Litchfield enquirer., 1838-01-04
CONGRERRInNAI..

l circulated, headed |" Dissolution of the Un- iOn." The article represented him, Mir. C., as having called upon the Southern member: to meet in the committee room of the com nittee on the District of Columbia, for the purpose of devising measures " for the disso. iution of the Union" The House would re. collect that he made no such remark. In giv. ing notice of the meeting, he did not state its purpose to devise measures for the dissolution ] ofthe Union. The result of that meeting was known, and every one would agree that i, would tend rather to tEe harmony ofthc Un. ion than its dissolution. He had made this statement at the request of several gentlemen who felt themselves aggrieved by the publl- cation of this anonymous letter writer. The motion of Mir. Adams, to refer the me- morial of the New York Peace Society on the subject of our relations with Mexico, 10 se- feet committee, or to the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, with instructions to read consider and report upon the sumo, was taken up.
 Mr. Adams stated that he had moved the instructions, because we had an acknoWledg- ment from one standing committee-that on Finance-that they had reported on an lm- portant subject without reading or consider ing the petitions in relation to it. If he had been member of that committee, and had reported the important resolutions declaring it ineXpedient to establish National Bank, without reading the petitions on the subject he should consider himselfas having betray- ed his duty to this House and to the nation. Its fact was admitted in that party manifesto which was published by the committee a. gainst one oftheir members. Mir. A. went on to aninladvert with severity upon the manl- festo, but was called to order by the Chair MT. Cambreleng-I hope the gentleman will be permitted to go on.
 MT. Hayne said he trusted the gentleman would not be arrested in his remarks. MT. Adams-They are six to one to answer me; why, then, may not go on?
 The Speaker insisted that the gentleman from Mass. was out of order, and could not go on.
 Mr. Adams continued-As he did not be- lieve there was another committee in this House, besides the Committee on Finance. which would be so negligent of their duty as to refuse to read the petitions referred to them, he modified his motion to refer to the commit tee on Foreign Affairs, by striking out the word "read." He would confide so far in that committee as to believe they would read the document. On the verge, as we are, of war with Mexico, it is important that the sub- ject should receive the scrutinizing attention of that Committee.
 MT. Adams took the message of the Presi- dent, and read the passage relative to Mexico, as follows: that from word "the aggravating circumstances" down to word "used."
 MT. Adams having read this denied the fact tributed to "both branches of the Legisla- ture."
 The Chair called Mir. A. to order. MT. Williams, of N. Carolina, having de- manded the yeas and nays, they were taken, and were Yeas l19: Nays 30.
 So MT. A. was allowed to proceed. Mir. Adams then said he would await the l exrla na1inn nffha gentleman from Mary land. (Mr. Howard)
 Mir. Howard spoke briefly on the subject oi the reference of the memorial. He read the prayer of the memorial, which was that this government should accede to the proposition of the decree of the American Congress The observations of the gentleman from Mas. sachusetts made the other day, and comment ed on by the Intelligencer, took it for granted that the proposition referred to had beer made.
 But the gentleman and the petitioners also assumed, as fact, what was not fact-that such proposition had been made. He did ] not know, and he had avaied himself of all the means of information in his reach, that such decree had been passed. He now took it upon himself to state that, if such a decree had passed the Mexican Congress, it had not been communicated 10 this GOUernment. This, he repeated, he was authorized to state. It was absurd, therefore, to call upon the Committee on Foreign Relations, as the memorial and the motion did, to consider and report upon" this proposition, which had never been made. He was not authorized to say that the memorialists, or the gentleman from Massachusetts, intended to deceive Con- gress and the public by asserting that such a proposition had been made, but he declared their course was rather extraordinary. They should have been more wary and cautious in their statements. The public had right to expect from them rigid adherence to the fact, in such case. As the memorial pre-. sented no subject for report, he would move to lay it on the table, but for the fact that the memorialists proposed some general means for eftecting an arrangement of all national disputes. But on that subject he hoped the Committee would not be peremptorily in Structed.
 In regard to the question of the gentleman from Massachusetts, "what authority the President had to declare that this house had expressed the opinion that any mode of re- dress known to the laws of nations might be l justifiably used," MT. H. said he would an swer it as we'll as he could, though he did moi suppose that he knew all the views of the President. He supposed, however, that the President referred to the act of Jan. 23d, pro viding means for sending minister to Mexi co, whenever. in the opinion of the President the diplomatic connexion with Mexico coull be favorably renewed.
 Mir. Adams: l thank the gentleman for thi. acknowledgment
 Mr. Cambreleng said it was evident tha the gentleman from Mass. intended to emplO,