240 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



eral \var, general internal civil war, the laws 

 of war everywhere embrace this nation in its 

 length and ita breadth. The laws of war are 

 the law of the land, sir ; not the Articles of 

 War, as the senator from Kentucky says, but 

 the principles of war, as defined by interna- 

 tional law, govern us. That is our state to-day 

 and our condition to-day, and in that sense it 

 is the higher law ; it is the law above the Con- 

 stitution and above all laws ; it is the law of 

 our life and the law of our existence to-day 

 the ultima ratio. Our state to-day is that 

 state known to nations when the laws are si- 

 lent. Your 'municipal regulations and your 

 Constitution have no law for such an occasion 

 and such a time ; but the law known to nations 

 everywhere, the right of self-defence, the ul- 

 timaratio, is the law of our life and the law of 

 our destiny. Therefore, sir, under such cir- 

 cumstances, it is easy for me to say, I vote for 

 no such resolutions, because the presumption 

 is, if the commander-in-chief has arrested men 

 under these circumstances and imprisoned 

 them, he has rightfully done it." 



Mr. "Wright, of Indiana, thus expressed his 

 views : " I agree with the senator who said, 

 the other day, that it was very remarkable 

 that only five hundred arrests had been made. 

 I understand that from the time this rebellion 

 broke out down to the present, the arrests 

 made by order of the President have not ex- 

 ceeded that number. It is, indeed, an aston- 

 ishing fact that, in this entire country, with 

 the land full of treason, with our very capital 

 full of traitors, so few have been arrested. It 

 would be very strange if, in some of these in- 

 stances, there were not cases of great hardship. 

 I am willing, however, to trust these affairs to 

 the President, and, when necessary, to aid in 

 the passage of a resolution calling on him to 

 report to this body the facts, if he does not 

 deem such a course inconsistent with the pub- 

 lic interest. The President is the representa- 

 tive of the unity, the power, and the strength 

 of this republic. I hold him responsible. I 

 wash my hands of that miserable doctrine too 

 often inculcated here, that in such a time as 

 this there is such a thing as loyalty to the 

 Government and disloyalty to those in power. 

 Sir, there is but one true loyalty, and that is 

 unconditional adherence to, and support of, 

 those who stand at the helm of the Govern- 

 ment, placed there by the people to direct, 

 whether in calm or storm, the great affairs of 

 state." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, in reply, said : " Sir, 

 I regret that gentlemen will bring extraneous 

 matters to bear on this resolution of inquiry ; 

 but they may do so if they please, and they 

 may give to it a party aspect and invite party 

 support, for the purpose of smothering the res- 

 olution. Be it so; but they cannot smother 

 the debate ; they cannot keep from the people 

 of the country the knowledge of the fact that 

 a citizen of the United States, in a State where 

 the courts are open, is denied redress by the 



executive for the wrong through the law of 

 the laud and through the judicial power, and 

 that when he conges by his representative and 

 asks barely for information as to the cause 

 why he lias been arrested and detained in 

 prison for two months, he is told, ' We will 

 make no inquiry whatever ; we will leave 

 everything to the President ; ' or, perhaps, in 

 the language of the honorable senator from 

 Indiana, that loyalty must be to an Administra- 

 tion and not to a Government, and that it is a 

 miserable sentiment for a man to say that, in 

 a republic, loyalty means affection to the lawa 

 and Constitution, and a determination to sus- 

 tain them. I uttered that sentiment." 



Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, thus expressed his 

 views: "Sir, I hold and I may be accused 

 perhaps of not exactly understanding quite so 

 much about private rights as my honorable 

 friends on the other side of the chamber I 

 hold that the safety of the republic is the su- 

 preme law. Now, sir, allow me to say, most 

 respectfully, it is useless in this day to attempt 

 to apply rules to the conduct of the Govern- 

 ment that you would apply in time of peace. 

 The senator's argument would be a very able 

 one if it was fitted to the times ; but the peo- 

 ple of the country cannot fail to see that what 

 may be necessary at one time is not at another, 

 and what is an excuse at one period is no ex- 

 cuse under other circumstances. Because tlie 

 President, in this time of war, in this time of 

 rebellion, in this time of danger, has seen fit 

 to lay his hand upon men ' without due pro- 

 cess of law,' in the language of the Constitu- 

 tion, they will not judge that, therefore, he 

 has forgotten what is due to every citizen of 

 the country, but will believe that what he may 

 have done in reference to matters like these 

 has been done honestly in the endeavor to dis- 

 charge his great duty to protect, preserve, and 

 defend the Constitution of the United States. 

 That is all they desire to know, and all that 

 the people will desire to know so long as the 

 rebellion continues. When the time conies, if 

 it ever does arrive, that, in my judgment, tl 

 President, either by himself or those who 

 his servants in the eye of the law, is exerdsir 

 his power maliciously, even carelessly, wit 

 reference to men, I am willing to call him 

 account ; but until that time comes, I am wil 

 ing to leave it to them, aud I will not compel 

 them to give reasons for their action which they 

 may think will place the country in a worse 

 attitude than it is at present." 



Mr. Bayard, in reply, said : " The honorable 

 senator seems to labor under what I consider 

 this delusion that supposing the President to 

 mean rightly, that his intention is honest, 

 therefore you are not to question his acts, and 

 not to oppose them, or not to redress the 

 wrong that he does. I hold that to be an ex- 

 ceedingly erroneous and dangerous doctrine. 

 The President might be a timid man, and tim- 

 idity always resorts to violence ; but his in- 

 tention might not be wrong. He may be 



