Vermont Phœnix

Governor Pennington, of New Jersey, sent a special message to the Legislature, representing that the rights of that State have been trampled upon by the refusal of the (unorganized) House of Representatives in Congress to admit her members to their seats, and commending the subject to the prompt and serious consideration of the Legislature whom he addresses. He says;—

It is no part of our complaint, that the House of Representatives should, when organized, investigate, investigate thoroughly, the qualifications and pretensions of its members. That it possesses the power in its fullest extent, and has alone that power, has never been doubted or denied. But it is the attempt of an unorganized body of men to exercise this high prerogative without the forms of law, of which we complain, and which act can be characterized only as a monstrous usurpation. It was by a summary proceeding of this sort. that New Jersey has been deprived of five sixths of her representation in Congress.—

The title of the five Representatives who have been thus excluded, without a hearing, without investigation, and without even so much as the form of a trial, has not been impeached in any respect whatever, and they now stand clothed with precisely the same powers and are entitled by the constitution and laws to equal privileges with the men by whose concurrence they have been excluded. What other view can we take of this case than as an insult offered directly to the State whose commissions these gentlemen bear, and a violation of the constitution of the United States.