The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-04-07


nounced anywhere that is not pronounced in the
exercise of judicial authority and the power
that pronounces judgment is necessarily ju-
diclal power. Now, sir, the Constitution of the
United States defines the powers of the Senate OF
the United States; and it declares that
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in
Congress Of the United States which shall consist of Sen
ate and House of Representatives.
There is no other grant oflegislative power to
the Senate, and no power whatever but in the
short simple sentence which have read which
is given to the Senate of the United States if we
exclude the power to try impeachments, conferred
in another article. The Constitution makes this
purely legislative body; the Constitution ex-
pressy excludes it from the exercise of all ju-
/ dicial power whatever; for it declares, in the
| first section of the third article, that
The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in
one Supreme Court and such inferior courts as the Congress
may from time to time ordan and establish
This, then, is merely a legislative body. 1t
acts not as court, it acts not judicially but
always as Legislature, and in the form of leg
| islation. The argument that the resolution in
the Indiana case is a judgment which must be
submitted to and acquiesced in, even though it
be wrong, is without the least foundation what
ever in the Constitution. Mr. President, if we, if
the Senate is infallible in this act then in this
case it exercises power different in its nature,
and different in its effect, from the authority
which it exercises in passing laws. The Con-
gress OF the United States can pass no law to-
day that cannot be repealed and rescnded to-
morrow and yet this principle which is claimed
here, would be to invest the Senate alone with
power transcending that of the whole Congress
| of the United States. Ii is no sufficient argu-
ment against this view of the case that it may
work inconvenience in its exercise. There is
but little ground for the argument of probable
! inconvenience presented in this case; for, after
period OF seventy years, we are able to bear
witness that, in all cases of fair hearing and
resolution of contested claims in the Senate of
! the United States, there has been uniform ac-
quiescence; and that there has never been any
! considerable disturbance of the peace, the equa-
nimity, the harmony, the order, of the Senate of
the United States, by the agitation of contests
about the seats of its members This is either
an extraordinary case, or else the passion of the
! hour has become wild and ungovernable and if
| it be so, it will soon subside, and the anomaly
will cease. 1t is not for me to undertake to say
now, how the matter stands in this respect
Mr.. President, have declared that the Senate
of the United States may err and must err In
saying this, say only what Charles James Fox
said of the House of Commons, when, in a SINH
lar case, he protested against judgment to ex-
clude himself as an elected member of that body.
He told the House of Commons of Great Britain,
| in which he was so long one of the greatest and
most distinguished actors, that, like all other
representative bodies, was liable to err through
prejudice through passion, through ignorance,
through improper executive influences, and even
through corruption. do not say that this SEN
ate, in the decision which has been rendered,
has submitted to any such influences. | am
claiming only the vindicaton of the principle for
which contend, namely: that its decisions are
always open to review, and that the Senate
never pronounces a final Judgment upon any
thing Sir, there was, in the year 1884, Senate
that was as strong in the majesty of intellect as
honest in the consciousness of virtue as the
present Senate of the United States That SEN
ate, on the 28th of March, 1884, adopted a reso-
luton as solemn, and after tenfold more learn
ed and profound and elaborate debate than we
have had here on the present occasion, in these
words;
Resolved That the President the late executive pro
ceedng relation TO the public revenue has upon
himself authority and power conferred by the Consu
ton and laws, but in derogaton TO both"
In the Journal of the Senate, on day three
years later, find black lines drawn around that
resolution with great care, and this entry made
on the face of the original record:
Expnged by order of the Senate this 10th day of July
in the year of our Lord 1887"
Now, Mr.. President, bring my remarks to a
close, by saying that | suppose and expect that
| shall be borne down here, on this occasion
but give notice, when this decision shall have
passed, shall follow the example of the prece-
dent which was set in the interesting and cele-
brated case have cited. | shall ask the Senate
to allow me to submit to its consideration res
olution in these words:
Reored That the resolution adopted by the Senate on
the 18th Of June 1858 which resolution in these words to
wit Resolved That GRAHAM n FIrcH and JESSE d BRIGHT
Senators returned and admitted from the State Indiana
entitled the which they hold in the Senate
as such Senator's aforesaid the former until the 4b NJ
March, 1861 and the latter until the fourth March,
according to the tenor Of their respective Credentials be
expanged from the Journal and for that purpose the Secre
n tho
shall bring the manuscript Journal of the session Of S55S
into the Senate and in the presence of the Senate
the face thereof in strong letters the following words Ex
plunged, by order Of the Senate this day Of in the
year of our Lord eighteen hundred and -"
l shall be in this Senate Chamber, if God
spares my life, two years more; and at every
session hereafter that | am here shall call for
the passage of this resolution. When my time
shall have come to leave the Chamber, as trust
to leave it with the good will and personal kind
ness of all my associates here, doubt not shall
leave behind me some member who will insist
on calling for the consideration of the same res
olution, until period not distant shall arrive,
when the resolution in the Indiana case, which
is now pronounced an infallible, final resolution
and for questioning which sovereign State of
this Union is denounced and adjudged to be in
contempt, shall be reconsidered and not merely
rescinded, but expunged.
Mr.. HALE. The honorable Senator from Mis-
souri, has made an appeal, and he asks US on
this side of the Chamber if he has not satisfied
us of the entire difference between the case put
by the honorable Senator from New York. in re-
lation to the old General, and this case2 think
he has but could give him precedent older
than that There is precedent that illustrates
this difference, and it is in of the oldest
books that ever read-Websters Spelling Book
1t is a case exactly in point and illustrates the
difference and it was this. There was farmer
who once went to lawyer for advice. He told
him he wanted his advice upon a case something
like this; "My bull has gored your OK" Then"
replied the lawyer, you must pay me for it."
But" rejoined the farmer, " recollect that it
was the other way. 1t was your bull that gored
my ox." "That," said the lawyer, I" is differ
ent case altogether" Laughter. The farmer
said, The case first put, you decided without
an if, but when the damages are to come out
of your pocket, you Immediately interpose an
{ if" The difference is, whose OK was gored ?
Now, in this case, when that expunging resolu-
ton was adopted, it was the Wing OK that got
gored.
Mr.. GREEN. On which side was the gentle
man them Was he the gorer, or the goree
Mr.. HALE. That was in 1884, was it not sir2
| was Democrat, then, without respect to COM
plexion Laughter The test of trying men
by compilations had not been brought into the
Democratic party then. A man was at liberty to
believe, in the words of the Declaration of indie
pendence that all men were endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights and that
had not been construed to read all white men,"
up to that time. think it was understood in
the States of North Carolina and Tennessee, that
" all men meant all men, at that time. That
was the way learned my Democracy. / remem-
Der, upon that subject, hearing an honorable
member from the State of Tennessee, and | hope
have the ear of Tennessee now-one of the most
d;a9;D cd hot Cos cha