Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-07-21


The bill to authorize the Secretary of the Treas
ury to borrow on the credit of the United States
not exceeding 900 being under consid-
Grafton,
Mr.. Chairman, in the Constitution Of the United
States which the other day we swore TO support,
and by the authority of which we are assembled
here to-day, II is written:
Cali legislative powers herein granted shall be
vested in Congress Of the United States.
1t is further written also that the Congress TO
which sill legislative powers granted are thus com
mitted-
"Shall make no law abridging the freedom Of
speech or of the press"
And it is vet further written, in protection Of
Senator'S and Representatives in that freedom of
debate here, without which there can be no liberty
''That for any speech or debate in either House
they shall not be questioned in any other place.
Holding up the shield CT the Constitution, and
standing here in the place and with the manhood of
Representative of the people, 1 propose to my
SELF to day. the ancient freedom of speech used
within these walls; though with somewhat more, /
trust of decency and discretion than have some
times been exhibited here. Sir do not propose to
discuss the direct question of this civil war in
which we are engaged. Its present prosecution is
foregone conclusion; and wise man never wastes
his strength fruitless enterprise. Ny position
shall at present, for the most part be indicated by
my votes, and by the resolutions and motions which
/ may submit. But there are many questions incl
have somewhat to say now.
Mr. Chairman, the President, In the message be-
fore us, demands the extraordinary loan of $780,
| 600 000-an amount nearly ten times greater than
the entire public debt State and Federal, at the
close of the Revolution in 1888, and four times as
much as the total expenditures during the three
years war with Great Britain, in 1872.
Sir that same Constitution which | again hold
up, and to which | give my whole heart and my
/ utmost loyalty, commits to Congress alone the
power to borrow money and to fix the purposes to
which it shall be applied, and expressly limits any
appropriations to the term of two years. Each
Senator and Representative, therefore, must Judge
for himself upon his conscience and OATH and be-
fore God and the country, of the justice and wis
dom and policy of the Presidents demand; and
whenever this House shall have become but mere
office wherein to register the DEGREES OF the EXecu-
tive it will be high time to abolish 1t. But have
right believe sir, to say that, however gentlemen
upon this side of the Chamber may differ finally
to the war we yet firmly and inexorably united
in one thing at least and that is the determination
that our own rights and dignites and privileges, as
the Representatives of the people, shall be main
tanned in their spirit and to the very letter. And
be this as il may do know that there are some
here present who are resolved to assert and to eX
ercise these rights, with becoming decency and
moderation certainly, but at the same time fully,
freely, and at every hazard.
Sir it is an ancient and wise practice of the English
Commons to precede all votes of supplies by an in
into any infraction of the constitution and the laws
by the executive. Let follow this safe practice.
| We are now in the Committee of the Whole on the
state of the Union; and in the exercise of my right
and my duty a Representative, and awaiting my
self Of the latitude of debate allowed here pro-
pose to consi err THIS PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
and supply also some few of the many omissions of
the President in the message before US. Sir he has
undertaken to give US information of the state of
the Union as the Constitution requires him to do:
| nd his dutV q honest Executive n
make that information full, impartial and complete
instead of spreading before Us labored and law
yerly vindicatOH OF his own course of policy-a
policy which has precipitated us into a terrible
and bloody revolution. He admits the fact; he adj
mits that to day. we are in the midst of general
c VII WAR; not now mere petty insurrection to be
suppressed in twenty days by proclamation and
posse c0midtas Of three months militia.
Sir, it has been the misfortune of the President
from the beginning that he has totally and wholly
underestimate the magnitude and character of the
revolution With which he had to deal, surely he
never would have ventured upon the wicked and
hazardous experiment Of calling thirty million
people TO arms among themselves without the
counsel and authority Of Congress. But when at
last he found himself hemmed in by the revo-
luton aud this city in danger, as he declares and
walked up thus as the proclamation of the 10Th of
April proves himself to have walked up, to the re-
atty and significance of the movement, why did he
not forthwith assemble Congress- and throw himself
upon the wisdom and patriotism of the representa-
tives of the States and of the people, instead of
usurping powers which the constitution has eX-
press.y conferred upon US! ay, sir, and powers
which Congress had but little while before
peatedly and emphatically refused to exercise, or
to permit him to exercise But shall recur to this
point again.
Sir the President, in this message, has under
taken also TO give US a summary of the causes
which have led to this present revolution. He has
made out a case-he might, IN my Judgment, have
made out a much stronger case-agsinst the seces-
sonists and disunionists of the South All this, SIR
Is very well as far it goes. But the President
does not 60 back far enough nor IN the right dlrec
ton He fOrgets the still stronger case against the
abolitonists and dSunOnists OF the North and West
He Omits to tell that secession and disunlOn mad
a New England origin, and began in Massachusetts
in 1901 at the time Of the Louisiana purchase; were
revived by the Hartford Convention in 1914, and
eliminated during the with Great Britain, in
sending commissioners to Washington to settle the
terms for a peaceabe separation of New England
from the other States of the Union. lie fOrgets to
remind us and the country, that this present reVo>
luton began forty years ago in the vehement per-
sstent. offensive, most irritating and unprovoked
agitation of the SLAVERY QUESTION in the North and
West from the time of the Missouri controversy,
with some short intervals, down to the present
hour. Sir, if his statement Of the case be the whole
truth and wholly correct then the democratic
party and every member Of it, and the Wing party,
too and its predecessors have been guilty for SIXTY
wears of an unjust, unconstitutional and most
wicked policy in administering the affairs Of the
Government.
But sir the President ignores totally the violent and
long continued denunciation of slavery and savehol
ders and especially since 1851 appeal to JacksOns
message for the date and prOof-until at last pO-
litCal anti-slavery organization was formed in the
North and West which continued to gain strength
year after year, till at length it had destroyed and
usurped the place of the Wing party, and finally
obtained control of every Free State in the Union,
and elected himself through Free State votes alone,
to the Presidency of the United States. He chooses
to pass over the fact that the party to which he
thus owes his place and his present power of mis-
chief is wholly and totally sectional organization;
aud as such condemned by Washington, by Jetter-
son. by Jackson, Webster, and Clay, and by all the
founders and preservers of the Republic and utter
" inconsistent with the principles, or the peace the
stability the existence even, of our Federal sys
TEN. Sir, there never was an hour, from the
ganzation of this sectional party, when it was not
predicted by the wisest men and truest patriots,
and when it ought not to have been known by every
intelligent man in the country that 1t must
or later precipitate revolution and the dissolution
of the Union. The President fOrgets already that,
on the 4th of March he declared that the platform
of that party was "a law unto him" by which he
meant to be governed in his administration; and yet
that platform announced that whereas there were
two separate ard distinct kinds of labor and forms
O. civilization IN the two different sections of the
UliOn, yet that the entire national domain belong
ing in common 10 all the States should be taken,
possessed and ED by one section alone, and cOnse
Grated TO that kind Of labor and form of civilization
alone which prevailed in that section which by mere
numerical superiority had chosen the President and
now has, and for some years past has had, mayer