actor in these scenes, I am willing to abide, fearlessly, her final
judgment.


MR. BAKER.

Mr. President, it has not been my fortune to participate in at any
length, indeed, not to hear very much of, the discussion which has been
going on--more, I think, in the hands of the Senator from Kentucky than
anybody else--upon all the propositions connected with this war; and, as
I really feel as sincerely as he can an earnest desire to preserve the
Constitution of the United States for everybody, South as well as North,
I have listened for some little time past to what he has said with
an earnest desire to apprehend the point of his objection to this
particular bill. And now--waiving what I think is the elegant but loose
declamation in which he chooses to indulge--I would propose, with
my habitual respect for him, (for nobody is more courteous and more
gentlemanly,) to ask him if he will be kind enough to tell me what
single particular provision there is in this bill which is in violation
of the Constitution of the United States, which I have sworn to
support--one distinct, single proposition in the bill.


MR. BRECKENRIDGE. I will state, in general terms, that every one of them
is, in my opinion, flagrantly so, unless it may be the last. I will send
the Senator the bill, and he may comment on the sections.


MR. BAKER. Pick out that one which is in your judgment most clearly so.