CONGRESS, U. S. 



329 



States. To place it anywhere else would lead 

 you directly to an irresponsible despotism. 

 Sir, as a representative of a State of this Union, 

 I will never consent to yield my right to declare 

 upon this floor upon what principles any war 

 shall be conducted. I deny the right of the 

 President, without any interference of Con- 

 gress, to conduct everything pertaining to war 

 according to his own views. He has no right 

 to do it. "We have seen the trouble that has 

 been occasioned by an attempt to exercise a 

 power that he probably has, in a way not reg- 

 ulated by law, and it has greatly impaired his 

 authority, if not his good name abroad. Look 

 at the complaints against him because he has 

 undertaken to suspend the Tidbeas corpus, a 

 power not regulated by law. Ought not that 

 power to be regulated by law like every other? 

 "Would it not be better for your Executive that 

 it should be so ? Ought we, the representa- 

 tives of the people and of the States, to shrink 

 from declaring upon what principles men may 

 be deprived of their liberty ? I do not say this 

 in any sense of .denunciation against what has 

 been done, because there has been a necessity 

 for it. We create and continue that necessity 

 every hour that we fail to declare on what 

 principles a man may be taken and deprived of 

 his liberty. 



' Now, sir, I am as anxious as any other man 

 to defend the rights of the people, and to con- 

 fer the proper authority upon the Executive to 

 act ; but I absolutely deny that without our as- 

 sent he may exercise just what powers he pleases 

 in respect to the conduct of this war. "We, the 

 representatives of the States and the representa- 

 tives of the people, whose interests and whose 

 persons are affected by the war, have the right 

 here to limit the powers that he shall exercise 

 upon just such subjects as we see fit, just as we 

 please, and when we please ; and because, in 

 my judgment, he has not this unlimited power 

 to exercise, except from necessity, when we 

 fail to act, the duty is devolved upon us of 

 prescribing the rules under which he shall act, 

 and therefore I have brought forward this bill." 



Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, continuing the 

 debate, said : " Mr. President, in the course of 

 this discussion we have come up against the 

 great question that divides the judicial minds 

 of the country, whether the power of suspend- 

 ing the habeas corpus and of declaring martial 

 law is in the President or in Congress. If it is 

 in the President, no legislation whatever would 

 be necessary, because the President can extend 

 his martial law anywhere throughout the Uni- 

 ted States, over every railroad in it ; and any 

 man who commits an offence upon the railroad 

 over which martial law is extended can be tried 

 by martial law, and shot at a drum-head 

 court martial. But inasmuch as there is a large 

 and respectable portion of the judicial minds 

 of the country who believe that it belongs to 

 Congress to extend martial law in the United 

 States, therefore I understand this committee, 

 for greater security and caution, to have both 



the authority of the President and the authority 

 of Congress, ask for the provisions of this bill, 

 which are nothing more nor less than to extend 

 martial law, or quasi martial law, over the rail- 

 roads and telegraphs of the United States. 



" "Why should we hesitate to give it ? The 

 Senator from Maine insists that the President 

 has it now. "What harm is it, then, if Congress 

 says he shall have it ? " 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, followed in a 

 lengthy speech. His view was thus expressed : 

 " I do not think this bill is necessary. I think 

 that all laws of this kind which are calculated 

 to enlarge the power of the President as Com- 

 mander-in-Chief of the Army, will in the end 

 only be found to impede his march, and involve 

 not merely himself but Congress and everybody 

 else In trouble. He had better be left to the 

 exercise of that absolute power with which he 

 is clothed, within its limits free to act, free to 

 do everything. I should be sorry if he had not 

 done everything that was necessary and that 

 he had a right to do ; but I suppose, if not 

 now, it will soon be found out. 



" I am opposed to the whole scheme ; but 

 if there is to be a law of this kind at all, it 

 ought to be so well considered as to at least 

 keep us who legislate for the citizen, who has 

 a right to have the laws administered through 

 the medium of the judiciary, clearly within the 

 limits of the Constitution. I would not throw 

 a straw in the way of the President ; and why ? 

 In what way am I to carry that out? By not 

 passing laws not by passing them. The men 

 who are giving the President a full and fair op- 

 portunity with the military force of the nation 

 to put down the rebellion are those men who 

 do not restrain him, who do not fetter him, but 

 who leave him' as the commander-in-chief of an 

 army ought to be left, to do that which in 

 his own discretion and good judgment he ought 

 to do, and let him take the responsibility." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, in opposition to 

 the bill, said : " I do not rise for the purpose 

 of opposing this bill. I shall vote against it. 

 I consider it a plain and palpable violation of 

 the Constitution of the United States. I know 

 of no power, executive or legislative, to estab- 

 lish martial law within the United States. I 

 therefore have no comments to make upon this 

 bill. The provisions of it speak for themselves. 

 It assumes the power to compel citizens of the 

 United States to act under military law without 

 their consent, and subjects them to the penalties 

 of military law. Though the Constitution says 

 that private property shall not be taken for 

 public purposes without compensation, it as- 

 sumes the power, not to seize private property, 

 but the power to use it temporarily for Govern- 

 ment purposes without compensation for the 

 value of the property. 



"Sir, in all these cases it is the first step 

 which costs. Once accustom the people of this 

 country I do not care under what plea, wheth- 

 er of state necessity, or putting down of rebel- 

 lion, or what you will that within that por- 



