government will perish;
they will tear it asunder as the irrepressible forces of nature rend
whatever opposes them.

Mr. President, I shall not long detain the Senate. I shall not enter
now upon an elaborate discussion of all the principles involved in this
bill, and all the consequences which, in my opinion, flow from it. A
word in regard to what fell from the Senator from Vermont, the substance
of which has been uttered by a great many Senators on this floor. What I
tried to show some time ago has been substantially admitted. One Senator
says that the Constitution is put aside in a struggle like this. Another
Senator says that the condition of affairs is altogether abnormal, and
that you cannot deal with them on constitutional principles, any more
than you can deal, by any of the regular operations of the laws of
nature, with an earthquake. The Senator from Vermont says that all these
proceedings are to be conducted according to the laws of war; and he
adds that the laws of war require many things to be done which are
absolutely forbidden in the Constitution; which Congress is prohibited
from doing, and all other departments of the Government are forbidden
from doing by the Constitution; but that they are proper under the laws
of war, which must alone be the measure of our action now. I desire the
country, then, to know this fact; that it is openly avowed upon this
floor that constitutional limitations are no longer to be regarded;
but that you are acting just as if there were two nations upon this
continent, one arrayed against the other; some eighteen or twenty
million on one side, and some ten or twelve million on the other, as to
whom the Constitution is nought, and the laws of war alone apply.

Sir, let the people, already beginning to pause and reflect upon the
origin and nature and the probable consequences of this unhappy strife,
get this idea fairly lodged in their minds--and it is a true one--and
I will venture to say that the brave words which we now hear every
day about crushing, subjugating, treason, and traitors, will not be
so uttered the next time the Representatives of the people and States
assemble beneath the dome of this Capitol.

* * * * *

Mr. President, we are on the wrong tack; we have been from the
beginning. The people begin to see it. Here we have been hurling gallant
fellows on to death, and the blood of Americans has been shed--for what?
They have shown their prow