MR. SUMNER. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I 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 hour, 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 officeholders. This is a familiar way of saying that these small cases are not worthy of the Senate. Not so do I understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy of 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 Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] has even argued against the amendment as conferring upon the President additional powers. This is strange. The effect of the 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 influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.” In this spirit we must put a curb on the President, now maintaining illegitimate power by removals from office.
Mr. President, I have used moderate language, strictly applicable to the question. But it is my duty to remind you how much the public welfare depends upon courageous counsels. Courage is now the highest wisdom. Do not forget that we stand face to face with an enormous and malignant usurper, through whom the Republic is imperilled,--that Republic which, according to our oaths of office, we are bound to save from all harm. The lines are drawn. On one side is the President, and on the other side is the people of the United States. It is the old pretension of prerogative, to be encountered, I trust, by that same inexorable determination which once lifted England to heroic heights. The present pretension is more outrageous, and its consequences are more deadly; surely the resistance cannot be less complete. An American President must not claim an immunity denied to an English king. In the conflict he has so madly precipitated, I am with the people. In the President I put no trust, but in the people I put infinite trust. Who will not stand with the people?