A petition of Thomas Cooper, of the county of Northumberland, in the
State of Pennsylvania, was presented to the House and read, setting
forth that, in the month of April, eighteen hundred, he was tried and
condemned at Philadelphia, before Samuel Chase and Richard Peters,
judges of the circuit court of the United States there sitting, for
having written and published a libel upon the political character and
conduct of John Adams, the then President of the United States; and was
thereupon adjudged to pay a fine of four hundred dollars, and to suffer
an imprisonment of six months; which punishment he accordingly
underwent; that he apprehends the said trial, condemnation, and
punishment, were unjust: first, because the law, commonly called the
Sedition law, under which he was indicted, was passed in direct
opposition to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution of the
United States; and secondly, because the said judges did not only take
for granted the constitutionality of the said law, but did unjustly and
improperly refuse to grant him a _subpoena ad testificandum_, directed
to the said John Adams; and therefore praying such redress as the wisdom
of Congress shall deign to bestow.
Mr. GRISWOLD moved to reject the prayer of the petition.
Mr. GILES moved to postpone the consideration of the petition till the
third Monday in November.
On this motion a debate ensued, in which Mr. GILES and Mr. RANDOLPH
supported, and Mr. GRISWOLD and Mr. BAYARD opposed the motion.
The question on postponement was carried, by a large majority.
SATURDAY, May 1.
_Disbursement of Public Moneys._