CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



in that other part of the Constitution which 

 says that Congress may pass all laws to pro- 

 vide for suppressing insurrections ? " 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky : " My answer to 

 the very acute Senator from Vermont is this : 

 that, where the Constitution makes an express 

 provision for any case, it excludes every other 

 provision in relation to that matter. When- 

 ever the Constitution has provided an express 

 remedy for a particular state of case, the appli- 

 cation of that express remedy is the exclusion 

 of every other remedy of the same matter; and 

 that is a universal rule in the construction of 

 the Constitution hy all of our courts. My po- 

 sition is that the United States Government 

 cannot interfere in the domestic concerns of a 

 State under pretext of suppressing domestic 

 violence, unless the State Legislature or the 

 Governor has made express application to the 

 Government of the United States. That posi- 

 tion is as distinctly and as explicitly laid down 

 by Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries 

 upon the Constitution, as it is possible for a 

 position to be. 



" But there is stronger authority than that. 

 This very matter of the interference by the 

 General Government in the affairs of a State 

 was the subject of long and anxious and re- 

 peated debate in the Convention which framed 

 the Constitution. It was proposed by Mr. 

 Pinckney and other members of that Conven- 

 tion again and again that the General Govern- 

 ment should interfere whenever it was neces- 

 sary for the purpose of establishing peace in 

 a State without the application of the Legis- 

 lature or of the Governor, and that propo- 

 sition, as often as it was made, was distinctly, 

 upon elaborate debate by some of the ablest 

 members of the Convention, voted down, and 

 the provision was made, after these repeated 

 discussions, in the form in which I have read 

 it from the Constitution ; and Mr. Justice 

 Story says in the Commentaries that there 

 is no pretext that is his language for the 

 interference by the United States Government 

 in the affairs of a State for the purpose of es- 

 tablishing domestic peace in a State, or of re- 

 pressing disorder, until express application has 

 been made by the Legislature or the Governor 

 of the State. That is the Constitution ; and 

 that provision of the Constitution is expressly 

 recognized in the case of Luther vs. Borden, 

 the Eh ode Island case. 



" I state it as a constitutional principle, ex- 

 pressly established by the language of the Con- 

 stitution, that under no pretence whatever can 

 the General Government interfere in the con- 

 cerns of a State in order to repress domestic 

 violence, until the General Government has 

 been applied to by the Legislature or the Gov- 

 ernor of that State for its interference. That 

 is the Constitution; that is the Constitution 

 which every man in this body has sworn to 

 support ; that is the Constitution as it is writ- 

 ten ; that is the Constitution as it is construed 

 by the greatest commentator upon the instru- 

 VOL. XL 15 A 



ment, Judge Story ; that is the Constitution as 

 it is recognized by the Supreme Court in the 

 case of Luther *. Borden ; that is the Consti- 

 tution as it was settled by the wise men who 

 framed it after full, repeated, and mature de- 

 liberation and judgment, and upon the gravest 

 reasoning in the world. 



" Sir, a usurper, the head of a great party in 

 possession of the Government, if he was a 

 man of vaulting ambition and of great capa- 

 city, would want no better opportunity than 

 to have it in his power, unbidden by the Legis- 

 latures and Governors of the States, to inter- 

 pose in their affairs for the purpose of repress- 

 ing domestic violence. A Caesar, a Cromwell, 

 a Bonaparte, a man of great military capacity 

 and of boundless ambition, would want no 

 better opportunity than this carte Blanche to 

 interfere in the affairs of the States. In times 

 like these, if the narrow-minded and puny in- 

 tellect that now presides at the "White House 

 was a Marlborough, or a Wellington, or a Han- 

 nibal, or a Caesar, or a Cromwell, he would 

 want no better opportunity than that which 

 this bill gives him to interfere in the affairs of 

 the Southern States. It would bo like putting 

 the lamb in the custody of the wolf, and the 

 Southern States would fare about as badly as 

 the lamb would in the custody of the wolf. 



" But, Mr. President, if my honorable friend 

 from Indiana was here, I would state still 

 another objection, constitutional in its char- 

 acter. I admit that I have something of a 

 penchant to originate constitutional objec- 

 tions. I am devoted to the instrument. 

 Abused, trampled under foot, violated, and 

 despoiled from day to day, as it has been by 

 the party in power, still 'around the dear 

 ruin each wish of my heart entwines itself 

 verdantly still.' I am for defending its frag- 

 ments, for gathering them together, and, in 

 the spirit in which it was made, I am for its 

 reconstruction, and I hope the time will come 

 when the people of America will all take up 

 the same sentiment and act toward the same 

 glorious resurrection. 



" But, sir, I was about to bring the atten- 

 tion of the Senate to another constitutional 

 objection to this bill. The Constitution pro- 

 vides that 



The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 

 be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or 

 invasion the public safety may require it. 



" Now, Mr. President, what is my position ? 

 The terms 'rebellion' and 'invasion' in this 

 clause have a fixed meaning. They mean the 

 same that they meant when the Constitution 

 was adopted by the people of the States, and 

 Congress has no power to change their mean- 

 ing. If Congress can change the meaning of 

 these phrases and other phrases upon which 

 the principles of this Government and the lib- 

 erties of the people are based, at their pleas- 

 ure, there is no stability in our Government at 

 all ; we have no fixed and stable Government; 

 every thing is at sea ; and the great fun-da- 



