Mr. SUMNER. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I now present on the probable course of our fathers, he cannot resist the argument that, whatever may have been the old system, we must act now in the light of present duties. I repeat, a system good for our fathers may not be good for this our, which is so full of danger. Then, again, we are told, with something of indifference if not of levity, that it is not the duty of the Senate to look after the “bread and butter” of office holders. This is a fa miliar way of saying that these small cases are not worthy of occupying the Senate. Not so do I understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy of occupying the Senate; especially if in this way you can save a citizen from oppression and weaken the power of an oppressor. Something has been said about the curtailment of the executive power; and the Senfrom Maine [Mr. FEssex deN] has even argued against the amendment moved by me as conferring upon the President additional powers. This is strange. The effect of this amendment is, by clear intendment, to take from the President a large class of nominations and bring them within the control of the Senate. Thus it is obviously a curtailment of executive power, which I insist has become our bounden duty. The old resolution of the House of Commons, moved by Mr. Dunning, is applicable here: “The power of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." In this spirit we must put a bit in the President, who is now maintaining an illegitimate power by removals from office. We are in the midst of a crisis. On one side is the President and on the other the people. It is the old question between prerogative and Parliament which occupied our English fathers. But the form it now takes is rander than ever before. In this controversy am with the people and against the President. I have great faith in the people; but I have no faith in the President. ere, sir, I close what I have to say at this times But before I take my seat, you will pardon me if I read a brief les son, which seems as if written for the hour. The words are as beautiful as emphatic: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so wemust think anc w and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselvesand then weshall save our country, ” These are the words of Abraham Lincoln. They are as full of vital force now as when he uttered them. I entreat you not to neglect the lesson. Learn from its teaching how to Save our country.