Year: 1862




The President holds Office under the Con.
stitution; you sit there under it; the
Judges sit and pass judgment in virtue
Of the provision, of that in, trument alone,
and if you supersede it, neither you, nor
the Judges, nor the President himself,
possesses any more power than the hum
blest man in the land. Supersedc the
Constitution You might as well try to
repeal all the laws for the guidance Of so.
ciety, and let the nation go adiift to ruin
at once. The only way TO preserve the
Government is to preserve the Constitu.
tion; to observe its limitations, and to obey
its prohibitions. When the Constitn.
tion falls, then, indeed, the Government
falls. This is not the way to preserve
Governments.


Ambition makes its own opportunity,
and under this system Of superseding the
Constitution in times of public calamity,
the public mind will become degraded,
the people on every fresh OCCASION for the
exercise of this power will yield still a
little more to those encroachments, TIL
the public will be destroyed, the public
intellect warped the national character
tarnished, and the national love Of liber-
ty and independence overthrown. They
will become the play ything of every tyrant,
and each successive invasion of their
rights will be tamely submitted to until
all appreciations Of independence and
rights and freedom is forever lost. 1t is
in vain to say that this is an idle dream
the realization of the fact is before u.s.
Six months ago when the habeas corpuS
act was first suspended in the case of Mer-
riman, who was held on charge of trea-
son, the public mind was intensely ex-
| cited Now what was the fact ? Citi-
zens are committed and imprisoned be-
cause in the public newspapers they Care
not criticise the acts of the Government
specifically exercised without a public
murmur.


We are told also that when this public
danger shall have passed away the Con-
sttution will be restored to its pristine
vigor, and the people will be allowed to
resume their accustomed liberty. When
was this ever SO? When were the invaded
and restricted rights Of people ever re-
stored to their exact position except by
the sword? When was liberty once
surrendered ever restored except by blood?
For the wilfull surrender of their rights no
nation ever resumed them only through the
agonies of a revolution, and You can not
make a nation sensible of rights that in
time of danger possesses no rights. You
cannot increase and strengthen virtue,
and courage, and patience in people by
teaching them that, in times of great
public calamity and Angerso the State
they must rely for their safety not or
their own virtue, and courage, and con.
stancy, but on the power,apd good will
of their rulers. No free nation ought
ever to listen for moment to the argu-
ments Of State necessity. The history
of those people who have been so deceiv-
ed is written in the wreck of free institu-
tons. 1t is marked with wrongs, with
high hopes destroyed, and noble aspira-
tions violated and trampled upon.


If we look over the pathway of desc
lation thus exposed to view, we may cas-
lily imagine that we see the spirit of
American independence and American
freedom lowering over this day, tearfully
praying that it too may not be added to
the long list of victims inundated on the
altar of State necessity. This argument
of State necessity always proceeds from
the executive power. 1t is the voice
which issues from the throne itself, and
unless speedily answered, unless answer
ed now, ere long comes the mandate 70
surrender to military power. . impe-
rial throne rises on the ruins of an over
thrown republic; oaths are violated, lib
critics swept away, rights trampled on,
and nation is prostrated in the dust
This is but the familiar picture which pre-.
sents the dire effect of people submit
ting to the plea of State necessity. We
are further told that in times of great
public danger the people ought to sus-
tain the hands of their rulers by confid-
ing in their integrity of motives and dis
interestedness of action. Yes, sir would
sustain them with the public confidence
while they adhered to the provision and
principles the Constitution but would
paralize them, sir, with distrust when
ever they commenced the work of usur-
patton.


1t was Demosthenes in his divine phil
lipic, who told the Athenians that the
surest defence of free people against
tyranny was distruSt. The Athenians
did not heed his warning and from that
hour to this Greecian liberty has but a
name. William Prince of Orange, wise
ly taught the same lesson to the Dutch
when Philip Of Spain, asked their conf
dencc in his administration, and they
wisely needed the lesson; and the immor-
tai glories which clustered for two hun
dred years around the Dutch Republic
testify to the truthfulness of the axiom.
|, sir, speak not in behalf of the mem
oralists-upright and honest men as they
are and uniustly deprived of their liberty
as know them to bel speak in behalf
of the Constitution, speak in behalf of
the liberties Of the nation, | speak III
behalf of my constituents, lspeak in be-
half of myself and in behalf of You, my
colleagues, on this floor, And say
here that the proposition that the Presi :
dent has the power to suspend the writ
of habes corpus, arbitrarily and with
ont reason, without regard to the princi-
pies and provisions and process of law
to detain the citizen of any portion OF this
country, is utterly and entirely indeiensi-
BILE. And | further say that it becomes
every member of the House, in virtue OF
his oath taken here before the tribune OF
the people, to support and preserve the
, Constitution, and in virtue of the position