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Therefore, to strike at any of these, is to injure the Government itself to the full extent of the blow.

The President of the United States, for the time being, is the Supreme Executive of the Nation, the chosen agent of the people, the pilot who guides the Ship of State. The liberty of speech, and of the press, guarantied by the Constitution, is formidable only to the enemies of liberty, in its broader and more extended sensc. The right to freely discuss the affairs of Government, and criticise the acts of its agents, is fundamental to liberty, and cannot safely be denied.

To all this I fully subscribe. But the right claimed by some, to oppose the execution of the laws, and, by factious opposition, to thwart the President in the discharge of his high duties, at so important a juncture, is subversive of all liberty, and a right which belongs to treason only.

Again, the War Policy of the Government has been continuously denounced, as subversive of the rights of the South, and in violation of the Federal Constitution. It is reasonable to presume that these men have either forgotten, or never known, that Abraham Lincoln is not only President of the United States, charged with the execution of civil power, but also Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the Union, and thereby clothed with the war power of the Government. In the exercise of his civil functions, he is guided by the plain language of the Constitution, which defines the limits of his power, and beyond this he cannot go; but in the discharge of his duties as Commander-in-Chief, in time of war, he is governed only by the laws of war, as recognized among civilized nations, and such other restrictions as Congress and the people may impose. Deriving his authority by appointment of the Constitution, he is thereby vested with all the power which rightfully belongs to the Commander-in-Chief of any other army upon the face of the Globe. This extraordinary power, it must be understood, is called into exercise only from a state of war, and cannot be exerted in time of peace.

By his oath of office, the President is sworn "to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution," and in the discharge of this solemn obligation, he may rightfully exercise all the power inherent in the people, whose agent he is; and that he may do this, they have made him Commander-in-Chief of their

army and navy, and the Constitution is the warrant of his appointment. To hold, that when called upon to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, to the best of his ability," he is restricted to the mere letter of his civil authority, is to deprive him of the very means of discharging that high duty, and make the Constitution, thereby, the weapon of its own destruction.

The Constitution is neither a war-making nor a war-prosecuting document. It empowers Congress to declare, and the President to prosecute war, as the honor of the Nation and the exigencies of the case may demand. It undertakes neither to inform Congress when, or in what case war may be declared, nor the President the manner of carrying it on. Having made them judges of the situa tion, it leaves the details of war to their intelligent patriotism and sound discretion.

Wherein has the Constitution been violated, and whose rights have been subverted by the Federal Government? The loyal States have no reason to complain, and do not, for the people thereof having said, at the beginning, that the rebellion should be put down, become a party to the war; and after a long hearing, and full understanding of the case, they have returned a verdict, magnificent and overwhelming in its proportions, that the Administration was not guilty of the charges preferred against it. The people of the insurgent States have no right to complain; for, having renounced their allegiance to the Constitution, levied war against it, adopted a Constitution and government of their own, and claiming recognition as a separate and independent sovereignty, they have assumed the attitude of belligerents to the Federal Government, and thereby acknowledged themselves entitled only to belligerent rights. Every right which, as citizens of the United States, they possessed under the Constitution, has been voluntarily abandoned, and forfeited, by the rebellion. These rights can not, and should not be restored to them, until they shall lay down their arms, submit to the jurisdiction of the Federal Governmeut, and obtain pardon for their treason. In every sense of the term, they are enemies to the Constitution, to our Republican Government, to liberty and humanity, having but a single constitutional right left, that of being dealt with according to the laws of the land, for the atrocious crime they have committed. No other people or nation, upon the face of the earth, could have committed so high a crime against

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this Government, and its flag. And now, while standing as the flagrant, deadly enemies of the Constitution, with their hands uplifted at the nation's throat, we are told that their Constitutional rights are unimpaired, and as substantial as when they were lawabiding and peaceful subjects of the Government. Thus we are asked to give immunity to crime, by exculpating the criminal.

As enemies and belligerents, to what rights are the insurgent States entitled? The Constitution being entirely silent upon this subject, we must resort for information, to the laws of war, as established and recognized among the nations of the world. The eminent writers upon this subject agree in saying, that in war we may do any act not forbidden by humanity or the laws of nature, which may harrass or weaken our enemy. We may confiscate his property of every kind, and appropriate it to our own use, for the double purpose of diminishing his strength and augmenting our own. We may capture and detain his soldiers, and take their lives if we can, in legitimate combat. All this we are allowed to do, because it is a right which belongs to every nation at war, is derived from and attaches to a state of war. These well established and fundamental principles, have been recognized by our Government in its intercourse with other nations, sustained by repeated decisions of the Federal Courts, and never denied or doubted, except during the present war, by certain northern politicians, who have throughout, manifested more interest in the rebellion than love for the Union of these States. And it is proper here to remark that the character of belligerents, has been given to the insurgent States by the legislative and executive departments of the Government; that we have so treated them during the entire war, and that this action has been sustained by a late well considered opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a case fully and fairly presented. This question may, therefore, be regarded as settled, so far as the action of this Government and people, can settle any question.

During the first months of this war, in common with what I believe to have been a decided majority of the people, both in and out of the army, I indulged the hope, and expressed the belief that it could be successfully terminated without a direct attack upon the local institutions of the south. The Government itself seems to have entertained the same view, for a remarkable tenderness char

acterized its dealings with traitors, and the war was prosecuted during the first year, with eminent success, upon the theory of doing the rebellion as little damage as possible. Bitter experience and observation, however, finally convinced me as it did others, that slavery was not only "the corner stone of the Confederacy," but was the power which sustained, and the motive which impelled the rebellion. Every negro that worked with a hoe, or drove a mule on a southern plantation, was as much enlisted against the Union, as the soldier who served with his gun in the ranks of the rebel army; and more effectively so because the grain upon which our enemy subsists, renders him more formidable than his shells or his bullets.

Slavery stood like a mountain before the advance of our armies, and could neither be avoided nor defied. It enabled the insurgents to place their entire militia force in the field against us, and added more than one-half to their available strength. While slavery existed, treason had power and object, and so long would the rebellion continue, and the war be protracted.

At the commencement of this rebellion, the four millions of slaves inhabiting the Southern States, were peaceful and loyal subjects of this Government; owing allegiance to it, and amenable to its laws. And although they became the unwilling instruments of treason, yet their allegiance has not been and could not be dissolved. Upon this people, therefore, as its legitimate subjects, the Government had as high claims as it had upon the white population of the south. By State laws only, they were held as slaves, but this was in subordination to their status as subjects; for, at any time the Government could have taken them from their masters, and punished them, like other men, for violation of its laws, and the fact that they were slaves would have been no defense. By no act, or deed has the Federal Government ever relinquished its sovereign claim upon this class of its people; and it could not have done so, with due regard to the peace and safety of the Union. No wise Government would permit a large and permanent population to reside within its limits, who are beyond its ultimate control. Whatever may be the character given them by mere local regulations, can not affect the authority of the sovereign power over them. These people are not only denominated as persons by the Constitution, but they have so been treated by the Government, for

all purposes, during its entire history. In all these respects, at least, the slaves were the equals of their masters; they could perpetrate the same crimes, be tried therefor by the same tribunals, incarcerated in the same prisons, and hung upon the same scaffolds. And while their masters commit atrocious treason against the Government which shelters all, have not these oppressed subjects a right to fight for it, and shed their blood in defense of its flag?

If by the offer of freedom we could induce these bond subjects to leave their treasonable masters, and return to their legitimate sovereign, whom they have never willingly offended, what principle of law or right would be thereby contravened? Has not any established Government an absolute right to exercise this sovereign authority over its own subjects? If it be alleged that this would be a violation of our faith with the Southern States, the conclusive answer is, that they had already violated theirs with us by attempting to dissolve the Union. We could as rightfully do this, as we could induce the soldiers in the rebel armies to leave their ranks and return to their allegiance, by the offer of a general pardon. And to deny that we can rightfully do either, is to hold that the individual claims of traitors, the rights and local regulations of insurgent States, are paramount to the sovereignty of the General Government.

The period at length arrived when, to insure success to our arms, and make the overthrow of the Rebellion a speedy and certain event, an effectual blow at this formidable element of rebel power was imperatively demanded. Our authority over the subject was broad and ample, and the necessity for the step no longer doubtful. Why hesitate to terminate the war, and save the Union, by losing slavery? It became obvious, that amid the throes of this mighty revolution, one or the other must go down. The Union and Slavery cannot both be saved from the wreck, for the same power which rescues the one must inevitably crush the other. Which is the more valuable for preservation? After all its manifold crimes against liberty and humanity, against God and His holy laws, what claim has Slavery upon this Government for protection and perpetuity? To this reckoning had the Nation come on the first day of January, 1863.

I thank Almighty God, that at this momentous juncture, we had a man at the helm of this Government, who fully realized the situ

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