Year: 1864

W. OOAASSAe - s'OA4ssus
Remarks Of John 8. Carlile in


the U. =. Senate, Feb. 8, 1864,


on the War Powers of the


Government.


Mr.. President, ''in these unhappy times,
when good men are rendered odious and
bad men popular, when great men are made
little and little men are made great" he
who would serve his country must be
"sbove the reach Of personal consider
ations.n 1t has been the habit of those
who 1858 SITS


"Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,


Where thrift may follow faWning,' -. a
to charge with dsloyalty all who differ
with the party in power and to denounce as
sympathizer with rebellion all who at.
tempt to confne the General Government
within the limits prescribed by the Consti
tuition. If a warm and undying attachment
to the Constitution which created the Union
constitutes disloyalty then am di>loyal.-
If sincere, fervent, impassioned, burning
desire for the overthrow of the rebellion
and the return of peace is sympathy with
the rebellion then am | sympathizer. At
the hazard of my life opposed the seces-
sion of my State. Solitary and alone"
when stout hearts quailed and strong men
faltered, inaugurated and organized the
movement that rolled back the wave of Sc
cession and kept within the fold of tho
Union the section Of the State in which l
reside. There is not to day spot of earth
over which the confederate flag floats upon
which Iwould dare to tread. s.


That Virgins, which gave to the colonies
the commander Of their armies and to the
States the President of the Convention
that framed the bond of union between
them, as we'll as the father OF the Consti-
tuition and the authority of the Declaration
of Independence, should have been betray
ed into secession, is one of the wonders of
the age. That her people should oppose
the exercise of arbitrary power is but con-
sistent with her past history, around which
cluster so many precious recollections.-
Glorious cid State, even now while striving
to release herself from Union in the for
nation of which she acted so conspicuous a
part, and for which she gave away an em
pire, she stands proud and defiant, the
wonder of the world, the valor Of her sons
and the fortitude of her people challenging
the admiration OF mankind. With almost
every acre of her soil red with the blood of
her children, she still is, as she has been
from the beginning, the main stay and sup
port of cause into which she was be-
trayed.


Mr.. CARLILE then declares his belief
that "tbe Constitution cannot be maintained
nor the Union preserved, in opposition to
public feeling, by the mere coercive powers
of the General Government" and that we
have Gin the progress of this struggle
reached point where its nature and it's
character must be settled, and settled def.
Ditely."


Is the struggle-and these are the ques
tions that are forcing themselves upon the
Senate now for its determinations the
struggle in which we are engaged an eXer
else by the Government of the United
States of It's constitutional power to sup
press an insurrection within its constitu-
tional Jurisdiction, and to put down a re.
bellion against its lawful authority, or is it
war waged by the States represented in
this Chamber, commonly called the north
ern States against the Sou, hern States?-
If the former, it is struggle between the
Government of the United States and its
rebellious citizens and in its prosecution
we must draw all our legislative power
from the Constitution. If the latter, VIC
are under no constitutional restraints, and
are only responsible t. the civilized world
for the manner in which we conduct the
war. That the latter is the opinion of the
Chairman of Ways and Means in the other
House is to be asceI tanned from his recent
speech, in which is the following paragraph:


"But it is said that this must be consld-
cred contest with rebel individuals only,
as States in the Union cannot make war.
That is true SO long as they remain in the
Union. But they claim to be out of The
Union; and the very fact that we have ad
mitted them to be in state of war, to be
beligerents, shows that they are no longer
in the Union, and that they are waging war
in their corporate name of the confederate
States -.bJE ~ III


Let me state as understand them the
positions assumed by the Senator in the
speech TO which have referred. They are
these: thai the struggle in which We are en-
gagged is with States as such united under a
common Government and not with indiyid,
uals; that we are notengaged in suppress
ing an insurrection or rebellion, but in open
nagrant war with belligerent Power, which
we have recognized as such that being EN-.
gagged in civil war we are only bound by the





ed by the Constitution of the United States
in the means we employ, the measures we
adopt, or the manner in which we conduct
the war; that Congress is not authorized by
the Constitution to emancipate slaves, but
i n time of civil war Congress derives the
power to emancipate from the laws of war.


To prove that such power Is conferred up,
on Congress, the Senator cites the clause
authorizing Congress to raise armies. He
denies that the President possesses the pow