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CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



tion of the people of this country to the old 

 story of British liberty, forgotten amid the din 

 of arms and the conflict of war. It revived to 

 a youthful generation who knew not the his- 

 tory of those men who from the time of James 

 I. to that of William III. consecrated their 

 lives and their fortunes to the cause of human 

 freedom, and with stern unbending energy 

 never yielded to the frowns, or the caprices, 

 or the approaches of power until they had 

 surrounded the right of the subject with a 

 bulwark which has never been successfully 

 attacked in England, and which could never 

 have been attacked successfully in this country 

 but for the fact of the civil war. The failure 

 of that bill brought us back to the old land- 

 mark, raised the old question, and brought the 

 public judgment to a conclusion on that sub- 

 ject which can never again be shattered. 



" An extra session was made necessary by 

 the failure of the army bill. For one, I came 

 to this House, to the Forty-fifth Congress, 

 with a determination not to allow any ques- 

 tion, public or private, to interfere with the 

 restoration and the recognition of the right of 

 Congress to control the army. To me it was 

 the question of questions. I was placed, to 

 my own surprise, in charge of the army bill. 

 The question at once presented itself, Shall we 

 renew the issue upon this bill which failed, or 

 shall we reserve it to the bill to come for the 

 next fiscal year? It seemed to me that to 

 raise the question upon the bill to take the 

 place of the one which failed would be a mis- 

 take. I did not want to see the Democratic 

 party arrayed, either by implication or direct 

 action, against the Administration which had 

 come into power over their heads and against 

 their wishes. I felt, and was the first to say, 

 that the Administration had a title which 

 could not be successfully attacked; and it 

 seemed to me it would be a mistake to reopen 

 the issue as it must necessarily have been re- 

 opened on that bill. I thought it was a mis- 

 take even to attempt any reorganization or 

 reduction, and the bill was brought into this 

 House without any reduction. It was brought 

 into this House without the reduction of a 

 man, without an attempt to cut off an officer, 

 without any provision looking to the assertion 

 of the right of the people to control the army. 

 This omission was done purposely, and the bill 

 passed ; and then disappeared, I trust for ever, 

 the wreck which surrounded the late Presi- 

 dential campaign. 



"When tke new bill came along, the bill 

 under which the army is being maintained for 

 the present year, then it seemed to me the 

 question thus passed over ought to be raised 

 anew. And here I want to make my acknowl- 

 edgments to the distinguished gentleman from 

 Kentucky [Mr. Knott], the Chairman of the 

 Committee on the Judiciary, to whom I ap- 

 plied for help on that occasion, and who, with 

 the skill of a Somers, drew the clause which is 

 now known as the posse comitatus clause. I 



did not think it wise to insert that clause in 

 the bill as reported by the committee. I pre- 

 ferred that the committee should come in 

 under the rules of the House with provisions 

 which should reorganize and reduce the ex- 

 pense of maintaining the army. I preferred 

 that the fight should be made upon the ques- 

 tion of economy, and you, Mr. Chairman [Mr. 

 Springer in the chair], and other gentlemen 

 here, will bear witness that whatever power I 

 had I exerted to the utmost to secure the econ- 

 omy which that bill would have produced ; and 

 it passed the House. 



" But I say now that I regarded the ques- 

 tion of money involved in that bill, and th 

 question of reorganization which it presented, 

 as of utter insignificance compared with the 

 provision which 1 had arranged with my 

 friend from Kentucky [Mr. Knott] to offer in 

 this House. It was offered; it was ruled in 

 order; it was passed; and it went to the 

 Senate, where it and the entire reorganization 

 scheme were rejected. Then came the con- 

 ference committee, and an anxious conference 

 it was. I had a perfect understanding with 

 my colleague on that committee I mean my 

 Democratic colleague that while we would 

 secure as much economy and reduction of ex- 

 penditures as might be possible, yet we would 

 surrender it all, every jot and tittle of the sav- 

 ing, if we could preserve the posse comitatus 

 clause ; and we also had a perfect understand- 

 ing that, no matter what might be offered in 

 the way of reduction and economy, it would 

 be no temptation for us to give up that pro- 

 vision upon which, as he and I believed, the 

 future liberties of this country depended. I 

 trust my colleague will pardon me if I say that 

 this country and this House know not the debt 

 of gratitude which they owe to him. During 

 the hours, long and anxious, during which 

 that provision was under discussion, he ex- 

 hibited a patience, an acuteness, a breadth of 

 comprehension, I was almost going to say an 

 adroitness, which can not be too highly com- 

 mended; and, if to any man we owe more 

 than to another the securing of that great 

 triumph, it is to my friend and colleague from 

 Illinois [Mr. Sparks], 



" But, Mr. Chairman, we secured more than 

 the posse comitatm clause : we secured a clause 

 providing for the reorganization of the army ; 

 that is to say, creating a commission whose 

 business it was made to examine into the 

 whole question and make report by bill or 

 otherwise to this House; and pending such 

 report and action thereon by the House, all 

 appointments and promotions were suspended. 



" That provision will secure a reorganization 

 of the army, whether in this Congress or in 

 the next I know not, and I frankly say I care 

 but little. 



" But, Mr. Chairman, our work is not done. 

 The posse comitatus clause is objected to by the 

 Secretary of War in his report. But in his 

 report he has failed to grasp the magnitude of 



