CONGRESS, U. S. 



369 



granted to the President by the Constitution 

 may be used by him in association with Con- 

 gress ; that he has no power which Congress 

 may not, if it chooses, associate itself with him 

 in the exercise of. One of the powers of war 

 is the power to command the army. Does the 

 Senator intend to be understood as insisting 

 that Congress has the right and power, under 

 the Constitution, to take the actual command 

 of the army in the field ? " 



Mr. Sumner: "Is the Senator serious in 

 putting the question ? " 



Mr. Browning : " Unquestionably, I am se- 

 rious." 



Mr. Sumner : " The Senator knows very 

 well that by the Constitution of the United 

 States the President is Commander-in-chief of 

 the army ; but he also knows very well, that 

 by the Constitution of the United States, Con- 

 gress may make all laws to regulate the duties 

 and the powers of the commander-in-chief. 

 That is my answer to the question." 



Mr. Browning: " Mr. President, I ask the 

 or whether he was serious when he as- 

 serted that all the rights and powers of war 

 were conferred by the Constitution upon Con- 

 gress ; whether he was serious when he further 

 asserted that the President possessed no power 

 which might not be used by him in association 

 with Congress. I am serious in asking these 

 questions, for these are doctrines which, in my 

 judgment, are subversive of every principle of 

 free government, which tend to establish, and 

 which, if carried into legislation and into oper- 

 ation, will establish the most odious, despotic 

 tyranny that the world ever saw. 



" I do not intend to go any further into the 

 argument, Mr. President. The Senator, repeat- 

 ing what had previously been said by another 

 Senator, that the doctrine which had been ad- 

 vocated upon this floor, that the President 

 could not be controlled by Congress in the 

 exercise of the duties peculiarly devolving upon 

 him by the Constitution, has chosen to charac- 

 terize that as absurd and slavish, and deserving 

 only of contempt, and, I believe he added, of 

 execration. Mr. President, harsh and vulgar 

 words prove nothing but the passion and ma- 

 lignity of him who uses them. They constitute 

 no argument ; they deserve no answer." 



Mr. Howard, of Michigan, followed, saying : 

 ' I rise, Mr. President, to detain the Senate for a 

 few minutes in the discussion of one single prop- 

 osition, which has been frequently insisted upon 

 during this debate respecting confiscation, that 

 has run through so many weeks of this session 

 I mean the proposition which asserts the ab- 

 solute authority of the President of the United 

 States as derived from that provision of the 

 Constitution which declares that he shall be 

 commander-in-chief of the army and the navy 

 and of the militia of the several States, when 

 called into the actual service of the United 

 States. If I understand this proposition cor- 

 rectly, it may be stated briefly thus : that in 

 virtue of the clause of the Constitution which 



VOL. II. 24 



I have recited, the Executive of the nation has 

 the absolute, independent, irresponsible author- 

 ity to control, use, and employ the army and 

 the navy of the United States, and all the im- 

 plements and instruments of war, as he pleases, 

 not being, in these regards, subject to the con- 

 trol of Congress in any degree, and not being in 

 any sense or degree responsible to Congress for 

 the exercise of this supposed power, and not 

 being subject to any legislation which the two 

 Houses of Congress may adopt in reference to 

 his authority. 



" The question which I propose to discuss, as 

 connected with this proposition, is, Has Con- 

 gress authority under the Constitution to con- 

 trol and direct the President in the application 

 and use of the military force of the nation in 

 carrying on war, and is he bound to apply and 

 employ it as they may direct ? It is a simple 

 question of power under the Constitution. All 

 will admit its magnitude and importance. 



" Sir, this new heresy deserves rebuke. It 

 has been justly characterized by the Senator 

 from Ohio (Mr. Wade) as slavish. And noth- 

 ing is more certain than that, if it shall get a 

 permanent hold on the public mind, we shall, 

 in the no very distant future, lose our liberties 

 or become a conquered people. And I warn 

 the country against the insidious and fatal 

 sophistry, as I warn them against the less in- 

 sidious and far less fatal doctrine of secession. 

 Secession must and will be refuted and put 

 down by the arms of freemen : but when they, 

 too, have consented to surrender the power of 

 the sword wholly to the President, denying to 

 their representatives all power to control him 

 in the use of it ; when Congress shall have ab- 

 dicated this, the highest function of the national 

 sovereignty. Ca?sar has no Rubicon to pass ; the 

 boundaries of his military command, once fixed 

 by the Senate, are blotted out forever. The 

 consular general becomes a military dictator, an 

 imperator, and all the powers of the Govern- 

 ment, civil and military, pass into his irrespon- 

 sible hands ; his decrees will constitute the laws 

 of the Republic, and his praetorian bands will 

 make the President of the United States." 



Mr. Browning, of Illinois, thus replied : " I 

 will not occupy the attention of the Senate 

 over five minutes. As my attention was espe- 

 cially invited by the Senator from Michigan to 

 a portion of his speech, to all of which I have 

 listened with interest, I think it proper that I 

 should make a word of reply to that part to 

 which he invited my attention. He, like every 

 other Senator who contends for the new doc- 

 trine he advocates, is forced to go outside of 

 the Constitution to find authority to sustain it, 

 and no better authority has been found by the 

 Senator than that of Washington's commission 

 under the Continental Congress, and the prac- 

 tice of the Government under the Articles of 

 Confederation. He says that Washington him- 

 self did not assume or pretend to claim any 

 authority independent of the appointing power. 

 Of course he did not ; the Continental Congress 



