Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 182?-183?, 1832-06-08
PRESIDENT JACKSON-AND THE
LATE OCCURRENCES AT
WASHINGTON.
From Me GLObe, "a Nan %

From certain remarks made by Mr.. Bar
ringer on the floor of the House, when the
vote TO admit these resolutions was taken it
seems that a conversation, held in his pres
ence, between the President and the Rev
}. n. DaDiorth, is the groundwork of the
monstronS charges presented, first to the
notice of the House by Mr.. Stanbery, and
now TO the nation by the rejected resolutions
published in the Intelligencer, and which
are re-echoed by the opposition prints
throughout the Union. There were several
persons who heard this conversation, and
since 1t has become important as forming the
pretence for the counterfeited apprehension
e3hlbitedin the resolutions quoted I'VE hav e ia
ken some pains TO ascertain the substance of il.
We will not attempt TO give the tenor OF the
long and familiar dialogue which occurred
between the President and Mr. Danforth,
who principally maintained the conversation,
but we can lay before the public the "opin-
lens" expressed by the President ON the oc-
casion, and other occasions, in his Preside
conversations with his friends in relation TO
this subject, with sufficient accuracy, 10 sat
lsty the inquiry Of the prompters of the re-
jected resolutions. If Mr.. Condict himself
had really desired to know what the Presi-
dent thought or said in relation to the broil
which has occupied much of the time OF
told him his Utmost thoughts, with all the
open hearted sincerity which marks his
character; and that he would have made him
sensible, as he did Mr. Danforth and the rest
who heard him, Of his yirtuous republican
principles and feelings.
The monstrous fabrications propagated
throughthe opposition press, in relation TO the
Presidents private conversations, are in
tended TO supply the place of proofs, and TO
support the insidious allegations against him,
which are so artfully interwoven in the re-
jected resolutions. Wo are directly inform
ed that Mr.. Clay's most trusted agents have
been busted in the effort 10 coniure up some
alarming phantoms in cornexion with the
late afiray, and that Messrs Doddridge and
Mercer have been particularly anxious TO
pry, by an eX parte inquisitien, into the pri-
vate and familiar discourses OF the President,
by way appropriation for their contemplated
proceedings in the House They shall be
grattied. They shall have not only every
sentiment entertained by the Chief Magis-
trate, TO obtain which they have expressed
so much Solicitude, but they shall have also
the opinions expressed by him on the same
subject, in the presence of one OF the most
honorable men Of their own party in the
hearing Of the Editor of this print.
We shall give the sentiments avowed by
the President in the interviews alluded te.
without attempting to preserve the dialogue
OF third parties by which they were elected
retaining, as far as recollection can furnish
it, the emphatic language in which ne con-
Veyed his ideas. lie said
THAT the arrest and confinement OF
Houston by tho House of Representatives
was an act of usurpation, not warranted by
any grant in the Constitution that the
t,NfK al. l. ri
law, belonged TO the Judiciary, not to Con-
gress that the power of Congress to pun
ish for contempt belonged to it only in its
capacity as body to preserve its delibera-
lions from interruption that TO act which
did not affect its functions as deliberative
assembly, could be construed into an offence
against ii as political body that it OK
istsd only as deliberative body when its
members were assembled together in the
Capitol and hence ats poUer of selepro-
lection was confined 10 ats tUGlLS, for it had
no being beyond them that the individual
members of the House, when ii was not in
session, were on a footing with other citi-
zens-they were under the protection OF the
laws, and the courts would redress all iniu-
RIGS to them, as to others" To sustain this
view, he adverted to the Case of Casimir
Perier, the present Prime Minister of
France, and member of the House of Dep
utss. He stated that from late accounts it
appeared the Premier had, in a discussion
IN the House OF Deputies, improperly aspers-
ed the character OF a French citizen-that
the citizen awaited the adjournment of the
House, met him beyond the walls, and chas-
tised him for the insult. The Deputy and
Prime Minister complained to the House,
and was referred by it to the laws and the
judicial authority for redress. And this, he
observed, was the proper course.
The President expressly declared to Mr..
Danforth, Barringer, and others, that Cor.
Tfousf0n's conduct could not be justified,
but asked in turn whether members of Con-
gress be justified in slandering private citi-
zens, and in violating the rules Of the House
by departing from the topic under discussion
for such purpose? He maintained that the
SLauderer was worse than the Dlurderer-be-
cause disgrace was worse than deaih--and so
much the worse, as death itself was no cure
for calumny-that an honorable man would
Fathrr die than submit 10 have bis character
destroy ed--he IiUed for character.
On the suggestion that the course taken
towards Mr.. Stanbery would lead TO n scene
ofyiolence at Washington City, be observed,
that the mischief would cure itself; that
when Members Of Congress became sensible
by the occurrence of few such cases, that
the free citizens Of the country would not
submit to be abused by them, but would
hold them personally responsible for Sian
ders on their private characters, they would
cease to utter them. But that so long as
Members of Congress were permitted 10 a.
vail themselves OF what was assumed 10 be a
uriyilpUpd rfatiou In fraduco t,riya 10 ri