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Story
February 13, 1837
Lynchburg Virginian
Lynchburg, Virginia
What is this article about?
In January 1837, a U.S. House committee chaired by Henry A. Wise adopts resolutions to probe alleged abuses in executive departments since 1829, including unauthorized payments and appointments. President Andrew Jackson replies, defending his administration's integrity and demanding specific accusations rather than broad inquiries.
Merged-components note: These components form a continuous narrative on Gen. Jackson's letter to the investigating committee, spanning pages 1 and 2. The label for the third component was changed from 'domestic_news' to 'story' as it fits the full political article context.
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POLITICAL
GEN. JACKSON'S LETTER TO THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.
In select Committee of the House, to inquire into the Executive Departments, January 23, 1837
The following resolutions, as amended, were adopted, and a copy of the same directed to be sent by the Chairman to each of the heads of the departments
1. Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be directed to furnish this committee with a statement showing the sums of money paid within the year ending on the first of December last, by such departments respectively, their agents, or deputies, without authority of law, if any, to printers or editors of newspapers; specifying the names and residence of such printers and editors, and also the names and places of publication of the newspapers owned or published by them ; and showing the services and consideration for which such sums have been paid, giving each item as stated in the accounts of such printer or editor, and the reasons for making such payments.
2 Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested, and the heads of the several Executive Departments be directed, to furnish this committee with a list or lists of all the officers, or agents, or deputies, who have been appointed or employed and paid, since the 4th of March, 1829, to the 1st of December last, if any, without authority of law, or whose names are not contained in the last printed Register of public officers commonly called the Blue Book, by the President or either of the said heads of department respectively, and without nomination to, or the advice and consent of the United States Senate ; showing the names of such officers, agents, or deputies ; the sums paid to each, the services rendered, and by what authority appointed and paid, and what reasons for such appointments.
3 Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be required to furnish this committee with a statement showing the various amounts of money paid within the last four years ending on the first of December last, for contingent expenses, whether appropriated or not by law, to whom and for what paid ; showing whether any, and if any, what appropriations have been changed from specific to other objects of expenditure than those for which they were made, and how such change was authorized or effected; and showing the amount of illegal or irregular expenditures, allowances, or payments of every description whatever, if any, made by said departments respectively, since the 4th day of March, 1829, to the 1st of December, 1836, and whether paid by Treasury warrant or draft, or otherwise, to whom and for what paid, and the authority and reasons for such expenditures.
4 Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be directed to furnish this committee with a list of all officers, agents, or deputies, who have since the 4th day of March, 1829, to the 1st of December last, within the departments respectively, received salaries, pay or emolument of any kind, without rendering service to the Government; who have received salaries, pay, or emoluments of any kind without being in office ; whose commissions have been antedated ; who held other stations or appointments, State or Federal, when receiving pay for particular offices or agencies, or who have engaged in private employment, and what, whilst receiving pay from, and rendering no service to the Government of the United States, with the names of such officers, or agents, or deputies, the sums or salaries paid to each, and the times of service of each respectively.
5 Resolved, That the various executive officers, in replying to the foregoing resolutions, be requested, at the same time, to furnish a statement of the period at which any innovations not authorized by law, if such exist, had their origin; their causes, and the necessity which has required their continuance.
6. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy be directed to furnish this committee with the report, or copy of the report, of John P. Van Ness and Amos Kendall, commissioners appointed by authority of the President of the United States, to receive and report such testimony as might be offered touching certain charges preferred by Mr. Hanson Gassaway, relative to the condemnation. and delivery to him, of sundry pieces of ordnance at Washington arsenal; and certain other charges connected with sundry contracts, and other matter, connected with the office of the Navy Commissioners, which commissioners sat during the year 1833.
A true copy from the journal.
Attest:
B. F. HALLETT, CLK.
In Select Committee of the House to inquire into the Executive Departments, &c January 23d, 1837.
The following resolutions were adopted, and the Chairman directed to furnish the President of the United States with a copy of the same:
Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested, and the heads of the several Executive Departments be directed, to furnish this committee with a list or lists of all officers, or agents, or deputies, who have been appointed or employed, and paid, since the 4th of March, 1829 to the 1st of December last, if any, without authority of law, or whose names are not contained in the last printed register of public officers, commonly called the Blue Book, by the President or either of the said heads of Department respectively, and without nomination to, or the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States; showing the name of such officers, agents or deputies: the sums paid to each; the services rendered, and by what authority appointed and paid, and what reasons for such appointments.
Resolved, That the various Executive officers, in replying to the foregoing resolution, be requested at the same time to furnish a statement of the period at which any innovations not authorized by law, if such exist, had their origin; their causes, and the necessity which has required their continuance.
Attest,
B. F. HALLETT, CLK.
4 •
THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER.
Washington City, Jan. 26, 1837
Sir-I received on the evening of the 24th inst. your letter, covering a copy of certain resolutions purporting to have been adopted by a committee of the House of Representatives, of which you are chairman, & request that you will lay before that committee, this, my reply, which I hasten to make.
It appears, by the published proceedings of the House of Representatives, that the committee, of which you are chairman, was appointed on your motion. The resolution offered by you and finally adopted by the House, raised a direct issue with that part of my annual message in which I held the following language : "Before concluding this paper, I think it due to the various Executive Departments, to bear testimony of their prosperous condition, and to the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted. It has been my aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business; and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is no just cause of complaint, from any quarter, at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation." Your resolution is in the following words- "Resolved, That so much of the President's message as relates to the condition of the various Executive Departments, the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, the vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business in all of them, and the causes of complaint from any quarter at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation, be referred to a select committee, to consist of nine members, with power to send for persons and papers, and with instructions to inquire into the condition of the various Executive Departments, the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, into the manner in which the public business has been discharged in all of them, and into all causes of complaint, from any quarter, at the manner in which said departments, or their bureaus or officers or agents of every description whatever, directly or indirectly connected with them in any manner, officially or unofficially, in duties pertaining to the public interest, have fulfilled or failed to accomplish the objects of their creation, or have violated their duties, or have injured and impaired the public service and interest, and that said committee, in its inquiries, may refer to such periods of time as to them may seem expedient and proper."
-It also appears, from the published proceedings of the House, that this resolution was accompanied and supported by a speech of considerable length in which you preferred many severe but vague charges of corruption and abuse in the Executive Departments. The resolution adopted by the committee as well as that adopted by the House itself, must be taken in connection with your introductory speech, which gives a character to the whole proceeding. When thus regarded, it is obvious that, by the resolution of the House, an issue is made with the President of the United States ; as he had alleged, in his annual message, that the heads of the Executive Departments had performed their official duties with ability and integrity. In your speech you denied this ; you charged them with manifold corruptions. and abuses of trust, as you had done in former speeches, to which you referred, and you demanded an investigation through the medium of a committee. Certain other members of Congress, as appears by the published debates, united with you in these accusations; and for the purpose of ascertaining their truth or falsehood, the committee you demanded was ordered to be raised, and you were placed at its head. The first proceeding of the investigating committee is to pass a series of resolutions, which, though amended in their passage, were, as understood, introduced by you, calling on the President and the heads of the departments- not to answer to any specific charge ; not to explain any alleged abuse; not to give information as to any particular transaction : But, assuming that they have been guilty of the charges alleged, calls upon them to furnish evidence against themselves!
After the reiterated charges you made, it was to have been expected that you would have been prepared to reduce them to specifications, and that the committee would then proceed to investigate the matters alleged. But instead of this, you resort to generalities even more vague than your original accusations, and in open violation of the Constitution, and of that well established and wise maxim, " that all men are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, according to the established rules of law," you request myself and the heads of the departments to become our own accusers, and to furnish the evidence to convict ourselves ; and this call purports to be founded on the authority of that body in which alone, by the Constitution, the power of impeaching us is vested: The heads of departments may answer such a request as they please, provided they do not withdraw their own time, and that of the officers under their direction, from the public business, to the injury thereof -To that business I shall direct them to devote themselves, in preference to any illegal and unconstitutional calls for information, no matter from what source it may come, or however anxious they may be to meet it. For myself, I shall repel all such attempts as an invasion of the principles of justice, as well as of the Constitution ; and I shall esteem it my sacred duty to the people of the United States to resist them as I would the establishment of a Spanish inquisition.
If, after all the severe accusations contained in the various speeches of yourself and your associates, you are unwilling of your own accord to bring specific charges, then I request your committee to call yourself and your associates, and every other member of Congress who has made the general charge of corruption, to testify before God and our country, whether you or they know of any specific corruption of abuse or trust in the Executive Departments; and if so, what it is. If you are able to point to any case where there is the slightest reason to suspect corruption or abuse of trust, no obstacle which I can remove shall be interposed to prevent the fullest scrutiny by all legal means. The offices of all the departments will be opened to you, and every proper facility furnished for this purpose.
I hope, sir, we shall at last have your charges and that you will proceed to investigate them, not like an inquisitor, but in the accustomed mode. If you either will not make specific accusations, or, if when made, you attempt to establish them by making freemen their own accusers, you will not expect me to countenance your proceedings. In the short period which remains of my official duty, I shall endeavor, as I have heretofore endeavored, to fulfil the obligations of that oath of office, by which I engaged " to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; and for this, and other reasons of the most solemn character, I shall, on the one hand, cause every possible facility, consistent with law and justice, to be given to the investigation of specific, tangible charges, and on the other, shall regard, and the Executive Departments, and of the individuals composing the same, repudiation all attempts to invade the just rights of individuals. If, after all your clamor, you will make no specific charges, or bring no proof of such as shall be made, you and your associates must be regarded by the good people of the United States as the authors of unfounded calumnies; and the public servants whom you have assailed will, in the estimation of all honorable men, stand fully acquitted.
In the mean time, I cannot but express my astonishment that members of Congress should call for information as to the names of persons
To the townsmen co. agent moneys are paid, and the objects of those payments, when there are six standing committees under the seventy-seventh rule of the House of Representatives, whose special duties are to examine especially into all the details of those expenditures in each of the Executive Departments. The like remarks applicable to some other branches of the information sought by you, ample details in respect to which are to be found in the reports laid before Congress, and now on your files, and to which I recommend you to have recourse.
I am, respectfully, &c.
(Signed)
ANDREW JACKSON.
To the Hon. Henry A. Wise,
Chairman of the Investigating Committee of the abuses and corruptions charged against the Executive Departments.
GEN. JACKSON'S LETTER TO THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.
In select Committee of the House, to inquire into the Executive Departments, January 23, 1837
The following resolutions, as amended, were adopted, and a copy of the same directed to be sent by the Chairman to each of the heads of the departments
1. Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be directed to furnish this committee with a statement showing the sums of money paid within the year ending on the first of December last, by such departments respectively, their agents, or deputies, without authority of law, if any, to printers or editors of newspapers; specifying the names and residence of such printers and editors, and also the names and places of publication of the newspapers owned or published by them ; and showing the services and consideration for which such sums have been paid, giving each item as stated in the accounts of such printer or editor, and the reasons for making such payments.
2 Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested, and the heads of the several Executive Departments be directed, to furnish this committee with a list or lists of all the officers, or agents, or deputies, who have been appointed or employed and paid, since the 4th of March, 1829, to the 1st of December last, if any, without authority of law, or whose names are not contained in the last printed Register of public officers commonly called the Blue Book, by the President or either of the said heads of department respectively, and without nomination to, or the advice and consent of the United States Senate ; showing the names of such officers, agents, or deputies ; the sums paid to each, the services rendered, and by what authority appointed and paid, and what reasons for such appointments.
3 Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be required to furnish this committee with a statement showing the various amounts of money paid within the last four years ending on the first of December last, for contingent expenses, whether appropriated or not by law, to whom and for what paid ; showing whether any, and if any, what appropriations have been changed from specific to other objects of expenditure than those for which they were made, and how such change was authorized or effected; and showing the amount of illegal or irregular expenditures, allowances, or payments of every description whatever, if any, made by said departments respectively, since the 4th day of March, 1829, to the 1st of December, 1836, and whether paid by Treasury warrant or draft, or otherwise, to whom and for what paid, and the authority and reasons for such expenditures.
4 Resolved, That the heads of the several departments be directed to furnish this committee with a list of all officers, agents, or deputies, who have since the 4th day of March, 1829, to the 1st of December last, within the departments respectively, received salaries, pay or emolument of any kind, without rendering service to the Government; who have received salaries, pay, or emoluments of any kind without being in office ; whose commissions have been antedated ; who held other stations or appointments, State or Federal, when receiving pay for particular offices or agencies, or who have engaged in private employment, and what, whilst receiving pay from, and rendering no service to the Government of the United States, with the names of such officers, or agents, or deputies, the sums or salaries paid to each, and the times of service of each respectively.
5 Resolved, That the various executive officers, in replying to the foregoing resolutions, be requested, at the same time, to furnish a statement of the period at which any innovations not authorized by law, if such exist, had their origin; their causes, and the necessity which has required their continuance.
6. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy be directed to furnish this committee with the report, or copy of the report, of John P. Van Ness and Amos Kendall, commissioners appointed by authority of the President of the United States, to receive and report such testimony as might be offered touching certain charges preferred by Mr. Hanson Gassaway, relative to the condemnation. and delivery to him, of sundry pieces of ordnance at Washington arsenal; and certain other charges connected with sundry contracts, and other matter, connected with the office of the Navy Commissioners, which commissioners sat during the year 1833.
A true copy from the journal.
Attest:
B. F. HALLETT, CLK.
In Select Committee of the House to inquire into the Executive Departments, &c January 23d, 1837.
The following resolutions were adopted, and the Chairman directed to furnish the President of the United States with a copy of the same:
Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested, and the heads of the several Executive Departments be directed, to furnish this committee with a list or lists of all officers, or agents, or deputies, who have been appointed or employed, and paid, since the 4th of March, 1829 to the 1st of December last, if any, without authority of law, or whose names are not contained in the last printed register of public officers, commonly called the Blue Book, by the President or either of the said heads of Department respectively, and without nomination to, or the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States; showing the name of such officers, agents or deputies: the sums paid to each; the services rendered, and by what authority appointed and paid, and what reasons for such appointments.
Resolved, That the various Executive officers, in replying to the foregoing resolution, be requested at the same time to furnish a statement of the period at which any innovations not authorized by law, if such exist, had their origin; their causes, and the necessity which has required their continuance.
Attest,
B. F. HALLETT, CLK.
4 •
THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER.
Washington City, Jan. 26, 1837
Sir-I received on the evening of the 24th inst. your letter, covering a copy of certain resolutions purporting to have been adopted by a committee of the House of Representatives, of which you are chairman, & request that you will lay before that committee, this, my reply, which I hasten to make.
It appears, by the published proceedings of the House of Representatives, that the committee, of which you are chairman, was appointed on your motion. The resolution offered by you and finally adopted by the House, raised a direct issue with that part of my annual message in which I held the following language : "Before concluding this paper, I think it due to the various Executive Departments, to bear testimony of their prosperous condition, and to the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted. It has been my aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business; and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is no just cause of complaint, from any quarter, at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation." Your resolution is in the following words- "Resolved, That so much of the President's message as relates to the condition of the various Executive Departments, the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, the vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business in all of them, and the causes of complaint from any quarter at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation, be referred to a select committee, to consist of nine members, with power to send for persons and papers, and with instructions to inquire into the condition of the various Executive Departments, the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted, into the manner in which the public business has been discharged in all of them, and into all causes of complaint, from any quarter, at the manner in which said departments, or their bureaus or officers or agents of every description whatever, directly or indirectly connected with them in any manner, officially or unofficially, in duties pertaining to the public interest, have fulfilled or failed to accomplish the objects of their creation, or have violated their duties, or have injured and impaired the public service and interest, and that said committee, in its inquiries, may refer to such periods of time as to them may seem expedient and proper."
-It also appears, from the published proceedings of the House, that this resolution was accompanied and supported by a speech of considerable length in which you preferred many severe but vague charges of corruption and abuse in the Executive Departments. The resolution adopted by the committee as well as that adopted by the House itself, must be taken in connection with your introductory speech, which gives a character to the whole proceeding. When thus regarded, it is obvious that, by the resolution of the House, an issue is made with the President of the United States ; as he had alleged, in his annual message, that the heads of the Executive Departments had performed their official duties with ability and integrity. In your speech you denied this ; you charged them with manifold corruptions. and abuses of trust, as you had done in former speeches, to which you referred, and you demanded an investigation through the medium of a committee. Certain other members of Congress, as appears by the published debates, united with you in these accusations; and for the purpose of ascertaining their truth or falsehood, the committee you demanded was ordered to be raised, and you were placed at its head. The first proceeding of the investigating committee is to pass a series of resolutions, which, though amended in their passage, were, as understood, introduced by you, calling on the President and the heads of the departments- not to answer to any specific charge ; not to explain any alleged abuse; not to give information as to any particular transaction : But, assuming that they have been guilty of the charges alleged, calls upon them to furnish evidence against themselves!
After the reiterated charges you made, it was to have been expected that you would have been prepared to reduce them to specifications, and that the committee would then proceed to investigate the matters alleged. But instead of this, you resort to generalities even more vague than your original accusations, and in open violation of the Constitution, and of that well established and wise maxim, " that all men are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, according to the established rules of law," you request myself and the heads of the departments to become our own accusers, and to furnish the evidence to convict ourselves ; and this call purports to be founded on the authority of that body in which alone, by the Constitution, the power of impeaching us is vested: The heads of departments may answer such a request as they please, provided they do not withdraw their own time, and that of the officers under their direction, from the public business, to the injury thereof -To that business I shall direct them to devote themselves, in preference to any illegal and unconstitutional calls for information, no matter from what source it may come, or however anxious they may be to meet it. For myself, I shall repel all such attempts as an invasion of the principles of justice, as well as of the Constitution ; and I shall esteem it my sacred duty to the people of the United States to resist them as I would the establishment of a Spanish inquisition.
If, after all the severe accusations contained in the various speeches of yourself and your associates, you are unwilling of your own accord to bring specific charges, then I request your committee to call yourself and your associates, and every other member of Congress who has made the general charge of corruption, to testify before God and our country, whether you or they know of any specific corruption of abuse or trust in the Executive Departments; and if so, what it is. If you are able to point to any case where there is the slightest reason to suspect corruption or abuse of trust, no obstacle which I can remove shall be interposed to prevent the fullest scrutiny by all legal means. The offices of all the departments will be opened to you, and every proper facility furnished for this purpose.
I hope, sir, we shall at last have your charges and that you will proceed to investigate them, not like an inquisitor, but in the accustomed mode. If you either will not make specific accusations, or, if when made, you attempt to establish them by making freemen their own accusers, you will not expect me to countenance your proceedings. In the short period which remains of my official duty, I shall endeavor, as I have heretofore endeavored, to fulfil the obligations of that oath of office, by which I engaged " to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; and for this, and other reasons of the most solemn character, I shall, on the one hand, cause every possible facility, consistent with law and justice, to be given to the investigation of specific, tangible charges, and on the other, shall regard, and the Executive Departments, and of the individuals composing the same, repudiation all attempts to invade the just rights of individuals. If, after all your clamor, you will make no specific charges, or bring no proof of such as shall be made, you and your associates must be regarded by the good people of the United States as the authors of unfounded calumnies; and the public servants whom you have assailed will, in the estimation of all honorable men, stand fully acquitted.
In the mean time, I cannot but express my astonishment that members of Congress should call for information as to the names of persons
To the townsmen co. agent moneys are paid, and the objects of those payments, when there are six standing committees under the seventy-seventh rule of the House of Representatives, whose special duties are to examine especially into all the details of those expenditures in each of the Executive Departments. The like remarks applicable to some other branches of the information sought by you, ample details in respect to which are to be found in the reports laid before Congress, and now on your files, and to which I recommend you to have recourse.
I am, respectfully, &c.
(Signed)
ANDREW JACKSON.
To the Hon. Henry A. Wise,
Chairman of the Investigating Committee of the abuses and corruptions charged against the Executive Departments.
What sub-type of article is it?
Historical Event
Crime Story
What themes does it cover?
Justice
Crime Punishment
What keywords are associated?
Andrew Jackson Letter
House Investigating Committee
Executive Departments
Corruption Charges
Unauthorized Payments
Political Investigation
What entities or persons were involved?
Andrew Jackson
Henry A. Wise
B. F. Hallett
John P. Van Ness
Amos Kendall
Hanson Gassaway
Where did it happen?
Washington City
Story Details
Key Persons
Andrew Jackson
Henry A. Wise
B. F. Hallett
John P. Van Ness
Amos Kendall
Hanson Gassaway
Location
Washington City
Event Date
January 23, 1837 To January 26, 1837
Story Details
A House select committee adopts resolutions directing executive departments to provide information on unauthorized payments, appointments, and expenditures since 1829, including newspaper payments and irregular salaries. President Andrew Jackson responds by letter, defending the integrity of his administration, refusing to provide evidence against himself, and challenging the committee to specify charges of corruption.