CONGRESS, U. S. 



235 



shall pervert, or attempt to pervert, the same to a war 

 of conquest and subjugation, or for the overthrowing 

 or interfering with the rights or established institu- 

 tions of any of the States, and to abolish slavery there- 

 in, or for the purpose of destroying or impairing the 

 dignity, equality, or rights of any of the States, will be 

 guilty of a flagrant breach of public faith and of a high 

 crime against the Constitution and the Union. 



5. Resolved, That whoever shall propose by Federal 

 authority Jo extinguish any of the States of this Union, 

 or to declare any of them extinguished, and to estab- 

 lish territorial governments within the same, will be 

 guilty of a high crime against the Constitution and the 

 Union. 



6. Resolved, That whoever shall affirm that it is com- 

 petent for this House or any other authority to estab- 

 lish a dictatorship in the United States, thereby super- 

 seding or suspending the constitutional authorities of 

 the Union, and shall proceed to make any move toward 

 the declaring of a dictator, will be guilty of a high crime 

 against the Constitution and the Union and public lib- 

 erty. 



The resolutions were laid on the table. 

 Yeas, 79 ; nays, 50. On the same day, Mr. 

 Morrill, of Vermont, offered the following reso- 

 lution : 



Resolved, That at no time since the commencement 

 of the existing rebellion, have the forces and materials 

 in the hands of the executive department of the Gov- 

 ernment been so ample and abundant for the speedy 

 and triumphant termination of the war as at the pres- 

 ent moment ; and it is the duty of all loyal American 

 citizens, regardless of minor differences of opinion, and 

 especially the duty of every officer and soldier in the 

 field, as well as the duty of every department of the 

 Government the legislative branch included as a 

 unit, to cordially and unitedly strike down the assas- 

 sins, at once and forever, who have conspired to de- 

 stroy our Constitution, our nationality, and that pros- 

 perity and freedom of which we are justly proud at 

 home and abroad, and which we stand pledged to per- 

 petuate forever. 



This resolution was adopted by the following 

 vote : Yeas, 105 ; nay, 1 W. J. Allen. 



Subsequently, Mr. Cox, of Ohio, offered the 

 following explanatory resolution : 



Resolved, That the word " assassins," used in the res- 

 olution this day offered by the member from Vermont, 

 [Mr. Morrill], is intended by this House to include all 

 men, whether from the North or the South, who have 

 been instrumental in producing the present war, and 

 especially those in and out of Congress who have been 

 guilty of flagrant breaches of the Constitution, and who 

 are not in favor of the establishment of the Union as it 

 was and the Constitution as it is. 



This resolution was laid on the table. Yeas, 

 85 ; nays, 41. 



In the Senate on the 8th of December, Mr. 

 Saulsbury, of Delaware, offered the following 

 resolution : 



Resolved, That the Secretary of War be, and he is 

 hereby directed to inform the Senate whether Dr. 

 John Laus and Whitely Meredith, or either of them, 

 citizens of the State of Delaware, have been arrested 

 and imprisoned in Fort Delaware ; when they were ar- 

 rested and so imprisoned ; the charges against them ; 

 by whom made ; by whose orders they were arrested 

 and imprisoned ; and that he communicate to the Sen- 

 ate all papers relating to their arrest and imprison- 

 ment. 



Mr. Saulsbury, in calling for the consideration 

 of the resolution, said : " These two gentlemen, 

 one of whom resides in my own county, and the 

 other not far off, in the adjoining county, are 



known to me personally, and have been for a 

 number of years ; and as their friends do not 

 know of any just cause why they should be im- 

 prisoned in Fort Delaware or elsewhere, I have 

 felt 'it my duty to call for this information. I 

 hope the Senate will not perceive any reason 

 for refusing to comply with this request. If 

 they are there properly, if they have been guil- 

 ty of any attempt to subvert the Government, 

 if they have, acted traitorously in any respect, 

 their friends do not know it ; I do not know it, 

 and I do not believe it. They have been in 

 Fort Delaware now for some time, and neither 

 themselves nor their friends have been apprised 

 of any cause for their arrest, or of the reasons 

 upon which the arrests were made." 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, opposed the 

 adoption of -the resolution, saying: "I think 

 the Senate of the United States ought not to be 

 engaged during this brief session in calling up- 

 on the Government for this kind of information, 

 or in arraigning the administrators of the- Gov- 

 ernment. We have had some arrests made, and 

 it is possible there may have been some mistakes 

 made ; but I believe fchat instead of the few hun- 

 dred arrests we have had, we ought to have 

 had several thousand, and that not one man in 

 ten who ought to have been arrested, has been 

 arrested. I know the Government of this coun- 

 try has forborne a great deal. Adopting this 

 resolution at this time looks to me as a sort of 

 arraignment of the Government of the country 

 for making these arrests arrests that have 

 done much toward maintaining the just au- 

 thority of this Government. Never since the 

 dawn of creation has any Government men- 

 aced by insurrection or rebellion been so 

 considerate, so forbearing, so just, so humane, 

 so merciful. While spies and traitors are 

 skulking around us, ready to destroy the life 

 of the nation, I am unwilling to censure the 

 Government of my country for protecting the 

 nation menaced by assassins." 



Mr. Bayard, of "Delaware, thus urged the 

 resolution: "I always supposed that the great 

 value of this Government consisted in the fact 

 that it afforded, beyond all other Govern- 

 ments, the best guardianship to the liberty 

 of the individual citizen. Sir, what is the 

 state of things now ? The honorable senator 

 from Massachusetts tells us that, in his opin- 

 ion, the Government have forborne ; that some 

 mistakes may have been made in making ar- 

 rests, but that they ought to have gone far- 

 ther than they have gone. The question does 

 not lie there. The question lies in the great 

 principle that the liberty of the citizen ought 

 to be protected against the Government, ex- 

 cept by public judicial inquiry on facts prima 

 facie established by affidavit in order to justify 

 his incarceration, because incarceration is im- 

 prisonment, it is punishment. In no free Gov- 

 ernment can the citizen be arrested at the will 

 of an officer I do not care who the officer is, 

 whether a Secretary of War or a Secretary of 

 the Navy, or any subordinate to whom a Sec- 



