Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-05-04
ADDRESS OF NINIAN EDWARDS.
Presented to the House Of Representatives. by the
Speaker, AP,it 10, 1924.

SPea6cr, April 10, 1924.
WHEELING, Va. April 6, 1924.
SIR: have the honor to request you to pre-
sent the Address herewith transmitted, with its
accompanying Notes and Documents, to the
House OF Representatives of the Congress of
the United States.
have the honor to be, very respectfully. Sir.
your most 0bedient servant,
NINIAN EDWARDS.
Hon. HENRY Clay,
Speaker Of tie House Of Represen-
tatioes g'hhe Congress ofthe Uni
ted States.
ADDRESS.
To the honorable the House of Re,resenfnt;res
9fMe Congress Of tie United States
AS certain proceedings at the last session of
Congress, under the authority of the House of
Representatives, and recent report To your
honorable body, by the Hon. VIM. III. Crawford,
Secretary of the Treasury, seem to have been
intended, and are calculated, to cast upon me
inPutatlons injurious TO my character, which l
know to be unjust, and which, think can de-
nonstrate to be so, trust no apology can be
necessary Tor my requesting leave TO present
my vlndication against those imputations, di-
rcctly to your honorable body; in order that it
may be conveyed to the nation through the
same channel by which have been assaiIed.
Tins IS right which, under similar circum-
stances, should suppose, ought not to be de-
MED to the humblest individual in the Union.
In this case 1T is due to the nation itself in con-
sideration OF the station lately held, and that
which have now the honor to hold; and, ow-
ing To the peculiar circumstances of my case, il
IS enphatically demanded, on my account.
by every principle of honor, and every regard
to justice. For it Is unprecedented in either
House of Congress, in cases which certainly had
no greater claim to indulgence.
1t will be seen, that was called upon by a
committee of the House of Representatives of
the last session, as witness to testify before il;
that was subjected to an examination, which
has not its parallel in the records of any free
country; and that, after the lapse of about
| twelve months, and Just as / was on the eve oG
my departure for foreign country, an attempt
has been made to i:npeach my credibiIity, on
grounds which must have been, at all times
SINCE my testimony was given, within the com
inand OF the honorable gentleman by whom they
name been so opportuaeiy alleged.
10 refuse to permit me to repel such an at
tack, IN the manner proposed, would be to over
throw the longest established precedents, and
to establish IN their place, the odious, oppres-
sive, unjust, and indefensible principle of allow
ing the credibility of witness to be inpeached
and yet denying to him the right to support il
before the tribunal under whose authority he
had been called on to testify.
But, independent of all considerations, in re-
gard to myself, personally, l humbly conceive
that your honorable body might well desire to
receive my vindication, and every corrobora
ton which can give TO my testimony, on vou,.
o'0,a account, in order to enable you the more
satisfactorily and correctly to decide upon, state
mehts now before you, and not vet acted on.
Notwithstanding all the canting about an
GA Is. plot" the ingenious attempts that have
oeen made, and the stratagems that have been
adopted, by certain newspaper editors and others
TO mlslead and deceive the public mind into a
bellef that the committees, appointed al the last
session on thatsubject, had thoroughly inyestira-
ted all the statements made by awriterunderthe
signature of A, B. in regard to certain sup
pressed documents; and that Mr. Crawford had
been sstrlumPhantly acquitted" in relation to
the whole OF them; assert, without the fear of
contradiction, thatit is known to your honorable
body that neither of those committees extended
their InvestIgationsin into thosestatements, beyond
about four paragraphs, which were mere baga,
telies IN comparison with other letters and mat
tiers tbatwere expressly charged, and incontes-
tbiy proved, by the doc,tneate furnished by Mr..
Crawford himself to have been withheld con-
trary to the resolutions of the House which re-
CURED their production.
These important statements, and the matters
4
Their been investigated by any committee, MOI
acted on by the House, and if my testimony had
been, it is now revived by Mr.. Crawford him.
self; and, surely, if it be competent to him &c
attack 1t, it cannot be fair or Just to withhold
| from me the equal right of defending and SUD.
Fortnight.
BY referring to the resolution of the House
lnote L. under which the second committee oil
investigation was appointed, and to my exami-
nation by that committee, (2) it will be seen
that the latter fully merits the character have
gwen to 1T; that it was wholly unauthorized by
any powers delegated to the committee; and that
1t evinced a far greater disposition to implicate
me In some kind of censure, in regard to the
public dcposites in the Bank of Edwardsyillc,
than to investigate the conduct of Mr.. Craw-
ford or to inquire into those subjects for which
the committee had been professedly appointed
W hatever may be thought by those who NAV be
at the trouble to examine the list of interrora-
torres that we're put TO me- as to the source fror,
whence they originated, none can read some of
tue following statements and documents, with
out being convinced, that very small portion
of candour would have rendered part, at least
OF those interrogation unnecessary and use
less, even IN the opinion Of the committee it
SELF (3)
Whatever may have been my agency in pro-
curing the Bank of Edwardsyie to be made a
depository of public money, it had nothing to do
in originating the great system adopted by Mr..
Crawford, of employing the local banks, and, IN
several instances, in direct violation of law by
allowing them a permanent deposite of nine
hundred thousand dollars, equal to a salary of
$4,000 per annun, for receiving and transmit
ting the public money, which the Bank OF the
United States was bound to do without Compen-
satIon, and would have done, without those inn