The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
 |
WEDNESDAY, DECR. l8TH. |
|
 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
WEDNESDAY, DECR. l8TH.
This day was chiefly spent on the case of Mr. Howel, whose
behaviour was extremely offensive, and led to a determined opposition
to him, those who were most inclined to spare his reputation.
If the affair could have been closed without an insertion of his
name on the Journal, he seemed willing to withdraw his protest;
but the impropriety which appeared to some, & particularly to Mr.
Hamilton, in suppressing the name of the Author of a piece wch.
Congress had so emphatically reprobated, when the author was
found to be a member of Congress, prevented a relaxation as to
the yeas & nays. Mr. Howell, therefore as his name was necessarily
to appear on the Journal, adhered to the motion which
inserted his protest thereon.[19]
The indecency of this paper, and
respect to the non-failure of any application for foreign loans, excited
great & (excepting his Colleagues or rather Mr. Arnold)
universal indignation and astonishment in Congress; and he was
repeatedly premonished of the certain ruin in wch. he wd. thereby
involve his character & consequence; and of the necessity wch.
Congress wd. be laid under of vindicating themselves by some act
which would expose and condemn him to all the world.
Howell's protest was:—That Congress had no power to call any member to
account for information conveyed to his constituents, "the secrets only of
Congress excepted," and especially not to call to account a member of the late
Congress; that the appointment of a committee to examine into the matter of a
publication in the public press was undignified and "a precedent dangerous to
the freedom of the press"; that the report of the committee demanding the delivery
up by the Executive of Rhode Island of the writer of the publication was
an infraction of the fifth article of the confederation, which allowed freedom of
speech and debate in Congress, and as a consequence free communication of such
speeches and debates to the constituents; that the facts stated concerning the foreign
loans were substantially true [that they had been successful and there was
danger of incurring too large a debt]; that he was not alone in his opinions;
that it was unfair to report on a single paragraph of his letter and had a tendency
to establish a despotism over the minority by deterring the members of it from
writing freely to their constituents; that he was well known as an opponent of
the five per cent. impost, and his constituents expected him to oppose it, the
lower assembly of his state having unanimously rejected it; that he was accountable
to his constituents and was their servant, and not the servant of
Congress.—Journals of Congress iv., 121.
| The writings of James Madison, | |