CONGRESS, U. 8. 



327 



ed if it is not entirely out of place it must 

 conduct to the conclusion that, whatever may 

 be the present question of policy, the power to 

 make Treasury notes a legal tender has precise- 

 ly the same origin in the Constitution with the 

 p'ower to create Treasury notes. It is true 

 that you may exercise one power, and decline 

 to exercise the other ; but if you assume the 

 power to issue bills of credit, I am at a loss to 

 understand how you can deny the power to 

 make them a legal tender. The two spring 

 from the same fountain. You may refuse to 

 exercise one or both; but you cannot insist 

 upon one under the Constitution and reject the 

 other." 



A vote was then taken on a motion to strike 

 out the legal tender clause, which resulted as 

 follows: 



TEAS. Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Collamer, Cowan, 

 Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Kennedy, King, Latham, 

 Xesmith, Pearce, Powell, Saulsbury, Simmons, Thom- 

 son, and Willey 17. 



NATS. Messrs. Chandler, Clark, Davis, Dixon, Doo- 

 little, Hawaii, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, 

 Laue of Indiana, McDougall, Morrill, Ppmeroy, Rice, 

 Sherman, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade, Wilkinson, Wil- 

 son of Massachusetts, and 'Wilson of Missouri 2-2. 



The bill was subsequently passed by the fol- 

 lowing vote : 



YEAS. Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Davis, 

 Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, 

 Hale, Harlan, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Lane 

 of Indiana, Latham, McDougall, Morrill, Pomeroy, 

 Rice, Sherman, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, 

 Wilkinson, Wilson of Massachusetts, and Wilson of 

 Missouri 30. 



XAYS. Messrs. Collamer, Cowan, Kennedy, King, 

 Pearce, Powell, and Saulsbury 7. 



In the senate, on the 28th of January, on 

 motion of Mr. Wade, of Ohio, the bill to au- 

 thorize the President of the United States in 

 certain cases to take possession of railroad and 

 telegraph lines was taken up. The bill pro- 

 posed to authorize the President of the United 

 States, when, in his judgment, the public safety 

 might require it, to take possession of any or 

 all the telegraph lines in the United States, 

 their offices and appurtenances ; to take posses- 

 sion of any or all the railroad lines in the 

 United States, their rolling stock, their offices, 

 shops, buildings, and all their appurtenances; 

 to prescribe rules and regulations for the hold- 

 ing, using, and maintaining of the telegraph 

 and railroad lines in the manner most condu- 

 cive to the safety and interest of Government ; 

 to place under military control all the officers, 

 agents, and employes belonging to the tele- 

 graph and railroad lines thus taken possession 

 of, so that they should be considered a part of 

 the military force of the United States, subject 

 to all the restrictions imposed by the rules and 

 articles of war. Any attempt, by any party 

 or parties whomsoever, to resist or interfere 

 with the unrestrained use by Government of 

 the property thus taken possession of. or any 

 attempt to injure or destroy it, was to be pun- 



ished as a military offence by death or such 

 other penalty as a court martial may impose. 



Three commissioners were to be appointed 

 by the President, by and with the advice and 

 consent of the Senate, to assess and determine 

 the damages suffered, or the compensation to 

 which any railroad or telegraph company might 

 be entitled, by reason of the railroad or tele- 

 graph line being seized and used under the 

 authority conferred by the act, and their award 

 was to be final, and the amount was to be paid 

 to the party entitled to it out of any money in 

 the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 



The transportation of troops, munitions of 

 war, equipments, military property and stores 

 throughout the United States, was to be under 

 the immediate control and supervision of the 

 Secretary of "War, and such agents as he might 

 appoint. 



The compensation of each of the commis- 

 sioners was to be eight dollars per day while in 

 actual service, and the provisions of the act 

 were not to be in force any longer than was 

 necessary to bring the war to an end. 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, said: "The 

 bill contemplates that, under certain contin- 

 gencies, the military force of the country may 

 take possession of the railroads and telegraph 

 lines of the country. This, I have no doubt, is 



? roper, and, under the right of eminent domain, 

 have no doubt the Government has power 

 to authorize it ; but who shall decide upon the 

 contingency? The owners of these roads may 

 be citizens having rights which are secured and 

 guaranteed to them under the fifth amendment 

 of the Constitution, and they have a right to 

 appeal to the courts, I should think, in order 

 to determine whether those rights were or 

 were not violated by the military officers in 

 taking possession of their property at that time 

 for public use. 



Why, it may be asked, are persons in the 

 land and naval forces subjected to military 

 punishment for offences? It is because they 

 have waived their constitutional rights by sub- 

 scribing at the time they entered this force to 

 the rules and regulations laid down by Con- 

 gress for the government of the land and naval 

 forces ; and I very much doubt whether a man 

 could be subjected to the peculiar punishment 

 there inflicted, unless he had first subscribed 

 to those articles. Certainly, when a man enters 

 the army, he is called upon and he does agree 

 to those rules and regulations, which are out- 

 side of the course of the common law, and 

 which do not proceed by due process of law, 

 before he can be held answerable." 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, followed, saying: 

 " The Senator from Ohio says that it would be 

 impossible in districts where railroads would 

 probably be taken possession of to impanel 

 juries and try the parties resisting that posses- 

 sion. That is very true; it would be; and it 

 is not necessary to do it there. Now, the dis- 

 tinction which "l make, and the basis of the bill 

 which has been introduced here to confiscate 



