Mr. JOHNson is merelythe agent of the Republican party, which is the governing party. or in other words.the Government. He is in duty an in honor bound to carry out itsmeasuresand principles. hen he refusesto do so he commits a brcae of trust, and stands in the light of a swindler." What is this power called “the Government” by the members of this majority in the Senate during the last Administration? The majority of Congress and the Executive were then in harmony. The Executive was denom inated by them “the Government." Gentlemen could hardly rise in their places and utter a sentence upon this floor without referrin to the President as “the Government.” rue loyalty, all loyalty, then consisted in supportin thb President “the Government” I:snd big measures; and myself and other humble men who had the independence, or the hardihood, to dissent from the measures of “the government, ” of the President and to condemn them, were denounced as “ copperheads, ” as “disloyal.” You see now, sir, the arrogant, profli te, and monstrous position assumed by this ribune in Chicago. Vith him the President is no longer “the Government." “ The Government” is the majorit of Congress, accordin to its designation. y what authority is the resident deosed and the majority in the 2 Houses of Congress installed as “the Government?” In this Chamber no Senator now denominates the President “the Government.” Nor do I subscribe to any such ab surdity. It is an abuse of terms to call either the Congress or the President the Government. The 3 depts, the legislative, execu tive, and judicial, and nothing less, constitute the Government. All the powers of government and of sovereignt trusted to the government of the U.S. are divided out by the Constitution among the 3 depts. These depts are coordinate, and in the exercise of their appropriate constitutional powers they are equally independent; and where one is making encroachments upon another, or upon the Constitution generally, and the liberties of the people, it was the intention of the founders, not that one dept should be the Government, but that each should be a check upon the other, and each should defend the Constitution and the liberties of the country from the assaults of the others. AndrewJohnson is the existing impersonation of the chief executive power of the Government of the U.S. that power is very limited, to be sure, not extending one particle beyond the powers enumerated in the Constitution, and those with which he is clothed by the laws of Congress within the s here of its authority so to invest the Presient with incidental, auxiliary powers as expressed in the Constitution. The powers of the judicial dept are enumerated, meted, and bounded out to the Supreme Court and the courts inferior to it, with the some authority of Congress by law to invest it with all proper and necessary incidental powers to execute those exressly delegated to it. Now, Mr. President, I proceed to state what I understand to be a few plain and self evident truths as connected with the American system of government: 1. The great leading feature of the complexpolitical system of the U.S. is, that all sovereignty is divided between the State governments and a General Government common to all the States; and that the affairs of the people with foreign nations, and with each other as residents of different States, are confided to the General Government; and those affairs which relate locally to the people of each State, their institutions, and rights of person and property, were reserved to the States respectively, and are exclusively under the jurisdiction of their governments. 2. The Constitution of the U.S. forms a Government of delegated and limited powers, and that Government, or any of its depts or officers, has not a vestige of power but what is conferred by the language of the Constitution. 3. Military law exists by the legislation of Congress in the form of the Articles of War, and the Rules and regulations of the Army. What is called martial law is the overthrow of all law and the domination of the arbitra will of the military commander. This state oftings cannot exist in any place in the U.S. where the civil law can be enforced by the civil courts with the aid and support of the military power. It is only in sue localities where the civil law and courts have been in fact deposed by a hostile military force, and this deposition continues by the actual presence and operation of the cause which pro'duced it, that the will of the military commander becomes, of necessity, the law of the place; and only to the limits and so long as the civil law is thus deposed. So soon as the hestile force is withdrawn, or driven away, or conquered by friendly arms, the civil law and courts are reinstated by the principles of the Constitution, and become again 7 facto as they are all the time do jure the supreme law an authority. Now, Mr. President, these propositions, in their length and breadth, are based upon the Constitution of the U.S. ey are not original with me. I have learned them. I have learned them from Hamilton and Madison in the Federalist, from the debates in the Convention which framed our Constitution, from the debates of the different State conventions that adopted it, from the decisions of the SCOTUS particularly the decisions rendered by Chief Justice Marshall and ] usticc Story, an from the commentaries of Chancellor Kent. These great truths or principles are a part of our system of government; they are moored in that Government and will abide there as long as it lasts intact by revolution; and I defy the honorable Senfrom Michigan and all of his associates here or elsewhere to shake these principles, incorporated as they are in the Constitution. But, Mr. President, about the year 1860 it became manifest that the American people were fast coming to a civilWar. The just an. thorit of the Government of the U.S and the execution of its laws, it became appa rent, were to be resisted. In the beginning of the year 1861 the banner of revolt, of insurrection, was unfurled. What was the duty of the Government of the U.S., of its depts, and of the men who occupied these depts when this demonstration inst the laws, authority, and power of the 5mment was made? They were not to remain torpid, inactive, as stocks and stones. That condition of things had been anticipated by the wise statesmen who framed the Constitution. The Constitution was cradled in a rebellion in the State of Massachusetts got up by Shays. It wasjust for the condition of things that arose in 1861 that the framers of the constitution had made provision, and they had made it by prescribing the manner in which such resistance to the execution of the laws of the U.S or such insurrections were to be met. They had designated the depts of the Government and the officers that were to undertake this great work of putting down such insurrections, and coercing obedience to the Constitution and laws, and with what means. I now propose to examine what each dept of the Governmentwas to do in this great work, according to the revisions of the constitution and laws mat e in pursuance of it. The Constitution reads thus, in various sections and paragraphs: "The Congress shall havepower"To raiseand supportarmiesz" “To provide and maintain a navy". "To provide for calling forth themilitia to executo the laws of the Union, suppressinsurrections, and repeTloinmvaaskieonasll;"laws wh ich shall be ncceaary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powersand all other powersvestedby this Constitution in the Governmentof the U.S., or in any deptor officerthereof." According to my understanding of the constitution, this short summary embraces every provision of the instrument that invests congress with any power to act, immediately or remotely, upon the subject of invasion, insurrection, or domestic isturhance in a State. Let us now see what other provisions in relation to this subject have been made by the Constitution, an to what depts or odi cers of the Government they appertain: "The President." "before he entersupon the execution of his ofllce, shall take the following oath or affirmation: ‘I do solemnly swear (or atbrm) that I Will faithfully executethe officeof POTUS, and will, to the best of my abilit, preserve.protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S.’" “The President shall be Coiumander in Chicf of the Army and Navy of the U.S and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual serviceof the U.S." “He shall take onto that the laws be faithfully executed." Those words are not many, but they are comprehensive and exlicit, and, in my judg ment, they are all t iat were necessary or intended to meet the great exigence that came upon the country in 1861. How and by whom is such an exigenee to be met? What is the oath ofyou, sir, as a member of this body and of every member of each House? All of us swear to support the Constitution. May the Lord have mercy upon us for the manner in which some of us have disregarded that oathl “'hat is the oath of the President? That he will faithfully execute the office of POTUS, and will, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the U.S. The members of Congress are simply to support the Constitution; the President is to preserve, protect, and defend it. He is to fight for it. when it is assailed, it is his duty to wield all the Military power with which the Constitution and the laws of Congress have intrusted him for its preservation, its protection, and its defense. If the execution of the laws is obstructed without force of arms, force of arms cannot be intervened to have them executed, or to aid in their execution. It is only when the authority of the Government and the due execution of its laws are resisted by arms that arms can be interposed for the purpose of putting down the resistance and enticircingthe execution of the laws. And who is to interpose the arms? Not Congress. congress has nothing to do with wielding the military power that may thus be properly invoked. ho is to do it? The resident. That is his duty by the Constitu‘tion, made so by plain language. He is to execute the office of POTUS faithfully; that is, to perform all the duties devolved upon him by the Constitution and laws. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and to do this, when it be comes necessary, he must apply and direct the military power of the U.S. He is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the U.S.; and to do this, when it is assaulted by men in arms, he, as Commander in Chief, must. repel the assault by the Arm and Nav, and the militia of the States raise, provided: and called into the public service by laws passed by Congress. That is the aid which Congress is to afford him, and that is the only part. which it can take in this rave business. The act of 1793was the 1st that was enacted to carry out the provisions of the Constitution for suppressing insurrections, die. It was found defective, and in 1795another and a more complete act was passed. In 1861, after the insurrection had broken out, Congress took up the subject again and passed a more elaborate and probably a better considered law, in which the provisions of the act of 1795, so far as they related to the subject of insurrections, were repealed. I will read a clause from the law of July 29, 1861, drafled, as I understand, by the late Senator Collamer: ti o“nTsh, actowmhbeinnaetvieorn, sb, yorremaseomnbolfaguenslaowf fulerosbosntsr, uoer rebellion sgainst the authority of the government of the U.S., it shall becomeimpracticable, in the judgment of the POTUS to enforcebythe ordinary courseofiudieial proceeding the laws of the U.S. within any State or Terntory‘of the U.S. it shall be lawful for the POTUS to call forth the militia of any or all the Statesof the Union, and to employsuchparts of the land and naval forces of the U.S.as he may deem necessarytoenforce the faitbful execution oft. e lawsof the U.S or to suppresssuch rebellion.in whatever State or Tertitqry thereof the laws of the U.S.may heforelbg opposed, or the execution thereof forcibly obstruct." That is a most proper and constitutional provision. It limits itself to the occasions and the exigencies of resistance by force to the execution of the laws of the U.S., or a rebellion, which is a great insurrection against the authority of the U.S. Now, sir, the honorable Senfrom Michigan says that Congress is the conqueror, and that the people of the rebel States who were subdued by our arms and who capitulated and acknowledged obedience to the authority and laws of the U.S. occupy the position of a conquered people; and as such are subject to Congress, the conqueror.