Year: 1866

ed the postponement Of the vote which was
asked for in order to enable the Senators
who were i'll to be in attendance when the
vote should be taken, and said


1 am very frank to say that when gen.
tlemen tell us that if we persist here with
all the physical power the Almighty has
put into our hands, we may probably pre-
vail, 1T Is not an argument against my stay
ing here, standing by the Constitution,
standing by these powers that the Consti.
tuition has armed me with, and which l
have no right or authority to give ND. No
Senator on this floor has any right to sur
render the authority wi th which we are
Clothed. The moment President can
rise and irterpose his interference with
question purely congressional and legisla.
tive, your Constitution is not worth the pa
per upon which it is written. That is the
reason that L urge and beg of my friends
on this floor to take every advantage that
the Almighty has put into your hands to
maintain, uphold and sustain that Consti-
tuition that we have sworn we will support.


Dir. McDougall, Of California, admins
tered the following severe and dignified
rebuke to his brother Senator.


MIR. McDougall, ll,-Mr. President, the
Senator from Ohio is in the habit of ap
peallng to his God in vindication of his
judgment and conduct; it is a common
thing for him to do so but, in view of the
present demonstration, it may be well to
ask who and what is his God. In the old
Persian mythology there was an Ormasdes
and an Ahriman-a god Of light and beau
ty, and god of darkness and death. The
god Of light sent the sun to shine and gen.
tie showers to fructify the fields, the god
OF darkness sent the tornado and the tenn.
pest and the thunder, scathing with pesti
lence the nations. And in old Chaldean
times men came to worship Ahriman, the
god OF darkness, the god of pestilence and
famine; and his priests became multitudi.
nous-they swarmed the land-and when
men prayed then, their offerings were,
"We will not SOW field Of grain; We will
not dig well; We will not plant tree"
Those were the offerings to the dark spirit
of evil until prophet came who redeem
ed that ancient land, but he did it after
crucihxion, like our great master.


The followers of Ahriman always appeal
ed to the same spirit manifested by the
Senator from Ohio. Death is to be one
of his angels now to redeem the Constitu-
tion and the laws, and to establish liberty.
Sickness, suffering, evil, are to be his an
gels; and he thanks the Almighty, his Al
mighty, that sickness, danger and evil are
about {! 1t may be a good God tor him in
this world; but if there is any truth in
u mi un o. h. Is. -.
in this Christian world, his faith will not
help him when he shall ascend up and ask
entrance at the crystal door, If there can
be evil expressed in high places that COM
municates evil thoughts, that communicates
evil teachings, that demoralizes the youth
who receive impressions as does the wax,
1t Is by such lessons as the Senator from
Ohio now teaches by word of mouth rs
Senator in this Senate Hall.


Sir, the President of the United States
Is constitutional officer, clothed with high
power, and clothed with the very power
which he has exercised in this instance,
and those who conferred upon him those
powers were men such as Madison, and
Hamilton, and Morris, and Washington,
and host of worthless, men who, think,
knew as much about the laws of the Gov
ernment, and how they should be rightly
balanced, as any of the wisest who now sit
here in council. 1t is the duty of the
President of the United States to stand as
defender Of the Constitution in his place,
as the conservator Of the rights of the peo
pie, as tribune of the people, as it was in
old Rome, when the people did choose
their tribunes to 60 into the Senate Cham
ber among the aristocracy of Rome, and
when they passed laws injurious to the
Roman people, to stand and say, "I for
bid it."


That is the veto power, incorporated
wisely by our fathers in the Constitution,
conferred upon the President Of the United
States, and to be treated with considera.
ton, and no appeal Of the Senator to his
God can change the Constitution or the
rights of the President of the United
States, or can prevent just consideration
of the dignity of this Senate by persons
who have just consideration, who feel that
they are Senators.


1t is strange thing, an exceedingly
strange thing, that when few Senators in
the City Of Washington, ill at their houses,
give assurance that they can be here to act