Year: 1863

followed until these modern days have
ongendered not merely spirit of false
construction but Of open and audacious
usurpation, such as never haunted the
disordered brain Of George III, even in
his hours of madness. / am not about
here to enter into an elaborate discussion
of th various primary functions of the
Constitution. 1t is the xt-book of the
peoples happiness and security, and they
know it by heart, but in order that the
dangers which now asail it here in the
house of its pretended friends may be
more plainly seen, l may be allowed to
dwell moment on some of its simplest
but most important features.


By the letter and by the spirit of the
Constitution this is peculiarly and EN-.
phatically a popular Government. The
people make every part of it, uphold the
entire fabric, and control its whole econ.
omy. 1t is true that tho Constitution
makes three departments in which the
powers Of the Government are placed, but
the voice of the people is supreme over
them all. The Executive can make no law,
annual no law, change no law. He is not
responsible for the laws as he finds them
They are made by the people in their leg
islative capacity, and he is simply their
servant to execute their will thus express
ed. The department of the Judiciary was
created to interpret and pronounce the
meaning of law; and if the law as thus de-
clared by the courts is not in accordance
with the popular wishes, it is to be cor
rected by new legislation. But one de-
partment cannot invade or coerce the 9th =
er when each confines itself to its Const-
tui!odal boundaries. These miles are very
old and very familiar; but they assume a
new and wonderful significance in the light
of present events. They are like the face OF
an old friend beheld Unexpectedly under
terrible and startling circum stances. | do
not allude to them at this time because l
suppose thsy are new to the humblest
mind in the land. allude to them, how
ever, sir, for thePurpose of asserting, as
do here now in my place as Represent.
ative of the people, that the present Ex-
ecutive of this Government has usurped
the powers Of the judicial and the legsla
tive departments Of the Constitution to
an extent which is totally subversive of
Republican institutions, and not to be
borne by free people. make''the charge
and will submit the proof to my candid
countrymen.


1t will not be denied on this floor or
elsewhere that the suspension Of the writ
ofhdJeas corpus by proclamation, to which
| have allude closed the civil courts of
this country, from one ocean to the 9th
er, against the trial Of any one arrested
by the order of the President or his subor-
dinates. 1t gave access to the vaults of
the prison, but not to the bar of Justice.
II is n part of the naturs of frail man to
sin against laws, both human and divine,
but Tod himself secures him trial before
punishment, and tyrants alone repudiate
the justice of the Almighty. To deny %
an accused person the right to be heard
in his defense is pre-eminently the attri
butte of the worst ages of brutal despot-
ism. Condemnation without trial, and
punishment without limitation, is the ex.
act definition to my mind of the most
atrocious tyranny that ever feasted on the
groans of the captive, or banqueted or the
tears Of the widow and tie iatherless.-
And yet on this spectacle of horror and OF
shame American citizens have been ga
zing for more than year! The great
bulwark which generations in bloody toll
have erected against the wicked exercise
Of unlawful powers has been torn away
with parricidal hand Every citizen in
this Republic, the farmer at his plow, the
mechanic in his shop, the merchant at
his counter, every calling and profession
in life, from the proud man in his man
sion to the good man in his cabin, all
stand this day naked and exposed, utter,
y and entirely at the mercy Of one man,
and of the fawnng minions who crouch
before him for pay. l state fact in the
hearing of the country, and wherever my
feeble words may penetrate, witnesses will
rise up and solemnly attest its truth.


II would be the natural suppostion of
every intelligent mind, that an argument
to prove that there is warrant in the
Constitution for this state of affairs would
be an insult to the genius of the Revo-
luton in which our liberties were won,
an outrage on the memory of the great
dead of the period. and mockery to
the common sense of the world. But the
spirit of abject severity, which always
invites the arrogant assumptions of pow
er and proceeds the downfall of liberty,
is performing it's loathsome office on ev-
cry hand. We hear on every side the old
cry of the courtier and the parasite. At
every new aggression, at every additional
outrage, new advocates rise up to defend
that source of patronage, wealth, and
fame-.-tho department of the Executive.
Technical.snd obscure rules, cunningly
devised special pleas, and skillful and de-
ceptive sophistry, all combine in the hands
of the supporters of this administration
to tear away from the peoplethe protection
of the laws of their own making. Such
assistance has always waited on the most
malignant efforts of tyranny. Nero had
his poet laureated, and Senaca wrote his
defense for the murder of his mother. The
present dark hour affords ample evidence
that human nature is theI eIsame that it was
two thousand years ago.


Amid the opening scenes Of this disas.
trous and deplorable war, the President
suspended the operations of the writ of
haJeas corpus in certain unsettled and af-
hicted cities and portions of the country.
This was in my Judgment, without au-
IL Al A. -