MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 104:17916); entirely in TJ’s hand, including brackets within body of text; likely composed in multiple sittings, perhaps beginning as early as the latter part of April 1798, the final paragraph being written after the Aurora of 3 Aug. came to TJ’s attention (see below).

On 19 Apr. 1798, in debate in the House of Representatives on the bill for “additional armament for the further protection of the trade,” Speaker Dayton said that when circumstances required augmentation of the armed forces it was “the duty of Congress to establish and provide for it, but that here their powers ceased.” It exceeded the “proper province” of Congress, according to Dayton, “to declare who shall be authorized and empowered to employ and direct such force, and more especially the manner in which it shall be employed.” However, later that day Harrison Gray OTIS declared that although the president might employ armed vessels in convoys, “yet it does not follow that the Legislature shall not point out the particular manner in which they shall be employed, and under what restrictions convoys shall or shall not be granted. The President is Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and of the Militia when called out, but Congress might, nevertheless, direct the use of them.” Comments by Sedgwick and Stockton when the Senate discussed that bill four days later, like the remarks of other senators referred to by TJ in the document above, were not recorded (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 , 7:545–6; 8:1454,1460).

The Senate considered two judiciary bills in April. A committee chaired by Jacob Read had reported one of the measures in response to a December 1797 motion calling for revision of the judicial system. On 25 Apr. the Senate postponed further debate on that bill to the next session of Congress. Another bill, supplemental to the existing judiciary act and introduced by John Laurance, had been similarly postponed on the 20th (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 , 7:478, 480, 518, 526, 527, 543, 545, 548). For the intercourse bill, see TJ to Madison, 24 Jan. 1798. In April 1796, responding to attempts in the House to block the appropriations necessary for the Jay treaty, Fisher Ames took the lead in propounding the theme that “a Treaty imposes an obligation on the American nation” (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 , 5:1253; Perkins, First Rapprochement description begins Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805, Philadelphia, 1955; Berkeley, 1967 description ends , 38–42).

In debates over the provisional army bill on 24 Apr. and 10 May, Otis and the other congressmen named by TJ above resisted Gallatin’s contention that the measure was unconstitutional and bestowed too much authority on the president. Gallatin asserted that “if Congress were once to admit the principle that they have a right to vest in the President powers placed in their hands by the Constitution, that instrument would become a piece of blank paper,” and he inquired: “if they could delegate the power of raising an army to the President, why not do the same with respect to the power of raising taxes?” In response, Robert Goodloe Harper “had no hesitation in saying, that he believed this might be done,” suggesting that the president could be authorized to collect a tax at his discretion. On 8 May, declaring that any member of Congress “must in some measure depend upon the President for his information,” Otis thought that it would be irresponsible to oppose the raising of an army “if it was the opinion of the President that the country was in imminent danger of being invaded” (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 , 8:1526–31, 1534–5, 1641–2, 1657, 1659–64).

James A. Bayard’s remarks in the House of Representatives on 9 July appeared in the Aurora on 3 Aug. 1798, the newspaper having obtained them the day before. Debating a proposal to give juries the power to determine law as well as fact in cases of libel, Bayard declared it “utterly impossible … that unlettered men can be competent to decide justly as to questions of law.” According to the Delaware congressman, “a power of this kind is much more safely lodged in the hands of learned and upright Judges, than it could possibly be in those of an unlettered and perhaps prejudiced jury” (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 , 8:2136).