On 25 Nov., friday last, John Wayles Eppes introduced a resolution instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to see what reductions could be made “in the expenses of the different Departments of the Government” and to report “such arrangements as they may think calculated to promote economy.” As chair of the committee, Randolph immediately declared that the resolution was unnecessary because those duties already devolved on the committee by the standing rules of the House. He moved to postpone consideration of the resolution until January 1804. In the ensuing exchange between the two Republicans, Eppes demanded that the House immediately adopt or reject the resolution. allusion to the executive: Randolph responded to the president’s son-in-law, noting that the House had the power to dispose of the resolution as it saw fit, but he would always exercise his freedom “without any consideration of the quarter from which a motion comes.” He continued: “I shall use that degree of understanding with which it has pleased God to invest me, in forming a judgment of the course proper to be pursued on this as well as on every other occasion.” Randolph also made reference to Eppes’s earlier resolution to discontinue the office of commissioner of loans, which the Ways and Means Committee had under consideration (see Gallatin to TJ, 30 Nov., second letter). Joseph H. Nicholson, another member of the committee, declared that although he did not believe Eppes meant to censure the committee, he thought the resolution was “useless” and would vote immediately to reject it. Caesar A. Rodney, a new committee member, assured all of his “independent judgment on any proposition submitted to the House, without regard to the quarter from which it may come.” He thought the resolution should be postponed. In the end, the House voted to consider the resolution on the first Monday in December (Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834-56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 13:625-31). The debate appeared in the 28 Nov. issue of the National Intelligencer.