PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



675 



been exercised for the public safety, such as may be 

 " deemed necessary " by any majority of the House. 

 The power itself seems to us too dangerous, the 

 claim of power too exaggerated, to be confided in 

 any body of men, and therefore most wisely retained 

 in the people themselves by the express words of 

 the Constitution. 



One need not have a lively imagination to divine 

 how that power of "purgation and purification" can 

 be used as a two-thirds majority shall "deem tho 

 public safety requires," so as to absorb all other pow- 

 ers or branches of the Government, and it may be the 

 rights and powers of the people themselves. For ex- 

 ample, the election of President of the United States 

 in certain contingencies, which have more than once 

 arisen in our history, is to be exercised by the 

 House of Representatives voting by States, and in 

 one of those very instances in the case of tho con- 

 test between Jefferson and Burr a single Repre- 

 sentative in a single State determined that contest. 

 How eas^ to change that vote, and the election of 

 the Presfdent of the whole people, bv the use of this 

 process of " purgation and purification " under the 

 plea of the "public safety," which has been the 

 foundation of the throne of every tyrant, and the 

 jsutification of every usurper and dictator i 



We can foresee also thin possible, nay, probable 

 danger, from the " purgation " by a majority of the 

 House of the Representatives from Nebraska, Neva- 

 da, Kansas, Oregon, Florida, and Delaware, on the 

 ground that has oeen sometimes stated here by Rep- 

 resentatives from the larger States, that they are 

 " rotten boroughs," too small to be made States, 

 and thus the vote of six States out of the thirty- 

 seven would be thrown out in a presidential election 

 by States ; and this claim that those States are too 

 small to be States would furnish a ready excuse, 

 when such an excuse is desired to accomplish a po- 

 litical end, to say nothing of the use of this power, 

 to expel a single member from one or more of the 

 balanced States where one majority in the delegation 

 would turn the election of President and Vice-presi- 

 dent under the claim of " purgation and purifica- 

 tion " for public safety. 



And the learned committee seem to us to have 

 been equally unfortunate in finding precedents for 

 this claim of power of expulsion of a member for acts 

 done before his election and as a member of the 

 House. 



The committee have cited but two precedents in 



that behalf, one the case of John Smith, a member of 



' the Senate from the State of Ohio, from which case 



they quote only the somewhat rhetorical report of 



Mr. Adams, in part in these words : 



The power of expelling a member for misconduct re- 

 snlte, on the principles of common-sense, from the In- 

 terests of the nation, that the high trust of legislation 

 hall be Invested In pare hands. 



The case of Smith, however, was an allegation 

 that while a Senator, during the very term at which 

 he was held to answer, he had been complicated in 

 the alleged treason of Aaron Burr. It is difficult 

 to see how that can be cited as authority as to a 

 crime committed before the accused was a mem- 

 ber. That case was not before the Senate. It is 

 observable that the learned committee forget to cite 

 the resolution of expulsion which concludes Mr. 

 Adams's report, and shows the fact in the following 

 words : 



That John Smith, a Senator from the State of Ohio, by 

 participation In the conspiracy of Aaron Burr aealnt 

 the peace, union, and liberties of the people of the TTnl ted 

 States, ha* been guilty of conduct Incompatible with his 

 duty and station as a Senator of the Tnlte'l States, and 

 that he be. and therefore In, expelled from the Senate of 

 the United States. 



And further, during the discussion no Senator 

 claimed that Mr. Smith could have been expelled for 

 any act done by him before his election. But, on the 

 contrary, Mr. Hillhouse, the able Senator from Con- 

 necticut, characterizes the report of Mr. Adams as 



" one containing principles which I can never sanc- 

 tion by my vote ; " " principles which would plant a 

 dagger in the bosom of civil liberty." 



We also take leave to suggest that the learned 

 committee might have given in their report a little 

 more prominence to the case of Humphrey Marshall, 

 of Kentucky, which they only casually mention, 

 wherein the same Senate refused to take cognizance 

 of the charge of perjury as a ground of expulsion 

 because the imputed offense had been committed 

 before the election of the Senator. 



In their only other citation your committee are 

 happy to find that they draw their inspiration from 

 the same source with the learned Committee on 

 Credit Mpbilier, which cites the case of John Wilkes 

 as establishing the doctrine that the House of Com- 

 mons of England, by the common Itx parliamentaria, 

 may expel a member for acts committed before he 

 was a member of that Houso. Your committee had 

 come to an entirely different conclusion upon this 

 case. They had supposed if any thing was settled 

 in the case of John Wilkes. it was that such act of 

 expulsion was contrary to the " liberties of the Com- 

 mons of England." 



It certainly cannot be held an authority for the 

 proposition that a member may be expelled for acts 

 done before he was a member of the body, because 

 the several acts of John Wilkes for which lie was 

 expelled were done after his election to that same 

 session of Parliament to which he was elected and 

 reelected. But a fortiori, because Wilkes was sus- 

 tained by every lover of principles of freedom, and 

 the acts of the House of Commons in his case have 

 always been cited as an instance for the tyranny of 

 parliamentary bodies. 



Your committee had believed until they read this 

 report that since the vote of the House of Commons 

 under the lead of the Liberals of England, had 

 blotted out the offensive record by ordering it to be 

 expunged from the journal " as subversive of the 

 rights of the whole body of electors of this king- 

 dom : " of the proceedings of a body led by the same 

 ministry who made war upon American rights and 

 liberties, conducted the aggressions which produced 

 the American Revolution, the conduct or such a 

 ministry would never find a defender, much less in 

 a committee of freemen to cite it as a precedent for 

 the action of a constitutional representative body of 

 a free people. 



Your committee believed, and still do believe, and 

 therefore aver, that the case of W ilkes was the cause 

 of the limitations upon the qualifications of mem- 

 bers put in our Constitution, and tho guarded power 

 of expulsion therein given to both Houses. The 

 case of Wilkes was as familiar to our Revolutionary 

 fathers when they framed our Government as is 

 Credit Mobilier to us. They had seen and felt the 

 effects of parliamentary oppressionj and they guard- 

 ed themselves sedulously from it in their Constitu- 

 tion of government. 



Nor are your committee shaken in their opinion 

 by the reasoning of that report that the difference 

 of Wilkes's case to distinguish it from the case they 

 had under advisement is, that Wilkes's was only a 

 case of a political offense, to wit, libel, and there- 

 fore not malum in le; because we are brought to 

 contemplate when that distinction is raised what 

 might be the condition df some members of tho 

 present House of Representatives in the opinion of 

 other members of this House, and probably some 

 one of that learned committee itself. 



It will be conceded that there is no higher crime 

 than treason known to a government of laws. It 

 has always been visited by tho direst punishment, 

 and in the country from which we received the body 

 of our laws the traitor was not allowed to bo buried. 

 Dismembered and disemboweled he saw his entrails 

 burned before his eyes while yet living, and his 

 head was.put upon a pike in its decay, grinning ter- 

 ror to like evil-doers, and his blood was held at- 

 tainted to the latest generation, so that no pure drop 



