CONGRESS, TJ. S. 



245 



or any other subject. I desire to speak out 

 precisely what I as an honest man do believe. 

 I believe that as yet there is no necessity for 

 the employment of negroes for the purpose of 

 suppressing the rebellion ; but if the necessity 

 shall exist hereafter, we have a perfect right 

 to employ their services ; nay, more, it will be 

 our bounden duty to do so. I would rather 

 that a rebel master should fall by the hand of 

 his slave than that he should live to overthrow 

 my Government, or to destroy the life of my 

 brother upon the battle field. Gentlemen who 

 are so fastidious in reference to the means 

 which it is proper to employ for the purpose 

 of putting rebels out of existence, it seems to 

 me are hardly in earnest in wishing them de- 

 stroyed at all. I am willing to employ any 

 agency the white man, the negro, the cannon, 

 tlie musket. I would invoke, if it were not im- 

 pious, any po'wer in God's physical universe. I 

 would blast them with lightning ; I would rain 

 upon them the showers of fire and brimstone 

 for which they are now as ready as Sodom and 

 Gomorrah were in the olden times." 



Mr. Wright, of Indiana, followed, saying : 

 " Men do riot seem to realize the condition of 

 things in the country, and the most improper 

 appeals are made to the ignorant and the un- 

 suspecting, which alarm their fears on this 

 subject. In the dark days of '76, General Lee 

 wrote to James Bowden, president of the Mas- 

 sachusetts council : 



We must save the community, in spite of the or- 

 dinances of the legislature. There are times when we 

 must commit treason against the laws of the State, for 

 the salvation of the State. The present crisis demands 

 this brave, virtuous kind of treason. 



" No statesman of this day would be willing 

 to use language so strong as that which one of 

 Washington's generals used in the war of the 

 Eevolution ; but occasions arise when arrests 

 become a necessity which cannot be disregard- 

 ed without an impeachment of fidelity to the 

 best interests of the commonwealth ; and I am 

 not disposed to yield the credit to the Republican 

 party of originating a policy as bold as it is ne- 

 cessary, for in the despondent days of our in- 

 fant struggle for liberty it was justified. Jef- 

 ferson and Jackson subsequently demonstrated 

 that it had their sanction, and it ever has had 

 the approval of old-fashioned democracy. Gen- 

 eral Jackson suspended the liberty of the press 

 in New Orleans, and he kept the entire city and 

 suburbs under martial law after the British had 

 left the coast. He arrested Judge Hall for issu- 

 ing a writ of habeas corpus in favor of a French 

 subject who had been seized by General Jack- 

 son's orders ; and a recent Congress of the Uni- 

 ted States, by its legislation, commended that 

 exercise of authority. Firmness and prompti- 

 tude, fearlessness in assuming responsibility 

 when his country was in an emergency, were 

 among the prominent traits of his character, 

 which secured the deep devotion of the democ- 

 racy, and the earnest and enthusiastic regard 

 which was akin to idolatry. 



" Mr. Jefferson sustained General Wilkinson 

 for suspending the habeas corpus in New Orleans 

 on the occasion of certain military arrests of 

 persons who were suspected of complicity in 

 Burr's expedition ; thus justifying the setting 

 up of military authority over the jurisdiction 

 of the courts in times of public danger. As late 

 as the 3d of February, 1807, in a letter to Gov- 

 ernor Claiborne respecting Burr's conspiracy, 

 he wrote : 



On great occasions, every good officer must be 

 ready to risk himself in going beyond the strict line 

 of law, when the public preservation requires it. His 

 motives will be a justification, as far as there is any 

 discretion in his ultra-legal proceedings, and no indul- 

 gence of private feelings. 



" I call the attention of senators to this lan- 

 guage, and to the time and circumstances under 

 which it was used. That it was not a rebellion 

 of one third of the entire republic against its 

 Government. The straits of the Union were 

 not then so desperate. On that occasion a 

 mere handful of men, starting on a distant ex- 

 pedition, were arrested and brought to trial. 

 Now the conspiracy is more extended, the in- 

 terests at stake are more vital, and the emer- 

 gency more imperious. In a letter to General 

 Wilkinson, of the same date, he says : 



Your sending here Swartwout and Bollman, and 

 adding to them Burr, Blennerbasset, and Tyler, should 

 they fall into your hands, will be supported by the 

 public opinion. 



" There is another passage in this letter which 

 I may be justified in reading in this connection. 

 Its appropriateness will be felt : 



The Feds, and the little band of Quids, in opposi- 

 tion, will try to make something of the infringement 

 of liberty by the military arrests and deportation of citi- 

 zens ; but if it does not go beyond such offenders as 

 Swartwout, Bollman, Burr, Blennerhasset, Tyler, &c., 

 they will be supported by the public approbation. 



" May I not, Mr. President, slightly alter the 

 language of Jefferson of that day, and by a par- 

 aphrase adapt it to the present, and say that 

 those who think more of party than of country, 

 who seek to make political capital out of every 

 act of the Government, may try to make some- 

 thing of the political arrests that have been 

 made, but if it does not go beyond such of- 

 fenders as Governor Morehead, Buckner, Wallis, 

 and their compeers, they will be supported by 

 the public approbation? " 



Mr. Field, of New Jersey, said : "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, the motion is to strike out the third sec- 

 tion of this bill. There are two objections to 

 the provisions of that section. The first is, it 

 takes for granted that the power of suspending 

 the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is con- 

 ferred by the Constitution upon Congress alone ; 

 and then it proposes that Congress should del- 

 egate to the President, not only the power of 

 suspending the writ, but also of determining 

 whether the exigency has arisen which would 

 justify such a suspension. Both these objec- 

 tions, I think, are well taken. I hold that the 

 Constitution of the United States confers upon 

 the President, and not upon Congress, the 



