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CONGRESS, U. S. 



ment which has carried us so far on the high- 

 way of greatness and of national renown, we 

 must take care not to violate the Constitution 

 when we claim to maintain the Constitution 

 and to enforce the laws. In enforcing the laws 

 we must have a scrupulous regard to the main- 

 tenance of the Constitution in all its parts." 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, continued the 

 discussion by saying, " that everybody knows 

 that these acts of the Administration were 

 forced upon it by the condition of the coun- 

 try. The Administration felt that it must 

 exercise all the powers within the Constitution 

 to save the Union. The legislation of the 

 country had not provided the necessary means, 

 and the President took the responsibility, and 

 in doing it he was then sustained by the voice 

 of the loyal portion of the country ; and he 

 was sorry now, when those acts had saved the 

 capital and the Government, that there should 

 be any doubt or any hesitation in legalizing by 

 their votes the action of the Government of the 

 country, extorted from it in an emergency." 



Mr. King, of New York, said : " My opinion 

 has constantly been, that everywhere, as fast as 

 insurrection assembled, it should be reached, 

 and dispersed as rapidly as it could be ; and 

 that the idea of conciliation to men in arms 

 against the country should be entertained with 

 great care and deliberation. If there was on 

 any side of a straight line a doubt in reference 

 to what was wisest and best, I would concede 

 and it is clearly my opinion that forbearance 

 would be the side to err upon ; for, bad as these 

 men are behaving, they are our countrymen. 

 I would therefore prefer to forbear more than 

 I should to be severe; but my judgment is, 

 that mercy to them, as well as to the whole 

 country, will be best promoted by vigorous and 

 efficient measures against them." 



Mr. Lane, of Indiana, regarded the procla- 

 mation of the President of the United States 

 for the organization of eleven additional regi- 

 ments to the regular army as contemplating a 

 permanent addition to the regular army. The 

 amendment of the honorable Senator from 

 New York, as he understood it, contemplated 

 simply a temporary addition to the regular 

 army during the war. 



He said : " I believe that this increase of the 

 regular army is necessary. I believe if we had 

 had a standing army of forty thousand true 

 men last January, the present disastrous condi- 

 tion which lias overtaken the country never 

 would have befallen it. I think, from the man- 

 ner in which these new regiments are officered, 

 and the increase to the regular army is pro- 

 posed to be made, that hereafter we shall have 

 no defection in the regular army, and may rely 

 with confidence upon it. 



" One remark fell from the honorable Sen- 

 ator from Maryland, to which I must at this 

 moment enter my dissent ; and that was, if I 

 understood him correctly, that he believed that 

 coercion was the means most calculated to 

 bring about a destruction of the Union and the 



Government. I believe it is the only means by 

 which the Union and the Government can be 

 supported and maintained. I would use all the 

 power of the regular army and the volunteer 

 force until this rebellion was crushed out. I 

 would contemplate no peace which involved 

 the loss of one single acre of the national terri- 

 tories, or would change the map of the United 

 States. I will sanction no peace which does 

 not imply death to the armed traitors who are 

 leading this rebellion, and not simply a death 

 under the steel of the soldier, but the felon's 

 death with the halter is the fate I would re- 

 serve for every single leader in this conspiracy ; 

 and I would march your troops freely where- 

 soevar it is necessary to march them in putting 

 down this rebellion." 



Mr. Kennedy, in reply, said that he was more 

 persuaded now than he had ever been before, 

 that force applied by armies of hundreds of 

 thousands upon either side was not the way to 

 secure and to maintain the union of these States. 

 " I am as persuaded now as I am of any thing 

 on the face of the earth, that you may fight for 

 twenty years and you cannot restore this coun- 

 try to the position in which it was before the 

 rebellion, as you call it, broke out. I call it a 

 revolution. Whether it is right or wrong, I 

 do not now mean to discuss ; but it is my 

 solemn conviction that you will never recon- 

 struct the Union by the sword. There was a 

 time, I admit, when peace could have been re- 

 stored to the country without a compromise of 

 honor upon the part of the majority portion 

 of this Senate. I think now that things have 

 gone so far that little is left to the country to 

 hope for from this course of coercion which is 

 now being pursued. I should be glad, to-day, 

 to accept any measure of conciliation. I am 

 willing to make any concession to bring this 

 country back to the point where we stood one 

 year ago ; but I do not believe we shall ever 

 get back to it by the force of arms. 



" May I ask the honorable Senator if he is 

 apprised of any necessity for, or of any reasons 

 that require or justify, the suspension of the 

 writ of habeas corpus in the State of Maryland ? 

 If so, I should like to know them." 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, in reply, said : 

 u If the Senator wishes an answer, I will say 

 that I think the existence of a band of con- 

 spirators in the city of Baltimore, men who or- 

 ganized murder and shot down in the streets 

 of that city brave men who were rallying at 

 the call of their country to defend the capital 

 of the nation and uphold the cause of the Re- 

 public, is a full, complete justification of the 

 President in authorizing General Scott to sus- 

 pend the writ of habeas corpus in and about that 

 city." 



Mr. Baker, of Oregon, approved as a personal 

 and political friend of the President of every 

 measure of his administration in relation to the 

 troubles of the country. " I propose," he said, 

 " to ratify whatever needs ratification. I pro- 

 pose to render my clear and distinct approval 



