CONGRESS, U. S. 



287 



made, we want to pass the necessary law. The 

 Senator from Massachusetts goes off, in his zeal, 

 to denounce traitors. He is no more against 

 traitors than I am, but I am for constitutional 

 liberty and against traitors too. He is against 

 traitors and against the Constitution of his 

 country, and that is the only difference. I will 

 put down treason and save the Constitution, 

 save regulated liberty, and he does not care 

 whether there is any Constitution or not. I am 

 not to be put in such a position. The Senator 

 shall make no such issue with me that the 

 resolution is introduced as a reflection on the 

 Administration." 



Mr. Latham, of California, said: "I see no 

 necessity for trampling upon the Constitution 

 in order to maintain it. I see no necessity for 

 violating all law, and by our refusal to pass this 

 resolution acquiescing in and endorsing usurpa- 

 tion of power, in order to preserve the laws. 

 "We present to the civilized world a very sad and 

 humiliating spectacle, in upbraiding revolting 

 States for violating the laws and the Constitu- 

 tion, when we ourselves are committing equal 

 if not greater outrages upon that Constitution 

 and against those laws-. What is it? One 

 man, unauthorized by the Constitution or the 

 law, usurps the power to arrest the citizen, to 

 incarcerate him, to discharge him or hold him 

 in prison upon the tenure of his will, without 

 the courts, Congress, the people, or anybody 

 knowing the reasons for this usurpation." 



Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, then presented his 

 views, as follows : " I have no question, indeed 

 I know, that, under the directions from the 

 Secretary of State, certain individuals in the 

 loyal States have been arrested and imprisoned. 

 That is notorious ; the whole country is aware 

 of it. I will say here that I do not believe 

 there is the slightest warrant of law for any 

 such proceeding, and I do not suppose you will 

 find a lawyer in the country who does think 

 there is any warrant of law for any such pro- 

 ceeding ; and yet I do not shrink from it. For 

 the most part, so far as I know in the great ma- 

 jority of cases, certainly wherever the necessity 

 existed and I shall not undertake to judge as 

 to that I justify the act, although it was 

 against law; I justify it from the necessity of 

 the case, and especially in the instances refer- 

 red to by my friends from Maryland. I will 

 not say in all of those instances, but in many 

 of them ; for I am not aware of the facts in all 

 the cases. There are others equally notorious. 

 "Why do I say that I justify it? Because, in 

 my judgment, it was absolutely necessary to 

 the protection of the commonwealth, if I may 

 so call it the Government of the country. It 

 was the business of the Administration, under 

 the circumstances, to see that no detriment 

 was done to the Republic, and where they act- 

 ed, believing conscientiously that the good of 

 the country demanded this action in this the 

 hour of her peril, although they may have act- 

 ed against law, I honor the man who, under 

 such circumstances, takes the responsibility ; 



and I say here that if I were in power as an 

 executive officer, and if I saw that the good of 

 the country that I was serving demanded that 

 I should stretch my authority, even at the risk 

 of my official or of my own natural life, in or- 

 der to protect the country, as God is my judge, 

 I would do it, and take the consequences ; 

 and it is the duty of every man placed in such 

 a trust to do it. A man who stops, who hesi- 

 tates, in such a case to inquire, when he sees 

 that the building is about to be wrapped in 

 flames, whether there is a law to guide his 

 action, and pauses for fear that the newspapers 

 may be down upon him, or that he may be 

 called to account, that he may be impeached 

 even, is unfit for a great place. 



" That is my opinion ; but, sir, while I express 

 that opinion, I say that when he steps beyond 

 it, when the people see, or the representatives 

 of the people see that he is daring for a mo- 

 ment to use that power and that pretence of 

 necessity for a nefarious purpose, for any pur- 

 pose that is not fully justified by the facts be- 

 fore him when the country sees, or believes, 

 or dreams, or suspects that he is acting from 

 anything but the highest motives that should 

 actuate a public officer, then I would be ready 

 on the instant to check the first advance, and 

 to lay my hand upon the man. 



" Sir, we cannot trifle with these questions 

 in times like those that have preceded the 

 present moment. There have been hours, there 

 have been days, weeks, and months in the pro- 

 gress of this rebellion, when it was the duty 

 of the Executive to act promptly, without fenr, 

 without trembling, at their own risk and the 

 risk of public reprobation ; and when they did 

 it from good motives and took that responsi- 

 bility, it only showed them in my judgment so 

 much the more fitted for the exigency which 

 is upon us. But, sir, I agree with my honor- 

 ed friend from New Hampshire, I agree with 

 my friend from Illinois, and others, that we 

 should watch carefully, most carefully, the 

 first approach to any exercise of illegal power 

 that is not fully justified by the pressing exi- 

 gency of the hour, because it has been well 

 said, and is known as a principle which every 

 man certainly of us must recognize, that we, 

 standing here as the guardians of public liberty, 

 must see that no man infringes on the liberty 

 of the citizen, unless under such circumstances 

 that all the world will justify him from the 

 obvious necessity that requires the act." 



Mr. Browning, of Illinois, opposed the pas- 

 sage of the resolution chiefly because it was an 

 inappropriate time to adopt it. He said : " I 

 regard the time at which the inquiry is pro- 

 posed as the most inopportune that could 

 possibly have been selected. At a time when 

 the energies of every department of the Gov- 

 ernment are taxed to their utmost capacities 

 and powers of endurance to meet and put 

 down a formidable rebellion, threatening the 

 very overthrow of the Government, and at a 

 time when we are probably on the very verge 



