ral voice, that I could not advise the
President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the House; and I
gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers. See it.

March the 31st. A meeting at the President's; present, Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was
the resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to
appoint a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the
late expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call
for such persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist
their inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original
letters, instructions, &tc. The President had called us to consult,
merely because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as
it should become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the
House were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted
with subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be
papers of so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We
were not prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.

April the 2nd. Met again at the President's, on the same subject. We
had all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was
an inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it
might call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought
to refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the
President. We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons
in the case of Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler's Debates. For the first
point, seepages 161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153,
173,207; for the third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page
246. Note: Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the
power of the House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that
as to his department, the act constituting it had made it subject to
Congress, in some points, but he thought himself not