The Arkansas advocate., 1835-03-27
THE HON. GEORGE poINDExTER.
IN SENATE, February q. 1885.

lON1HS leLIeI rom tle IlOns CSE0RGE POIN- DEXTER, in the following terms:
 WASHINGTON CITy, Feb. 3Ist. 1885.
 SIR: l address you as the presiding officer of the Senates on subject involving a crim. inal charge, highly injurious to my moral character, and which, iftrue, ought to cause my expulsion from the august body of winch am d member. An article in the form of q letter from person in this cityto his corres ponsient in New I ork, ii;ss found its way into the public prints, and has already been wide lly circulated throughout the country, alleg- ing esthat the Administration was possessed of dispositions taken from three individuals, who swear that Richard Lawrence. the as sassin, was seen by them in the private room of the Hon. George Poindexter, the two days immediately anterior to his attempting the life of Gen. Jackson.',
 No one, l presume, sir, can mistake the purpose for which these dispositions have been procured. The evident design Is to fix on me the most infamous of all crimes, that of having been an necessary before the fact to an attempt to take the life of the Chief Aiagis- trate, by the hand of an assassin! 4 charge 50 monstrous, and so sorepugnant to the tenor of my past life, resting simply on the authority |of an anonymous letter, in the columns of newspaper, might well be placed to the gen. eral account of the ealnmnies of the day, which have of late been so freely cast on me, and as such, would scarcely merit contradic- tlon from me. But the investigation which have thus far given to the conspiracy against my character, has enabled me to trace the au- therltY on which the statement in the letter referred to was founded, to member of the House of Representatives from Rhode Island. and the dispositions therein spoken of have have been taken at the instance of the Presi- dent himself. Having ascertained these facts, deem 1t to be duty which owe to myself, tony constituents, to society at large. and to the Senate, to ask the appointment of a special committee, clothed with powers to send for persons and papers, and to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the charges inn puted to me, having relation to the Chief Executive Magistrate of the nation, that, if found guilty, may no longer disgrace the seat which occupy in this body.
 have the honor to be, with great respect, G. POINDEXTER..
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 1855. Hon. George Poi,aderte9-:
 In reply to your note, which reeeivedthis morning, l am at liberty to state, in answer to the interrogatory which you have propoun- ded, Sin whose hands did you see the aiiida- wits of which you speak, that the atlidavits were by me read at the House of the Presi- | dent of the United States; they were handed 1 to me, in his presence, by friend of his, by me returned to the President, and were put into his hands by the affiants themselves, as I | have been informed by him; and am fur ther authorized to say that other testimony of the kind is expected.
 Your very ob't. servant,
 DUTEE J. PEARGE.
 The letter having been read by the Sec- retary,
 AIr. CLAY rose and said, that the eomfnunf- cation which had just haen read could inspire no other sentiments in the bosom of every SSe- nator present, but those of the deepest re- gret. He had hoped, when he saw the arti- cle to which the letter of the honorable Sen. ator referred, in newspaper, that 1t was without the slightest foundation; and he was 1 unwilling yet to believe in the possibility of | the truth of the statement contained in the ac- eompanying letter. That x-parte aifidavits. | duplicating the character of Senator of the | United States, should have been drawn with out notifying hitn-without the slightest in- 1 that they were to be taken-and that they had been procured at the instance of the Chief Magistrate, and put on file to be used | by him, when and how he might think prop CT, was not to be believed but upon the high est and most authentic evidence. lie would i say It was not possible for him yet to credit the statement, imposing as was the form in which It was presented. It was impossible tor hlm to credit that any human heng caild conceive or SUCH u p1an Tor InIurlng felloW- citizen-without tnotce--without the smallest to him, to procure atfidavits from persons unknown, and put them away to be used on some subsequent occasion, when 1t might be impossible to contradict their state- ments, or to adduce any eXculpatory evidence.
 He was most reluctant to believe 1t, and would not believe it, but upon higher evil dence than that which was exhibited, respec- table as 1t was. It was sufficient however, to form the basis ofan inquiry. And the com- munication which had been read called upon the Senate to perform most painful and un- pleasant duty-and this, when there was a remnant of but seven or eight days before the termination of the session, and the close of the official existence, at least for the present, of the Senator who stands implicated. The l time, therefore, within which the investiga- | tion was to be made, 1t was much to be regret ted, was extremely circumscrfbed. Short 1 as itunfortupateiy was, there could not be two | opinions as to the course which the Senate was bound to take. It's duty its own char acter, demanded the investigation.
 If 1t were possible to believe, and 1t should [ turn out on the investigation to be establish ! ed, that the Senator hadthe slightest partici- patton in the atrocioas attempt to assassinate a fellow citizen, and he the President of the United States, the Senate would be called up- | on to perform the painful duty, indicated by the Senator himself, of purging the body of