Mr. Gra liam seems to be laboring under a misapprehension with regard to the matter. In the I1st place, his idea of what a committee of investigation upon ageneral subject is to do is not my idea, or the idea of the committee. I repeat what I stated in my letter, that a committee of investigation is rather a judicial Office than otherwise. I did not consider in self, when I went to that committee, as being p seed in an adversary position to these States, or to any individual who had been selected as a Sea ator or Representative from any of these States. I considered and that was the view of the committee, and I suppose it is the common view, from what Ican earn that the position was rather judicial; that we were to investigate fairly and thoroughly to our satisfaction, the whole subject, and rem our apointment I supposed the Senate and HoRep were willing to trust the matter in our hands. The idea that we should consider our selves in an adversary 1ight as accusers of those States, and notify some 0d from those States of the points we expecte to make against them, and have counsel on the other side to cross examine witnesses, and have a judicial trial, seemed to me to be very much out of the ordinar course, one that would prolong the proceeing s, and give to them a character whlch they ought not to be considered as bearingln that point of view I concurred with the zidwce that had received, and that but It was? not customary to have a cross examination of Witnesses before a committee, because it could not well be done. The immense extent of country we were to examine into the condition of, the great number of witnesses to be examined, the necessity of dividing the work to be done among different members of the committee the fact that we could not ourselves tell what the oiuts were until the testimony taken developed) those points, would all O to show the impropriet and inexpediency of any such proceeding. The expectation which Mr. Gra m seems to have indulged in on that point is not one in which I conicur at all; it is not one necessary, in my judgment, in such a case, to eliminate the truth; because, I repeat, that, in my judgme from the very nature of a congressional committee appointed upon a General subject, they are supposed to be competent to ascertain the truth, and to be disposed to make a fair examination. So much with regard to that point. In regard to the other point which he states, and that is, that the testimony is closed, he is entirely mistaken. He takes it for granted that as the testimony has been ordered to be published, therefore no more is to be taken. If the testimony had been closed, the order for publication would have been attended with a report made by the committee. It is not closed yet, except in the single case of the State of Iennesse e. It was thought advisable by the committee, as there was great uneasiness in the mind of the country, and a great misunderstanding of what the facts were, and inasmuch as, to state a fact which is less in consideration, we Were notified that there was very little to do at the Government Printing Office, and they would like to have something to do, and we had a large mass of papers on hand, to begin to print the testimony; and we got leave, therefore, from the HoRep, to have printed such parts of the testimony as were ready to go to the printer, without closing the testimony at all; and in fact it is still going on; and I will state that we are ready at any time, and the committee have always been ready, precisely as stated before, to receive and examine such witnesses as