Year: 1863

these arrests, thinks it advisable and con-
sistcnt with the public interests, we should
| like to know his reasons for such an act.


Sir, in that there is nothing disrespectfnl


to the President there is, on the contrary,


an implication that we trust entirely to


his judgment and, trusting to his judg-


ment and his discretion, and his good faith
| if, in the exercise of it he thinks fit to


communicate the information to us, We


should like to know it. 1t is the ordin-


airy form.


| Sir, had this taken place in time Of


peace, in the ordinary position of things


in this country, nobody would hesitate.


perhaps, to call it an outrage, inexcusable.


that any man should be arrested by order


of the Secretary of State, or the Secre-


tary of War, even acting under the di-


rection of the President; but the Senator


must acknowledge, what the people Of


this country see and feel. that VIC are in


most unexampled condition of our pub


lie affairs. He must acknowledge that


in times like these, of necessity many
things must be done and may be done
with propriety that could not be done in
the ordinary condition of things. He
must acknowledge that when nation has
war upon its hands like this, an interne-
cine war, one portion of the people divl-
ded against another-and,as my honorable
colleague has said, with traitors in every
State in the Union, mixing up everywhere
it is not time to stand upon triies, or
to exact too strict al account OF our rul-
ers, of their doings, so long as we are
satisfied that they mean to do what in
their Judgment the public good requires.
is it not so sir? And | undertake to say
that the Senator is too careful of private
rights who follows every slight infraction
of them into the executive chamber for
motive in times when no man hardly
knows what or who his neighbor is, and
when, as he must confess, the country is,
as it has been for months, trembling upon
the verge Of ruin.


Now, sir, if it is admitted that / am
right, and that my colleague is right in
what he has said on this subject, let us
look at matters little literally. Does
any man undertake to doubt the patriot
ism of the President Of the United States
Does the Senator from Delaware, or his
colleague, or the Senator from kentucky,
undertake to say here, or to intimate that
in all his acts he has not been governed
with single view to the good of the
country and to the suppression of this re-
bellion; that he has willfully violated
aay private right mean violated it, if
you call it violation--in opposition to
his own belief that it was absolutely nec-
essary for the good of the public that he
should do so Is that charge made {?
have not understood it to be made or in
timatcd from any quarter. We have
heard much from the honorable Senator
from Kentucky about violations of the
Constitution, but we have not heard an
intimation that there was any proof, or
any ground to suppose that in any act of
the Executive, there had been any willful
disregard of the rights of any individual


Sir, there is a little mistake, in my
Judgment, as to the responsibility under
which the President labors. The Senator
from kentucky will allow me to tell him
that the President does not take an oath
to support the Constitution Of the United
States, but that he will "preserve, protect
and defend. it; that is the lauguage.-
The honorable Senator will reply to me
by asking, can he protect it by violating
it? Certainly not ordinarily. We, and
other officers Of the Government, but the


PRESIDENT swear to support the Constitu-
ton of the United States, he swears to
preserve, protect, and defend it. l am
not to be put in the position of saying
that therefore he has a right to violate it.
[ say no such thing. What do say is,
that kis paramount duty is to preserve.
protect, and defend it; and if an occas-
ion arises when, in order to preserve, pro-
tcct, and defend, that great instrument
without which the Union dies, he is COM
PEELED in his judgment to violate the in
dividual rights Of a citizen for time,can
any one suppose that he ought to hesitate
for single instant in doing so? l know
that gentlemen appeal to that clause OF
the Constitution which says that no man
shall be deprived of life, liberty, or prop
erty, without due process OF law; and
they infer, if the President arrests man
without due process of law, that he has
deprived him of his liberty. Grant it i;
but suppose that in his judgment. and in
the judgment Of all other mcn, a time has
arrived when it is necessary that some OF
the Individual rights secured to the citizen
by that great instrument should be viola
ted, or that he should be deprived of them
for time in order to preserve the instru-
ment itself is it not the duty Of the Presi-
dent at once to take the step? think
no men can hesitate about that. The
other day put question to the honor
able Senator from Kentucky, y,who is one Of
the best-natered and most amiablc men
in the world. as l judge, and to that
question 1 tried to get an answer. My
question was whe her, in like case, if he
were President Of the nation, and there
was no other mode in which he could pre-
vent the commission of great crime
which would be injurious deadly perhaps,
to the nation itself, but by interfering
with the rights of citizen, he would so
interfere Well, sir, after little talk,
in which the honorable Senator exhibited
very considerable fencing skill, being
obliged to answer directly, he substantially
said that he would not. will never vote
Co., in, f,r D,oe,Japt RI Tourhtnr l