Mr. MCDOUGALL. I did not know that. If it be so, it is all right and I find no fault. I understand that this Government was organized with great care by men who were part of and who succeeded the Revolution of 1776; and the men who organized the Constitution of 1787 were of the largest minds who have produced thought in this Republic. I learned some of my lessons from them, and from my early boyhood I have kept the Federalist at my side that I might learn what was said by Madison and Jay and others who were the wise men of awiser period than this period when we are now extant. They studied the organizations of all the old Governments from long antiquity; they were familiar with the Aeropagites; they were familiar with the principles of the Achiean League; they were fa miliar with the founders of republican Rome; they were familiar with the men who built the republics of Italy some of which republics stil continue. "hey were great and think they were wise men. They possessed the idea that to establish a republic there must. be a distribution of power, and that in the distribution th must make equivalents. Therefore the ice which has been expressed am expounded by every man who has studied Illl science and art of this nation is this: Iilt executive, the judicial, and the legislativi branches shall be all equally conducted; lllt President himself coming from the people at a tribune with his greatest power to say “l forbid;” the Senate coming from the organizec States representing concentrated communities the HoRep coming directl frorln the people, representing them immediate. in order to give sufficieut inde udence ti the legislative Dept of the government it is laid down in the Constitution that each House is to judge of the qualifications of in own members. The Senate, designed to have been the most dignified body in this Republic, was authorized by the terms of the Constitution to say who might enter the Senate Hall as the representative of an State in the Union. That power was conferr upon the Senate by the people of the U.S. because it was the people of the U.S. who madethe constitution of the U.S and established it, as they be ed, forever. The authorized each one who had the right to claim his place here to be a judge to determine the qualifications of an person who presented himself here to claim the right of a Senator, and in that respect the Senate is sovereign. So the HoRep, the body that represents the people directl, is authorized to say who has a right to ta O his seat from any organized State or any organized Territory, and its judment in that respect is sovereign. We are, if you please, a trinity in unity. These 3 great Depts of the Government realize that ancient idea which is illustrated by all nature. It would be one of the greatest wrongs that could be pe etrated by the great body representative oflfiie States of the American Union, if they should by a resolution like this ignore their own right of judment. It is that and nothing less than that. It may be disguised. It makes me sad of heart that Senators who have risen high enough in the estimation of their respective communities to be sent to this forum should come forward and present such a proposition, to say nothing of its coming from the committee offifwcn. why should the Senate of the U.S. in its judgmenton such a question take counsel outside of its own body? We have been commissioned to judge; we are bound to judge; we cannot part ivith the office; it is ours unless we are too cowardly to assert our right of office. I am, I believe, too great a coward to do a conscious wrong; and with what little courage I may possess, I would not dare to vote for this proposition because I have some rerd for the rest Judge who lives above. “ have heartfit said, or at least suggested, Well, no matter what the Constitution says, this is right;” and I have heard on this floora Senator appealing from the Constitution to the Almighty, who he says infuses him with the 5th element. It may be so with him; but then he ought to go and put himself with the gods and not sit in the Senate Hall among men who live in a conerete world where we do not understand always exactly what is right. Mr. President, the question pending now, as simple as it appears, as practically useless as it will be as a rule if passed, is yet mischievous. It will have no valiity, because it is not within the power of the Senate to pass it. It will be my right to ignore it, the right of every Sena tor, and the right of every man who represents the Government in office. It is, however, in the way of teaching bad precedents, false law, unsound loyalty. These things are like the worms that eat into the majestic oaks, which are used to build vessels to ride the sea, and decay their strength so that they fall down and make wrecks of navies. These things ought not to be done by men who earnestly and truthfully mean to maintain republican institutions in America. These things should not be done, because it is only by our adherence to great principles and great truths that we can maintain ourselves as our fathers maintained themselves, and asI trust we may maintain ourselves yet through all this tribulation. Mr. President, I have said this much tohave it understood distinctly how I comprehend this proposition. I hold itto be one fu l of infinite mischief.