“This is the 2d of February,” said Randolph. “The time has arrived, the hour now is, when gentlemen by their own arguments, if their arguments be just, are bound to fulfil the contract, which I do not undertake to expound, but which they say has been made--certainly in a manner very novel to our Constitution--between the House of Representatives on the one hand and Bonaparte on the other,--a bargain which, like the bargains of old with the Devil, there is no shaking off. It is a bargain which credulity and imbecility enter into with cunning and power.... I call upon gentlemen to make good their promise to his Majesty the Emperor of the French and King of Italy; to redeem their pledge; to cut off in fact nearly the whole of our existing trade in return for the liberty of trading by license from the three favored ports which it has pleased his Imperial Majesty to privilege. No man believes--I beg pardon, sir; I was going to say, but I will not, that no man believes one syllable of this breach of faith on our part. I have too much confidence in the honor of gentlemen not to be convinced that they have persuaded themselves to this effect, although it is incomprehensible to me. Bound, sir, to whom? To Bonaparte? Bound to Shylock? Bound to render up not only the pound of flesh, but every jot of blood in the Constitution? Does he come forward with his pockets swelled with American treasure; do his minions, fattened upon our soil, whether obtained by public rapine or private extortion, do they come forward, calling upon us to make sacrifices of our best interest on the shrine of their resentments, in the name, too, of good faith?” The majority showed its usual weakness in debate, but rejected Randolph’s motion by a vote of sixty-seven to forty-five; and after rejecting it, knew not what to do. Eppes reported a new bill to suspend for a time the operation of the non-intercourse, and a new debate began. February 9 Eppes rejoiced the House by opening a fresh hope of some decided policy. A new French minister was soon to arrive in place of Turreau, and further legislation must wait his arrival. “He has left France,” said Eppes, “at a time to bring us certain information on this question. I have no wish to enter on this interesting question with a bandage round my eyes. Whether France has complied with her engagements, whether France has failed in her engagements, cannot be a subject of ingenious speculation many days longer.” Further proceedings were suspended until Congress should learn what Napoleon’s agent would say.[274]