preserve the pen with which he may inscribe them, and present it to
that Senator of the majority whom he may select, as a proud trophy, to
be transmitted to his descendants. And hereafter, when we shall lose
the forms of our free institutions, all that now remain to us, some
future American monarch, in gratitude to those by whose means he
has been enabled, upon the ruins of civil liberty, to erect a throne, and
to commemorate especially this Expunging resolution, may institute
a new order of knighthood, and confer on it the appropriate name of
"the Knights of the Black Lines."

But why should I detain the Senate, or needlessly waste my
breath in fruitless exertions? The decree has gone forth. It is one of
urgency, too. The deed is to be done--that foul deed which, like the
blood, staining the hands of the guilty Macbeth, all ocean's waters
will never wash out. Proceed, then, to the noble work which lies
before you, and, like other skilful executioners, do it quickly. And
when you have perpetrated it, go home to the people, and tell them
what glorious honors you have achieved for our common country. Tell
them that you have extinguished one of the brightest and purest lights
that ever burned at the altar of civil liberty. Tell them that you have
silenced one of the noblest batteries that ever thundered in defence of
the Constitution, and bravely spiked the cannon. Tell them that,
henceforward, no matter what daring or outrageous act any president
may perform, you have forever hermetically sealed the mouth of the
Senate. Tell them that he may fearlessly assume what powers he
pleases, snatch from its lawful custody the public purse, command a
military detachment to enter the halls of the Capitol, overawe
Congress, trample down the Constitution, and raze every bulwark of
freedom; but that the Senate must stand mute, in silent submission,
and not dare to raise its opposing voice. Tell them that it must wait