314 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



grounds that this rebellion has opened a vast 

 and limitless source of law, that lies sealed up 

 during the periods of peace, but which springs 

 forth a sceptred king at the first footfall of an 

 armed foe. It is called the war power ; and 

 without definition or outline it comes to the 

 aid of a beleaguered nation. It is said that this 

 extraordinary agency can fulminate its edicts 

 alone through the voice of a commander-in- 

 chief at the head of his armies ; and that in no 

 form can or does it attach itself to the ordinary 

 legislature. This I deny. We are the legisla- 

 tive power the proclamation of a rule that 

 changes existing relations is the enactment of a 

 law, simple and pure ; and the Constitution con- 

 fers no semblance of legislative power else- 

 where. If a new fountain of law-making pow- 

 er is opened up, it naturally flows to us, and 

 we may and should embody so much of it as 

 we deem necessary into the ordinary forms of 

 statutes. This power undefined, vague, and 

 shadowy can nowhere else be so safely exer- 

 cised as by us ; and rather than permit an Ex- 

 ecutive to be clothed with it, without limit or 

 definition, and thus make him an irresponsible 

 despot, I would deny its existence and resist its 

 exercise. With us it is safe ; even a usurpation 

 on our part that did not impinge upon a coor- 

 dinate branch of the Government may be com- 

 paratively harmless. 



" I hold, then, that this war power, whatever 

 it may be, or whence its source, is our special 

 property ; and it may be well to inquire whether 

 we have not already permitted its exercise by 

 the Executive to an extent trenching upon dan- 

 ger. On broader grounds yet may the power 

 to deal with this matter be most securely rested. 

 Nations, like individuals, possess inalienable 

 rights ; and for the same reasons. An individ- 

 ual sustains certain relations, and is under con- 

 sequent obligations from which he cannot be 

 discharged to the God who created him, to 

 his fellows about him, and to himself. To 

 insure a performance of these, he possesses cer- 

 tain rights and privileges that cannot be taken 

 from him, and with which he cannot part by 

 any act of his own ; and if such a pretended 

 alienation has taken place, enforced or volun- 

 tary, he may at any moment and under all cir- 

 cumstances, resume them. For the same rea- 

 son and to the same extent, a nation must pos- 

 sess these rights, which pertain to it simply 

 because it is a nation ; and without them it 

 cannot discharge the paramount obligations of 

 protection to its subjects, and self-defence. 



" In the application of our power, however 

 derived, to the subject under consideration, I 

 would adopt the principles of that proclamation 

 to the language of which the oppressed and la- 

 boring heart of the nation rose up as to the 

 voice of God the property of all the rebels 

 should be confiscated, and their slaves ' are here- 

 by declared free.' My convictions and judg- 

 ment might carry me further, but there are 

 checking considerations that at this time, to 

 Eie, render this inexpedient. I know that our 



amazing policy in this gasping, strangling con- 

 test for the breath of life is thus far the reverse 

 of this; we even reject with scorn the aid of 

 one entire and powerful class of our subjects ; 

 that race, too, for whose destiny and our own 

 the war is ; and yet we will perish rather than 

 aid shall come from them. Nay, we will per- 

 ish rather than seek to withdraw them from 

 striking with our mortal foes. Was ever fatu- 

 ity so sublime ? What can be the solution of 

 this prodigious folly? Is it indeed true that 

 slavery is the one holy thing, so sacred that 

 even in this struggle we are to remain the ene- 

 mies of our own allies, and the allies of our en- 

 emies against ourselves? There never was a 

 war conducted so lambent and so lamb-like, 

 where the persons of your enemies are too sa- 

 cred to be smitten by any save a pure white; 

 and where you so carefully guard their feelings 

 against the mortification of being beaten in the 

 field by the kindred of their own bondmen. 

 Never, until we can shuffle off these sickly 

 and sickening sentimentalisms, and confront 

 this great catastrophe with all the means that 

 lie within our grasp in our hands, shall we 

 be equal to its fearful demands. Gentlemen 

 may turn their pallid faces loathingly away, 

 and hold their weak stomachs, but I say to 

 them that they and their policy must go to 

 the rear the front of this battle is for other 

 hands." 



Mr. Sheffield, of Ehode Island, dissented en- 

 tirely from the grounds urged by the preceding 

 speakers on which to authorize emancipation, 

 and said: "Now, gentlemen may ask me what 

 I would do in Congress in reference to putting 

 down this rebellion. I frankly tell these gen- 

 tlemen what I would not do. I would not vio- 

 late the Constitution I had sworn to support, 

 and to maintain which my fellow citizens and 

 friends were now endangering their lives upon 

 the battle field. I would not spend the time 

 of this House in trying to depreciate the efforts 

 of the Administration and of the army in put- 

 ting down the rebellion, or in making inflam- 

 matory appeals against the horrors of the insti- 

 tution of slavery, or against those men who are 

 battling with us for the Union. Now, I will tell 

 these gentlemen what I would do. I would di- 

 rect the attention of Congress to providing the 

 means and the men to put down the rebellion. We 

 cannot otherwise legislate against it effectively. 

 I would put it down in the only way in which 

 it can be put down ; I would fight it down. I 

 would move on the army ; and as the army 

 went on, I would capture and send to the rear 

 every disloyal person I could find. If slaves 

 were found among those disloyal persons, I 

 would capture them, and, by the laws of war, 

 as I understand them as pertaining to captured 

 property, the proprietorship of such slave would 

 immediately vest in the United States. I would 

 allow the slaves to remain the property of the 

 United States, in the rear of the army, until 

 treason had been put down, and until the 

 rightful jurisdiction of the civil authorities was 



