he kind ever offered to the government,
and for the wound which he has permitted to be aimed, through his
instrumentality, at the constitution and existence of his country,
the peace, the security, and liberty of the people of these States,
might well be held to merit expulsion from the national councils;
and the House deem it an act of grace and mercy when they only
inflict upon him their severest censure for conduct so utterly
unworthy of his past relations to the state, and his present
position. This they hereby do, for the maintenance of their own
purity and dignity. For the rest, they turn him over to his own
conscience, and the indignation of all true American citizens."

The scene which occurred, on their presentation, is thus graphically
described in the newspapers of the day:

"On the 25th of January, the whole body of Southerners came into the
House, apparently resolved to crush Mr. Adams and his cause forever.
They gathered in groups, conversed in deep whispers, and the whole
aspect of their conduct at twelve o'clock indicated a conspiracy
portending a revolution. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, rose, and,
having asked and received of Mr. Gilmer leave to offer a substitute
for his resolution of censure which was pending at the adjournment,
presented the three prepared resolutions. He assumed a manner and
tone as if he felt the historical importance of his position; spoke
with great coolness and solemnity,--a style wholly unusual with him;
assumed a solemn, magisterial air, and judicial elevation, as if he
thought, in the insolence of his conceit, that he was about to pour
down the thunder of condemnation on the venerable object of his
attack, as a judge pronouncing sentence on a convicted culprit, in
the sight of approving men and angels. Warming somewhat with the
silent, imposing attention of the vast audience before whom he
spoke, he expanded into an inflated exhibition of his own past
relations to the object of his attack, and thus represented himself
eminently qualified to act the part he had assumed of prosecutor,
judge, and executioner. When he finished, the speaker announced to
Mr. Adams that his position entitled him to the floor, bringing up
to the imagination a parallel scene: 'Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.'

"Up rose, then