There is one other precedent to which I ought to allude, and it will be for the Senate to say whether they will follow it. It is the resolution of the Senate in the spring of 1860, on the motion of Mr. Mason, chairman of the committee raised especially to persecute the supposed associates of John Brown, and taking one of them into custody, bringing him into this Chamber, propounding to him certain interrogatories which he refused to answer. Mr. Mason finally brought forward a resolution that he should be committed to the common jail.[107] That, Sir, is the precedent which it is now proposed to follow. The Senate will consider whether they will follow the lead of Mr. Mason, author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, Chairman of the Harper’s Ferry Investigating Committee, and afterward a Rebel, in committing a citizen to the common jail, or whether they will follow the better precedent of the Senate at a better day and under better auspices.
On this motion I ask for the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered, with the result, for the amendment, Yeas 31, Nays 27.
A second resolution, containing a provision for the continuance of the Committee, with a view to holding the witness in custody after the close of the session until he should answer as required, which Mr. Sumner denounced as contrary to all parliamentary precedent, prevailed against a motion to strike out this part by Yeas 20, Nays 30.
Corresponding resolutions were subsequently adopted in the case of Mr. Ramsdell, who had likewise persisted in refusing to answer.
May 27th, on a resolution submitted by Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, for the discharge of these persons from custody “immediately upon the final adjournment of the session,” Mr. Sumner spoke as follows:--
MR. PRESIDENT,--This question is important, primarily, as it concerns the liberty of the citizen; but it is made important also by the attempt, to which we have just listened, to establish for the Senate a prerogative which on history and precedent does not belong to it.
Some days ago I took the ground, which I shall take to-day, that on the close of the session of the Senate any imprisonment founded on its order must cease. Of that conclusion, whether on history or law, I have not the least doubt. I have listened to the argument of the Senator from New York, [Mr. CONKLING,] and to his comment upon the authorities adduced. The answer, to my mind, is obvious. It will be found simply in stating one of those authorities and calling attention to its precise language. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] has already presented to-day what I had the honor of quoting on the first day of this discussion, the authoritative words of May in his work on Parliamentary Law, and also the solemn judgment of Lord Denman, Chief-Justice of England. May says, speaking of prisoners committed by order of the House of Commons, that they