330 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



tion of the United States in which the laws are 

 not suspended, in which civil remedies can be 

 afforded, the civil power is subordinate to the 

 military, and there is an end of civil liberty; 

 there is an end to republican government. You 

 may talk about fighting for the restoration of 

 the Union ; but if your restoration of the Union 

 is merely for the acquisition of power, apart 

 from the preservation of the Constitution and 

 the principles of liberty on which that Consti- 

 tution is founded, is it worth the struggle and 

 the destruction of human life which will ensue 

 in consequence? Is it for mere conquest that 

 you are fighting, or is it to preserve the Union, 

 because the Union is to save the great prin- 

 ciples of civil liberty upon which that Union is 

 based ? 



" I deny the principle on any possible ground 

 of legal construction, consistent with the Con- 

 stitution and the preservation of civil as opposed 

 to military authority, where the laws of the 

 United States can be executed by the civil pow- 

 er, that you have the right to interpose mili- 

 tary power and to override the civil power, 

 because you may think it more convenient. 



"Mr. President, this doctrine of State neces- 

 sity is at all times a dangerous doctrine. In 

 truth, the whole question comes to this : There 

 are in reality but two forms of government: 

 one is a government of will, and the other a 

 government of laws. The United States profess 

 to have a government of laws. If you transfer 

 that power, no matter under what plea, no 

 matter under what necessity or what excuse, 

 so that the mere will of the Executive or of his 

 subordinate military commanders can, without 

 the laws which secure the rights of individuals, 

 trespass upon personal liberty, and upon the 

 rights of private property, where those laws 

 are enforced, there is an end of republican gov- 

 ernment ; there is an end of a government of 

 laws. There is the substitution of a govern- 

 ment of will, and that is a despotism wherever 

 it exists." 



The bill was finally passed by the following 

 vote : 



YEAS. Messrs. Carlile, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, 

 Doolittle, Foot, Hale, Howard, Howe, Johnson, King, 

 Lane of Indiana, Latham, Pomeroy, Rice, Sherman, 

 Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilmot, Wilson 

 of Massachusetts, and Wilson of Missouri 23. 



NATS. Messrs. Browning, Cowan, Davis, Fessen- 

 den, Foster, Grimes, Harris, McDougall, Powell, 

 Saulsbury, Trumbull, and Willey 12. 



The expulsion of all members of the Senate 

 who had either united with the Southern Con- 

 federacy, or who had said or done anything 

 not strictly loyal, in the opinion of Senators, 

 caused very extended debates during this ses- 

 sion. The points embraced in each case are 

 here shown. In this crisis of the country all 

 measures were considered necessary which 

 might remove some real or apprehended dan- 

 ger. 



In the Senate, on the 10th of January, the 

 resolution relative to the expulsion from the 



Senate of "Waldo P. Johnson, Senator from 

 Missouri, was taken up and the report of the 

 committee made as follows : 



The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was re- 

 ferred a resolution for the expulsion from the Senate 

 of Waldo P. Johnson, a Senator from the State of Mis- 

 souri, submit the following report : 



Previous to his election to the Senate, Mr. Johnson 

 was known, in Missouri, as entertaining secession pro- 

 clivities, and to sympathize and cooperate with the prom- 

 inent citizens of that State who are now in open rebel- 

 lion against the Government. He was elected to the 

 Senate by a Legislature which has since sought to ar- 

 ray the State against the Union. Since his election he 

 is reported to nave made a speech evincing a spirit 

 hostile to the Government, which speech was exten- 

 sively published in the State of Missouri without pub- 

 lic contradiction from him. He has not appeared in 

 his seat in the Senate since the session began ; and 

 though the resolution for his expulsion was proposed 

 in the Senate on the 10th day of December, and refer- 

 red to this committee on the 12th day of December, 1861, 

 and has been extensively published in Missouri and 

 other parts of the Union, the said Johnson has wholly 

 failed to furnish any reason for his absence, or expla- 

 nation of the charges of disloyalty urged against him. 



The failure of said Johnson for so long a period to 

 appear in his place to discharge the high duties incum- 

 bent upon him for the preservation of the Republic in 

 this time of rebellion against its authority, and his si- 

 lence under the imputations upon his loyalty, which, 

 from their publicity, could not have escaped his notice 

 if within a loyal portion of the Union, of themselves 

 furnish strong presumptive grounds against his fidel- 

 ity to the Government. 



His whereabouts at this time the committee have 

 been unable, with actual certainty, to ascertain. They 

 are satisfied that, had he been so disposed, there was 

 nothing to prevent his attendance on the Senate at its 

 commencement; and when last heard from, he was re- 

 ported to have gone voluntarily within the lines of reb- 

 els in arms against the Government. 



Under these circumstances, the committee are of the 

 opinion that he ought to be expelled from the body, 

 and they accordingly report the resolution back to the 

 Senate, with a recommendation that it do pass. 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "For my 

 own part I have read too much of the past his- 

 tory of the world to condemn men merely for 

 opinions, however widely they may differ from 

 my own ; but acts are another thing. The evi- 

 dence in this case satisfied me that Mr. John- 

 son had left the United States clandestinely, 

 and that every rational presumption was that 

 he had gone to the Confederate States, who now 

 are at open war with the United States. Under 

 these circumstances, I have no hesitation in 

 giving my vote for his expulsion as a member 

 of this body." 



The resolution was then adopted by a unan- 

 imous vote. 



The resolution relative to the expulsion of 

 Senator Trusten Polk was then taken up, and 

 the committee submitted their report as fol- 

 lows: 



The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was re- 

 ferred the resolution of the Senate for the expulsion of 

 Trusten Polk, a Senator from the State of Missouri, 

 report : 



That it appears, to the satisfaction of the committee, 

 that Trusten Polk recently, and since the commence- 

 ment of the present rebellion, in a letter transmitting 

 pecuniary means to aid in the publication of a seces- 

 sion newspaper in Southwestern Missouri, among other 



