CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



159 



ferent. Now, however, the war is over, the 

 rebellion is at an end. No man dreams of re- 

 viving it, as I think. For centuries no man 

 but a madman will think of reviving it. It 

 was insane as well as unconstitutional in its 

 origin, in my judgment. It was fatal, as I was 

 sure from the first it would be, to the very in- 

 stitution which its authors thought to preserve 

 by it fatal to slavery. In my view, great as 

 have been the losses of the war, terrible as has 

 been the loss of life North and South, there is 

 to be found in the fact that slavery no longer 

 exists, and is no longer a blot upon the fair 

 fame of this nation, compensation almost en- 

 tire for all that has occurred. There is an- 

 other compensation : it has ended, and, as I be- 

 lieve, forever, the doctrine of secession; and 

 that doctrine terminated and slavery forever 

 terminated, I cannot for the soul of me imagine 

 why it is that we are not at once to become 

 more prosperous than before, and possess the 

 security that, happen what will, if we move 

 within the respective orbits to which the State 

 governments and the Government of the United 

 States are limited, we shall continue to exist 

 forever a free and a powerful nation. 



" Mr. President, there is another error into 

 which the honorable member has fallen in his 

 argument. He reads the. clause of guarantee as 

 if there were no other clauses in the Consti- 

 tution. Now, nobody knows better than my 

 friend from Indiana that it is a familiar prin- 

 ciple of construction, of universal application, 

 that when you desire to ascertain the meaning 

 of any particular clause, whether it be in a 

 constitution or in any other written agreement, 

 you are to read it in connection with the other 

 clauses. But the honorable member's reading 

 of it, and his application of it to the measure 

 now before the Senate, in" my judgment, disre- 

 gard many of the other clauses which were 

 designed not only to be restrictions upon the 

 particular clause, but upon every other clause 

 bearing on the subject to be found in the Con- 

 stitution. What are they? In the Constitu- 

 tion, as it was originally framed, it is provided 

 that ' no bill of attainder or ex post facto law 

 shall be passed' a positive, commanding in- 

 hibition intended to be in force throughout all 

 time, specially provided, as the terms show, as 

 a restriction upon the legislative department 

 of the Government. Kebellions have existed 

 the world over under every form of govern- 

 ment. During their existence and subsequent 

 to their termination bills of attainder and ex 

 post facto laws have been passed. The men 

 who framed the Constitution, imbued as they 

 were with the pure spirit of freedom, deemed 

 it their duty, for the security of freedom, not 

 only to denounce but to prohibit such legisla- 

 tion, and they did it by the provision to which 

 I am adverting. 



"But there is another provision. The scaf- 

 folds of the Old World had for ages been soaked 

 with the blood of political offenders under the 

 doctrine of constructive treason. The courts, 



in those days, when, as it was said by some 

 political writer, the winter of ages upon ages 

 had settled on the cause of human freedom, 

 were so much under the influence of the Gov- 

 ernment that they held almost every act of 

 resistance to the authority of the Government 

 to be treason. This our fathers knew, and they 

 therefore provided that 'treason against the 

 United States shall consist only ' the word 

 * only ' is pregnant with the meaning they had 

 in view 'shall consist only of levying war 

 against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 

 giving them aid and comfort.' There was an- 

 other security they wished to afford : it is the 

 security of a grand jury, and the further security 

 of a petit jury. These securities -had, by their 

 operation for ages, however inefficient they 

 were in the beginning, made England the freest 

 Government in the world until we emerged 

 from her dominion and became ourselves freer 

 even than she was. Every man is to be in- 

 dicted and tried by his neighbors ; and finally, 

 and above all, no man either in peace or war 

 is to be subjected to any other mode of trial, 

 unless he belongs to the land or naval forces 

 of the United States, or the militia, when called 

 into the service of the United States in time of 

 war or public danger. The men of that day 

 feared, as well they might the history of the 

 world furnished instances enough to cause the 

 apprehension that there was danger to liberty 

 from military power. They wished, therefore, 

 if possible, to guard the citizen against its ex- 

 ercise, and with that view they protected him, 

 by providing, that unless he was in the army 

 or in the navy, when, of course, he would be 

 subject to such laws as Congress might pass for 

 the government of the army and the navy, he 

 had a right to stand upon the Constitution and 

 demand his trial by indictment and by a petit 

 jury, and with all the other securities the Con- 

 stitution affords ; the right to confront his wit- 

 nesses, the right to a speedy trial, the right to 

 have counsel for his defence. 



"Now, Mr. President, what is the bill upon 

 the table which the honorable member from 

 Indiana supposes to be constitutional by virtue 

 of the guarantee clause and by virtue of that 

 clause alone ? To place ten of the States of 

 the Union whether they are States or not I 

 will inquire in a moment entirely under the 

 dominion of the military of the United States. 

 It is not necessary for the purpose I have in 

 view now to examine into the right to place 

 the power of the Army of the United States 

 into the hands exclusively of the present Gen- 

 eral-in-Chief, or whoever may be 1 its chief com- 

 mander other than the President ; but assum- 

 ing that power to exist, he is for the time being 

 made a military despot. He may not use the 

 power despotically. That is immaterial to the 

 principle. That he will not, I believe. I have 

 confidence in him as a man, and I feel, in com- 

 mon with all the country, a grateful sense of 

 the debt which we owe to him for having led 

 our armies to victory, and having, by so doing, 



