Washington has been very quiet but very agreeable since you left. I dined yesterday with Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Gwin and her sister and Mr. Cobb were the only persons present out of the family. We had a merry time of it. The same party are to dine with Mrs. Gwin on Tuesday next.

It was with the utmost reluctance I removed Mr. ——— though his rehas done him much injury. I

moval was inevitable. His brother have known him long, and can say with truth that I know not a more unprincipled man in the United States. I wished to avoid the publication of Mr. Holt's report, but Mr. and his brother made this impossible. The

trio are now all together in happy communion, I mean

and

I have just had long and interesting letters from Jones and Preston. They are both pleased, and both get along well. The former evidently stands well with the Austrian government, and gives us valuable information.

I remain, yours affectionately, etc.

BEDFORD SPRINGS, August 22, 1860.

I have only time to write a line before Mr. Wagner, the messenger of Mr. Thompson, leaves. I am well, and the water is producing its usual good effect. The company is reduced very much, though what remains is agreeable and respectable. My visits from the neighborhood are numerous.

Give my love to Lily. If things proceed as from appearances we might anticipate she will soon be on the diplomatic corps, but I yet entertain doubts whether she will stand fire at the decisive moment.

Many inquiries have been made about you here, and regrets expressed that you did not accompany me. In haste, yours affectionately,

[FROM MISS MACALESTER.]

MY DEAR MR. BUCHANAN:

GLENGARRY, TORRISDALE, Oct. 8, 1860.

You have always evinced such a kind and anxious interest in regard to my matrimonial arrangements, that I feel it a duty, as well as a pleasure, to relieve your solicitude on the subject, by assuring you that I at last really am engaged. I consider you entirely responsible for this result, my dear Mr. Buchanan, for you so terrified me last spring and summer by your forebodings, and made me so fully realize my almost hopeless condition and approaching superannuation, that I determined to trifle no longer with time. I think, therefore, I may fairly claim your kind wishes and congratulations upon my escape from the prospect of a dreary spinsterhood, and in due season I shall also claim your fulfillment of a promise made long ago, and frequently repeated since, to be present at my wedding when that incomprehensible event takes place. En attendant, believe me always, my dear Mr. Buchanan, With truest love yours,

LILY L. MACALESTER.

MY DEAR LILY:

[TO MISS MACALESTER.*]

WASHINGTON, October 10, 1860.

I have received your favor of the 10th, announcing your engagement, and most sincerely and ardently do I hope that your marriage may prove auspicious and secure your future happiness and prosperity. I need not assure you that I feel all the interest which devoted friendship can inspire in your permanent welfare.

I had thought that "the prospect of a dreary spinsterhood" would not have impelled you into an engagement, without saying a word to your superannuated bachelor friend, but when young ladies have determined to marry they will go ahead.

May you enjoy all the blessings in your matrimonial state which I ardently desire, and you so richly deserve. Always your friend,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

*This lady, daughter of Charles Macalester, Esq., of Philadelphia, married Mr. Bergh. mans, Secretary of the Belgian Legation in Washington. He died about ten years since.

CHAPTER XII.

1860-March and June.

THE SO-CALLED COVODE INVESTIGATION."

EFERENCE has been made by Mr. Henry, in a part

of his communication quoted in the last chapter, to a proceeding in the House of Representatives, which has been called the "Covode Investigation." It is proper that a detailed account of this occurrence should be here given.

Among the lower, or rather the lowest, political tactics, inculpation of a retiring administration has often been resorted to for promoting the success of the opposite party, and it seems not infrequently to have been the calculation that the effect produced would be in proportion to the grossness of the imputations. Mr. Buchanan could not hope to escape calumny. None of his predecessors, not even the most illustrious of them all, not even Washington himself, had escaped it. Scarcely any of them, however, had been made the object of this kind of attack, by a method so base and by means so foul, as those to which President Buchanan was now to be subjected. Before any of the troubles of secession arrived, before either of the political parties had made its nomination for the next Presidential election, it was determined that an assault should be made upon him that would render him and his administration odious to the people of the country.

It is certainly unavoidable, perhaps it is well, that free governments should be administered by parties. In a vigilant, jealous and active opposition, there is great security against the misuse of power by those who hold it. But the freedom of opposition, like the freedom of the press, can easily degenerate into licentiousness; and the greater the latitude allowed by the political maxims or habits of a people, the greater will be the

danger of abuse of that right of criticism and inculpation which is essential to liberty, to purity, and to the public interests. Happily, there are some restraints upon the exercise of this right, imposed by the forms of procedure which our Constitution has prescribed when the conduct of the executive branch of the Government is to be called in question by the House of Representatives. When these restraints are violated, as they were violated against President Buchanan, there is but one judgment for history to pronounce. Those who institute a proceeding that is out of the limits of their constitutional function, for the purpose of exciting hatred of one who fills for the time a coördinate and independent department of the Government, and who conduct such a proceeding in secret, leave upon the records of the country a condemnation of themselves; and it is some evidence of the progress which a people are making in freeing their partisan warfare from such abuses, if we are able to say, as probably we can say, that such a proceeding would not be tolerated at the present day by any portion of the people of this country, as that which was begun and prosecuted against President Buchanan in the spring and summer of 1860.

The House of Representatives was at this time under the control of a majority held by the opponents of the administration. If they had reason to believe that the President had been guilty of an exercise, or of any attempt at an exercise, of improper influence over legislation, or that he or any of his subordinate executive officers had defeated, or attempted to defeat, the execution of any law, or that he had failed or refused to execute any law, their course was plain. In regard to the President, it was their duty to make a specific charge, to investigate it openly, and to impeach him before the Senate, if the evidence afforded reasonable ground to believe that the charge could be substantiated. In regard to his subordinates, their power to investigate was somewhat broader, because, as a legislative body, the House of Representatives might have occasion. to remedy by legislation any future wrongs of the same kind. But over the President, they had no authority of investigation or inquiry, excepting as the impeaching body to which the Constitution had committed the duty of accusation. By no constitutional propriety, by no precedent and no principle, could

an accusation of official misconduct on the part of the President be brought within the jurisdiction of the House, excepting by the initiation of a proceeding looking to his impeachment. Any proceeding, aside from the impeaching process, could have no object and no effect but to propagate calumny, without opportunity for exculpation and defence; and from the beginning to the end of this extraordinary persecution every step was marked by the design with which it was originated.

It began by the introduction of a resolution, offered in the House by Mr. Covode, a member from Pennsylvania, on the 5th March, 1860; and to make way for its introduction, he moved and obtained a suspension of the rules. This was of course by previous concert. The Speaker, after the reading of the resolution, ruled that it was not debatable. Attempts were made by different members to point out the absence from the resolution of any specific or tangible charge, or to extract from the mover some declaration that he had been informed or believed that the President had been guilty of some official misconduct, within the generality and vagueness of the inquiry that he proposed to have made. All these efforts were put down by the Speaker and by clamorous cries of" order." It became evident that the resolution was to pass, as a foregone conclusion, without a moment's consideration of its character or its terms. Under the operation of "the previous question," it was adopted, and the mover was afterwards placed by the Speaker at the head of the committee which he called for. Thus, so far as there was any accuser, that accuser was made the principal judge who was to try the accusation; and by the terms of the resolution, all the accusation that was made was wrapped in the following vague and indefinite language:

Resolved, That a committee of five members be appointed by the Speaker, for the purpose, first, of investigating whether the President of the United States, or any officer of the Government, has, by money, patronage, or other improper means, sought to influence the action of Congress, or any committee thereof, for or against the passage of any law appertaining to the rights of any State or Territory; and, second, also to inquire into and investigate whether any officer or officers of the Government have, by combination or otherwise, prevented or defeated, or attempted to prevent or defeat, the execution of any law or laws now upon the statute book, and whether the President has failed or refused to compel the execution of any law thereof.