On March 26, 1848, the Senate arrested a journalist and
imprisoned him in a Capitol committee room. This unusual event
occurred during one of the most turbulent decades in American
history. Throughout the 1840s, territorial disputes with Mexico
over the Republic of Texas, and with Great Britain over Oregon,
inflamed the Senate's proceedings. Out of this agitation emerged
a question that the framers of the Constitution, 60 years
earlier, thought they had answered affirmatively: Could the
Senate keep a secret? By the 1840s, many political observers
believed the framers had been overly optimistic. In 1844, the
Senate censured a member for releasing confidential treaty
documents to a newspaper. Two years later, senators investigated
the Washington Daily Times for unauthorized publication of the
Oregon boundary settlement. When the reporter willingly
identified his sources, including a Senate doorkeeper, the
accused individuals heatedly swore to their innocence. Tired of
this fingerpointing, the Senate punished th