EDWARD D. BAKER, OF OREGON, (BORN 1811, DIED 1861)

ON SUPPRESSION OF INSURRECTION,

UNITED STATES SENATE, AUGUST I, 1861.


MR. BRECKENRIDGE. I do not know how the Senate may vote upon this
question; and I have heard some remarks which have dropped from certain
Senators which have struck me with so much surprise, that I desire to
say a few words in reply to them now.

This drama, sir, is beginning to open before us, and we begin to
catch some idea of its magnitude. Appalled by the extent of it, and
embarrassed by what they see before them and around them, the Senators
who are themselves the most vehement in urging on this course of events,
are beginning to quarrel among themselves as to the precise way in which
to regulate it.

The Senator from Vermont objects to this bill because it puts a
limitation on what he considers already existing powers on the part of
the President. I wish to say a few words presently in regard to some
provisions of this bill, and then the Senate and the country may judge
of the extent of those powers of which this bill is a limitation.

I endeavored, Mr. President, to demonstrate a short time ago, that the
whole tendency of our proceedings was to trample the Constitution under
our feet, and to conduct this contest without the slightest regard to
its provisions. Everything that has occurred since, demonstrates that
the view I took of the conduct and tendency of public affairs was