MR. PRESIDENT,--Entering again upon this discussion, I perform a
duty which cannot be avoided. I wish it were otherwise, but duty is
a taskmaster to be obeyed. On evidence now before the Senate, it is
plain that the Navy of the United States, acting under orders from
Washington, has been engaged in measures of violence and of belligerent
intervention, being war without the authority of Congress. An act of
war without the authority of Congress is no common event. This is
the simplest statement of the case. The whole business is aggravated,
when it is considered that the declared object of this violence is the
acquisition of foreign territory, being half an island in the Caribbean
Sea,--and still further, that this violence has been employed, first,
to prop and maintain a weak ruler, himself a usurper, upholding him
in power that he might sell his country, and, secondly, to menace the
Black Republic of Hayti.
Such a case cannot pass without inquiry. It is too grave for silence.
For the sake of the Navy, which has been the agent, for the sake of the
Administration, under which the Navy acted, for the sake of Republican
Institutions, which suffer when the Great Republic makes itself a
pattern of violence, and for the sake of the Republican Party, which
cannot afford to become responsible for such conduct, the case must be
examined on the facts and the law, and also in the light of precedent,
so far as precedent holds its torch. When I speak for Republican
Institutions, it is because I would not have our great example weakened
before the world, and our good name tarnished. And when I speak for
the Republican Party, it is because from the beginning I have been
the faithful servant of that party and aspire to see it strong and
triumphant. But beyond all these considerations is the commanding rule
of Justice, which cannot be disobeyed with impunity.