne
considered how easy it was to get in, over
and around this provision of the constitu.
ton, at the indelcacy with which it has
been violated in this instance.
Mr. FORSYTH said, he regretted that
the gentleman from Virginia should have
supposed he had come to the House W tn
his horns sharpened to wound him. ] had
no such Intention said Mr.. F.-whiIst | con-
tinue member of this house with that no
norable gentleman, all that expect is to
escape his horns. Mr.. F. said he had no
intention to say that an appointment to an
Office not created, was no violation of the
constitution but it was no violation of the
particular section of the constitution which
the gentleman had quoted. The enquiry
was limited ia its object, and, if J shew TO
the satisfaction of the House. sa d Mr.. r.
that there was no violation of the paiticu-
lar artic ct the constitution, whether the
9'hce was or was not created, my object is
answered. The honorable gentleman had
SAID enough to shew that he was mistaken
IN the facts which had Induced him TO sub
nit this motion. The gentleman seemed
To suppose that the late member from +.
York had been a member of Congress 1t
the time OF the ratification of the treaty of
peace. But nc was not at any time Mem
Der OF the last Congress, having become a
Member on the 18th day of March last. a
day posteriOr t. the creation Of the office,
NJ the Office were At all created.
With respect to the observation respcc-
ting the selection OF such man, Mr.. +.