The North-Carolina standard., 1844-05-01
THE OUTRAGE IN THE HOUSE.

the theatre OF dlsgraceiuI rencOntre. ne ngnI
occurred on Tuesday the 2Sd April, between Mr..
White, of Kentucky, and Mr. Rathbun, of New
York. The Editor of the Globe gives tie fol.
lowing account of it:
"We went to the House this morning for the pur-
pose of hearing, among other things, Mr.. Wright,
Of Indiana conclude his speech on the tariff which
he commenced in Committee of the Whole yes
terday; but he had concluded before we reached
ehere, and Mr.. White OF Kentucky, Speaker of
the last House of Representatives, had the floor
on the same subject when we reached the Capitol.
Although the tariff was the subject before the
Committee of the Whole, we did not hear Mr..
White make sing gle alusion 10 ii during the fifty
minutes which we heard him speak. He may
have alluded to it in the ten minutes which he had
consumed before we reached the House. The
whole OF what we heard him say was in relation
to the bargain which has been charged as entered
into between Mr. Adams and Mr.. Clay in the year
1925, when Mr. Clay elected Mr.. Adams President
of the United States, and MIR. Adams made Mr..
Clay Secretary of State. MIR. White denied that
there was any bargain between them, and read,
and had read by the Clerk of the House, letters
from sundry persons, and speech made by Mr..
Adams year OF two ago, TO bear him out in what
he said.
Mr.. White, just at the close of his hour, stated
that five gentlemen of the House had certified to
what the newspapers had. charged Mr. Clay as
having said in his speech on the Missouri question,
in February, 1919: g If you won't let US have
black slaves, must have white ones" &c;
which speech he said Mr.. Clay had never written
out.
The extract, he said, was taken from note to
Mr.. Rich's Speech published ia the National In
ielligencer more than year after that gentleman
had made his speech, in which4note Mr.. Rich had
said that Mr. Clay used those words. Here Mr.
Whites hour ran OUT, and MIR. Jacob Brinkerhoh
obtained the floor. Mr. Andrew Kennedy asked
Mr.. Brinkerhoff to weld the floor to him moment,
as he was one of the five gentlemen alluded to- and
he wished to prove what he had certified to. MIR.
Brinkerhoff refused TO yield the floor; when Mr..
Rathbun, who sits directly in front of, and not
more than three feet from, Mr. White, said to Mr..
Kennedy, "Never mind, we can prove 1t all over
the House" Mr.. White replied, /" You can prove
ID lie, then; swallow that, id YOU" MIR.
Rath5un slowly from his seat, with his thumbs
in the pockets Of his pantaloons, and turning round
10 Mr.. White said, :" Do you intend to apply the
lie to me personally 2" TO which Mr.. White re-
piled, 81 do, God d-n you - shutting his fists,
and putting himself in a defe nsive, offensive po-
sition, as he said So By the time the words were
out of his mouth, both of them had aimed blow
at each other. We could not discern which struck
first. AS soon saw this, we ran to where
they were, but before reached there they had
been separated. We entered the aisle where the
combatants were, side by side with the sergeant
alarms. The members ordered the seTgeant-at
arms out in a meRacing manner, some of them
putting their hands against him. While they were
doing this, we have been told, man named Moore,
who resides in the Lexington congressional dis
trict of Kentucky, was behind the sergeant-at-
arms, trying TO pull him out, and saying, At the
same time, :'let them fight it out" We neither
saw nor heard this. Our attention was drawn, at
the time, to the members in front of the sergeant
alarms, who were ordering him out Of The bar Of
the House. We thought if the sergeant-at-arms
was out of his place, or exceeding his duty, that
we certainly were clearly out of ours and that we
had better keep bright look out, else we might be
elected very suddenly. BY the time we thought
this much, concluded TO get out Of the bar OF
the House; and as we got out near the door that
enters the hall from the post office OF the House,
saw the fash and heard the report of pistol
in the doorway. We rushed TO the door, and
found three or four persons just outside the door,
graphing with the KeDtuckian whom we have
mentioned, trying to Urest from him pistol. As
he appeared to /" hold his own" with them, we
concluded TO assist them and just as we were
about doing So voice at our side said, 'I'dke me,
Mr.. Rves, for | am wounded" We at re-
cogniZed the person who spoke, to be Mr.. John L..
Writ, one of the police of the Capitol. We took
hold Of him, and found that he had been shot thro'
his right thigh, near where it joins his body. Two
men assisted US take him to his house, about
300 yards from the Capitol. On his way thither,
he informed US that, hearing disturbance in the
House Of Representatives, he thought II to be his
duty TO go in and assist in quelling it Ihat he
entered the door nearest the post ofhce, Mr.. Nc
Causien, a member of congress from Ohio, was
putting the Kenluckian before mentioned out at il ;
that as soon as he put OUT he drew pistol
from his breast and attempted TO shoot Mr.. Nc
CausleD, who was then just inside the House,
while he, Mr.. Writ, was in the door that some
person al that moment took hold of the man who
had the pistol, and turned him so much, that he
shot him, (Wirt) who was by one Of the cheeks
of the door.
By the time we got MIR. Writ home, we ascer-
tanned that his IhIgh-boue was not broken; and we
returned to the Capitol mme diately, TO look for
hat which left there, with several letters in IT,
On reaching there we found the hat, the letters
safe, peace reigning, and we soon afterwards left
will show what WAS done in the House after we
left it'
AS soon as the fight was over, and some little
order restored, Mr.. Dromgoole said he presumed
the proper course would be to direct the Sergeant
alarms to take the two offending members into
custody, that they might answer for their conduct
at the bar of the House. Mr.. White (the fight
ing gentlemanJ observed that the motion of Mr..
Droomgoofe was without a precedent in the histo-
ry of that House. He recollected occurrence after
occurrence, similar to the~one Of today, taking
place in that Hall, and no motion like the present
was to be found on the Journals, nor had any
member at any time moved to degrade his fellow
members by proposition to take them iato Gus
tody. Whatever might have been done by the
member from New York and himself he did not
believe that either would shrink from any investi-
cation the House might please to make; and he