FEB. 9, 1831.] Post Office Department. [SENATE. "Thus, Mr. Barry, instead of refusing the keys, as he should have done, took them; instead of retaining them in his own possession until he saw me or some one in my behalf, put them into the hands of a person of whom I will not permit myself to say one word, and to my authority to my son to count and deliver over the money to him, gave an evasion. not imagining he would accept them. He did take them, Mr. CLAYTON resumed. You see, sir, from this letter, and the same evening delivered them to my successor. how necessary it is, for the very existence of the perse"I reflected on the subject, and it seemed so reckless of cuting power exercised in this department, that Mr. Bradmy own character to run the risk of his accepting them ley should be crushed. If he stands, it must fall. Bradley in such a circumstance, that the reflections, you may be has encountered the strife, though he well knows the assured, were unfavorable to sleep. As soon as the morn-fearful odds against him--for he has to struggle against ing dawned, I sent a duplicate key, (which had been over- more influence, more patronage, and a spirit more vinlooked,) to my sons, in town, requesting them to go as dictive than exists in any other department of this Gosoon as the office was opened, count the money, and de-vernment. Yet, relying on the justice of his countrymen liver it over to Mr. Barry. My eldest son did go to the alone, he bares his head, now grown grey, after more office for that purpose; after waiting there until half past than thirty years' faithful public service, before the storm, eleven o'clock, he went to Mr. Barry, and told him it was and defies its vengeance. A private citizen, he can no my request that he should count and deliver over the more be driven from office; on the verge of the grave, he money, and delivered him the duplicate key. Mr. Barry can never expect to be again employed in the public serreplied, it is all perfectly right. vice. Yet, as an honest man and a patriot, he feels it to be his duty, when called upon by a committee of this Senate, to lay bare the transactions of this department; and I will venture to predict, that in future history his character shall stand brightly out, while those of his designing calumniators shall be remembered only to be despised. It is unnecessary to stop to inquire why the President refused to hear Mr. Bradley in corroboration of the state"On the 19th, a clerk called upon me, and proposed to ments contained in this letter, though we know from the count the money on the 22d; that is, after it had been in oath of the witness that he offered to prove every part of their possession eight days. On the 25th of September, it. If inquiry is now to be suppressed, we can readily unI received a note from two of the clerks, stating that they derstand why it was then avoided. Some excuse has were directed to give me notice that they were authorized always been devised whenever investigation has been to count the money on the 28th, that is, after it had been sought, and, until a change of times, it will always be so. out of my possession fourteen days nearly; of these I took Thus, even at this day, no answer has been returned by no notice. I conceived it to be a mockery and an insult the department to any one of all the numerous interroto send a notification after the answer Mr. Barry had given, gatories which the committee addressed to it on the 24th through my son. Yet, notwithstanding all this, Mr. Barry of December last. Yes, sir, nearly six weeks have elapsed, authorized the publication of a vile paragraph in the and the receipt of that communication has not even been Telegraph on the 28th of September, giving a false co-acknowledged. Yet I thought, while on this subject, the loring to the transaction, and not alluding to the interview member from Tennessee sought to implicate me as chairbetween my son and himself on the 15th September, in man of the committee, for withholding communications which he was informed that I desired the money might be from the department. [Mr. GRUNDY here explained, and disclaimed any such counted that morning. "I stand prepared to make good every charge and spc-expression or intention.] cification I have presented to you: that he is indebted to The gentleman's explanation has saved me some trou a large amount to the very office over which he presides: ble. Yet, sir, it may be well now to put a stopper forever that he has wasted the public funds: that he has paid on all such wretched surmises, by making a brief statemoney in advance contrary to law: that he is ignorant of ment of what has occurred. Three letters were addressed and inattentive to the duties of his office: that he wants to the Postmaster General by the committee--one on the capacity for the office which he holds: and I impeach his integrity and veracity. "I have but one particular more to notice. The letter by me to him, and published in the Telegraph, was intended to be private, and put him on his guard. "It contains no threat, but plainly tells him what I intended to do, and believed I could do. It does not contain a syllable disrespectful towards yourself; but expresses a firm reliance on the propriety with which you will inquire and decide against him. It puts him on his guard against any reliance on your too favorable opinion of him, for I thought it a paramount duty in you to disregard such opinions; and, in the present excited state of the country, so firmly am I convinced of being able to sustain the charges I have made, I believe it would lead to unpleasant measures as it respected yourself. Such a communication I should not have made to you, I have not made to the public; if there was any thing offensive in the letter, it only became so by its publication, for which Mr. Barry alone is responsible. 24th of December last, being the most important, and that which inquired into most of the concerns of his department--another on the 18th, and the third on the 27th of January. That of the 18th of January also contained several important inquiries. Like its predecessor of the 24th of December, it remained unanswered and unnoticed until the 31st of January, when the letter of the 27th, inquiring only as to the single point of the Postmaster General's indebtedness to the Government, was answered by one letter, in which an attempt was made to throw the blame of the loss of the sum of $10,000 (the amount of Fowler's bond) on Meigs, or some other person, because Morrison's bond had been cancelled and given up to him; and the receipt of the letter of the 18th was barely acknowledged, but that of the 24th of December, the most material of all, was entirely unnoticed, although he had been particularly requested to inform us whether he had received each of them. [Here Mr. C. read the letters.] Thus, you see, sir, with what justice I complain of the refusal even to notice the receipt of the most essential interrogatories. The acknowledgment in his letter of "interrogatories formerly submitted," admitted nothing as to the letter of the 24th of December, though the gentleman "Since writing the foregoing, I have been informed of from Tennessee has emphasized the word formerly, as if, allowances made to two contractors for merely expediting in his opinion, that was a recognition of that specific letter. the mail, to the amount of nine thousand dollars a year; The Postmaster General might now safely deny having the alterations would not be estimated of the value of ever received that communication, because his expression from one-fourth to one-third of the sum, and of little im- is fully satisfied by referring to the "troublesome" interportance to the public." rogatories in the letter of the 18th of January. After a "I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, "ABRAHAM BRADLEY." SENATE.] Post Office Department. [FEB. 9, 1831. like the resolution before us, which of itself discloses some of the proceedings of the committee, it had its origin with those only who desire to arrest these proceedings. And I will add, that the attempt is but another evidence of that disposition to prevent information on these subjects, which month's silence on his part, the question was put to him that the whole discussion is not one of my seeking; that, on the 27th ult.—"Have you received the letters of the 24th of December and of the 18th of January? If so, acknowledge it." The answer is-"I have received your let ters of the 18th and 27th of January!" It is necessary only to add, that the two brief communications from the Postmaster General, received on the 1st of February, were I was proceeding to expose. mentioned to the committee at our first meeting thereafter, on the next day were laid before them, and that their whole contents were fully stated on the day after they were received in the public debate here, which the gentleman from Tennessee introduced. It has been stated, that, when a proposition was made in the committee to send for Mr. Hand, the solicitor of the department, to give testimony as to the state of the funds, the proposition was rejected. This officer has the collection of all the outstanding balances, and, of course, Now, considering this extraordinary state of things, in could have shown us better than any other person what which we can get no information from the department, part of these funds are available. He could have produced is it not surprising that the gentleman should still insist, his estimate of those funds at the time of the resignation when we propose to examine a witness, that we should of the late Postmaster General, and we should then have inquire first of the department? A letter was put into been enabled to judge whether the statement in the late my hands by the Senator from Virginia who sits near me, reports of losses on these balances be true or false. But [Mr. TAZEWELL,] from a citizen of that State, whose cha- here was danger, sir. What was the result of the ap racter as a most respectable man was vouched for by that prehensions it excited? Why, it was determined by the Senator. That letter now lies before me. It contains gentlemen from Tennessee and New Hampshire that plain, unequivocal charges of "partiality, mismanage- Mr. Hand should mind his business, and that the informament, fraud, and corruption," in the southern contracts tion ought to come from the Postmaster General himself. made during last October, for transporting the mail, alleg-[Mr. C. here read the journal of the committee on this ing that higher were preferred to lower bidders, without subject.] Thus, you see, sir, while the Postmaster Gecause, and thus offering to account in part for the waste neral is withholding all information from us until some of the funds. The writer desires that the committee few days before the close of the session, when we cannot should investigate the matter, and offers himself with the even examine his communication, we are, by the votes of names of some half a dozen other most respectable men, these gentlemen, prevented from seeking information from living in Virginia and North Carolina, whom he desires us other sources. to send for as witnesses, to substantiate the charges. The I shall not dwell, sir, on the rejection of Mr. Bradley's letter is laid before the committee. The charges are so letter-on the opposition of these gentlemen to his exstrong that it is considered by the committee necessary to amination--on the numerous objections which they have ask for power to send for persons and papers. The power taken to his evidence at different stages of the inquiry, is granted by the Senate; and as soon as the committee and which will prevent us from ever closing his testimony, meet to exercise the power in the very case which in- or taking any part of that of many other witnesses who duced them to ask for it, the members from Tennessee remain to be examined. But I will venture to predict and New Hampshire, joined by the member from Indiana, that, at the close of the session, and at a moment when it [Mr. HENDRICKS,] resolve that we shall call on the depart will be impossible for any one to examine his communica ment, to see if we cannot find in the Postmaster General's tion, Mr. Barry will report, and not till then.* But it is own hands sufficient affidavits and correspondence to sub- my duty, foreseeing, as I do, this result, and having obstantiate these charges against him; and that, after we have served all the shufHing which has occurred, to say now ascertained that we cannot find the proof there, we may that as no man can be condemned without a trial, so, too, send for the witnesses. This is determined when it is cer- there can be no acquittal without it. tain, from the distance of their residence, that any delay It has been told us by the gentleman from Tennessee, in sending for the witnesses must effectually prevent our that, should this inquiry proceed, Mr. Barry will refuse to obtaining their attendance. At the same time, objections answer it. It may be so, sir. We have indeed fallen upare made to the taking of any depositions. The gentle-on evil times. Yet I doubt much whether any chief of a man from Tennessee and myself are appointed to call on department dare refuse to answer to the Senate while that the Postmaster General, to learn if he will not convict him-body retains the spirit to vindicate its rights. And if the self without more proof, and, as he [Mr. GRUNDY] has day has indeed arrived when our power can be so contempstated in debate here, whenever I requested him to go, he tuously slighted--when we can be braved by every chief always informed me the Postmaster General was sick and of department or petty executive officer, it is time that we could not see us. So we did not go. In the mean time should leave our seats, and suffer the people to send men it became useless to send for the witnesses. We were of sufficient energy to represent them here, who will ascerwithin a few days of the end of the session, and thus, by tain the means by which every pumy whipster gets the a slight exercise of ingenuity, this part of the investigation sword and defies them to take it from him. Sir, I cannot was effectually suppressed. yet believe that we have fallen so low. It is true that the Postinaster General did, for nearly one whole year, omit to notice the resolution of the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. BURNET,] inquiring into the matter of the mail contracts. after this debate arose, and the refusal to present his answer [Mr. BENTON here called Mr. C. to order, and insisted that the proceedings of the committee should not be stated in debate. The CHAIR decided that Mr. C. was not out of order, and that he had a right to show the proceedings which had been so often referred to by all the members of the committee who had spoken before him. Mr. BENTON appealed to the Senate. Mr. GRUNDY said, he and all the other members of the committee had commented as fully as they pleased upon the proceedings. Mr. BENTON withdrew his appeal.] But Mr. Barry's report did not come in until the first of March, when, of course, it could not be even read by all the committee, and it con tains no answer whatever to any of the interrogatories in the letter of the 18th January, respecting the number of removals and the practice of removing without notice to the accused-nor any to the question whether the revenue had been anticipated by over-drafts on postmasters. It offers only an excuse for not answering the question in the letter of the 24th December What was the state of the funds on the 1st of October las:?" and alleges that the question, "What are the im Mr. CLAYTON proceeded. It would be well, Mr.provements or other causes which have caused the increased expendi President, for all such as wish to suppress debate as well as inquiry, to bear in mind, before they attempt it again, ture of 150,000 dollars more than was expended last year?", put to him FEB. 9, 1831.] Post Office Department. [SENATE. became the subject of complaint, we find that it has been may sleep there unrefuted, because they remain unknown paraded with much of stage effect on the table before us. until, in the lapse of time, when the men have been laid The gentleman from Tennessee points to it as a very mo- in their graves, these receptacles of filth may be opened nument of human industry. It contains, he says, work by the hand of malevolence, to tarnish the memory of those enough to make a volume. By examining it, it will be before whom, while living, the accusers dared not show found that three-fourths of the whole mass consists of their faces. His very statement of causes, therefore, exprinted bonds and contracts; and the residue of the an-hibits the strongest reason for demanding an exposition of swer to the inquiry which the Senator from Ohio made, the facts. But, sir, the blow is not merely levelled at the might be performed by a tolerable clerk in six weeks. hundreds of removed postmasters. It strikes directly at It has not been denied, you observe, that the informa- their late chief, who retained them all in office. The detion as to the contracts of Mr. McLean was, last year, in- claration thus made boldly to the world is, that he kept in serted in the resolution by the request of the present Post office some five or six hundred men, who were either master General; and his own answer to his own question, drunken, or were prying into correspondence, or were made with a view to excuse his own allowances by the ex- guilty of some other of the enormities enumerated in this ample of his predecessor, has caused by far the greater part list. The answer to it all, is, look at the state of the money of the labor which that resolution has imposed. Sir, the chest now, and remember what it was when John McLean Postmaster General may safely send here any information, was compelled to leave it, or surrender his independence while the gentlemen from Tennessee and New Hampshire as a man, and become the tool of this proscriptive and arstand ready to protect it from examination. This very bitrary power. mass of labor, which it has taken nearly a year to prepare, But the Senator from Tennessee finds another cause for as the gentlemen would have us believe, after undergoing suppressing the inquiry, in what he calls the verdict of the the careful supervision of all concerned during that time, people. The gentleman from Maine had complained of comes here, and when a motion is made to refer it to this the removal of some twenty-five postmasters in one of the committee, which is examining the subject of these con- counties of that State. The Senator from Tennessee says tracts, the gentlemen move its reference to another commit- he has no right to complain, because the people there tee, which it was well known did not intend to examine it, have sanctioned the proscription by giving their vote for and the whole subject is thus snatched from the investigating the administration. Sir, I pretend to know nothing of the committee. Strange, indeed, that an apprehension should case. But I may ask, did the people act with a view to be entertained, that in three weeks impeachable matter all the subordinate officers of the Government, when they might be discovered, among a mass of papers, which they merely approved of the general acts of the President? The say it required nearly a year to prepare. This, sir, is what conduct of these subordinates was probably no part of the I term stifling inquiry; and with what countenance these issue joined before the people. From the nature of things, gentlemen can complain of a charge made here, that they we must believe it could not have been so. So far from have stifled it, after this let the Senate and the public judge. passing sentence on the removed officers by their vote, the people probably were engrossed by what they deemed more important considerations affecting the general welfare of their country. But, sir, if they had acted with a view to these offices alone, would it have been quite fair to have urged the force of their verdict upon us? It would not sound well, in any supposable case, to offer bribes or threats to any part of the jury, and then plead their verdict in justification of the act; and the very evil complained of being the influence of Executive patronage on the elective franchise, I do not hesitate to say, without reference to the people of Maine, or any other particular State, that if you can find a case which has been decided by the influence of that patronage, you might as well boast that you had embraced a jury, and point in justification to the verdict, as to plume yourselves upon the effect which that patronage has produced. And if the argument has any weight, what shall be said of those verdicts which the people have rendered in other districts of country, where the proscription has been equally extensive, and where, in defiance of your patronage, the decision has been against you? And now, sir, to return to the resolution. It is declaratory of the limits of the commission under which the committee act, by its very terms. It affirms what is untrue, that we have no power, under our commission, to make this inquiry. The original resolution directs, as we have seen, an inquiry into the entire management of the Post Office Department." Why do not gentlemen say in terms, that their aim and object is to repeal a part of the powers originally conferred? Why not boldly avow at once, that the boastful defiance of inquiry, at the commencement of the session, when the committee was appointed, was but an empty vaunt, which it is now found necessary to retract? The gentleman from Tennessee says, that he can supply us with all the information on the subject of the causes of removals. He enumerates nine of these: 1st, Intemperance; 2d, Delinquency; 3d, Prying into letters; 4th, Concealing or withholding letters; 5th, Habitual negligence of duty; 6th, Incompetency; 7th, Refusal to comply with the regulations of the department; 8th, Discharging the postmasters' duties by deputies under age; 9th, Living off the post routes. And the honorable gentleman There is no department of this Government, sir, in sums up this list of causes with the sweeping declaration, which the people take so lively an interest as the post "that he has no doubt there has not been a single instance office. It should be so conducted as to secure their perof removal but for one or other of these causes!" Sir, fect confidence. It should, therefore, have no party chaare we to suppose that the Postmaster General instructed racter whatever. So anxious was Mr. Jefferson to deprive him to make such a declaration? The honorable member it of all political connexion, as we learn from his memoirs, can know but little on the subject, of his own knowledge. that he prohibited the employment of any printer in the He lives in a district whose political sins have not demand-department, even so far as to be concerned in the transed such expiation as this of removal from office. But we portation of the mail. Suppose that, in his day, or that who live north of the Potomac know, sir, that his enume- of any former President, it had been charged with operatration of causes is a gross insult to hundreds of our worthy ing on the elective franchise, and the rights of the States, citizens, who have been removed without any other trans- through the immense influence of an army of dependents, gression than that with which, according to the orthodox amounting to more than ten thousand men, with subsidizcreed emanating ex cathedra here, is denominated political ing the press, establishing a system of espionage, and heresy. In the mean time, sir, this declaration of the gen-wasting the public treasure in disbursements to political tleman shows us how just were our suspicions, that the favorites-I ask, would any party, at any former period, files of this department have been filled with groundless have had the hardihood, after an investigation had been accusations against the victims of its proscription, which set on foot to ascertain the truth of such conjectures, to VOL. VII.-12 SENATF.] Thomas Jefferson and his Daughter. [FEB. 10, 1831. suppress the investigation, or to restrict it in any particu- has too long slept in the bosoms of those who administer lar, for the purpose of preventing a complete development of all its operations? Yet such charges are now loudly proclaimed against it; such an investigation has been called for, and the very object of the resolution on your table is to close the door against inquiry. Sir, I have done. In the fearless discharge of my duty here, I may have drawn down on my own head the vengeance of a power, more terrible than any which all the other authorities of this Government combined can wield; but I should have proved a faithless representative, and recreant to the interests of the intrepid people who have never yet bowed to the terrors or the allurements of Executive influence, if I had shrunk from its performance. Note by Mr. C.-The following is an extract from the letter of the honorable John McLean to Mr. Barry, laid before the committee by their order: this Government. The name of Thomas Jefferson is identified with the independence and glory of this country, His eulogy is written in the pages of faithful history, and deeply impressed on the hearts of his countrymen. I will not deface the sublime and beautiful picture by any attempt to retouch it with the pencil of an unskilful artist; but it shall be my humble part simply to bring to the recollection of this honorable body the high claims of this eminent philosopher and statesman to the gratitude of the generation who survive him, and leave to others, better qualified for the task, the pleasing duty of illustrating the merits and distinguished services of one whose equal has seldom appeared on the great theatre of the political drama of the world. Washington, Lafayette, and their companions in arms, wielded the physical force of the colonies in our revolutionary struggle. Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and their compatriots in the cabinet, fought the "WASHINGTON, March 31, 1829. great moral battle of their oppressed country at that me"I cannot, in justice to myself and the public service, morable epoch. They boldly asserted those rights and refrain from recommending the continuance of the As- principles, which vindicated our cause throughout civilizsistant Postmasters General, who have been long identified ed Europe, and brought into action the invincible enerwith the department, and have been faithful to the trust gies of the American people, by whose perseverance and reposed. valor the chains of tyranny were broken, and the mer"I name those gentlemen to you, because I have un-cenaries of the tyrant driven from the land which they derstood that efforts are making to remove one or both of had dared to invade and desolate with conflagration, robthem. I should extremely regret such a step, as well on bery, and the sword. Under the influence of feelings your own account as that of the public. With the opera- honorable to our national character, which have been, on tions of the department, I am well acquainted. I am many occasions, signally manifested, the Congress of the anxious that its reputation shall be sustained, and I am United States, a few years past, by an almost unanimous convinced that this cannot be done if the above gentlemen vote, made a voluntary gift to General Lafayette, of the be removed. This remark is made with a perfect know- sum of two hundred thousand dollars, and a further donaledge of the facts." tion of a township of land equal in value to the additional sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This liberality to the hero who fought our battles, who espoused our cause, and shed his blood in our defence, and who has been the uniform friend of liberty in both hemispheres, met the approbation of the people at large. It has The VICE PRESIDENT took the occasion to say that, never been complained of by the most vigilant guardian of the public purse. after mature examination and deliberation, he was satisOur national gratitude to this distinfied that he had erroneously decided that the abovemen-guished man was due to his disinterested services and tioned bill could not be received. He considered that it sacrifices in the great cause of freedom, and the emanciwas at the disposal of the Senate, as other bills were. pation of these States from the galling yoke of despotic Mr. BENTON then gave notice that he would to-mor-power, wielded by the unrelenting arm of the British THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10. Mr. BENTON asked and obtained leave to withdraw the bill, which was laid on the table the other day, for the abrogation of the duty on alum salt. row ask leave to introduce a similar bill with some modification. monarch. It has imparted a lustre to the American name far more precious than the price at which it was obtained. Actuated by the same lofty considerations which governed THOMAS JEFFERSON AND HIS DAUGHTER. the National Legislature on that occasion, let us not forget Mr. POINDEXTER rose to ask leave to introduce the the testamentary bequest of the great author of the Declarabill of which he yesterday gave notice. He said that, ob- tion of Independence to his beloved country. Jefferson, serving in the Telegraph of this morning, in the report of whose name must be ever dear to the friends of human liberthe proceedings of the day before, an error, by which it ty throughout the world, in the last hour of his existence, appeared that he had presented a memorial from Martha bestowing an expiring thought on the political connexion Randolph, the daughter, and only surviving child of which had so long existed between himself and the AmeThomas Jefferson, deceased, it was due to the sensibility rican people, and feeling the pressure of his pecuniary of that lady, as well as to himself, to state, that, in giving circumstances, and the embarrassed condition of his affairs, notice of his intention to introduce a bill concerning the only surviving child of Thomas Jefferson, he was actuated solely by his own views of the high obligations of duty, and a desire to rescue the nation from the imputation of a want of gratitude to a departed statesman, who had so largely contributed to the establishment of this Government, and the free institutions under which we live. No memorial was either received or presented on this subject. No intimation whatever has been made of a desire to bring this question under the consideration of Congress by the individual named in the bill, which he had asked leave to introduce. He had no doubt that the error noticed was unintentional on the part of the editor of the Telegraph. Shall we limit our liberal donations to Lafayette, and a You will perceive, Mr. President, continued the elo- few others, and permit the only surviving child of Thomas quent Senator, that I have brought before this honorable Jefferson to linger in poverty in her native country, while body a proposition calculated to animate the patriotic every page of its history points to the glory which has feelings of every American citizen; a proposition which been shed over it by the acts of her illustrious father? I consoled his agitated spirits by the confidence which he reposed in the justice and benevolence of this nation; and, with his last breath, bequeathed his daughter and only surviving child to that country which he had so faithfully served, and of which he was the pride and ornament. Shall we then fold our arms in cold indifference, and, unmindful of him, whose enlightened mind and unbought patriotism gave impetus to the ball of the revolution, and fixed the great principles of this confederated republic, treat with unkind neglect the object dearest to his heart, which he had so confidently committed to our generous protection? FEB. 10, 1831.] Post Office Department. [SENATE. hope not. The ingratitude of republics is the favorite had-he declared that he thought them a fit subject for theme of tyrants, and of all those who urge that man is that operation which had been performed upon the record incapable of self-government. The despots of the world of Wilkes's expulsion from the British House of Commons-taunt us with this insulting epithet. We have shown them upon the record of the Yazoo fraud, in the Legislature of in the case of Lafayette that we do not deserve the foul Georgia--and upon the record of the Massachusetts Geneimputation. Let us follow up the good example by an ral Assembly, which declared it to be unbecoming the equal liberality to our own, our venerated Jefferson, and character of a moral and religious people to rejoice in the this stain on the fair fame of the republic will vanish into victories of their country. He declared it to be his delibethin air, and be remembered among the fables of a de-rate opinion that the history of the whole proceeding against ranged imagination. I now move, Mr. President, that Mr. Barry ought to be expunged from the journals of leave be given to bring in a bill according to the notice the Senate! Total expurgation from the journals was the which I gave yesterday, and that it be referred to a select committee. A bill "concerning Martha Randolph, the daughter and only surviving child of Thomas Jefferson, deceased," was then presented by Mr. POINDEXTER to the Chair, read a first and second time, and referred to a select committee, consisting of Mr. POINDEXTER, Mr. BELL, Mr. WEBSTER, Mr. TYLER, and Mr. HAYNE. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. The Senate again took up the resolution concerning the examination of witnesses as to the causes of their removal from office. Mr. CLAYTON concluded his speech against the resolution. [As reported above in yesterday's debate.] most appropriate means in the power of the Senate to restore its own injured character-to make atonement to the invaded privileges and insulted feelings of the House of Representatives; and what, perhaps, was still more important, to prevent this evil example, this horrid combination of the accusing and trying function, from being drawn into precedent in future times when the party in power, and predominant in the Senate, might want the spoils of a victim. If the American Cato, the venerable MACON, was here, it would be his part to become the guardian of the honor and dignity of the Senate: in his absence, that high duty might devolve, at an appropriate time, upon some aged Senator. If none such undertook it, it might become his part to consider how far their places ought to be supplied by a less worthy and less efficient member. Mr. WOODBURY then again rose. He regretted, he Mr. BENTON then rose and said, that he did not appear said, the course pursued by the gentlemen from Maine on the floor for the purpose of joining in the debate, nor and Delaware, especially by the latter. It had compelled to express any opinion on the truth of the allegations so him again to trespass on the indulgence of the Senate, violently urged against the Postmaster General. He had during the discussion of this resolution, although the subject no opinion on the matter, and did not wish to have one, must have become irksome. But new positions had been except it was that presumptive opinion of innocence which assumed--new insinuations uttered--new and extraordithe laws awarded to all who were accused, and which the nary accusations rung in the ears of this body and of the pure and elevated character of Mr. Barry so eminently whole community. Silence under them might be conclaims. If impeached, it might be his duty to sit in judg- strued into approbation. In repelling them, he disclaimed ment upon him--or, if he had an opinion in the case, to all that part of the compliment bestowed upon him, in retire from the judgment seat; as he could neither recon- connexion with his friend on the right, [Mr. GRUNDY,] cile it to the dictates of his conscience, nor the rights of that they were "most dexterous advocates of the Postthe accused, to take the oath of a judge, with a precon-master General." He, as an individual, was in this body ceived opinion in his bosom, to be dropped out as soon as the advocate of nobody. He acted in his station as a Senathe forms would permit. He rose, he repeated, not to tor, and only as a Senator; and whomsoever in a public accuse or absolve Mr. Barry, but to express his opinion of the station, he might be called upon, in the course of official character of the proceeding which was carrying on against duty, to vindicate or condemn, he should endeavor to do him, and to intimate an idea of what might be proper to it in a manner becoming that public station, and with a be done hereafter in regard to it. He then affirmed with single eye to the public interests. In the discharge of deep and evident feeling, that he looked upon the whole what had devolved on him, as a member of the special proceeding, from its first inception to that moment, as one Post Office Committee, in relation to the present debate, of eminent impropriety, compromising the judicial purity he had used, and should hereafter use, no dexterity beyond of the Senate on one hand, and invading the privileges of a dry appeal to our own congressional documents, and to the House of Representatives on the other. The Senate, such mathematical computations on their contents as every under the constitution, tries impeachments--the House of gentleman could disprove or verify for himself. Representatives prefers them. Each has its assigned part| Poetry had never before, but once, he believed, been to act, and it is an invasion of privilege for either to assume brought in aid of an examination into any of our fiscal conthe part of the other. If the tenth part of the matter so cerns; and though that was done by the head of a departfuriously urged against Mr. Barry was true, or even found-ment, he should beg leave to decline following both that ed in probability, he might come before the Senate for example and the example of the two gentlemen opposed trial; and it would be a horrid mockery of judicial forms for to this resolution, in preferring figures of rhetoric to figures his future judges to take the lead in the case of accusation, of arithmetic. Nor should he willingly follow the last and to excite, promote, foment, and instigate charges speaker in making political prophecies, whether as to men against him. To the House of Representatives belonged or measures. He felt much veneration for religious prothat part of the painful business; and the present proceed- phecies; but as for political ones, when uttered by politiing in the Senate must appear to them as an invasion of cians, who had made arrangements to bring about the their privilege, and an implied censure upon their negli- events foretold, and were endeavoring, he hoped in vain, gence. It did seem to him that the House of Representa- to verify their own predictions, he cherished not sufficient tives might take notice of the proceeding, and feel itself respect for such prophecies as to imitate such an example. bound to vindicate its rights; and the two Houses thus be The grave character of this body demanded of us to conbrought into serious collision. To avoid these consequen-sider that we were in fact examining the conduct of one ces, as well as to escape a compromise of the judicial cha- of the most elevated officers of the Government; an officer racter of the Senate, he was decidedly of opinion that the who, from his public station as well as his high personal debate and proceedings should terminate immediately. character, was entitled to at least ordinary comity, and an This would save the further evils to the Senate itself, which adherence, on our part, to a fair, manly, and liberal course might ensue. As to the past--the proceedings already of investigation. We were carrying a scrutiny into the |