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conquered or occupied district. I ask the Sen-
ator 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 con-
trol, 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 con-
fess, Mr. President, that I would not have pre-
dicted 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 threatening to ad-
vance to overwhelm your Government; to
shake the pillars of the Union; to bring it
around your head, if you stay here, in ruins?
Are we to stop and talk about an uprising sen-
timent in the North against the war? Are we
to predict evil, and retire from what we pre-
diet? Is not the manly part to go on as we
have begun, to raise money, and levy armies,
to organize them, to prepare to advance; when
we do advance, to regulate that advance by all
the laws and regulations that civilization and
humanity will allow in time of battle? Can
we do any thing more? To talk to us about
stopping is idle; we will never stop. Will the
Senator yield to rebellion? Will he shrink
from armed insurrection? Will his State justi-
fy it? Will its better public opinion allow it?
Shall we send a flag of truce? What would
he have? Or would he conduct this war so
feebly, that the whole world would smile at us
in derision? What would he have? These
speeches of his, sown broadcast over the land
what clear, distinct meaning have they?
Are they not intended for disorganization in
our very midst? Are they not intended to
dull our weapons? Are they not intended to
destroy our zea!? Are they not intended to
animate our enemies? Sir, are they not words
of brilliant, polished treason, even in the very
Capitol of the Confederacy? [Manifestations
of applause in the galleries.]

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Anthony in the chair)-Order!

Mr. Baker-What would have been thought if, in another Capitol, in another Republic, in a yet more martial age, a Senator as grave, not more eloquent or dignified than the Senator from Kentucky, yet with the Roman purple flying over his shoulders, had risen in his place, surrounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared that advancing Hannibal was just, and that Carthage ought to be dealt with in terms of peace? What would have been thought if, after the battle of Cannæ, a Senator there had risen in his place and denounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of its treasury, and every appeal to the old recollections and the old glories? Sir, a Senator, himself learned far more than myself in such lore, tells me, in a voice that I am glad is audible, that he would have been hurled from the Tarpeian rock. It is a grand commentary upon the American Constitution_that we permit these words to be uttered. I ask the Senator to recollect, too, what, save to send aid and comfort to the enemy, do these predictions of his amount to? Every word thus uttered falls as a note of inspiration upon every Confederate ear. Every sound thus uttered is a word (and, falling from his lips, a mighty word) of kindling and triumph to a foe that determines to advance. For me, I have no such word as a Senator to utter. For me, amid temporary defeat, disaster, disgrace, it seems that my duty calls me to utter another word, and that word is, bold, sudden, forward, determined war, according to the laws of war, by armies, by military commanders clothed with full power, advancing with all the past glories of the Republic urging them on to conquest. I do not stop to consider whether it is subjugation or not. It is compulsory obedience-not to my will; not to yours, sir; not to the will of any one man; not to the will of any one State; but compulsory obedience to the Constitution of the whole country. The Senator chose the other day again and again to animadvert on a single expression in a little speech which I delivered before the Senate, in which I took occasion to say that if the people of the rebellious States would not govern themselves as States, they ought to be governed as Territories. The Senator knew full well then, for I explained it twice-he knows full well now-that on this side of the Chamber; nay, in this whole Chamber; nay, in this whole North and West; nay, in all the loyal States in all their breadth, there is not a man among us all who dreams of causing any man in the South to submit to any rule, either as to life, liberty, or property, that we ourselves do not willingly agree to yield to. Did he ever think of that? Subjugation for what? When we subjugate South Carolina, what shall we do? We shall compel its obedience to the Constitution of the United States; that is all. Why play upon words? We do not mean, we have

never said, any more. If it be slavery that true to the Union to the last of her blood and men should obey the Constitution their fathers her treasure. There may be there some disfought for, let it be so. If it be freedom, it is affected; there may be some few men there freedom equally for them and for us. We pro- who would "rather rule in hell than serve in pose to subjugate rebellion into loyalty; we heaven." There are such men everywhere. propose to subjugate insurrection into peace; There are a few men there who have left the we propose to subjugate confederate anarchy South for the good of the South; who are perinto Constitutional Union liberty. The Sena- verse, violent, destructive, revolutionary, and tor well knows that we propose no more. I opposed to social order. A few, but a very ask him, I appeal to his better judgment, now, few, thus formed and thus nurtured, in Caliwhat does he imagine we intend to do, if for-fornia and in Oregon, both persistently entunately we conquer Tennessee or South Caro- deavor to create and maintain mischief; but lina-call it "conquer," if you will, sir-what the great portion of our population are loyal to do we propose to do? They will have their the core and in every chord of their hearts. courts still, they will have their ballot-boxes They are offering through me-more to their still, they will have their elections still, they own Senators, every day from California, and, will have their representatives upon this floor indeed, from Oregon-to add to the legions of still, they will have taxation and representation this country by the hundred and the thousand. still, they will have the writ of habeas corpus They are willing to come thousands of miles still, they will have every privilege they ever with their arms on their shoulders, at their had and all we desire. When the Confederate own expense, to share with the best offering armies are scattered, when their leaders are of their heart's blood in the great struggle of banished from power, when the people return Constitutional liberty. I tell the Senator that to a late repentant sense of the wrong they his predictions, sometimes for the South, somehave done to a Government they never felt but times for the middle States, sometimes for the in benignancy and blessing, then the Constitu- North-east, and then wandering away in airy tion made for all will be felt by all, like the visions out to the far Pacific, about the dread descending rains from heaven which bless all of our people, as for loss of blood and treasure, alike. Is that subjugation? To restore what provoking them to disloyalty, are false in senwas, as it was, for the benefit of the whole timent, false in fact, and false in loyalty. The country and of the whole human race, is all we Senator from Kentucky is mistaken in them desire and all we can have. Gentlemen talk all. Five hundred million dollars! What about the North-east. I appeal to Senators then? Great Britain gave more than two from the North-east, is there a man in all your thousand millions in the great battle for conStates who advances upon the South with any stitutional liberty which she led at one time other idea but to restore the Constitution of almost single-handed against the world. Five the United States in its spirit and its unity? I hundred thousand men! What then? We never heard that one. I believe no man in- have them; they are ours; they are the childulges in any dream of inflicting there any dren of the country. They belong to the wrong to public liberty; and I respectfully tell whole country; they are our sons; our kinsthe Senator from Kentucky that he persistent- men; and there are many of us who will give ly, earnestly-I will not say wilfully-mis- them all up before we abate one word of our represents the sentiment of the North and just demand, or will retreat one inch from the West when he attempts to teach these doc-line which divides right from wrong. Sir, it trines to the Confederates of the South. Sir, is not a question of men or money in that while I am predicting, I will tell you another sense. All the men, all the money, are, in our thing. This threat about money and men judgment, well bestowed in such a cause. amounts to nothing. Some of the States which When we give them we know their value. have been named in that connection, I know Knowing their value well, we give them with well. I know, as my friend from Illinois will the more pride and the more joy. Sir, how bear me witness, his own State very well. I can we retreat? Sir, how can we make peace! am sure that no temporary defeat, no momen- Who shall treat? What commissioners? Who tary disaster, will swerve that State either would go? Upon what terms? Where is to from its allegiance to the Union, or from its be your boundary line? Where the end of the determination to preserve it. It is not with us principles we shall have to give up? What a question of money or of blood; it is a ques- will become of constitutional government? tion involving considerations higher than these. What will become of public liberty? What When the Senator from Kentucky speaks of the of past glories? What of future hopes? Shall Pacific, I see another distinguished friend from we sink into the insignificance of the grave-a Illinois, now worthily representing one of the degraded, defeated, emasculated people, frightStates on the Pacific, (Mr. McDougall,) who will ened by the results of one battle, and scared bear me witness that I know that State too, at the visions raised by the imagination of the well. I take the liberty-I know I but utter Senator from Kentucky upon this floor? No, his sentiments in advance-joining with him, sir; a thousand times, no, sir! We will rally to say that that State, quoting from the pas--if, indeed, our words be necessary-we will sage the gentleman himself has quoted, will be rally the people, the loyal people, of the whole

country. They will pour forth their treasure, | authority in executing the laws; and when the their money, their men, without stint, without question assumes the magnitude and takes the measure. The most peaceable man in this form of a great political severance, and nearly body may stamp his foot upon this Senate half the members of the Confederacy withdraw Chamber floor, as of old a warrior and Senator themselves from it, what then? I have never did, and from that single tramp there will spring held that one State or a number of States have forth armed legions. Shall one battle determine a right without cause to break the compact of the fate of empire, or a dozen? the loss of one the Constitution. But what I mean to say is, thousand men or twenty thousand, of one hun- that you cannot then undertake to make war in dred million dollars, or five hundred millions? the name of the Constitution. In my opinion In a year's peace, in ten years at most, of they are out. You may conquer them; but peaceful progress, we can restore them all. do not attempt to do it under what I consider There will be some graves reeking with blood, false political pretences. However, sir, I will watered by the tears of affection. There will not enlarge upon that. I have developed these be some privation; there will be some loss of ideas again and again, and I do not care to reluxury; there will be somewhat more need for argue them. Hence the Senator and I start labor to procure the necessaries of life. When from entirely different stand-points, and his that is said, all is said. If we have the coun- pretended replies are no replies at all. The try, the whole country, the Union, the Consti- Senator asks me, "What would you have us tution-free government-with these will re- do?" I have already intimated what I would turn all the blessings of well-ordered civiliza- have us do. I would have us stop the war. tion; the path of the country will be a career We can do it. I have tried to show that there of greatness and of glory such as, in the olden is none of that inexorable necessity to continue time, our fathers saw in the dim visions of this war which the Senator seems to suppose. years yet to come, and such as would have I do not hold that constitutional liberty on this been ours now, to-day, if it had not been for continent is bound up in this fratricidal, devasthe treason for which the Senator too often tating, horrible contest. Upon the contrary, I seeks to apologize. fear it will find its grave in it. The Senator is mistaken in supposing that we can reunite these States by war. He is mistaken in supposing that eighteen or twenty millions upon the one side can subjugate ten or twelve millions upon the other; or, if they do subjugate them, that you can restore Constitutional Government as our fathers made it. You will have to govern them as territories, as suggested by the Senator, if ever they are reduced to the dominion of the United States, or, as the Senator from Vermont called them, "those rebellious provinces of this Union," in his speech today. Sir, I would prefer to see these States all reunited upon true constitutional principles to any other object that could be offered me in life; and to restore, upon the principles of our fathers, the union of these States, to me the sacrifice of one unimportant life would be nothing, nothing, sir. But I infinitely prefer to see a peaceful separation of these States, than to see endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of personal freedom.

Mr. Breckinridge-I shall detain the Senate, sir, but a few moments in answer to one or two observations that fell from the Senator from California

Mr. Baker-Oregon.

Mr. Breckinridge-The Senator seems to have charge of the whole Pacific coast, though I do not mean to intimate that the Senators from California are not entirely able and willing to take care of their own State. They are. The Senator from Oregon, then. Mr. President, I have tried on more than one occasion in the Senate, in parliamentary and respectful language, to express my opinions in regard to the character of our Federal system, the relations of the States to the Federal Government, to the Constitution, the bond of the Federal political system. They differed utterly from those entertained by the Senator from Oregon. Evidently, by his line of argument, he regards this as an original, not a delegated Government, and he regards it as clothed with all those powers which belong to an original nation, not only with those powers which are delegated by the different political communities that compose it, and limited by the written Constitution that forms the bond of union. I have tried to show that, in the view that I take of our Government, this war is an unconstitutional war. I do not think the Senator from Oregon has answered my argument. He asks, what must we do? As we progress southward, and invade the country, must we not, said he, carry with us all the laws of war? I would not progress southward, and invade the country. The President of the United States, as I again repeat, in my judgment, only has the power to call out the military to assist the civil

VOL. II.-Doc. 37

The Senator asked if a Senator of Rome had uttered these things in the war between Carthage and that power, how would he have been treated? Sir, the war between Carthage and Rome was altogether different from the war now waged between the United States and the Confederate States. I would have said-rather than avow the principle that one or the other must be subjugated, or perhaps both destroyed

let Carthage live and let Rome live, each pursuing its own course of policy and civilization. The Senator says that these opinions which I thus expressed, and have heretofore expressed, are but brilliant treason; and that it is a tribute to the character of our institutions

that I am allowed to utter them upon the Sen- | personal respect to him, may, different from his ate floor. Mr. President, if I am speaking trea- usual predictions, become prophecy after the son, I am not aware of it. I am speaking what first Monday of August next. I believe to be for the good of my country. If I am speaking treason, I am speaking it in my place in the Senate. By whose indulgence am speaking? Not by any man's indulgence. I am speaking by the guarantees of that Constitution which seems to be here now so little respected. And, sir, when he asked what would have been done with a Roman Senator who had uttered such words, a certain Senator on this floor, whose courage has much risen of late, replies in audible tones: "He would have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock." Sir, if ever we find an American Tarpeian Rock, and a suitable victim is to be selected, the people will turn, not to me, but to that Senator who, according to the measure of his intellect and his heart, has been the chief author of the public misfortunes. He, and men like him, have brought the country to its present condition. Let him remember, too, sir, that while in ancient Rome the defenders of the public liberty were sometimes torn to pieces by the people, yet their memories were cherished in grateful remembrance; while to be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock was ever the fate of usurpers and tyrants. I reply with the just indignation I ought to feel at such an insult offered on the floor of the Senate chamber to a Senator who is speaking in his place. Mr. President, I shall not longer detain the Senate. My opinions are my own. They are honestly entertained. I do not believe that I have uttered one opinion here, in regard to this contest, that does not reflect the judgment of the people I have the honor to represent. If they do, I shall find my reward in the fearless utterance of their opinions; if they do not, I am not a man to cling to the forms of office, and to the emoluments of public life, against my convictions and my principles; and I repeat what I uttered the other day, that if indeed the Commonwealth of Kentucky, instead of attempting to mediate in this unfortunate struggle, shall throw her energies into the strife, and approve the conduct and sustain the policy of the Federal Administration in what I believe to be a war of subjugation, and which is being proved every day to be a war of subjugation and annihilation, she may take her course. I am her son, and will share her destiny, but she will be represented by some other man on the floor of this Senate.

Mr. Baker-Mr. President, I rose a few minutes ago to endeavor to demonstrate to the honorable Senator from Kentucky that all these imaginations of his as to the unconstitutional character of the provisions of this bill were baseless and idle. I think every member of the Senate must be convinced, from the manner of his reply, that that conviction is beginning to get into his own mind; and I shall therefore leave him to settle the account with the people of Kentucky, about which he seems to have some predictions, which, I trust, with great

Mr. Doolittle-Mr. President, in the heat and excitement of this debate, there are one or two ideas that ought not to be lost sight of. The Senator from Kentucky seems to forget, while he speaks of the delegated powers of this Government under the Constitution, that one of the powers which is delegated is that we shall guarantee to every State of this Union a republican form of government; that when South Carolina seeks to set up a military despotism, the constitutional power with which we are clothed and the duty which is enjoined upon us is to guarantee to South Carolina a republican form of government. There is another idea that seems to be lost sight of in the talk about subjugation, and I hope that my friends on this side of the Chamber will not also lose sight of it in the excitement of the debate. I undertake to say that it is not the purpose of this war, or of this Administration, to subjugate any State of the Union, or the people of any State of the Union. What is the policy? It is, as I said the other day, to enable the loyal people of the several States of this Union to reconstruct themselves upon the Constitution of the United States. Virginia has led the way; Virginia, in her sovereign capacity, by the assembled loyal people of that State in Convention, has organized herself upon the Constitution of the United States, and they have taken into their own hands the Government of that State. Virginia has her judges, her marshals, her public officers; and to the courts of Virginia, and to the marshals and executive officers of Virginia we can intrust the enforcement of the laws the moment that the state of civil war shall have ceased in the eastern or any other portion of the State. It is not, therefore, the purpose of this Government to subjugate the people of Virginia, or of any other State, and subject them to the control of our armies. It is simply that we will rally to the support of the loyal people of Virginia and of Tennessee and of North Carolina and of Texas, ay, and of the Gulf States too when they are prepared for it; we will rally to the support of the loyal people of these States and enable them to take their Government in their own hands, by wresting it out of the hands of those military usurpers who now hold it, for they are nothing more and nothing less. That is all that is involved in this contest, and I hope on this side of the Chamber we shall never again hear one of our friends talking about subjugating either a State or the people of any State of this Union, but that we shall go on aiding them to do just precisely what the loyal people of Virginia are doing, what the loyal people of Tennessee are preparing to do, what the loyal people of North Carolina stand ready to do, and what the loyal people in Georgia and Alabama and Louisiana, and last perhaps of all, the loyal people of South Carolina will do in reconstructing themselves

upon the Constitution of the United States. Mr. President, I have heard the Senator from Kentucky to-day, and I have heard him again and again, denounce the President of the United States for the usurpation of unconstitutional power. I undertake to say that without any foundation he makes such a charge of usurpation of unconstitutional power, unless it be in a mere matter of form. He has not, in substance; and the case I put to the Senator the other day, he has not answered, and I defy him to answer. I undertake to say that, as there are fifty thousand men, perhaps, in arms against the United States in Virginia, within thirty miles of this capital, I, as an individual, though I am not President, though I am clothed with no official authority, may ask one hundred thousand of my fellow-men to volunteer to go with me, with arms in our hands, to take every one of them, and, if it be necessary, to take their lives. Why do not some of these gentlemen who talk about usurpation and trampling the Constitution under foot, stand up here and answer that position, or forever shut their mouths? I, as an individual, can do all this, though I am not President, and am clothed with no legal authority whatever, simply because I am a loyal citizen of the United States. I have a right to ask one hundred thousand men to volunteer to go with me and capture the whole of the rebels, and, if it be necessary to their capture, to kill half of them while I am doing it. No man can deny the correctness of the proposition. Away, then, with all this stuff, and this splitting of hairs and pettifogging here, when we are within the very sound of the guns of these traitors and rebels, who threaten to march upon the capital and subjugate the Government. Mr. President, there is some contrariety of opinion as to the propriety of acting upon the bill pending before the Senate to-day, or as to whether we shall defer action upon it until the next session of Congress. Many of our friends deem it advisable that it should be postponed until then; some of them think it should be acted on now. For myself, I believe, as was maintained by the honorable Senator from Vermont, that where civil war actually exists, where men are actually in arms, in combat, of necessity the laws of war must go with them, and the laws of war are unwritten laws. At the same time, I agree with the honorable Senator from Illinois, that the Constitution of the United States clothes Congress with the power to make rules and regulations respecting the armies of the United States, and that we may extend or we may limit the ordinary rules of war. But, sir, as has been suggested, it is a very important question to what extent they should be limited. Whether it should be done now or at the next session of Congress is not, in my judgment, so very material; but as many of my friends around me are disposed to allow it to pass over until the next session, when the whole subject can be considered and may be matured, I shall join

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with them in support of that motion, and shall vote for the postponement of the bill; not for the reasons that have been stated by the Senator from Kentucky in denouncing the measure, but because by that time this whole subject may be considered, and whatever rules may be necessary to be adopted in those districts where the civil war is to be carried on, can be adopted at that time. In the mean time, it is true that where war in fact shall exist, of necessity these rules will depend upon the Commander-inChief.

Doc. 153.

GEN. FREMONT'S EXPEDITION. ST. LOUIS, Aug. 1. UNUSUAL interest has been created by the unwonted military activity which has followed the arrival of Major-General Fremont in St. Louis. Regiments have been constantly arriving, the city has been fairly thronged with troops; eight steamboats have been preparing for their transportation down the river, and on last evening there were strong indications that "the great fleet" was about to move. The commanding general of this department has not seen proper to inform the public accurately beforehand with respect to the precise objects of his enterprise, plans of his campaign, or date of the departure of his expedition. Upon these points time will undoubtedly enlighten the community.

The steamers City of Alton, Louisiana, and D. A. January remained at the arsenal at a late hour last night. On board the former were the baggage and arms of a large portion of the rank and file of the Nineteenth Illinois regiment. During the day the guns of these troops were exchanged for first-class Minié muskets. The D. A. January steamed up to the wharf during the afternoon and took on board an additional quantity of provisions and camp equipage, with which she then returned to the Arsenal, arriving at about five P. M.

The steamer G. W. Graham moved to the Arsenal at about noon, with stores of provisions and camp freight, and began taking on board the baggage of Lieutenant-Colonel Rombaur's command of Home Guards. The command embraces one battalion of Colonel Almstedt's, and another of Colonel Kallman's regiment-First and Second of the U. S. Reserve Corps. Commandant Rombaur is taken from Colonel Almstedt's staff, in which he is lieutenant-colonel. His detachment forms a splendid regiment, full eleven hundred strong. At 3 P. M. they were out on review and parade, after which they marched on board the G. W. Graham, filling every deck almost to overflowing.

The Iowa Second regiment was in readiness to embark, whenever ordered, upon the D. A. January. She already bore the baggage of the corps, and a battery of artillery, including a rifled cannon captured by them from the rebels

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