Year: 1865

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geant-at-Arms of the House, in accor.
dance with the resolution passed yes.
terday, brought before the Bar Of the
House A. p. Field to receive rcpri.
mand.


SPEAKER CoLFAx addressed him az
follows:


Mr.. Field: The duty has been de-
volved upon me by the Representatives
Of the American people to express to
you their condemnation of the act for
which you have been tried before a
committee Of members, and ordered to
be reprimanded at the Bar of the House
by their presiding officer. In this Hall
assemble those who have been chosen
by the suffrages of their constituents
throughout the continental area of the
Republic to deliberate and decide upon
the grayest matters ofnational concern.
Differing often widely from each other,
their acts and votes may prove distaste-
full to large portions of the people for
whom they legislate, and the Constitu-
ton has, therefore, wisely declared that
no representative shall be questioned
elsewhere for words spoken in debate,
accountable as every Representative is
to this body, with which he is associa-
ted, to which is reserved the right of
expulsion for whatever renders him un-
worthy ofits membership. The House
has repeatedly decided that menace or
assault by one member upon another is
fagrant breach of privilege, render
ing the offender amenable to whatever
proper punishment it may see fit to in
fiict ; and while thus subjecting a sworn
associate to its discipline, it claims and
exercises the right to fix the penalty
against those not of the body itself,
who endeavor by threat or attack to
interfere with the freest action of its
members. In your case the offense
seems more inexcusable because you
yourself were claimant of seat on
the floor, and the question involved in
the decision Of that claim was one of
far more than ordinary Importance to
the Nation and your State. The Rep
resentative who was first denounced
and then attacked by you, was not a
member of the Committee before which
the issue was pending, and whose re-
port was necessary to bring it before
the House. He had himself joined in the
unanimous vote by which you were au-
thorlzcd to occupy seat upon this
floor, pending its decision and to vim
dicate your claim to membership when
the question would come before this
body for its action. Yet, without prov
ocation, without any preliminary per-
sonal controversy, you first insulted him
at public table, and followed it with
a violent attack with an open knife, in
flicting painful wound upon his per-
son, and with threats that you would
shoot him before you went to bed. You
must rejoice that your assault did not
terminate in graver results than those
for which you are now arraigned. 1t
is but just to You to state that the tes-
timony of your friends before the COM
mittee declares you to be gentleman
of correct department, kind and affable
in your intercourse with others, and un-
exceptionable in demeanor except on
occasions of indulgence in conviviality;
and the unpleasant position you occupy
to-day is, therefore, only another illus
tration of the existing value of that
warning voice of inspiration: "Look
not upon the wine when it is red, when
it giveth its color in the cup, for at last
it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like
an adder" Inviting you finally to re-
member that, whether as an individual
or as legislator, "He that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty, and he
that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh
city," 1t only remains for me to di-
rect the Sergeant-at-Arms to discharge
you from his custody.


Mr.. Field was accordingly discharg-
ed.