On the whole, I am entirely
suspended as to what is to be expected. The Representatives have been
several days in debate on the bill for foreign intercourse. A motion has
been made to reduce it to what it was before the extension of 1796. The
debate will probably have good effects, in several ways, on the public
mind, but the advocates for the reformation expect to lose the question.
They find themselves deceived in the expectation entertained in the
beginning of the session, that they had a majority. They now think the
majority is on the other side by two or three, and there are moreover
two or three of them absent. Blount's affair is to come on next. In the
mean time, the Senate have before them a bill for regulating proceedings
in impeachment. This will be made the occasion of offering a clause for
the introduction of juries into these trials. (Compare the paragraph
in the constitution which says, that all crimes, except in cases of
impeachment, shall be by jury, with the eighth amendment, which says,
that in all criminal prosecutions, the trial shall be by jury.) There is
no expectation of carrying this; because the division in the Senate is
of two to one, but it will draw forth the principles of the parties, and
concur in accumulating proofs on which side all the sound principles are
to be found.
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