been convenient, and had conduced to
the success of the negotiation, to offer in Holland to contract a loan
for fourteen million dollars, without the unnecessary, and to foreigners
probably the confusing, statement that the authority for borrowing that
amount was derived from two separate acts of Congress. It was only in
this borrowing of the money that there was any seeming disregard of the
letter of the law. The loans and their purposes were kept entirely
distinct in the accounts of the department. Other questions touching the
management of these loans were so clearly and frankly explained that
nothing but the captiousness of party could refuse to be satisfied. On
one point--the charge of an alleged deficit--the opposition was
absolutely silenced. The secretary indignantly explained that the
sum--as anybody could have known for the asking from any officer in the
Treasury Department--which was made to appear as missing was in credits
for customs bonds not yet due, and bills of exchange on Europe sold but
not yet paid for.

Though there was enough of decency, or of prudence which took the place
of decency, to drop the insinuation that the secretary had stolen what
had never been in his possession, it was not so with the rest of the
accusations. Only four days before Congress was to adjourn, Giles
offered another set of resolutions. These assumed that the defiance of
law and unwarranted assumption of power, which, at first, were only
suggested by the inquiries, were now proved to be true by the
explanations that had been given. The indictment, therefore, was made to
include the verdict and the sentence; the criminal was accused, was to
be found guilty, and condemned to capital punishment in one proceeding,
without the privilege of trial, or a recognition of the right to be
heard. The argument of the resolutions was, that certain acts were a
violation of law; that the secretary had committed all those acts; and
therefore it was the will of the House that the facts be reported to the
President. The presumption obviously was, that the President would
immediately dismiss from office a disgraced and faithless public
servant. But the prosecution was an utter failure. The largest vote
received for any of the resolutions was only fifteen; that on the others
was from seven to twelve, in a quorum of from fifty to sixty members.
In the course of the debate Mr. Madison had said that "his colleague
[Giles] had rendered a service high