Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-03-14
ALEXANDRIA:
SATURDAY,, MARCH IA, 1873.
PROM OUR conREsroNpENT AT WASH
Friday. March 10, 1918.


Yesterday, on the clerk OF the house Of
representatives reading over, as usual,
the journal Of the preceding days pro-
ceedings, Mr.. Poindextsr, observing that
the contents of the petition Of Senor Yin
cenfe de Pazos had been described m the
journal, moved to strike out that part
from the record, upon the ground that
the petition had not been received BY The
house. This motion was rejected.
However reluctant may feel to set
Up an opinion contradictory to that OF
that very wise and well informed body
of authority of which am speaking, |
must avail myself Of the rights of free
press, to declare that Mr.. Poindexter's
motion was founded on just grounds and
ought to have been granted. II the petit
ton was rejected on direct motion that
il should NOT be received, ii is evident
that il could be 90 treated on no other
grounds than its total unfitness to find a
place in cur legislature or its records;
and this untitpess was specifically de-
clared in debate to arise from the inso.
lence and oHensiveDess o. its contents to
the president, and in him to the nation
at large. On this very ground it was
that the motion for laying the petition on
the table was negatived-Mr. Dougherty
acted on the occasion as he always does
in his of1icia. capacity, with discretion
and sound judgment. 1t was no error
on his part to enter on his journal de.
script;on of a petition which had been
resd-the error was in reading the petit
ton at all, till the usual forms of con-
gress had been complied with, BY mem.
ber's pledgins himself fer it. inoffensire-
ness. For, in my mind, the speakers
presenting il officially from the chair did
no n ore stand for such a pledge than
would the laying of any letter he receiv-
ed before them-a circumstance which
often occurs without imposing any re-
sponsibi'ity upon him. Tbs right OF Pc
titiou has never been questioned but 10
petition has claim to reception that is
not presented by member of the house.
And Why, but to prevent rude ard in
decorous charges being Obtruded upon
congress 1t ought not to have been
offered without the pledge l allude to-
Had that form been observed, much
loss of time and many notifying re-
Elections would have been spared
The good people Of the United States
would have been spared the reflection
that, on precedent, any foreigner may
insult their government by appeal
ing from one branch of il against the
other-and whenever his own spleen or
the interested or ambitious designs of ma
tive disorganizers shall prompt him, may
endeavsr to set our government at vari-
ance with itself, and exhibit the United
States in tie Inundated posture of suf-
fering its first magisrate-the pctr'e
patsy of the republic-to be with I'M
purity rudely entreated BY any new ad-
venturer who sits down on our shores
and thinks proper to write PATRIOT on
his shop board, be the credentials of has
patriotism whatever they may. They
would have been also spared the rsfiec-
ton that there were twenty-eight legis-
lators who in the face of the world so far
forgot them elves as to cover over that
insult. What the general complexion is
in which this business appeared to the
public, may be gathered from this fact
that with as great celebrity as intelligence
could be conveyed. it was, merely in con-
sequence Of the speaker having in the
Just di charge Of his duty laid the peti.
ton before tn. house, spread all over
Georgetown tina, Mr.. Clay had impeach-
ed the President. Will the gentlemen
who pat omssd this offensive document
then be able easily to reconcile it to their
judgments that they did not, On The con.
rary, move in the GGst instance to have
It thrown under the table, and in the next