Rhode Island American And Gazette

From the N. Y. Daily Advertiser.

[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]

Washington, January 24th 1831.

The knowledge that Mr. Wirt would continue his argument to day, collected a great crowd at an early hour. The circular gallery facing the Vice-President and the Court, was the first resort of the ladies, and those gentlemen who attended them; and when it was thus filled, the gentlemen retired on the arrival of new recruits of the fair sex, until it was almost exclusively filled by the latter. Such an array of bonnets has rarely been seen at the metropolis. Leghorns, chipps, straws, Navarinos and silks, of every color and hue, over which floated the greatest variety of feathers and plumes, imitations of the most brilliant flowers, and of the golden wheat, and waving oats, studded beneath with curls and puffs, adorned the heads of several hundreds of ladies, who had assembled to witness this important trial, and to hear the eloquence of Mr. Wirt. The able advocate moved the sympathy of every mother, when enforcing his position, that intention in the Judge constituted an essential part of the charge exhibited against him, by a case, in illustration, of the fond mother, who administered poison to her darling infant, when it was her intention to have relieved its sufferings by a safe and simple remedy. The brilliancy of the ornaments, and the pleasant and lovely countenances of the ladies, caused many a grave Senator, made more solemn by sitting as a judge, to cast a glance to the interesting and beautiful assemblage before him. The gallery back of the Vice-President and over the promenade in the rear of his chair was principally filled with gentlemen, but all were not accommodated. The pressure in the east gallery was great. After some time had elapsed, a voice was heard from the east gallery, demanding a passage towards the door, which was oft and again repeated. The almost total impossibility of opening a passage in such a crowd of people, seems not to have been thought of by the sufferer, whose demands followed in rapid succession, and were at length accompanied by a threat, that if a way to escape was not opened, she would halloo. Mrs. _____, was whispered, or uttered, in a low tone, by hundreds of persons; and those below were evidently in a moving position, to let her pass, if she should come that way. Silence! exclaimed the marshal, as he stepped across the area in front of the court, with his eyes turned up—silence in the gallery! The Vice-President told the marshal he must keep silence in the gallery, or clear it. Clear the gallery! exclaimed the marshal, as he strutted across the area, with his hands in his pockets—clear the gallery! clear the gallery! The Vice-President told him his order was in the alternative, and he had better endeavor to keep order in the first instance. As no one had thought proper to obey the marshal's order, there was no necessity of countermanding it; and the marshal resumed his seat. The press at the door of the east gallery was so great, that there was a constant wrangling between three or four, who stood next to the door within, and those who were without at the head of the stairs, and were determined to come in, whether there was room for them or not. The Vice-President, after frequently admonishing the marshal to keep order, eventually peremptorily told him to clear the east gallery of all but the ladies. Clear the gallery, was again exclaimed, and repeated, and the crowd was put in motion by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the house, and some of the officers of the Senate. A more orderly and civil audience never assembled, than the one that occupied this gallery, with the exception of the three or four in the position mentioned. The order to clear the gallery, under these circumstances, was so manifestly unjust, that several Senators went to the Vice-President, and, I suppose, interceded with him to limit its execution, by expelling those who had created the disturbance; but the order had gone forth, and it could not be recalled. Immediately in the centre of the first seat, and resting on the breastwork of this gallery, is a table sufficiently long to accommodate ten or twelve reporters, and is at all times furnished with pen, ink, and paper. Two or three reporters were at this table, and the remaining part of it was occupied by gentlemen, as an eligible place for seeing and hearing. No sooner did they see that the order was to be put in force in good earnest, than they put pen, ink, and paper in requisition and their notes became quite voluminous before the officers had fully executed their orders.— The officers seeing sheet piled on sheet, really supposed the table was only occupied by those who were privileged to remain, and they left them unmolested. This was not the only stratagem resorted to. A lady standing in the first row of seats, by the side of her beau, and of whom she was unwilling to be deprived, adroitly concealed him under her wide-spreading bonnet. He, at least, should commend the present fashion, or he owes his escape from the vigilance of the officers to it. The audience retired without a murmur or complaint: but the removal of more than three hundred gentlemen, many of whom were ministers, others judges, lawyers, merchants, mechanics, and farmers, of the first respectability, some of whom had come from distant sections of the country to witness this trial, was certainly a hard case, when the removal of not more than four persons would have restored the most perfect order. The marshal should have stationed a constable at the door, with orders to remove every person that created any disturbance.