All this is preliminary, although pointing the way to a just
conclusion. Only when we enter into details and consider what has been
done by our Government, do we recognize the magnitude of the question.
Unless the evidence supplied by the agents of our Government is at
fault, unless the reports of the State Department and Navy Department
are discredited, it is obvious beyond doubt, most painfully plain and
indisputable, that the President has seized the war powers carefully
guarded by the Constitution, and without the authority of Congress
has employed them to trample on the independence and equal rights of
two nations coëqual with ours,--unless, to carry out this project of
territorial acquisition, you begin by setting at defiance a first
principle of International Law. This is no hasty or idle allegation;
nor is it made without immeasurable regret. And the regret is increased
by the very strength of the evidence, which is strictly official and
beyond all question.