CONGRESS, U. S. 



307 



be fatal to the integrity of the Government 

 itself, and change its entire character. Is it 

 uncharitable to say that another object seems 

 to lie much nearer the gentleman's heart than 

 the crushing out of the rebellion and the re- 

 establishment of the authority of the Govern- 

 ment in all the States ? 



" I avow my object to be, with all the ter- 

 rible enginery of war, to crush down and tram- 

 ple out, at once and forever, this wicked and 

 diabolical rebellion ; then to pursue and blast 

 its leaders and fomenters with the severest 

 punishments that can be visited upon this most 

 malignant and unpardonable treason, and to 

 win back the hearts of the deluded masses to 

 the good old Government which protected them 

 through all the past, and which they cannot, 

 even now, remember without a tear of grati- 

 tude and a sigh of regret, and from the shelter 

 of which they were cruelly enticed away to be 

 exposed to the pelting of the pitiless storm of 

 treason and rebellion which has wasted their 

 fortunes, desolated their homes, murdered their 

 families, embittered their lives, and darkened 

 all their future. I wish to win them back ; 

 and, as the strongest possible inducement to 

 return. I wish them to be fully assured that 

 when they come they will find the same be- 

 neficent Government to which they had proved 

 faithless, as magnanimous in mercy, as bounte- 

 ous in blessing, as equal in justice, as strong 

 in protection, as when they betrayed it. 

 Through weal and through woe, in the sun- 

 shine of peace and amid the storm and tem- 

 pest of war. I wish to stand by the Constitu- 

 tion. I desire that every battle fought and 

 every victory won, shall be fought and won 

 under the Constitution and for the Constitu- 

 tion, and that every life that is poured out in 

 this terrible strife shall be a libation to its great 

 principles. Let us stand by the Constitution. 

 We shall need its protection hereafter more 

 than we ever have heretofore. We shall need 

 its restraints in the times to come more than 

 we ever have in the times that are past. 

 When, hereafter, this Chamber shall be filled 

 with Senators, fresh from the battle-field, whose 

 laurels are yek green upon their brows, accus- 

 tomed to command, and impatient of restraint, 

 let there be no act of ours to be drawn into 

 bad precedent in breaking down the bulwarks 

 which the Constitution has erected for the se- 

 curity of the people. Let us leave no record 

 behind to be pointed at as authority for en- 

 croachment upon the powers and prerogatives 

 of a coordinate department. Power is always 

 grasping, always struggling for the enlargement 

 of its dominion. If we begin by denuding the 

 Executive, how long will it be before the ju- 

 diciary is stripped of its ermine, and all power 

 concentrated in the hands of an irresponsible 

 legislature ? When that is done, the history 

 of the Republic is closed and the history of 

 anarchy and despotism begins its melancholy 

 record of tyranny ana 1 oppression and confu- 

 sion and blood." 



Mr. Hale, of Xew Hampshire, said : " Sir, a 

 doctrine has been advanced on this floor again 

 and again, and reiterated and promulgated, 

 which, to my mind, is more fatal in its char- 

 acter, more destructive of the Government, 

 more at war with every principle of the Con- 

 stitution, than secession itself. It is the doc- 

 trine that would concentrate all the executive 

 power of the nation when I say executive 

 power, I speak of it in its broadest sense, its 

 power of activity, its energy, its power to be 

 something and do something in the President 

 of the United States, negativing and denying 

 to Congress any power at all. If that doctrine 

 prevails your Constitution is gone, the dream of 

 your fathers is over, the idea of a republic has 

 vanished like the clouds of the morning before 

 the rising glories of the sun, a practical despot- 

 ism has stolen in upon us while our guardians 

 have slept, the Constitution is perverted, and 

 we are but a monarchy, having a name to live 

 while we are in fact dead. 



U I confess, sir, that if that is to be the Con- 

 stitution we are to have left when the war 

 is over, it is a matter of indifference to me 

 whether the Federal or the confederate States 

 prevail, for either of them will have but an 

 iron despotism.'' 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, thus explain- 

 ed what he regarded as the war power of the 

 Government: "Pray. sir. where in the Consti- 

 tution is the limitation of the war powers of 

 Congress? Let Senators who would limit 

 them mention a single section, line, or phrase, 

 which even hints at any limitation. If it be 

 constitutional to make war, to set armies in the 

 field, to launch navies, to occupy fields and 

 houses, to bombard cities, to kill in battle all 

 without trial by jury or any process of law or 

 judicial proceedings of any kind it is equally 

 constitutional, as a war measure, to confiscate 

 the property of the enemy and to liberate his 

 slaves. Xor can it be doubted on principle 

 that if the latter be unconstitutional, then are 

 all the other agencies of war unconstitutional. 

 You may condemn confiscation and liberation 

 as impolitic, but you cannot condemn them as 

 unconstitutional unless, in the same breath, 

 you condemn all other agencies of war, and 

 resolve our present proceedings into the process 

 of a criminal court, guarded at each step by the 

 technicalities of jurisprudence. 



^ " Sir, I speak frankly, according to my con- 

 victions, claiming nothing for myself which I 

 do not freely accord to others. In this discus- 

 sion there is no need of sharp words or of 

 personal allusions of any kind: nor can any- 

 thing be gained by any missatement of the posi- 

 tion of another. It is easy to say that Senators 

 who insist upon the war powers of Congress 

 are indifferent to the Constitution; but I do 

 not admit that any Senator is more anxious for 

 the Constitution than myself. The war powers 

 of Congress are derived" from the Constitution, 

 but. when once set in motion, are without any 

 restraint from the Constitution, so that what ia 



