ry
commander? As the Senator from Illinois has well said, shall it be done
by regulation or without regulation? Shall the general, or the colonel,
or the captain, be supreme, or shall he be regulated and ordered by the
President of the United States? That is the sole question. The Senator
has put it well.

I agree that we ought to do all we can to limit, to restrain, to fetter
the abuse of military power. Bayonets are at best illogical arguments. I
am not willing, except as a case of sheerest necessity, ever to permit
a military commander to exercise authority over life, liberty, and
property. But, sir, it is part of the law of war; you cannot carry
in the rear of your army your courts; you cannot organize juries; you
cannot have trials according to the forms and ceremonial of the
common law amid the clangor of arms, and somebody must enforce police
regulations in a conquered or occupied district. I ask the Senator from
Kentucky again respectfully, is that unconstitutional; or if in the
nature of war it must exist, even if there be no law passed by us to
allow it, is it unconstitutional to regulate it? That is the question,
to which I do not think he will make a clear and distinct reply.

Now, sir, I have shown him two sections of the bill, which I do not
think he will repeat earnestly are unconstitutional. I do not think that
he will seriously deny that it is perfectly constitutional to limit, to
regulate, to control, at the same time to confer and restrain authority
in the hands of military commanders. I think it is wise and judicious
to regulate it by virtue of powers to be placed in the hands of the
President by law.

Now, a few words, and a few only, as to the Senator's predictions. The
Senator from Kentucky stands up here in a manly way in opposition to
what he sees is the overwhelming sentiment of the Senate, and utters
reproof,malediction, and prediction combined. Well, sir, it is not every
prediction that is prophecy. It is the easiest thing in the world to do;
there is nothing easier, except to be mistaken when we have predicted. I
confess, Mr. President, that I would not have predicted three weeks ago
the disasters which have overtaken our arms; and I do not think (if I
were to predict now) that six months hence the Senator will indulge in
the same tone of prediction which is his favorite key now. I would ask
him what would you have us do now--a confederate army within twenty
miles of us, advancing, or thr