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Just a Dog and Pony shiow folks, nothing to see

§ 1640 POWER TO PUNISH FOR CONTEMPT. 1111
1. Every court, including the Senate and House of Representatives, is the sole judge of its own
contempts; and in case of commitment for contempt, in such case, no other court can have a right
to inquire directly into the correctness or propriety of the commitment, or to discharge the prisoner on
habeas corpus.
2. The warrant of commitment need not set forth the particular facts which constitute the alleged
contempt.
3. The Senate of the United States haa power to punish for contempts of its authority in cases of
which it has jurisdiction, and an inquiry whether any person, and who, had violated the rule of the
Senate which requires that all treaties laid before them should bekeptsecretuntil the Senate should take
off the injunction of secrecy, is a matter within the jurisdiction of the Senate.
4. The Senate of the United States has a right to hold secret sessions whenever in its judgment the
proceeding shall require secrecy, and may pronounce judgment in secret session for a contempt which
took place in secret session.
The warrant of arrest, as to which a question was raised, appears as follows in
the decision:
United States of America—
To the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate of the United States, Robert Beale:
Wliereas John Nugent, having been summoned, and having appeared at the bar of the Senate, and
having been sworn as a witness, he answered the following interrogatories:
1. Have you any connection with or agency for the proprietor of the newspaper published in the
city of New York, and called the New York Herald? If yea, state what is that connection or agency.
2. Do you know that an instrument purporting to be a copy of the treaty between the United States
of America and the Mexican Republic, with the amendments made by the Senate thereto, and the
proceedings of the Senate thereon, was published in that newspaper? Declare.
3. Do you know by whom the copy of the instrument, with the amendments thereto and proceedings
thereon in the last preceding interrogatory specified, was furnished to the editor or publishers, or
any agent of the editor or publishers of the said newspaper called the New York Herald? If yea, declare
and specify such person or persons.
4. Did you copy the parts purporting to be amendments of the treaty yourself for the purpose of
sending them to the editor of the New York Herald, or for any other purpose? If you answer in the negative,
then say if you know by whom they were copied.
5. Where, at what place or house, and at what time, were the said amendmentsof the treaty copied?
And having refused to answer the following interrogatories:
6. \Vhere, in what place or what house, and at what time, did you first receive a printed copy of
the confidential document containing the treaty, the President’s message, and also the other confidential
documents printed in the Herald?
7. In answer to the third interrogatory, you have stated that you furnished the papers therein
referred to, to the editor of the New York Herald. State from whom you received the said treaty with
Mexico, with the amendments and the said portion of the proceedings of the Senate.
8. In your answer to the fourth interrogatory, you state that the amendments there referred to were
communicated to the Herald in your handwriting. Did you copy the same, and from whom did you
procure the original from which you copied the same?
9. You say in answer to the last question that you decline to answer the same, because you can not
answer it with accuracy. State why you can not answer it with accuracy. Is it because you do not
recollect the facts inquired of?
10. What portion of the facts do you not recollect with accuracy; is it as to the person from whom
you obtained the papers, or either of them referred to?
11. State from whom you received the treaty.
12. State from whom you received the documents.
13. State from whom you received the proceedings of the Senate heretofore inquired of.
14. Was the copy of the treaty you forwarded to the Herald a printed copy?
has, by so refusing, committed a contempt against the Senate; and has, by the Senate, been
ordered into the custody of the Sergeant-at-arms, there to remain until the further order of the Senate.
5995—VOL 2—07 71

1112 PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF EEPKESENTATIVES. § 1640
These are, therefore, to authorize and require you, and you are hereby authorized and required to
take into your custody the body of the said John Nugent, and him safely keep until he answers the said
interrogatories, or until the further order of tlie Senate of the United States in this behalf, and for so
doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.
Given under my hand this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and forty-eight.
G. M. Dallas,
Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate.