Mr. SUMNER. Mr. President, I must say that in reflecting upon this question I find that I traveled with my friendfrom Maine through his inquiries and his doubts, but it was only to arrive substantially at the conclusion of my friendfrom Vermont. I thought that the crit icism of my friendfrom Maine was in many respects, at least on its face, just; I wentalong with him, and yet I hesitated in adopting the conclusion which he seemed to intimate. I doubt, if we proceed under the House resolution, whether we shall do the work thoroughly. I doubt whether that resolution can be made sufficiently effective for the occasion. Indeed, I may go further and say I am satisfied, all things considered, that it cannot be effective for the occasion. We then have the substitute proposed by the committee of our own body. Against that there is certainly this remark to be made, that it is novel. I am not aware that any such proposition has ever before been brought forward. It has, therefore, to meet the argument of novelty; but when on consider it, certainly it has in its favor the eat argument of efficiency. If adopted, it will be effective for the purpose. But then the question remains behind, to which the Senfrom Maine has directed our attention, whether this proposition of the committee is not something more than even a novelty, whether it is not a departure perhaps from the just principles of our institutions. I am not inclined to say that it is anything more than a novelty. I admit thatit is such. It does invest the Government with large and perhaps unprecedented powers in order to meet a peculiar case where a strin gent remed must be applied. But, as the chairman of the ComCommerce suggeststo me, the powers are tem porary. I am not ready to say that such powers cannot be intrusted to the Government. I believe they can be; but while I agree in that, and am ready to vote for intrusting these powers to the Government, et, if I can have the attention of my friend the chairman of the committee, I should like to ask him why these powers are who placed under the direction of the SecyWar rather, for instance, than of the SecyTreasury.