244 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



had relief and been discharged where it did 

 not appear on investigation that there were any 

 charges against them sufficient to put them on 

 trial. 



" In regard to the section under consideration, 

 I think it should be guarded ; I think it should 

 be so framed as not to impair the efficiency of 

 the Government in carrying on this war, and 

 not unnecessarily to infringe upon the right of 

 the citizen. Sir, I have a great respect for law. 

 I love the Constitution. 



" I say to the Senators who are so zealous 

 to-night in favor of military trials, who are in 

 favor of trying the citizen by a military tribunal, 

 that yon are setting an example which is utterly 

 subversive of the Constitution and regulated 

 liberty ; you are overturning all that the Anglo- 

 Saxon race has contended for, for two hundred 

 years, which is, the right of the citizen to be pro- 

 tected and regulated bylaw, and not to have his 

 rights and his liberties dependent upon an officer, 

 without law, and in disregard of it. There is no 

 law regulating these trials of the citizen. Wher- 

 ever an act is done and I think that is the 

 distinction connected with the military ser- 

 vice of the Government, there the military 

 tribunals take hold of the party. "Wherever 

 the judicial tribunals of the country are over- 

 borne, of necessity the military tribunals must 

 govern." 



Mr. Howard, of Michigan, said: "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I cannot listen to the remarks of the Sen- 

 ator from Illinois without attempting something 

 in the shape of a reply. What does this section 

 propose which is now moved to be stricken out ? 

 It proposes to release and liberate hundreds of 

 rogues and conspirators now confined in prison 

 awaiting trial, and some of them undergoing 

 their sentences ; to set them at liberty again to 

 plot and conspire against the peace and safety 

 of the United States. 



" Had it not been for the salutary use of this 

 restraining power on the part of the Executive 

 as Commander-in-chief of the army, it is, I 

 think, no news to say to the Senator from Illi- 

 nois that the very city in which he resides would 

 have been reduced to a mass of cinders and 

 ashes during the sitting of the Chicago Conven- 

 tion; for it is perfectly well known, as well es- 

 tablished as any fact can be, that on that occa- 

 sion there were thousands of conspirators who 

 came over from Canada, where they had been 

 hatching their plots against the United States, 

 and for the very purpose of firing that town, lib- 

 erating the prisoners confined at Camp Douglas, 

 and doing other acts of mischief and destruction. 

 Had it not been for the same protective, the 

 same tutelary power which the Senator now 

 denounces so bitterly, and of which he has here- 

 tofore spoken in this body in terms of approba- 

 tion and praise on more than one occasion, the 

 very dwelling of that Senator would have been 

 laid in ashes by the hands of just such wretches 

 as these military courts and commissions are 

 intended to punish. Now, sir, away with this 

 mawkish, affected sensibility in regard to courts- 



martial! If there be any fault connected with 

 them, and connected with the Administration 

 on account of them, it is that they have not 

 been used with sufficient vigor and vigilance. 

 That is my opinion. The rigors belonging tb 

 martial law are in a moment of war and public 

 danger the only restraining power sufficient to 

 compel obedience to law and order. I will not 

 trespass on the time of the Senate longer. I 

 am glad the motion has been made to strike out 

 that section so anomalous in a statute making 

 appropriations." 



Mr. Conness, of California, said : " I will sun- 

 ply say that rather than allow this section to 

 pass, rather than that the Congress of which 

 I am a member should knowingly adopt this 

 section, and plant the condemnation of its ex- 

 pression upon the best acts of our people for 

 four years past, I would see this appropriation 

 bill and all the others that you have passed sunk 

 into perdition. You cannot taint the bill before 

 you with this miserable and disgraceful attack 

 upon the patriotism of the land, and get my 

 vote for it. It is a poor compliment at this 

 time for us law-makers to pay to the men who 

 have been our agents, the men who have been 

 the mediums through which we have acted in 

 all this great contest, that we now turn about 

 and definitively say to them, 'You have vio- 

 lated liberty, you have outraged law, you have 

 pulled down the great edifice of civil liberty, 

 and we reproach you thus for it.' Such an act, 

 Mr. President, can have no vote of mine. 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, said : " From the 

 argument which has been indulged in one 

 would think this was the first time this subject 

 had been spoken of in the Senate. I beg leave 

 to call the attention of Senators to the very 

 proposition that is now before us which has 

 been denounced with quite as much passion as 

 judgment. This section provides that hereafter 

 no person shall be tried by court-martial or 

 military commission in any State or Territory 

 where the courts of the United States are open, 

 except persons actually mustered or in com- 

 mission in the service of the United States, or 

 enemies charged with being spies, and a modi- 

 fication acceptable to myself is proposed by the 

 Senator from Illinois. Just two years ago to- 

 day the Senate of the United States agreed to 

 quite this much, and prescribed a penalty for 

 the violation of the very principles defined in 

 this section. When the Senate of the United 

 States, two years ago, agreed that the President 

 might suspend the writ of habeas corpus, it was 

 not unconditionally and without restrictions, 

 but it was\with such provisions as would yet 

 secure the liberty of the citizen. This la\v, 

 which will not allow the President to put any 

 man on his trial before a military court unk'.-.s 

 he be properly answerable before such a court, 

 has stood for two years without a word of com- 



Slaint from my worthy and very able colleague, 

 ut to-night he says he would rather see any 

 of these appropriation bills fall ; he would sea 

 all the appropriations necessary for the sup- 



