Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-02-10
A Plea for the Preservation of Con-
stitutiOnal Liberty.


Senator SALISBURY, of Delaware, in the course
of his speech on the BRIGHT case, in the Senate
on Wednesday last, made an eloquent appeal for
the preservation of constitutional liberty. We
copy the concluding portion as we find it reported
in the Globe, the official paper of Congress, and
which is permitted to be transported to all loyal
sections Of the country by the Government mails:
Mr.. President, we are in the midst of civil
war. Those having the power to determine the
policy of the Government have so far rejected
every proposition for peaceable adjustment, and
have resolved upon continuance of the policy
of coercion. You have the right to continue
that policy within the limits of the Constitution.
The question is not one of right, but Of expedi-
ency. While | may distrust your ability to guide
the ship of State amid the storms that beset her.
while you act within the limits and in accordance
with the spirit and meaning of the Constitution,
l shall wish you speedy and glorious success. l
shall offer no tactiOus opposition to your mea-
sures. Those of them which my judgment APP
proves | shall vote for; those which involve only
questions of policy, from which | dissent, but
which are approved by the majority who are re
spOnsible for the proper prosecution of the war,
/ shall not in the future. as have not in the past
oppose, but leave the responsibility for their adop
ton where it properly belongs Those of them
which honestly believe are violative of the
Constitution of my country, will oppose by all
honorable means, and to the utmost extent of
nv power. Ii YOU cannot carry on this war in
accordance with the Constitution, which was
made for all times both of war and peace, you
have no right to carry il on at all. will vote
for any honorable proposition for the peaceabe
adjustment of our national troubles by which the
Union may be maintained and the Constitution
preserved | have never vet seen the day when
l would have voted for the sundering of the one
or the inlractiOn of the other. How long 1t will
be before the lovers of constitutional liberty will
be compelled TO weigh their devotion to the
Union, with its blessings in one scale. and that
liberty. with its indispensable advantages, in the
other. it will be for YOU To determine.
in my place in the Senate and at my home and
everywhere / go private citizen. | will make
continual claim on my own behalf on behalf of
my children and my feOw-countrymen, TO that
priceless liberty with all its constitutional safe
guards, which | and they have inherited from our
fathers; and under no circumstances will / ever
abate one particle of opposition to those uncon-
stitutiOna measures adopted under the tyrant's
plea Of necessity, or which may hereafter be so
adopted. Never has there been Government in
the administration of which its Constitution has
been so often, so violently, and so eauseessly in
fracted, in which civil liberty has been preserved.
IL J. iutc ditFIno dIuI Is thc COu-
servauve everywhere. In the language of Gel
ebrated jurst of the present day, himself son
of one of the trainers of the Constitution, and a
devout friend of the Union. Chancellor s. S.
Nicholas, of Kentucky whose opinions oppose
TO those of the Senator from that State, Mr..
Davis:
"The following powers are given exclusively
to Congress:
"1 To increase the Army.
80 To increase the Navy
80. To appropriate the nations money.
"a To regulate commerce with foreign ma
tons
IS To regulate commerce between the States.
"6 To contract debt on behalf of the nation.
~. To suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
"The following powers are denied to bothCon-
gress and the President:
81. To proclaim martial law.
"2. To arrest without legal warrant.
"3 Imprisonment or other punishment with
out conviction upon legal trial.