308 



CONGKESS, U. S. 



cations will be adjusted, with or without a war, 

 which could not last long ; but the errors or 

 crimes of financial contrivances and embarrass- 

 ments of to-day, and their results, will endure 

 to the third and fourth generation of those who 

 shall come after us. 



" While, then, we ought to begin this work 

 at once, let us not hurry over it. For twenty- 

 six years the pestilent and execrable question 

 of slavery, in every form, has been debated in 

 this House for months in succession. Abo- 

 lition petitions, the Wilmot proviso, the com- 

 promise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the 

 Kansas troubles, and the Lecompton Constitu- 

 tion, each in turn consumed the time of the 

 House for weeks together. And even now, 

 with a public debt already of some seven hun- 

 dred millions of dollars, increasing, too, at the 

 rate of $2,000,000 a day ; with every source of 

 revenue nearly dried up, and even that last re- 

 source of the inevitable bankrupt borrowing 

 cut off; with all these things staring us full 

 in the face, nevertheless the objects of the war, 

 the conduct of the wai', emancipation, confis- 

 cation, Ball's Bluff, the Trent affair, Govern- 

 ment contracts, the Cooly trade, the Coast Sur- 

 vey, the franking privilege, or whatever else 

 may happen to be the particular ' goose ques- 

 tion ' of the hour (I beg pardon, sir, but is not 

 that now a classic phrase ?) all of them highly 

 important, certainly, and worthy of due con- 

 sideration are debated for days at a time, and 

 even the best abused man in the House finds no 

 difficulty in obtaining an audience. 



" Let us prepare then at once for the great 

 questions of finance yhich are before us." 



Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, followed. He took 

 the position that the war power of the Gov- 

 ernment was under no limitation. He said : 

 " Sir, in all that I have said, or may say, touch- 

 ing your unlimited power to legislate ' for the 

 common defence,' I do not mean to ignore that 

 highest law, whose voice is the harmony of 

 the world, and whose seat is the bosom of God 

 the law, not of material, but of human life ; 

 that life which is more than breath, or the 

 quick round of blood ; that life which is a great 

 spirit and a busy heart, which is thought in- 

 carnate, mind precipitated, and which we des- 

 ignate by the strong word man by whom is 

 made the great living world of human thought, 

 and human feeling, and human action. Nor 

 when I speak of your unlimited power to legis- 

 late for the general welfare, do I mean that you 

 may rightfully legislate to the hurt of the gen- 

 eral welfare, or in wanton disregard of those 

 rights of human nature, to protect which all 

 good government is ordained. I admit, sir, 

 that civil government, with all its complex 

 machinery of civil polity, is but a means for the 

 attainment of a more important end the pro- 

 tection of individual man, the development of 

 his deathless faculties, of his generous affec- 

 tions, of the immortal sentiments, hopes, and 

 aspirations of his being. 



^ But, sir, it is a part of the essential econ- 



omy of good government, that individual in- 

 terests and individual rights must observe, at 

 whatever cost, the public good. No man lives 

 for himself alone, but each for all. Some must 

 die that the state may live ; individuals are 

 but for to-day ; the commonwealth is for all 

 time. 



k ' I reaffirm my proposition that you are in- 

 trusted by the people with the unlimited sov- 

 ereign power to make all laws just and needful 

 'for the common defence.' "What limitation 

 is there but the public necessity upon your 

 power to lay and collect taxes in the manner 

 prescribed, to contract debts and borrow money, 

 to declare war, raise armies and navies, and 

 make rules for their government. The limita- 

 tions of the Constitution may be cited. 



" From all this it must be apparent that 

 while unnecessary or wanton cruelty to the 

 public enemy is forbidden by the law of na- 

 tions, as well also by the Constitution ; all else 

 essential, however destructive of their lives and 

 property, is justifiable a right and a duty. If 

 these rebels in arms against the Constitution 

 and laws were alien, not citizen enemies, the 

 Government of the United States, by authority 

 of Congress, could visit upon them all these 

 dread penalties of war, the destruction of their 

 lives, and the confiscation of their property, so 

 far as necessary to the vindication of the na- 

 tion's rights. That they are citizen enemies 

 does not relieve them from such penalties, or 

 in any wise mitigate their guilt. But what is 

 forbidden by the law of nations toward alien 

 enemies waging war against us by the authority 

 of their sovereign, is expressly allowed by the 

 Constitution of our country toward these 

 rebels. Every one of them taken in the overt 

 act of rebellion, inasmuch as he is a citizen of 

 the United States, and owes allegiance to the 

 Government of the United States, may be 

 treated as a traitor, and upon trial and convic- 

 tion, may justly be subjected to the punishment 

 prescribed by the statute upon those guilty of 

 the crime of treason, and be subjected to such 

 other penalties for his rebellion as may be pre- 

 scribed by law. No State in the Union can 

 legalize treason, or absolve any of its citizens 

 from his allegiance to the Federal Government. 



" The Government is invested with the right 

 of self-defence and self-preservation, and, to 

 that end, with the power to provide by law for 

 the maintenance of its authority by force 

 against all conspiracies, however sanctioned by 

 State statutes, or State constitutions, or State 

 ordinances of secession." 



Such being the rights and powers of the Gov- 

 ernment, he next proceeded to inquire respect- 

 ing its duties. 



" Is it not the duty of the legislative depart- 

 ment to provide by law at once for the employ- 

 ment of all justifiable force against the persons 

 and property of these rebels, to the end not 

 merely that the avenging arm of an insulted 

 people may fall upon them, but that the nation 

 may live, that justice may be established, that 



