Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-03-05
Another Extract from COrwin'S Speech.

Nhis Il iNnNlChtf 4 hoNO dilNhbJ 'o'SN $3.50
! do not intend TO occupy the Senate with a
discussion Of the varieties of topics which
naturally enforce themselves upon my atten-
ton in considering this subject. Ii must
have occurred to everybody, how utterly i'm
potent the Congress of the United States now
Is for any purpose whatever but that OF yield
Ing to the President every demand which he
makes for men and money, unless they as
sumo that only position which is left-that
which in the history of other countries, In
times favorable to human liberty, has been
so often resorted to as a check upon arbitrary
power-withholding that money, refusal to
grant the services of those men when demand
ed for purposes which the Senate of the Uni
ted States do not deem to be proper.
| will ask any Senator here to furnish me
with any means of escaping from the prose-
cution of this war for an hundred years to
come, if it so pleases the President of the
United States to occupy this while. Ho for
that time! Furnish me with any possibility
of getting away from this war, conceding to
him, as you have, the power TO ommand
your army wherever he pleases, and then
granting to the Administration, as you call it
the President-every dollar in money, and
If need be, every able-bodied man capable of
bearing arms in the United States, to prose-
cute that war-lell me, you who say that be-
ing in a war, and conceding, as the Consti-
tuition has conceded to the President, the pow
er TO command your armies in the field, to
send them as he pleases TO Monterey, to Mex
leo, to Yucatan, TO Panama, TO China, if you
~please-under the penalty, too, of death, de-
nounced upon the officers that shall disobey
that communicative him that power and then
conoede it TO be the duty of Congress-being
thus engaged without your consent at first,
,ntNb1pf anNaaltn- 20 ,D,, 10 -i,,a Kim thof
power-to leave to him the whole conduct of
the war, and as many men and as much mo-
rcy as may crafty to the full his schemes of
ambition or avarice, or whatever else you at
tribute 10 him, and then tell me, what is the
Government of tie United States, but one of
the blankest, levelest, most odious and most
hateful despotisms that it has ever pleased a
meTciftl God 10 allow a nation 10 be afflicted
with on the face of the earth
l have looked at this subject with n pain
full endeavor to come 10 the conclusions, if pos
sible, that it was my duty as a Senator of the
United States, finding the country in war, To
slight it out" as we say in The common and
popular phrase of the times, TO IA just and
honorable peace! / could very easily con-
cede that to be my duty if found my coun.
try engaged in a just war-in a war necessa-
ry even to protect the fancied honor of which
Yuu NdiN ~ itth' L hOuiN hu'S Oh'N hHO'
ogy in the judgment of my countrymen, in
the determination of my conscience, and ir
an appeal which you, ard /. and all of US
must soon be required to make before a tri
bunal where this Wanted honor Of the Repub
lie, | fear me, will gain but little credit as
defense to any act we may be guilty Of here
in the Senate of the United States.
But when ] am asked to say that viii
prosecute a war, | cannot answer that ques
ton, yea or nay, until l have determined
whether that was a necessary war; and can
not determine whether it was necessary unit
know how il was that my country was In
volved in it. And it is to that particuia
point, Mr.. President-without reading docu
ments, but referring to a few facts which
understand not 10 be denied on either side o
this chamber-that | wish to direct the atten
ton of the American Senate, and so far a
may be-, that of any of the humble and homes
constituents whom | represent here. | know
Mr.. President, the responsibility which
assume in undertaking 10 determine that tn
President of the United States has done
great wrong to the country, whose honor an
whose interest he was required to protect.
know, Mr.. President, the denunciations whic
await even so humble an individual as my
self, when he shall dare to put himself in OF
position to that high Power-that idol god
which the people of this country have mad
to themselves and called a President.
But it is my very humility which make
me bold. | know, sir, that he who was tol
in olden time how to govern a turbulent pc,
pie was ad vised to cut off the tallest head
Mine will escape! Still, holdings seat her
Mr.. President, and finding it written in Il
Constitution of my country that | had Il
power to grant to the President, at his bi
ding or not, as | pleased, men and money,
did conceive that it became my duty to asce
tain whether the Presidents request was
reasonable one-whether the President wal
ed these men and this money for a proper al
laudable purpose or not; and with these oil
fashioned ~ideas-quite as unpopular, | sa
on this side of the Chamber as we find the
TO be on the other-I set myself to this pal
full investigation, and | found not quite enou!
along with me to have saved that city in oil
en- time. "a laugh.) There were not five
US, but only three! "a laugh.) / look
around aud as allusion was made by the Sc
ator from Michigan yesterday in a very 81
gular and conspicuous manner to him III
we read of in the'Old Testament, by nam
Job, in my desolation finding myself on
with Two other men on this important cue
zion, | did go to that book to see if | cou
not find some consolation in my despair; a
when these votes were called and | was col
PEELED to separate myself from all around u
| could have cried as did the man of Uz
his affection in the olden time What tim
my friends waxed warm, they vanish"
laugh.) "While it is hot they are consum
out of their p%laces!" (Renewed laughter.
Well, | could not leave the position
which it had pleased the State of Ohio
place me, and | returned again and again
the original and primary and important inn,
Ty-how is it that my country is involved
this war! / looked to the Presidents
count of it, and he tells me it was a war
the defense of the territory Of the Unit
States. found it written in that messaG