_Resolved_, That the Committee of Privileges be, and they are hereby,
directed to consider and report what measures it will be proper for the
Senate to adopt, in relation to a publication in the newspaper, printed
in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday morning the 19th of February,
1800, called the General Advertiser, or Aurora; in which it is asserted,
that the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of
PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES had passed the
Senate, when in fact it had not passed; in which it is also asserted,
that the honorable Mr. Pinckney, a Senator from the State of South
Carolina, and a member of the committee who brought before the Senate
the bill aforesaid, had never been consulted on the subject; whereas, in
fact, he was present at each meeting of the committee; and, generally,
to report what measures ought to be adopted in relation to sundry
expressions contained in said paper, respecting the Senate of the United
States, and the members thereof, in their official capacity.
TUESDAY, March 18.
_Breach of Privilege._
The Senate took into consideration the report of the Committee of
Privileges, on the measures that will be necessary to adopt in relation
to a publication in the newspaper, printed in the city of Philadelphia,
on Wednesday morning, the 19th of February last, called the General
Advertiser, or Aurora; and,
On motion to adopt the first resolution reported, it was agreed to
divide the motion, and that the question should be taken on the
following words:
_Resolved_, That the said publication contains assertions,
and pretended information, respecting the Senate, and the
Committee of the Senate, and their proceedings, which are
false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious; tending to
defame the Senate of the United States, and to bring them
into contempt and disrepute, and to excite against them the
hatred of the good people of the United States.
And on the question, to adopt this part of the resolution, reported by
the committee, it passed in the affirmative--yeas 20, nays 8, as
follows:
YEAS.--Messrs. Anderson, Bingham, Brown, Chipman, Dayton,
Dexter, Foster, Goodhue, Greene, Gunn, Hillhouse, Laurance,
Livermore, Lloyd, Paine, Read, Ross, Schureman, Tracy, and
Wells.
NAYS.--Messrs. Baldwin, Bloodworth, Cocke, Franklin,
Langdon, Marshall, Mason, and Nicholas.
WEDNESDAY, March 19.
The Senate resumed the consideration of the report of the Committee of
Privileges, on the measures proper to adopt in relation to a publication
in the newspaper called the Aurora, of the 19th of February last; and it
was agreed to amend the second member of the first resolution reported,
as follows: "and that the said publication is a high breach of the
privileges of this House;" and, on the question to agree thereto, as
amended, it was determined in the affirmative--yeas 17, nays 11, as
follows:
YEAS.--Messrs. Bingham, Chipman, Dexter, Foster, Goodhue,
Greene, Gunn, Hillhouse, Laurance, Livermore, Lloyd, Paine,
Read, Ross, Schureman, Tracy, and Wells.
NAYS.--Messrs. Anderson, Baldwin, Bloodworth, Brown, Cocke,
Franklin, Langdon, Marshall, Mason, Nicholas, and Pinckney.
THURSDAY, March 20.
The Senate resumed the consideration of the report of the Committee of
Privileges, on the measures proper to be adopted in relation to a
publication of the 19th of February last, in the newspaper called the
Aurora; and it was agreed to fill the blanks in the second resolution
reported, with the words "Monday 24th, twelve o'clock," and, at the
close of the resolution, with the words "twenty-second;" and,
On motion, to adopt this part of the report, as follows:
_Resolved_, That William Duane, now residing in the city of
Philadelphia, the editor of the said newspaper called the
General Advertiser, or Aurora, be, and he is hereby,
ordered to attend at the bar of this House, on Monday, the
24th day of March inst., at 12 o'clock, at which time he
will have an opportunity to make any proper defence for his
conduct, in publishing the aforesaid false, defamatory,
scandalous, and malicious assertions, and pretended
information; and the Senate will then proceed to take
further order on the subject; and a copy of this and the
foregoing resolution, under the authentication of the
Secretary of the Senate of the United States, and attested
as a true copy by James Mathers, Sergeant-at-Arms for the
said Senate, and left by the said Sergeant-at-Arms with the
said William Duane, or at the office of the Aurora, on or
before the twenty-second day of March instant, shall be
deemed sufficient notice for the said Duane to attend in
obedience to this resolution:
It passed in the affirmative--yeas 18, nays 10, as follows:
YEAS.--Messrs. Bingham, Chipman, Dayton, Dexter, Foster,
Goodhue, Greene, Gunn, Hillhouse, Laurance, Livermore,
Lloyd, Paine, Read, Ross, Schureman, Tracy, and Wells.
NAYS.--Messrs. Anderson, Baldwin, Bloodworth, Cocke,
Franklin, Langdon, Marshall, Mason, Nicholas, and Pinckney.
So the report of the committee was adopted, as follows:
Whereas, on the 19th day of February, now last past, the
Senate of the United States, being in session, in the city
of Philadelphia, the following publication was made in the
newspaper, printed in the said city of Philadelphia, called
the General Advertiser, or Aurora, viz:
"In our paper of the 27th ult. we noticed the introduction
of a measure into the Senate of the United States, by Mr.
Ross, calculated to influence and affect the approaching
Presidential election, and to frustrate, in a particular
manner, the wishes and interests of the people of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
"We this day lay before the public a copy of that bill as
it has passed the Senate.
"Some curious facts are connected with this measure, and
the people of the Union at large are intermediately, and
the people of this State immediately interested to consider
the movements, the mode of operation, and the effects.
"We noticed a few days ago the caucuses (or secret
consultations) held in the Senate Chamber. An attempt was
made in an evening paper to give a counteraction (for these
people are admirable at the system of intrigue) to the
development of the Aurora, and to call those meetings
jacobinical; we must cordially assent to the jacobinism of
those meetings--they were in the perfect spirit of a
jacobinical conclave.
"The plain facts we stated are, however, unquestionable;
but we have additional information to give on the subject
of those meetings. We stated, that intrigues for the
Presidential election were among the objects; we now state
it as a fact that cannot be disputed upon fair ground, that
the bill we this day present was discussed at the caucus on
Wednesday evening last.
"It is worthy of remark how this bill grew into existence.
"The opponents of independence and republican Government,
who supported Mr. Ross in the contest against Governor
McKean, are well known by the indecency, the slander, and
the falsehood of the measures they pursued--and it is well
known that they are all devoted to the Federal party, which
we dissected on Monday. Mr. Ross proposed this bill in the
Federal Senate, (how consistently with the decency of his
friends will be seen;) a committee of five was appointed to
prepare a bill on the subject: on this committee, Mr.
Pinckney, of South Carolina, was appointed. On Thursday
morning last (the caucus held the preceding evening) Mr.
Ross informed Mr. Pinckney that the committee had drawn up
a bill on the subject, when in fact Mr. Pinckney had never
been consulted on the subject, though a member of the
committee! The bill was introduced and passed as below.
"On this occasion it may not be impertinent to introduce an
anecdote which will illustrate the nature of caucuses, and
show that our popular Government may, in the hands of a
faction, be as completely abused as the French Constitution
has been, by the self-created Consuls:
"In the summer session of 1798, when Federal thunder and
violence were belched from the pestiferous lungs of more
than one despotic minion, a caucus was held at the house of
Mr. Bingham, in this city. It was composed of members of
the Senate, and there were present seventeen members. The
Senate consisting of thirty-two members, this number was of
course a majority, and the session was a full one.
"Prior to deliberation on the measures of war, navy, army,
democratic proscription, &c., it was proposed, and agreed
to, that all the members present should solemnly pledge
themselves to act firmly upon the measures to be agreed
upon by the majority of the persons present at the caucus.
"The measures were perfectly in the high tone of that
extraordinary session. But upon a division of the caucus it
was found that they were divided, nine against eight. This
majority, however, held the minority to their engagement,
and the whole seventeen voted in Senate upon all the
measures discussed at the caucus.
"Thus it is seen that a secret self-appointed meeting of
seventeen persons dictated laws to the United States, and
not only that nine of that seventeen had the full command
and power over the consciences and votes of the other
eight, but that nine possessed, by the turpitude of the
eight, actually all the power which the constitution
declares shall be vested in the majority only. In other
words, a minority of nine members of the Senate ruled the
other twenty-three members.
"It is easily conceivable, as in the recent changes in
France, that this spirit of caucusing may be conducted in
progression down to two or three persons; thus three
leading characters may agree to act upon measures approved
by any two of them; these three may add two others, and
they would be a majority of five: and those adding four
others would be a majority of nine; and this nine possess
all the power of a majority of twenty-three!
"Yet such is the way we are treated by those who call
themselves Federalists.
"The following bill is an offspring of this spirit of
faction secretly working; and it will be found to be in
perfect accord with the outrageous proceedings of the same
party in our State Legislature, who are bent on depriving
this State of its share in an election that may involve the
fate of the country and posterity."
_Resolved_, That the said publication contains assertions
and pretended information, respecting the Senate, and the
Committee of the Senate and their proceedings, which are
false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious, tending to
defame the Senate of the United States, and to bring them
into contempt and disrepute, and to excite against them the
hatred of the good people of the United States: and that
the said publication is a high breach of the privileges of
this House.
_Resolved_, That William Duane, now residing in the city of
Philadelphia, the editor of the said newspaper called the
General Advertiser, or Aurora, be, and he is hereby,
ordered to attend at the bar of this House on Monday, the
24th day of March, inst., at 12 o'clock, at which time he
will have opportunity to make any proper defence for his
conduct, in publishing the aforesaid false, defamatory,
scandalous, and malicious, assertions and pretended
information; and the Senate will then proceed to take
further order on the subject: and a copy of this and the
foregoing resolution, under the authentication of the
Secretary of the Senate of the United States, and attested
as a true copy by James Mathers, Sergeant-at-Arms for the
said Senate, and left by the said Sergeant-at-Arms with the
said William Duane, or at the office of the Aurora, on or
before the twenty-second day of March, instant, shall be
deemed sufficient notice for the said Duane to attend in
obedience to this resolution.
SATURDAY, March 22.
Mr. DAYTON, from the Committee of Privileges, to whom it was referred to
prepare and lay before the Senate a form of proceedings in the case of
William Duane, reported in part; which report was read, amended, and
agreed to, as follows:
When William Duane shall present himself at the bar of the
House, in obedience to the order of the 20th inst., the
President of the Senate is to address him as follows:
1st. William Duane:
You stand charged by the Senate of the United States, as
editor of the newspaper called the General Advertiser, or
Aurora, of having published in the same, on the 19th of
February, now last past, false, scandalous, defamatory, and
malicious assertions, and pretended information, respecting
the said Senate and Committee of the Senate, and their
proceedings, tending to defame the Senate of the United
States, and to bring them into contempt and disrepute, and
to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the
United States; and therein to have been guilty of a high
breach of the privileges of this House.
Then the Secretary shall read the resolutions of the
Senate, passed the 20th instant, with the preamble; after
which the President is to proceed as follows, viz:
1st. Have you any thing to say in excuse or extenuation for
said publication?
2dly. If he shall make no answer, the Sergeant-at-Arms
shall take him into custody, and retire with him from the
Senate Chamber until the Senate shall be ready for a
decision, at which time the Sergeant-at-Arms shall again
set him at the bar of the House, and the President of the
Senate is to pronounce to him the decision.
3dly. If he shall answer, he is to continue at the bar of
the House until the testimony (if any be adduced) shall be
closed, and he shall retire while the Senate are
deliberating on the case; and when a decision is agreed
upon, the said Duane, being notified of the time by the
Sergeant-at-Arms, verbally, or by a written notice left at
his office, shall appear at the bar of the House, and the
President of the Senate is to pronounce to him the
decision.
MONDAY, March 24.
The VICE PRESIDENT communicated a letter, signed William Duane,
requesting to be heard by counsel, and have process awarded to compel
the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, on the summons served on him
the 22d inst., for a high breach of the privileges of the Senate; which
letter was read.
A motion was made that William Duane be permitted to be heard by
counsel, agreeably to his request; and, after debate, the said William
Duane appeared at the bar of the House, agreeably to the summons of the
22d instant; a return thereon having been made in the words following:
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, _March 21, 1800_.
Then I, the subscriber, Sergeant-at-Arms for the Senate of
the United States, left a true and attested copy of the
within at the office of the Aurora.