236 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



retary chooses to delegate the power ; and it is 

 impossible to call the Government where such 

 a power exists a free Government." 



Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, thus objected : 

 " Mr. President, this complaint of the great op- 

 pression of this Government because, in time of 

 war, men have been arrested under circum- 

 stances to raise suspicions of their loyalty, it 

 seems to me is not very well founded, so long 

 as the prison door is open to all arrested upon 

 suspicion only, if they will simply take the 

 oath of allegiance and to support the Govern- 

 ment. I think, sir, I am not misinformed in 

 this respect. There has been some complaint, 

 and with more reason, perhaps, made against 

 the Government because it has been too lenient 

 toward men who have been notoriously en- 

 gaged, in sympathy and in act too, with the 

 traitors against the Government ; and the com- 



Elaint has been, not because suspected parties 

 avo been arrested, but because the guilty 

 have not been shot or hung ; that the prison 

 door has been opened too easily to many of 

 these men." 



Mr. Saulsbury, in furthef urging the adoption 

 * of the resolution, stated as follows : " We do 

 hold that a State situated as we are, where 

 there has never been any attempt to resist 

 Federal authority, should have some considera- 

 tion in the American Senate. But, sir, I tell 

 the Senate that at our last general election 

 armed soldiery were sent to every voting place 

 in the two lower counties of the State of Dela- 

 ware. I am informed that this soldiery con- 

 sisted of men from New York, from Pennsyl- 

 vania, and from Maryland. "When I went to 

 vote myself, I had to walk between drawn 

 sabres in order to deposit my ballot. Peacea- 

 ble, quiet citizens, saying not a word, on their 

 way to the polls, and before they had got to 

 the election ground, were arrested and dragged 

 out of their wagons and carried away. Peacea- 

 ble, quiet citizens were assaulted at the polls. 

 I do not, however, propose to discuss these 

 matters now ; I may do so hereafter. I simply 

 wish to call the attention of Senators to this 

 fact, which distinguishes us from States that 

 are in revolt : we have offered no resistance to 

 Federal authority." 



Mr. Bayard, in reply to Mr. Doolittle, said : 

 " He tells us he thinks the Government has 

 been too forbearing; that men ought not only 

 to have been arrested and imprisoned, but that 

 they ought to have been shot or hung. Shot 

 or hung in this country without a trial ? Shot 

 or hung, according to the generality of his 

 language, "for sympathy? " Is that the state 

 of things throughout the United States ? Is 

 that what we are to expect to see established 

 in this country that sympathy is to be the 

 ground on which a man is to be hung ? You 

 may charge sympathy on a man because he 

 differs from yon in opinion. Suppose a man 

 believes that the restoration of the Govern- 

 ment of this country over the revolted States 

 cannot be effected by war ; the Administration 



may say that is an evidence of sympathy with 

 rebellion, and hang a man for that! That is 

 the doctrine, as I understand it. It seems to 

 me that there could not possibly be a form of 

 Government more despotic in its character 

 and I might use a much stronger term than a 

 Government that would carry out such a prin- 

 ciple as that in action." 



Mr. Doolittle immediately rose to explain, 

 saying: "I did not intend to be understood 

 that men who are arrested should be either 

 shot or hung without trial. If anything that I 

 said led the gentleman from Delaware to sup- 

 pose such was my meaning, I did not express 

 myself as I intended. I simply say that the 

 complaint against the Government is that they 

 have not been either shot or hung. I ought 

 to have said, perhaps, tried, shot, and hung." 



Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, thus expressed 

 his views : " I have regretted the exercise of 

 this power from first to last ; but, sir, I will 

 say that where the emergencies of the country 

 are such, and the condition of things is such, 

 as to justify a resort to extraordinary proceed- 

 ings for the safety of the Government, I am 

 willing that the Executive should act upon 

 that old maxim, which, translated into plain 

 English, is, " The safety of the republic is the 

 supreme law." I confess, for myself, that 

 nothing in the whole history of the war has so 

 embarrassed me, has left me in such doubt 

 what course to take and pursue, as questions of 

 this character. I have as earnest a desire for 

 the preservation of the Constitution in all its 

 intregrity as anybody else ; and it matters not 

 to me whether victory or defeat attends our 

 arms, if, when the war is over, it does not 

 leave us a constitutional Government. We are 

 at war for that, sir ; and I hope we shall make 

 every sacrifice that is necessary to sustain it. 

 That being our object and our end and our 

 aim, I would not now, while the enemy is in 

 the field, and while the contingencies of battle 

 are pending, and the issues of life or death are 

 suspended upon the result, impede or hinder 

 those who are charged with the execution of 

 the laws by inquiries which are not vital to the 

 Government. I do not look upon this as so, 

 because I believe it is one that belongs to the 

 judiciary to examine and settle ; and if any- 

 body has made an attempt to apply that 

 remedy and has failed, it will be time enough 

 then to look to some ulterior course." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, in reply said: 

 " The President of the United States rightly 

 or wrongly is immaterial ; I am not going to en- 

 ter into that discussion has asserted the right 

 to dispense with the law which requires the 

 habeas corpus to be issued in any case of judi- 

 cial arrest. He has claimed that right ; he has 

 exercised that right. He has openly, through 

 the Secretary of War, issued a proclamation 

 which virtually subverts this Government, if 

 carried out in practice ; because the Secretary 

 of War is authorized to appoint an indefinite 

 number of men, constituting a corps of provost 



