e2 



have the message committed to a committee of which he was a 

 member, but the motion had not prevailed He had, however, 

 hoped, since he had desisted from again requesting the letter, that 

 no other gentleman would have proposed it. It was manifest that 

 it had been withheld to prevent the excitement and ill blood which 

 the contents might produce. He hoped the resolution would not 

 be adopted, 



Mr. Fuller said, he was happy to hear from the gentleman from 

 Virginia, that he had been induced to abstain from a further, call 

 for Mr. R's letter to prevent the excitement of" ill blood," and he 

 would by no means be behind him, (Mr. Floyd,) in such a laud- 

 able intent ; but, in his opinion, the communication of the letter, 

 and of the explanation of the other commissioners, to Congress 

 and to the public, would have a far greater tendency to allay the 

 ill blood, if any existed, than the suppression of the explanation, 

 while the letter was in effect made public. The President's mes- 

 sage informed us, Mr. Fuller said, that he had transmitted the letter 

 to the Department of State, and directed copies of it to be delivered 

 to persons who should apply ; consequently, it would soon reach 

 the newspapers, while the comments or explanations which ought 

 to accompany it would be effectually suppressed. Nothing, in his 

 opinion, could be more unfair than thus to stifle all reply. It re- 

 minded him, he said, of what he had of late frequently witnessed 

 in this House, when some bill was pending, and, before it was un- 

 derstood, one of its opposers would make a speech against it, and 

 conclude with a motion to lay it on the table, which precluded all 

 debate, and, consequently, all explanation. The indignation pro- 

 duced by such a course every gentleman must have observed and 

 sometimes have felt. There was nothing so safe and honourable 

 as a full disclosure of the statements of both sides. He regretted, 

 he said, that his colleague, the writer of the letter, was not in his 

 seat, as he was sure he could not object to the call, more especially 

 as it appeared from the message, that the gentleman himself had 

 furnished to the Department a duplicate or copy of that letter to 

 be communicated to Congress before the original had been found. 

 As to the suggestion that the Ghent correspondence or the letter 

 in question could throw a single ray of light on the subject of the 

 occupation of Columbia river, it was too improbable, Mr. Fuller said, 

 to have ever entered his mind ; but if the gentleman from Virginia 

 (Mr. Floyd) had expected it at first, he could see no reason for 

 his giving over the pursuit. He hoped the House would see the 

 obvious justice of adopting the resolution. 



Mr. Cocke said, he could see no reason for calling ^or the letter; 

 the President had declined communicating it, and, therefore, he. 

 thought it not proper in the House to persist in the call. 



Mr. Sergeant said, he rose to correct the error into which the 

 gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cocke) had fallen, in supposing 

 the President had *' declined" communicating Mr Russell's letter. 

 It appeared, on recurring to the message, (a part of which Mr. S 



