CONGKESS, U. S. 



271 



opposition, against opposition in his cabinet, 

 against threatenings from the army, threaten- 

 ings from the traitor States, and timid counsels 

 among his friends. That proclamation, in my 

 judgment, is the salvation of the republic. I 

 have no time, however, to argue it at length. 

 I saw that it was a necessary and logical con- 

 sequence of this war. Its constitutional au- 

 thority, in my sober judgment, is beyond a 

 doubt. I have no time to argue it here at 

 length, but I affirm the war power of the Pres- 

 ident to issue this proclamation ; and its neces- 

 sary effect, to liberate the slaves in all the ter- 

 ritory over which it was designed to operate, 

 never can be successfully questioned, either by 

 Congress or any of the judicial tribunals of the 

 country. The law of nations clearly sanctions 

 the emancipation of the enemy's slaves by mil- 

 itary force and authority. It is an understood 

 and received doctrine. It has been practised 

 repeatedly in this country. Great Britain ex- 

 ercised its authority. France has exercised it 

 in a memorable instance. In Colombia, in the 

 South American republics, the right has been 

 exercised both by the Spanish and American 

 generals. This right has been affirmed by emi- 

 nent statesmen in our own country, by Jeffer- 

 son and by Adams." 



Mr. Cox of Ohio, said the reason of the op- 

 position to the bill was as follows : " I say that 

 I believe the object of gentlemen, in forcing 

 this bill here is to bring about, or rather make 

 final and forever, a dissolution of the Union. 

 This is our justification for the extraordinary 

 proceedings the other night, when we were 

 determined to use all the means which the 

 laws of this House gave, to prevent the passage 

 of a law like this, which is aimed at the na- 

 tional life. 



"The gentlemen from the border States 

 here, gentlemen from Kentucky and Ohio for 

 there are two sides to the border understand 

 very well the hidden meaning and certain ef- 

 fect of this bill. Every man along the border 

 will tell you that the Union is forever rendered 

 hopeless if you pursue this policy of taking the 

 slaves from their masters and arm them in this 

 civil strife. It will only keep alive and aggra- 

 vate this alienation of sections, which had its 

 beginning in hate, and would have its end in 

 vengeance. I stated, as my reason for the 

 part I took in the proceedings of our eighteen- 

 hours' session, that this bill was a part of the 

 plot to drive the border Slave States out of the 

 Union, or to place them in such hostility to 

 the Government as to hurl our armies at their 

 throats and strangle their political life. I have 

 been confirmed in my belief by the statements 

 of the eloquent members from Kentucky, as 

 well as by the course of the discussion on the 

 other side." 



Mr. Thomas, of Massachusetts, in opposition 

 to the bill, said : " I believe that I shall have 

 the concurrence of every member of this House, 

 and of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 

 Stevens) among the rest, when I say that this 



bill, in its new form, proposes to vest in the 

 President of the United States a larger power 

 and wider discretion than were ever reposed 

 by Congress in the hands of one man, unless 

 under our previous legislation on the same 

 subject. 



" I am not here, Mr. Speaker, to raise the ques- 

 tion whether we may not wisely repose a large 

 discretion in the executive at a time like this. 

 It is among the necessities of our condition that 

 a large discretion should be reposed in the ex- 

 ecutive ; but it is the duty of Congress to see 

 that no such extent of. power is vested in the 

 President, or any one else, that that power 

 may be readily used, as all power is liable to 

 be used, to defeat the ends for which it is given, 

 to subvert instead of upholding the laws. And 

 this question is not of the individual character 

 of the officer, but of principle and policy. In 

 what condition of our affairs do we propose to 

 raise this new army ? 



" If I understood rightly the chairman of the 

 Committee on Military Affairs, my friend from 

 New York (Mr. Olin), we have now in the 

 field, or rather we have upon the pay rolls of 

 the Government, a million of white men of the 

 Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or German races. This, 

 no man can doubt, is a sufficient army for the 

 purpose of suppressing this rebellion, if this re- 

 bellion can be subdued by physical power alone. 

 I do not say how many of those men are en- 

 gaged to-day in active service in face of the 

 enemy. There are, we are told, very large de- 

 sertions from the army. There are vast num- 

 bers now on your pay rolls capable of service 

 who are doing no service. But that must be 

 to a considerable extent the fault of the admin- 

 istration of the army. It is the plain, obvious 

 duty of the Government to see that these men 

 who are on your pay rolls and capable of ser- 

 vice are rendering that service. With a mil- 

 lion of efficient men in the army and at work, 

 and with our large and gallant navy, if it is 

 practicable to conquer rebellion by arms, you 

 have force adequate for the purpose, as large a 

 force as we can hope to maintain and replen- 

 ish without bankruptcy. 



" We must look, Mr. Speaker, to the finan- 

 cial aspect of this question, the question of 

 ways and means. I do not think the financial 

 condition of this country has been truly pre- 

 sented, or rather, I should say, fully presented, 

 for no gentlemen, of course, could desire to 

 present it otherwise than truly. If I under- 

 stand the facts spread by the gentlemen of the 

 Committee of Ways and Means before the 

 country in the speeches made on this floor, 

 our national debt at the end of the next fiscal 

 year will be at the least two thousand million 

 dollars. By that debt is meant the liquidated 

 debt of the country. I call the attention of 

 the House to the fact that the unliquidated 

 debt of this country, the debt for damages for 

 the taking of property and the destruction of 

 property by the military power in the prosecu- 

 tion of the war, upon any equitable or reason- 



