consequences involved in measures
of this character. Sir, stop, stop! the mangled, bleeding body of the
Constitution of your country lies in your path; you are treading upon
its bleeding body when you pass these laws."

After having argued at considerable length that this bill would be a
most unconstitutional interference on the part of the Federal
Government with "the powers of the States under the Federal
Constitution," the Senator from Delaware thus concluded:

"Sir, from early boyhood I was taught to love and revere the Federal
Union and those who made it. In early childhood I read the words of
the Father of his country, in which he exhorted the people to cling to
the union of these States as the palladium of liberty, and my young
heart bounded with joy in reading the burning words of lofty
patriotism. I was taught in infancy to admire, as far as the infant
mind could admire, our free system of government, Federal and State;
and I heard the old men say that the wit of man never devised a better
or more lovely system of government. When I arrived at that age when I
could study and reflect for myself, the teachings of childhood were
approved by the judgment of the man.

"I have seen how under this Union we had become great in the eyes of
all nations; and I see now, notwithstanding the horrible afflictions
of war, if we can have wisdom in council and sincere purpose to
subserve the good of the whole people of the United States, though
much that was dear to us has been blasted as by the pestilence that
walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noonday, how
we might, in the providence of God, resume our former position among
the nations of the earth, and command the respect of the whole
civilized world. But, sir, to-day, in viewing and in considering this
bill, the thought has occurred to me, how happy were the founders of
our Federal system of government, that they had been taken from the
council chambers of this nation and from among their fellow-men before
bills of this character were seriously presented for legislative
consideration. Happily for them, they sleep their last sleep, and--

"'How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mold,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

"'By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirg