New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-12-28
4 CURIOUS DISCUSSION.

Il CURIOUS DISCUSSION.
Strange rs it may appear, there are actually
some members of the Northern Congress who
question the prepriey OF certain acts done by the
Administration, and show disposition to discover
whether such acts were done by authority OF law
or not. And stranger still, two of the Senators
who have thus acted are those pestient dema
rogues, TrumbulI of Illinois, and Hale of New
Hampshire.
In the Northern Senate, on the 10th, Trumbull
offered a resolution requesting the Secretary of
State to Inform the Senate whether any persons
had been arrested in the loyal States, and if So,
!. BY what aathority.. And he sustained his reso-
luton with q Speech the reading ofawhich has
caused us to retract our former opinion that the
whole North was hopelessly insane, Trumbul, at
least his idosy in other respects
showed good sense in this and went SO far as to
declare that !. it seemed theessence OF Ndespotsm
if men could be arrested BY telegraph, wirhou
power to reply or to have trial 4, w
The utterance of such sentiment, SO unusual
and startling, produced of course great sensation
Trnmbull was Immediately taken up BY Wilson,
Dixon, Browning and Others, and had ia severe les
son read to him ON the scandalous impropriety OF
his behavior. Wilson was .ssorry" the resolution
had been Introduced declared that the Govern
ment had been too lenient instead Of too severe
that the country had been benefited by the acts Of
the President more than by the deeds of the army,
and that for his part he would not sickle about
the legality Of the thing, snce the turning of the
doors of Fort Lafayette had sileneed innumerable
traitors in the loyal states.''
Hale came back at him and sustained Trumbull.
Cd toR hath try,n n.y. AZ
that our fathers fought for Constitutional liberty
regulated by laws he requested to be informed
what sort Of Government it was where such things
were done as had been done. He was anxious to
ascertain whether anybody had deceived anybody
limiting mysteriously that something of the sort
| had been done, and that the people were finding it
out. He talked about storm that might come,
the first mutterings of which were almost audible.
Ordinarily bnffoon when he makes q speech, on
this occasion he spoke with solemnity and serious
ness. Replying to Wilson he said t~t WA
You may gain your victories on the sea; you
may sweep the enemy from the broad ocean and
all its arms and rivers, until yon can hoist, as the
Dutch Admiral did q broom at your masthead, to
indicate that you have swept the ocean, and You
may crush every rebel who is arrayed against yon,
and utterly break their power; and when you
have done all that, and when you have established
military power such as the earth never saw, and
| a naval power such as England never aspred to
be. and constitutional liberty shall be buried
amid the ashes Of the confiagration in which you
have destroyed your foes then you have got bar
rem victory, and in all your glory you have
achieved everlasting shame. We should watch
with jealous eye everything that looks like an en-
eroaehment upon this principle. know there are
l those who may question the wisdom and the pa
triotism OF the remarks have made, but care not
for that. ! want to strengthen the arms Of this
Government, and do not want to call them to ac-
IFrtr
do, but want that vigilance and thatpower which
is to be put forth to be stretched across the Poto
Emac South instead OF North. The honorable SEN
ator from Massachusetts, who is at the head of the
Military Committee, says he believes that these
arrests have done more to secure the liberties of
1.-The country than AL the army have done. Well,
sir, shall not question that: it may be So but if
1 we can stand here two months from, to-day and
God knows whether we shall be in the land of the
living or not-and the remark OF the Senator from
Massachusetts be as true then as it is now, you
4 will find an army against you compared to which
the army on the other side Of the Potomac is as
nothing. ! don't believe that everybody connected
with the administration Of this Government under
stands the character of the issue in which we are
engaged; but 7 venture to predict, though / am
i not prophet, that this people, who are pouring
4 ost their blood and treasure with q heartness
| and Willingness that no other, people on the
| face Of Gods earth ever did, if they shall
i find in the future that they have been trifed
/ with, and that mbecility and indisposition have
and perseverance in the serious, vigorous, ener-
getic prosecution Of this war, then there will be
such storm come upon your heads as history has
never yet recorded. And it don't want a very
great degree of faith to hear the distant rumblings
of that thunderstorm which will overwhelm this
dministration and this party in power, if they do
i not see the things that belong TO the day Md the
i hour before they are hiddenfrom their eyes,.
i All this means something. There may be a good
dealef meaning in it. 1t is likely that Hale fore
sees coming storm, and is getting ready to cast
an anchor to windward. We conclude, from the
tenor of hisremarks, that he thinks the people viii
overlook and forgive the unconstitutional acts aud
usurpations of INSTRUMENTATION if the war be
waged vigorously and the rebellion put down.
Otherwise there will be row. As Hale has sense
Ienoughto see that the rebellion never can be put
down, heis doubtless preparing for the alternative
and going into the ranks Of the Opposition party to
the Administration, knowing the Administration
will have to bear the odinm Of failing to subdus
the South. Wedo not supposehe really cares any
more for the sanctity Of the Constitution than vii
son or Seward. f5 ss5str R@a n ~
4 {5sSzrGss5 ~ TALK ON CHANGE. -ss,a -rFe
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