Year: 1863

Sir, the bill now before the House has
no parallel in the history of this or any
other free people 1t is entitled can act
to indemnify the President and other per-
sons for suspending the writ of habeas
corpus, and acts done in pursuance there
Of" But it embraces even more than its
startling title would indicate. 1t gives
TO the executive and al. his subordinates
not merely security for crimes committed
against the citizen in times past, but con-
furs license to continue in the future
the same unlimited exercise of arbitrary
power which has brought disgrace and
danger to the country. | propose, to the
best of my ability this day, to show that
neither indemnity for the past nor impu-
nifty for the future can be bestowed on
those who have violated, and who pro-
pose further to violate, the great and fun
damental principles of constitutional lib
erty.


Sir, the proper division and lawful ex-
ercise of the powers of a Government
constitute question of supreme and par
amount importance. 1t stands pre- emf
nent over all others. No people in the
history of the world ever long maintain
ed security from the foot of the oppres-
sor who lost sight of this fundamental
truth. The sentinel who stands guard
over the citadel of popular liberty can on
ly protect and defend his sacred trust by
keeping his vigilant eye steadily fixed on
the movements of power. Every attempt
to divert his attention by proclaimng
other and more important objects, or by
lulling him to sleep at his post, comes
from an enemy to free Government. Ev-
cry attempt to convince the public mind
that there may be higher dutses for the
citizen to perform than to preserve invio-
late the inalienabe rights of person, prop
erty and the pursuit of happiness, is an
assault upon the existence of this Repub-
lie and sacrilege against God.


To measure ont the metes and bounds
of power, and establish them by consti-
tutional landmarks sufficiently plain and
strong to resist the encroachments of ex
ecutive authority. has been the lofty pur-
pose of every friend of freedom who has
left his name to illuminate annals of hu-
man conduct. Such names belong to
the people, and are household deities
around the humble hearthstones of those
who cat their bread in the sweat of their
faces, and find safety alone, in the we'll
defined limits of the laws under which
they live. The surveyor with his chain
can run the direct lines and plant the
cornerstones along the borders of king
doms, empires, states and territories, but
statesmen and philosophers have taxed all
the hours since the dawn civilization with
the efforts of incessant industry in cir
cumscribing and restraining the lawless
and impatient spirit of power. Vast ar
mics have been marshaled and great bat
ties fought; the earth has been turned
from its primeval peace and purity into
one mighty sepulcher, and the sky has
been rent with the voice of mourning in
order to aprease the lust of conquest and
to extend the physical boundaries of a
country to mountain, river, or an in
visible, airdrawn line which is disputed
by armed force; but one drop of blood
from the veins of John Hampden or Jo-
seph Warren; one handful of dust from
the graves of Saratoga, or Camden; one
expiring sigh from the lips Of Bozaris or
Winkelreid one relic from the plains of
old Platea or Marathon. is more valuable
and more glorious in the cause of human
progress, and more acceptable in the
presence of infinite justice and eternal
subjugation with which the world has re-
sounded from Issus to Austeritz. l bow
before the shrine which liberty has erec-
ted to the names of Washington and of
Algernon Sidney, of the elder Brutus
and OF Thomas Jefferson. I invoke
their memories and the guidance of their
spirits while l denounce a measure which
surrenders back to the hands of power all
those grand achievements in the cause of
human freedom which have rendered
thei, names immortal.


Sir, we live in the midst of storm and
revolution. A memorable epoch in his
tory is transpiring in our view. The
air is dark with the elements Of strife and
of change. Tae convulsions which have
signalized the past are being reproduced
in the present. The murderous roar of
cannon, the sanguinary crash Of war, and
the pallid, appealing faces of the dead
mark our time and our country as they
have marked all climes and ages hereto.
fore. History is being rewritten; and
what man has done man is doing again.
1 see nothing new in the calamities which
now assail the destiny to which we aspire.
We are treading over again the footsteps
of generations which have passed away.
Mutation and change is the order of the
world. Stability and permanence in the
works Of human hands is the utopain
dream Of abstract speculation. The diff
ferent forms which Governments have as
sumed to redeem society from chaos con-
stitute no exception to this remark. On
the contrary, all history stands as an
awful witness to the fact that no Govern
ment has ever yet been esta ablished which
has been exempt from the fierce blasts
OF human passions and human ambition.
But instability and tempestuous struggles
do not necessarily roll backward, or
even check the wheels of progress. Great
principles are immortal. They can not
die. The forms in which they are en-
cased may perish and decay to duet; but,
like the liberated soul, Truth puts ON new
glories ip every phase of her existence.
Our course in onward like the miohty