| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1778
Congress being met, the President took the chair, but before any business was entered on he arose, and having assigned sundry reasons why he could not continue longer to execute the office of President, he resigned, and immediately quitted the chair: Whereupon,
Page 1203 | Page image
Ordered, That to morrow be assigned for the election of a President.
Adjourned to 10 o'Clock to Morrow.
Gentlemen: Ever jealous for the Dignity of Congress, and prompted by a sense of Duty, I had the honor on Monday of laying before the House informations which I had received from Citizens of respectable characters, that a certain Letter, signed S. Deane, and addressed to the Citizens of America at large, published in the Pennsylvania Packet of Saturday the 5th inst., which I presumed every Member had read, had created anxieties in the minds of the good People of this City, and excited tumults amongst them--that having received such Information, I had carefully perused the Letter, and found it to contain articles highly derogatory to the honor and interests of these United States.
That I could not be suspected of having prejudices, or of being engaged in any intrigue or Cabal against Mr. Deane, since, I could declare upon my honor that no Gentleman on the floor knew so much of my sentiments respecting Mr. Deane's public character as I had communicated to that Gentleman himself--that seeing Mr. Deane had made his appeal to the People and had intimated a design of giving them a course of Letters, it was evident he did not mean to depart from America so suddenly as he had lately declared to this House.
That from these considerations I held it dishonorable to Congress to hear him the following evening, and thereupon I humbly moved the House to appoint a Committee of three, to consider and report specially upon the contents of the letter above mentioned--that in the mean time Mr. Deane be informed that Congress will give him further notice when they desire to hear him in the House.
This motion was seconded by many voices--an amendment was offered by an honorable Gentleman--'that the printed Letter be read,' which being put to question, passed in the negative by a majority of one State.
I then renewed my motion, founded upon common fame and my own certain knowledge of facts--this was over ruled by calling for the Order of the Day, for which a single voice, you know Gentlemen, is sufficient, and from that time the motion has remained neglected.
Page 1204 | Page image
I feel upon this occasion, not for any disappointment to myself, but for the honor and dignity of this House, the great Representative of an infant Empire, upon whose conduct the Eyes of Europe are fixed.
I have, from the moment in which my motion was quashed, seriously and almost constantly reflected on the above recited circumstances, and have again attentively considered Mr. Deane's Address to the People.
I see no cause to regret my conduct on Monday, and I am confirmed in my opinion that the Address contains groundless and unwarrantable insinuations and intimations respecting the conduct of this House.
Mr. Deane has never offered to this House a narrative in writing of his proceedings in France in his character of Commercial and Political Agent, nor hath he, even to this day produced proper Accounts and Vouchers of his Expenditure of Public Money.
He was notified on the 3d inst. by your President, that Congress had resolved to take into consideration, as on that evening, the state of their foreign affairs; and that such branches as he had been particularly concerned in, would, in due time, become subjects of their deliberation. In a Letter of the 4th he 'thanked Congress for that intimation.'
In the same letter he informed them 'that he had prepared to leave this City, and had made his arrangements accordingly, which it would not be in his power to dispense with for any time,' and yet on the 5th he published an Address to the free and virtuous Citizens of America, in which he complains that the Ears of their Representatives had been shut against him, and tacitly promises them a course of Letters.
He informs the Public that he had been sacrificed for the aggrandizement of others.
He charges one of your Commissioners with such improper conduct in his public character as amounts, in my Ideas, to high Crimes.
He avers that the same Commissioner had been suspected by their best friends abroad, and those in important Characters and stations, although he had given Congress no such information in writing, which he ought to have done, even long before he commenced his Voyage from France. He insinuated that the same Commissioner had been improperly forced upon him.
He sets up a charge against another of your Commissioners for a species of peculation and other malversation of conduct, which, if true, it was his duty long ago to have exhibited to Congress.
He arraigns the justice and the wisdom of Congress.
Page 1205 | Page image
He charges and questions the conduct of an honorable Member of this House, out of the House, and holds him up to the Public in a criminal light, which ought not to have been done before he had lodged a complaint in Congress, and had failed of their attention. His publication is a sacrifice of the Peace and good Order of these States to personal resentment: and so far as it regards Congress, it is groundless and unwarrantable; wherefore, be the remainder false or true, it is, in my humble opinion, a pernicious and unprovoked Libel, affrontive to the Majesty of the People.
I am neither a Volunteer advocate for the private Characters stricturized in Mr. Deane's paper, nor an Enemy to Mr. Deane. In a word, I view the performance in question as an Act unbecoming the character of a Public servant--altogether unnecessary, and tending to excite fears and jealousies in the minds of those free and virtuous Citizens of America, to whom Mr. Deane has addressed himself, and also to draw the conduct of Congress into suspicion and contempt--and I still hold my opinion that it was the duty of this House to take the Address into consideration before they admitted the Author to a further hearing.
Nevertheless Congress were pleased to adhere to a Resolve passed on Saturday subsequently to the open appearance of that unnecessary and insulting publication, for hearing him in writing, contrary to a Resolution of the fifteenth day of August last, which was obtained at that time after much debate by the reasonings and Votes of Gentlemen who had interested themselves strongly in his favor, and from motives assigned which cannot be effaced from the remembrance of those Gentlemen who were then present--andtime is now given to Mr. Deane for preparing a detail of his transactions, which, if I understand any thing of Public business ought to have been completed and ready for presentation before he landed on the American Shore.
I feel my own honor, and much more forcibly the honor of the Public deeply wounded by Mr. Deane's address,* and I am persuaded that it will hold out such encouragement to our Enemies to continue their persecution, as will, in its consequences, be more detrimental to our Cause than the loss of a Battle. Mr. Deane has not contented himself with the scope of Dunlap's Newspaper, he has caused his address to be printed in a thousand Hand Bills--these will afford a sufficient number for penetrating the remotest part of our Union, and enough for the service of our Enemies.*1
[Note 1: 1 The words from * to the end of that paragraph * were intended, but omitted thro' accident in his address to Congress, delivered from the Chair.]
Page 1206 | Page image
I know thatwhat I am about to do will give a transient pleasure to our Enemies, knowledge derived from a circumstance which induced me to continue in this Chair after the 31st day of October last, more strongly induced me than that unanimous request of this House, which I was then honored with. There are Gentlemen upon this floor who are well acquainted with the circumstance alluded to--but Gentlemen, their satisfaction will indeed be transitory, for I here again solemnly declare,and they will soon learn it, that I am determined to continue a faithful and diligent laborer in the Cause of my Country, and at the hazard of Life, fortune and domestic happiness, to contribute, by every means in my power to the perfect establishment of our Independence.
I shall have less cause to regret the carrying my intended purpose into effect, foreseeing that you may immediately fill with advantage, the vacancy which will presently happen.
I shall hold myself particularly answerable to my constituents for my present conduct, and in general to all my fellow Citizens throughout these States, when properly questioned.
Finally, gentleman, from the considerations above mentioned, as I cannot consistently with my own honor, nor with utility to my country, considering the manner in which Business is transacted here, remain any longer in this chair, I now resign it.
Henry Laurens.1
[Note 1: 1 This speech was first printed in thePennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, July 1889, from a copy found among the papers of Bishop John Ettwein, of Bethlehem, Penn. A contemporary copy, in the writing of Moses Young, is in theHamilton Papers, in the Library of Congress.]
PREVIOUS SECTION .. NEXT SECTION .. NAVIGATOR
| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |