Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-07-25
SPEECH
OF THE
HON. JOHN e. BRECKENRIDGE,

Ot LIE
HON, JOHN e. BRECKENRIDGE.
DELIVERED fN:aEHss.e. SENATE, -'
JULY 10Th, 1861.
Mr.. Breckenridge Oem., KY proceed
cd to speak at length in opposition to the
resolution. Has said under ordinary cir
cumstances he might content himself simply
with vote, but now he thought it required
to give expression to his views. TWAS pro-
posed by resolution to declare the acts of the
President approved. The resolution on its
face seems to admit that the acts of the Presi-
dent were not performed in accordance with
the Constitution and laws If that were the
case, then he would be glad to have some
reason assigned, showing the power of Con-
gress to indemnify the President for breach
of the Constitution. He denied that one
branch Of the Government can indemnify
public officers in another branch for viola
ton of the Constitution and laws. The
powers conferred on the Government by the
people of the States are the measure of it's
authority. These powers are conided in
different departments, and their boundaries
are determined The President has rights
and powers conferred, and the Legislative
Department it's powers. and the Judicial
Department its powers, and he denied that
either can encroach on the other, or indem-
Nifty the other for usurpations of the powers
confded by the Constitution.
Congress has no more right to make con-
stitutional the unc institutional acts of the
President than the President to make valid
the act of the Supreme Court, encroaching
on the Executive power, or the Supreme
Court to make valid an act of the Executive,
encroaching on the Judicial power. The
resolution substantially declares that Con-
gress may add to the Constitution or take
from it in manner not provided by that
instrument; that her bare majority can by
resolution make that constitutional which is
unconstitutional by the same authority. So,
in whatever view, the power granted by this
resolution is utterly subversive of the Con-
stitution. It might be wellto ask if the
President had assumed power not conferred.
He should con6ne himself to the acts enume-
rated in the resolution, acts which he de-
clared to be usurpations on the part of the
Executive; and so far from approving the
acts, he thought this high officer should be
rebuked By both houses Of CONGRESS.
The PFssideni hss Just hlished bloc-
-; hasesis
tutlo6 which autrorlzess itf The last Con-
gress refused to confer authority, and BY
what authority did the President do it after
they refused? The Constitution declares
that Congress alone have power to declare
war: yet the President has made war. In
the last session the Senator from Illinois
Douglas) delivered speech on the 18th of
March, which he would read. He then read
an extract of Mr. Douglass speech, declar-
ing that the President had no right to make
a blockade at New Orleans or Charleston,
more than at Chicago He also read from
n speech of Daniel Webster, delivered in
1882, declaring that Gen. jackson had no
right to blockade Charleston. He said he
approved the sentiments uttered by these
eminenf statesmen, who were formerly re-
garded as sound, and thought the time had
again come when it would not be thought
treason to maintain them.
The resolution proceeds to approve the
act of the President enlsting men for three
and five years. By what authority of the
Constitution and law has he done this? The
power is not in the Constitution, nor gran
ted by law. Therefore it must be illegal
and unconstitutional. Again, the President
by his own will has added immensely to the
Army; whereas the Constitution says Con-
gress alone have power to raise armies. He
has also added to the Navy, against the war
rant of the Constitution. These acts are
not defended on constitutional or legal
grounds, and he pronounced them usurpa-
tions. This resolution goes on to recite that
the President has suspended the writ of ha-
beas corpus, and proposes to ratify and make
that valid
We have great deal of talk about rights
the rights Of States, the rights of individu-
ais, and some of them have been said to be
shadowy and imaginary; but the right of
every citizen to be arrested only by war
rant of law, and his right. to have his body
brought before judicial authority, in order
that the grounds of that arrest may be de-
termined on, is a real right. There can be
no dispute about that. 1t is the right of
rights to all, high, low, rich or poor. tits
especially the right of that class which his
Excelleney the President calls plain people.
1t is right, the respect for which is mea-
sure Of progress and civilization It is right
that has been struggled for, fought for, guar
ded by laws, and backed up in constitutions
To have maintained it by arms, to have
suffered for it, then to have it established
on foundations SO immutable that the au-
thority of the sovereign could not shake it,
is the chief glory of the British people, from
whom we derive it. In England the legis-
lative power alone can suspend it. The
monarch of England cannot suspend that
right. But the Trans Atlantic freemen
seem to be eager to approve and ratify acts
which European monarch dare not per-
form 1t needs no legal argument to show
that the President cannot suspend the writ
of hdbeas corpus. [ content myself with
referring to fact. that it is classed among