cite some of the consequences which, it seems to me, must follow the
acceptance of his position. If, as he asserts, we have been waging war
with an independent Power, with a separate nation, I cannot see how we
can talk of treason in connection with our recent conflict, or demand
the execution of Davis or anybody else as a traitor. Certainly if we
were at war with any other foreign Power we should not talk of the
treason of those who were opposed to us in the field. If we were engaged
in a war with France and should take as prisoner the Emperor Napoleon,
certainly we would not talk of him as a traitor or as liable to
execution. I think that by adopting any such assumption as that of the
honorable gentleman, we surrender the whole idea of treason and the
punishment of traitors. I think, moreover, that we accept, virtually and
practically, the doctrine of State sovereignty, the right of a State to
withdraw from the Union, and to break up the Union at its own will
and pleasure. I do not see how upon those premises we can escape that
conclusion. If the States that engaged in the late rebellion constituted
themselves, by their ordinances of secession or by any of the acts with
which they followed those ordinances, a separate and independent Power,
I do not see how we can deny the principles on which they professed
to act, or refuse assent to their practical results. I have heard no
clearer, no stronger statement of the doctrine of State sovereignty as
paramount to the sovereignty of the nation than would be involved in
such a concession. Whether he intended it or not, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) actually assents to the extreme doctrines of
the advocates of secession.




THADDEUS STEVENS,