Year: 1861

was liberty once surrendered ever restored except
by bloodf For the wiliful surrender of their
rights no nation ever resumed them only through
the agencies of revolution, ard you can not
make nation sensible of nights that in time of
danger possesses no rights. You can not in
crease and strengthen virtue, and courage, and
patience in a people by teaching them that in
times of great public calamity and danger to the
State they must rely for their safety not on their
own virtue, and courage. and constancy, but on
the power and good will of their rulers No free
nation ought ever 70 listen for moment to the
arguments of State necessity. The history of
those people who have been so deceived is writ
ten in the wreck Of free Institutions. II is
marked with wrongs, with high hopes destroyed.
and noble aspirations violated and trampled upon.


If we look over the pathway Of desolation thus
exposed to view, we may easily imagine that we
see the spirit of American independence and
American freedom towering over this day, tear
fully praying that il, too, may not be added TO
the long list of victims inundated on the altar Of
State necessity. This argument of State neces
sity always proceeds from the Executive power.
IL is the voice which issues from the throne ITSELF
and unless speedily answered, unless answered
now ere long comes the mandate to surrender to
military power. An imperial throne rises on the
ruins of an overthrown republic; oaths are vio
lated. liberties swept away, rights trampled on,
and nation is prostrated in the dust. This is
but the familiar picture which presents the dire
effects of people submitting TO the plea of State
necessity. We are further told that in times of
great public danger the people ought TO sustain
the hands of their rulers by con6ding in their
integrity of motives and disinterestedness of ac-
ton. Yes. sir, | would sustain them with the
public confidence while they adhered to the pro-
visions and prime plies of the Constitution; but |
would paralyze them. sir, with distrust whenever
they commenced the work Of usurpation.


1t was Demosthenes, in his divine phillipic,
who told the Athenians that the surest defense
of free people against tyranny was distrust
Athenisns did not heed his warning, and from
that hour to this Grecian Independence and Gre
clan liberty have been but a name. William,
Prince of Orange, wisely taught the same lesson
to the Dutch when Philip of Spain asked their
confidence in his administration, and they wisely
needed the lesson; and then the immortal glores
which clustered for two hundred years around the
Dutch Republic testify to the trnthfulness Of the
axiom. i. sir, speak not in behalf of the memo
rialists-upright and honest men as they are, and
unjustly 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 in behalf of my constituents, 1 speak in
behalf of myself and in behalf of you, my col
leagues, on this floor.


And saw here that the proposition that the
President has the power to suspend the writ of
hdbeas corpus, arbitrarily and without reason,
without regard to the principles and provisions
and process of law to detain the citizen of any
portion of this country, is utterly and entirely in
deiensible. And / further say that il becomes
every member of this House, in virtue of his
oath taken here before this tribune of the people,
to support and preserve the Constitution, and in
virtue of the position we hold here to support the
framework of the Government, and as represent
atives OF the people, solemnly in the face of
Heaven and of our responsibilities to protest
against il.