MARCH, 1839.] Book Distribution. [25TH CONG. Mr. ALLEN also said that he had no knowl- | them-and sprung upon them in an irregular edge of any such resolution having passed, and manner, during the discussion of a pending he believed he was in the chamber at the time question-and complete the business before of its passage. them. The question on adjournment was taken and decided in the negative. Mr. WILLIAMS, of Mississippi, stated that he was in the chair when the consideration of the resolution was called for by the Senator from New York, (Mr. TALLMADGE.) The resolution was taken up, considered, and adopted, with all the forms that are usual on the passage of a resolution. He wished to know if the Senator-there is not a quorum of the Senate present. from Missouri intended to impute any incorrectness of conduct to the CHAIR in the proceedings on the resolution. Mr. BENTON. Not at all: not at all. He was out of his seat at the time, and knew nothing of what was done, or how it was done; he only knew it was quickly done. He was out of his seat but a few minutes; was invited out of it into a near room; was, in fact, invited out several times before he went; and was out but a few minutes. He knew nothing of what was done until since he came back. He certainly imputed no blame to the Senator from Mississippi: neither thought it nor imputed it. Mr. WRIGHT said he had looked at the resolution, and found that it contained the certificate of the Secretary, that it had passed. Without making any complaint as to the irregularity with which that resolution passed, he would only say that if their Secretary, or the Secretary of any other body distributed books under a resolution thus passed, he would, so far as he (Mr. W.) was concerned, do it upon his responsibility. Mr. TALLMADGE said, that as to the responsibility attending this resolution, he avowed himself willing to meet it there or before the country. He had called up the resolution, and it had been acted on at his instance. He acknowledged that advantage had been taken of time and circumstances, but the same advantage had been taken of him and others in various instances. He did not pretend to be much of a Jackson man, but he was perfectly willing, as regarded his participation in this matter, to meet the responsibility. Mr. HUBBARD, from the joint committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that the two Houses of Congress, having finished the business before them, were ready to adjourn, provided he had no further communications to make, reported that they had performed the duty assigned them, and had received for answer that the President had no further communications to make to Congress, and requested them to wish to each member of the Senate a safe return to his family and his home. Mr. WRIGHT moved that the Senate now adjourn. Mr. TALLMADGE hoped that the Senate would not adjourn until they had consummated the business before them; and they would disregard this Message, which had been sprung upon Mr. BENTON said this resolution could not pass. It was in the power of any one member to stop it, and he should use every effort to do so. It was then after midnight-it was two o'clock Messages of adjournment have passed between the two Houses and with the President, and no act, save the adjournment, can be done except by unanimous consent, which hides and covers up irregularities. The resolution had better be dropped; it cannot be passed; it will not be passed. Mr. B. said it was now after two o'clock-half-past two o'clock, and he moved that the Senate do now adjourn, and that the hour be entered on the journal. It was now half-past two o'clock on the 4th day of March, and the constitutional existence of the Senate was at an end. This was the fact, and he wanted it on the journal. Mr. TALLMADGE inquired if the motion to enter the hour on the journal was in order. The PRESIDENT said that by the rules, any member who moved an adjournment had the right to have the hour at which such motion was made entered on the journal. The entry was accordingly made on the journal. The PRESIDENT said that before taking the question on adjournment, he would ask the indulgence of the Senate to make a few remarks. He regretted exceedingly that he had left his situation in the chair for a moment, as it had led most probably to unpleasant feelings. He had hoped that at this hour, when they were about to separate, nothing would have occurred to mar the harmony of the body, or interrupt the feelings of personal kindness so appropriate to the occasion. He had endeavored, while presiding over their deliberations, to which he had been called by the kindness of the Senate, to discharge his duties to the extent of his ability-faithfully he believed, honestly he knew he had; and he regretted, deeply regretted, that any thing should have occurred during his temporary absence from the chair, to induce unpleasant feelings, and prevent a harmo nious adjournment. Mr. BENTON said that every word spoken by the PRESIDENT, (Mr. KING,) went into his heart, and found a resting-place there. Like him, he wished a harmonious adjournment; like him, he wished all to separate with feelings of personal kindness; and for that very purpose, he had moved the adjournment. It was the quiet and easy way to get rid of an unpleasant subject; to avoid a struggle which will lead to no results; for the resolution could not become a law. He wished to drop it as it was; and then there would be nothing to mar 3D SESS.] Book Distribution. [MARCH, 1839. the kind feelings which prevailed, and which | until he was informed that it had passed. He all would wish, with the PRESIDENT, to see pre- was in favor of the object of the resolution, and served. would have voted for it if he had been aware of The question was then taken on the adjourn-its having been before the Senate. ment, and decided in the negative, as follows: YEAS.-Messrs. Allen, Benton, Buchanan, Hub bard, King, and Williams of Mississippi-6. Mr. BENTON said it was now entered on the journal that it was half-past two o'clock in the morning, and no quorum, only eighteen members present, and he now made a motion, which was addressed to the PRESIDENT himself. In doing so, he would cite the example of Mr. Macon, whom they all knew, and than whom no man was more scrupulous. Mr. Macon held that at twelve o'clock at night, on the 3d of March of the short session, his powers as a Senator ceased, and if the Senate was not willing to adjourn at that time, he went away. Now, Mr. President, (said Mr. B.,) I believe that at this hour, half-past two o'clock in the morning of the 4th of March, you have no authority here, and I have no right to address you. I therefore mean to make the question with you, whether, at this hour, you have power to act. The CHAIR has given notice that he is going to sign the resolution, and I object to it. It is the 4th of March, and no quorum. The PRESIDENT said it was a very common thing at the close of the Congress to sit and do business after midnight on the 3d of March. Mr. BENTON said he knew it was, but in such cases the fact was kept out of the journal; all appeared there to have been done on the 3d of March. The journal went on headed the 3d, and the approvals of the President bore date the 3d. But now this is not the case. The time is marked on the journal; it is marked the morning of the 4th, and the whole proceeding will be invalid on its face. The PRESIDENT was of opinion that he could not sign the resolution when a quorum of the Senate was not present, and so stated to the Senate. Mr. BENTON said, as there was no quorum present, he hoped the Senate would adjourn. Several members said they hoped not; that a quorum would be soon present, and said that the CHAIR could despatch the Sergeant-at-arms after the absentees. Mr. BENTON said they had no right to send the Sergeant-at-arms after members; that all power over Senators was at an end. Mr. WALKER said, in regard to the resolution, he had understood such a one was to be offer ed, and not having been offered, he had con cluded that it had been abandoned. The first actual knowledge he had of the resolution being before the Senate, was hearing its title pronounced by the voice of his colleague, (Mr. WILLIAMS.) I did not know what it meant. He read the resolution. I heard him distinctly put the question; and the various questions that are usually put on the passage of a resolution, were put as fully, and as clearly, as they generally are, and the question was carried as fairly, and the Senate was as full, as it was when a majority of the acts passed by that body were carried. Mr. ROANE said that he knew no more of the passage of that resolution than the child unborn. He must have been in the chamber at the time, but he had never heard it called up, nor any question taken on it. With respect, however, to these Madison papers, he looked on them in a very different light from the trash that was so often published by Congress. He had received this very evening, from a distinguished gentleman in Virginia, a letter asking information about them. It was a letter abounding with good sense, and placing a proper estimation on these papers. With this letter in his hand, he went round to the seat of his friend from Missouri, and endeavored to soften his rigid resolution with regard to the distribution of books, so as to make the Madison papers an exception. He endeavored to put these papers in contrast with the trash that was put abroad under the sanction of Congress, which may, perhaps, form the materials for a spurious history of the country. He represented that these Madison papers had already been published, and that there would be an absurdity, after paying for them, to put them away in the garret, with the trash that has lumbered there among the cobwebs of time. The Senator from Missouri stated the terms on which he would agree to the distribution of this particular work, and that was, to make a general distribution throughout the Union and into every State; and he desired me to go to the Secretary's table, and get the Clerk to make out a list of the general distribution of documents, and then he would support it. Mr. R. then descanted at length on the great value of the Madison papers; the importance that the information contained in them should be dissemi The question was then taken on adjourn-nated as widely as possible, and the absurdity ment, and decided in the negative. Mr. MERRICK then made a few remarks in relation to the passage of the resolution. He said he was in his seat in the Senate, but knew not of the passage of this resolution. In fact, he did not know that the resolution had been presented for the consideration of the Senate, of locking them up from the public view, after having paid for printing them. He did not consider the works of James Madison of the same nature with those publications with which it had been the custom of the two Houses to supply their members-" a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance " MARCH, 1839.] Book Distribution. [25TH CONG. and he hoped that the resolution of the Senator | exist. The resolution could not be carried: from Missouri, with regard to distributing there is no authority existing which could carry books, would not, like the rigid laws of the Medes and Persians, be applied to them. Mr. BENTON said the reference of the Senator from Virginia (Mr. ROANE) to him was correct; he had refused to agree to a distribution of the Madison papers to the members of Congress, but was willing to a general distribution, according to the general distribution of documents; and desired the Senator from Virginia to get that list from one of the clerks, and either to omit the members of Congress, or require them to pay the cost. This general distribution would carry the work into every | State-its Senate and House of Representatives -its Executive office-its colleges and universities to all the Executive offices of the General Government-to the library of Congress -to the offices of the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives, and many others. It would distribute eleven or twelve hundred copies, and place them in every part of the Union, and in the best hands for preservation and for use. Gentlemen were debating as if the only alternatives were between an exclusive and gratuitous distribution of these papers to members of Congress, or a consignment of them to the worms in the garret, and an everlasting loss of them to mankind. This was rather wild. The distribution which he proposed would have saved them from the worms, would have given them to the whole Union, and to all mankind; it would have curtailed nobody but members of Congress. it. Mr. FOSTER said that he would carry it. He was a member on the part of the Senate of the Joint Committee, and he had once carried a bill to the President alone, but he had ascertained that he had made a mistake. [Mr. FOSTER and Mr. MERRICK, the committee on the part of the Senate, then left the chamber with the joint resolution.] Mr. BENTON said the impediments were not yet surmounted, there was a little difficulty to be encountered, when the committee got back. He had the rules in his hand, and would read them at the proper time. It is now 4 o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 4th of March; the House of Representatives adjourned and gone, and no quorum here. There are obstacles ahead. Mr. WHITE said he would state what he knew respecting the passage of this resolution. He had just come into the Senate chamber, when he heard the Senator occupying the chair (Mr. WILLIAMS) ask if a resolution should be taken up. If he gave it any particular designation, it escaped my ear. The presiding officer put the question, and it was passed, several voices voting in the affirmative. Not knowing what it was, or what it contained, I asked for the reading of it, and it was handed to me. As there was no discussion on the subject, no division asked, and none taken, and consequently deeming the question an unimportant one, he voted neither aye nor noe. He himself was opposed to the principle of distributing books among the members of Congress; but none of those whose lead he was accustomed to follow on this subject, opposing this resolution, and on The PRESIDENT said that on further consideration, and consulting the rules, he was of opinion, that it did not require a quorum to be present to authorize the signing of a bill or resolution. It was not properly an act of legis-looking around and observing that the Senator lation, but merely a signing to be done by the CHAIR to authenticate the act. Holding this opinion, he would now proceed to sign the joint resolution. Mr. BENTON said the signing could only be done in the presence of the Senate, and there was no Senate when there was no quorum. Every signing was a public act. The presiding officer gave audible notice of it; the Senate ceased to act; no Senator could speak; nothing could be done while the PRESIDENT was signing. Mr. B. was clearly of opinion that acts could only be signed when the Senate was formed and a quorum present. The CHAIR then signed the resolution. Mr. ALLEN said that the resolution could not now go to the President for his signature. There is no committee of the House of Representatives which is necessary to form the joint committee, to join the committee on the part of the Senate to carry it. The House of Representatives has adjourned and dispersed, and the two members who composed part of the Joint Committee to take bills to the President, had ceased to exist as members of Congress; the body to which they belonged had ceased to from Missouri (Mr. BENTON) was not in his seat, he thought it was an unimportant matter, and did not expect to hear any thing more about it. [The committee who waited on the PRESI DENT for his signature to the joint resolution, having arrived in the Senate chamber,] Mr. BENTON rose to a point of order to have things done in order. One of the most solemn acts of the two Houses is that of sending bills to the President to be signed: it has to be done in a prescribed form, and reported and recorded in a prescribed form. Upon this depends all the questions connected with the ten days' constitutional right of the President to retain a bill-his culpability if he does not return it -the prevention of the return by the adjournment of Congress-the efficacy of the bill as a law, if not returned in time, unless prevented by an adjournment. All this makes the presentation of the bill to the President one of the most formal and serious acts of legislation; and therefore the rules had carefully provided to make the presentation a matter of record in each House of Congress-a record, the verity of which could not be impeached, and which 3D SESS.] Adjournment. [MARCH, 1839. would require no extensive evidence to support | stating that they still insisted, and asked a it. A standing committee was to carry it: committee of conference, having appointed a that committee was to be joint: it was to be committee of three on their part. composed of two members from each House; and these two members of each House were to make report to their Houses respectively that the bill had been presented, carefully stating the day on which it was presented; and then this report was to be entered on the journals of each House. [Mr. B. here read the rules, to show that he stated them correctly.] He said these rules could not have been complied with in this case. The joint standing committee was dissolved by the dissolution of the House of Representatives. The half committee of the Senate was a nonenity without the other half from the House of Representatives. No record could be made in the House of Representatives, which had been adjourned for two hours, and no such record can be made here, as the rules imperatively require. I call the attention of the Secretary of the Senate to the rules in the entry which he is to make. The Senators will report what they have done; and that is, they went without the committee of the House to the President, and went on the 4th of March; and there ends the work for which we have been kept here so many hours. It drops now, as I proposed it should drop three hours ago. Mr. CAMBRELENG moved to concur in the resolution for a conference, which was agreed to, and, on his motion, a committee of three was appointed on the part of the House, consisting of Mr. BOND of Ohio, Mr. ATHERTON of New Hampshire, and Mr. LINCOLN of Massachusetts. About seven o'clock at night, Mr. BOND made a report from the Committee of Conference, which recommended the Senate, in part, to recede, and in part to insist, upon their amendment, with the addition that the printing shall be executed in the city of Washington; and recommended that the Senate recede from part of their amendment striking out the appropriation for the Documentary History, but only so far as the House was concerned, the Senate abstaining from taking the books. The report was concurred in without a division; but, at a subsequent stage, at the instance of Mr. BELL, Mr. BOND moved a reconsideration of the vote by which the last matter was agreed to; and, after a desultory discussion by Messrs. BOND, LINCOLN, and BELL, Mr. WILLIAMS, of Kentucky, said that, rather than peril a bill upon which the temporary existence of the Government depended, upon a mere point of etiquette, he should demand the previous question; and it was seconded, car Mr. MERRICK reported that within the last hour the committee had placed in the hands of the President a joint resolution for the distri-ried, and the main question ordered and put, bution, in part, of the Madison papers. Mr. TALLMADGE moved that the Senate adjourn sine die. Mr. BENTON asked if a minority of the Senate could adjourn sine die. He thought they could only adjourn from day to day, until a quorum was present. The PRESIDENT decided that the Senate could adjourn sine die, and when the House refused to reconsider-ayes 54, nays 84. On motion of Mr. CAMBRELENG, the House went into Committee on the Union, Mr. BRIGGS in the chair. Madison Papers. The House concurred in the resolution of the Senate to suspend the 16th and 17th joint rules The Senate adjourned sine die at 20 minutes of the House, so as to pass a joint resolution to past 4 o'clock, a. M. provide for the distribution, in part, of the Madison papers. The joint resolution was soon after received, and, having been read twice, Mr. WISE briefly supported it. Mr. PETRIKIN was not opposed to the resolution, but he would take that occasion to remark that the charge brought by Mr. BELL against the Senate was now proven to be unfounded. The resolution was then put on its third reading, and the question being on its passage Mr. DROMGOOLE called for the yeas and nays; but they were refused, and the resolution was passed without a division. Adjournment. Mr. CUSHMAN, from the Joint Committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that, unless he had further communications to make, both 778 MARCH, 1839.] their homes. ABRIDGMENT OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Adjournment. A motion was made by Mr. CONNOR that the House adjourn without day, when The SPEAKER rose, and addressed the House as follows: [25TH CONG., 3D SESS. Houses were ready to close the present session, | deliberations of the representatives of the people. reported that they had performed that duty, It has been made my duty to decide more questions and were informed by the President that he of parliamentary law and of order, many of them of had no further communication, but he wished a complex and difficult character, arising often in the the members all a safe and happy return to midst of high excitement, in the course of our proceedings, than had been decided, it is believed, by all my predecessors, from the foundation of this Government. This House has uniformly sustained me, without distinction of the political parties of which it has been composed. Our records will show, that upon the numerous appeals which have been taken to the House, I have been sustained by both political parties, and often by decided and large majorities. Though doubtless I may often have fallen into error in promptly deciding novel questions, suddenly raised, I trust it was not on points material, and I know it was never intended. I return to this House my thanks for their constant support in the discharge of the arduous and difficult duties I have had to perform. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: In taking leave of this body, in all probability forever, emotions are excited which no language can adequately convey. When I look back to the period when I first took my seat in this House, and then look around me for those who were at that time my associates here, I find but few, very few, remaining. But five members who were here with me fourteen years ago, continue to be members of this body. My service here has been constant and laborious. I can, perhaps, say what but few others, if any, can—that I have not failed to attend the daily sittings of this House a single day since I have been a member of it, save on a single occasion, when prevented for a short time by indisposition. In my intercourse with the members of this body, when I occupied a place upon the floor, though occasionally engaged in debates upon interesting public questions, and of an exciting character, it is a source of unmingled gratification to me to recur to the fact, that on no occasion was there the slightest personal or unpleasant collision with any of its members. Maintaining, and at all times expressing, my own opinions firmly, the same right was fully conceded to others. Our discussions were at that time conducted with that courtesy and decorum, and respect for the opinion of others, which ought ever to prevail in a deliberative assembly. For four years past the station I have occupied, and a sense of propriety, in the divided and unusually excited state of public opinion and feeling, which has existed both in this House and in the country, have precluded me from participating in your debates. Other duties were assigned me. The high office of Speaker, to which it has been twice the pleasure of this House to elevate me, has been at all times one of labor and high responsibility. Its difficult, and often delicate, duties have been fully appreciated and freely expressed by all my predecessors. They have all borne testimony to the difficulty, nay, impossibility, of discharging its duties with entire satisfaction to all, especially in seasons of high political or party excitement. Whilst they have borne this testimony, I think I may truly affirm that none of them have had a severer ordeal to pass than has fallen to my lot. Frequent have been the occasions when, but for the indulgent and liberal support at all times given to me by this House, I should have been utterly unable to preserve that order and decorum which should ever attend the But, gentlemen, my acknowledgments are especially due to the majority of this House for the high and flattering evidence they have given me of their approbation of my conduct as the presiding officer of the House, by the resolution you have been pleased to pass. I regard this as the highest and most valued testimonial I have ever received from this House, because I know that the circumstances under which it has passed has made it matter of substance, and not of mere form. I regard it as of infinitely more value than if it had been the common matter-ofcourse and customary resolution, which, in the cour tesy usually prevailing between the presiding officer and the members of any deliberative assembly, is always passed at the close of their deliberations. That is unmeaning-is indiscriminately conferred—is a mere act of courtesy, and possesses, comparatively, but little value. I return to the majority of this House, what I sincerely feel, my grateful thanks for this high evidence of their approbation and regard, given, as it has been, at a time of high party excitement, which, in the accomplishment of party and political objects, but too often disregards all other considerations. I shall bear it in grateful remembrance to the latest hour of my life. I trust this high office may in future times be filled, as doubtless it will be, by abler men. It cannot, I know, be filled by any one who will devote himself with more zeal and untiring industry to do his whole duty than I have done. We are now about to separate, many of us never again to meet. I wish you, gentlemen, a safe return to your families and friends; and whatever our respective future destinies may be, my prayer to a beneficent and overruling Providence is, that our fu ture lives may be useful and happy. The SPEAKER then announced that the House stood adjourned without day. The House, at two o'clock, A. M., adjourned sine die. |