Part 72

Mr. TAYLOR, from the committee appointed to inquire into the circumstances alluded to in the letter of I. A. Coles to the Speaker of the House, made the following report:

That, according to that order, they have taken into consideration the subject referred to them; that in making the proposed inquiry they have taken the depositions of the honorable James Turner, a Senator of the United States, and of Mr. Samuel Sprigg, which depositions they beg leave to report to the House.

From these depositions it was established, to the satisfactory belief of your committee, that Mr. I. A. Coles, without any immediate previous altercation or provocation, did assault and strike a member of this House, within the walls of the north wing of the Capitol; that this act was done on Monday, the 27th ult., about one o'clock P. M., and after this House had adjourned over to the following day.

That, from the assertions of Mr. Coles, and from the actual admission of the member assaulted, your committee were satisfied that the provocation or supposed provocation which occasioned the attack did not arise from any thing said or any act done by the member of this House, in the fulfilment of his duties as a Representative in the Congress of the United States.

Your committee are of opinion that this latter circumstance may be received in extenuation, but cannot be admitted in justification of the act done by Mr. Coles; and, from all the circumstances of the case, they are of opinion that said assault and violence offered to the member was a breach of the privileges of this House.

Your committee further report, that they have considered the letter of Mr. Coles to the Speaker of this House, together with another letter from Mr. Coles addressed to the Chairman of your Committee, (which they also beg leave to report to the House,) that these two letters, in the opinion of your committee, do contain acknowledgments and apologies on the occasion, which ought to be admitted as satisfactory to the House. They therefore recommend the following resolution:

Resolved, That any further proceeding in the above case is unnecessary.

To the Hon. John Taylor, Chairman, &c.

SIR: Understanding that the declaration which I had the honor this morning to make before the committee, will be more acceptable if put in the written form, I hasten to comply with what I believe to be their wish, in tendering through them, to the House of Representatives, the renewed assurance "that if I could have supposed that the circumstance alluded to in my letter to the Speaker, would have been construed into a breach of the privilege of the House, it would not have occurred at the time and in the place where it unfortunately happened."

With sentiments of great respect, I am your obedient humble servant,

I. A. COLES.

December 28, 1808.

Ordered to lie on the table.

Conduct of the British Minister.

The House resumed the consideration of this subject. At four o'clock Mr. LIVERMORE commenced a speech, but gave way for a motion to adjourn which was carried, 53 to 51.

SATURDAY, December 30.

A motion was made by Mr. DAWSON, that the report made yesterday, on the occurrence between I. A. COLES and a member of this House, and the documents accompanying the same, be printed for the use of the members: and the question being taken thereon, it was resolved in the affirmative--yeas 76, nays 25. The report and documents were referred to a Committee of the Whole on Thursday next.

Conduct of the British Minister.

Mr. RHEA, of Tennessee--Mr. Speaker, it is not deemed necessary in the observations I will make on the resolution under consideration, to take into view any relations of the United States with Great Britain or France, because it does not clearly appear that any exist, except in this, that the United States are suffering loss and damage. If there be any relations with Great Britain, as they respect the United States, they are negative and suffering; as they respect Great Britain, positive and active. Be they what they may, they are not properly within the range of a discussion on this resolution, which merely respects the conduct of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty near the United States. How the relations, if there be any, between the United States and France are connected with the subject of this resolution, will require the greatest civilian, the most wise master of public law, to discover; the consideration of these subjects, except so far as mentioning only circumstances which have existed, will be omitted. Neither does it appear very necessary to recur, in examining this question, in the view I intend to take of it, to writers or authorities, as they are called, on public law or laws of nations, because, if any time heretofore, there was a public law acknowledged and practised by all civilized nations, that law is, in these times, become obsolete and disused; and the great nations of the old world have severally adopted particular systems of law respecting other nations, adapted to their own several existing circumstances, and bottomed on principles different from those which heretofore were denominated principles of public law. When, therefore, in the course of these observations, said Mr. R., I may use the words "public law," my intention is to express thereby an idea of some system named public law, not the law of nature, which, gradually becoming obsolete, has been very little, if any, in use since the commencement of the American Revolution--a system which, notwithstanding it is often appealed to, if ever it did exist, is now only to be found in books, and not in practice. Neither is it intended in this case to draw into notice any diplomatic proceedings many years heretofore transacted, by way of argument, in support of what I may say on the subject of this resolution; inasmuch as the truth and merits of it do rest and depend on the Message of the President of the United States, and the documents accompanying the same, and the other documents relative thereto, which have been received from him since the commencement of this session of Congress, together with some other documents relative to the arrangement of April last, made between the American Government and the honorable David Montague Erskine, late Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from His Britannic Majesty, near the United States.

This resolution is not an answer to a Message from the President of the United States; there are not in it any words of relation between it and a message evidencing an expression or intended direction of that nature; neither are there in it any words manifesting an intention to transmit it to him as an address; for these and other reasons, which, if necessary, might be mentioned, it does not appear that this joint resolution can, with any propriety, be named an answer or response to a Message from the President, or an address to him. It may, therefore, be reasonably expected, that any objection raised against it, on the opinion of its being an answer to a Message from the President, or an address to him, will not prevail.

This resolution is not a declaration of war; it is predicated on a specified conduct of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, near the Government of the United States, and on the denial of the Executive Government of the United States to receive any further communications from him in consequence of that conduct. And it may be observed that, how ancient soever among nations the custom or usage of sending or receiving Ambassadors, Plenipotentiaries, and public Ministers of that kind may be, the custom or usage, it is reasonable to believe, is bottomed only on the great principle of humanity, and does not impose a perfect obligation either to send such minister, or to receive him, or to continue him after being received; therefore, not to send an Ambassador, Plenipotentiary, or public Minister--not to receive such Minister--to recall such Minister--or to refuse to receive any further communications from such Minister, is not a just cause of war; and it follows that the acting or not acting, in either of the cases, is not a declaration of war. True it is, that the resolution states, that "the Congress of the United States do solemnly pledge themselves to the American people, and to the world, to stand by and support the Executive Government in its refusal to receive any further communications from the said Francis James Jackson, and to call into action the whole force of the nation, if it should become necessary, in consequence of the conduct of the Executive Government in this respect, to repel such insult, and to assert and maintain the rights, the honor, and the interests of the United States;" but, it is to be observed, that that pledge goes only to the doing of certain things which may become necessary in consequence of the conduct of the Executive Government in respect to that thing which is alluded to. But if any gentleman is disposed to continue to this resolution the name of an answer to a Message from the President, or address to him, or to call it a declaration of war, he certainly may give it any name he pleases; and I hope, said Mr. R., that I may also have the liberty to give it a name that appears appropriate to it.

The whole civilized world is a spectator in the discussion of this resolution; and all the civilized nations in the world are and will be anxiously desirous to know, whether the United States of America, after having hitherto, with impunity, suffered all the aggressions of Great Britain, and after having suffered Great Britain, with impunity, to impress thousands of their seamen, and retain them on board of their armed ships and vessels, and compelling them to fight against nations with whom the United States are at peace; after having suffered Great Britain, with impunity, to murder their citizens, and after having suffered Great Britain with impunity to attack their sovereignty, in case of the Chesapeake frigate, will, after all these outrages and hostile acts, tamely, meekly, and patiently, submit and bow down to the lowest degree of debased degradation, and suffer Francis J. Jackson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, with impunity, to abuse their Executive Government, and to impute to it with impunity the detestable charge of untruth.

TUESDAY, January 2, 1810.

Another member, to wit, from Pennsylvania, ROBERT JENKINS, appeared, and took his seat in the House.

WEDNESDAY, January 3.

Trade to the Baltic.

Mr. BURWELL said that he had given to the subject of our foreign relations as much consideration as he was capable of doing, and digested some plan which appeared to him best adapted to the present situation of the country. It would be recollected, however, that they had seen in the papers that France either had blockaded or did contemplate the blockade of all the ports not embraced in the British orders; and they had seen in the papers a paragraph intimating that a project existed to close the northern ports against all vessels but those of France. He conceived it necessary to call for any information which by possibility might be in possession of the Executive on this subject, as such information, if to be obtained, might have some influence upon his mind as to the course proper to be pursued; and therefore moved the following resolution:

Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to lay before this House any information he may possess relative to the blockade of the ports of the Baltic by France, and the exclusion of neutral vessels by Russia, Sweden, and Denmark.